I was indeed counting from the declaration of independence and was trying to round to the nearest natural fractions, but you are technically correct, which is the best kind of correct.

Nope, you were closer to correct. The Constitution isn’t the founding of America: the Union formed first under the Articles of Confederation but our first act as a Union separate from the UK was the Declaration of Independence.

Thanks for the correction, I retract my objection. We could also start counting from when the Articles of Confederation came into effect (1781), which lies approximately between 1/3 and 1/4 ;)

Maybe, but I think effectively it really was the Declaration of Independence. It would take some time for independence to be effectually achieved, but consider a counter-timeline where we lost the war: the Declaration would be a minor footnote at best in British history (which it pretty much is) and also not the start of the history of the Union. It’s because we won that the United States of America is a meaningful idea to anyone.

The Articles of Confederation wouldn’t even be a footnote, just a dusty document in someone’s library, maybe, and the Constitution would never have been written.