Happy 235th

Posted by Bruce Mc on Jul 4, 2011 in History, Things forgotten | 0 comments

Why we celebrate today:

Historically, citizens of the world’s nations derived their rights from their ruler – a king, emperor or military dictator.

The colonists of the original thirteen colonies were weary. They’d been under the subjugation of Britain for years. They have had to live in fear of the British soldiers; they were under the rule of King George III. The Colonist had to abide by laws that had been enacted by that rule, and had to pay taxes; It was plain to see the British seemed to be getting richer, while the colonist were getting poorer.

Great Britain kept trying to make the colonists follow more rules and pay higher taxes. People started getting mad and began making plans to be able to make their own rules. They no longer wanted Great Britain to be able to tell them what to do, so they decided to tell Great Britain that they were becoming an independent country.

The Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and they appointed a committee to write a formal document that would tell Great Britain that the Americans had decided to govern themselves.

May 1776, Adams offered the resolution which set the wheels in motion toward the actual writing of the Declaration.

The committee asked Thomas Jefferson to write a draft of the document. Working on a portable desk of his own construction, in a room at Market and 7th Streets in Philadelphia, the 33 year-old Thomas Jefferson set on paper the grievances and aspirations of the 13 colonies –

Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Virginia.

1,337 words beginning with “When in the course of human events …”

He worked for days, in absolute secret, until he had written a document that he thought said everything important that the committee had discussed.

On June 28, 1776, the committee met to read Jefferson’s “fair” copy. They revised the document and declared their independence on July 2, 1776. They officially adopted it on July 4, 1776. That is why we call it “Independence Day.”

Congress ordered that all members must sign the Declaration of Independence and they all began signing the “official” copy on August 2, 1776.

56 men signed the document, pledging to support it with “our lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

President John Hancock signed first and his signature was the largest. Putting down his pen, he quipped: “There. Now George the Third can read my name without spectacles, and may now double his reward of 500 pounds for my head. That is my defiance.”

In January of the next year, Congress sent signed copies to all of the states.

The Declaration declared a revolutionary new doctrine: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

It was a bold new concept that individual liberty was a birthright.

On July 4, 1777, the night sky of Philadelphia lit up with the blaze of bonfires. Candles illuminated the windows of houses and public buildings. Church bells rang out load, and cannons were shot from ships. The city was celebrating the first anniversary of the founding of the United States.

The Fourth of July soon became the main patriotic holiday of the entire country. Veterans of the Revolutionary War made a tradition of gathering on the Fourth to remember their victory. In towns and cities, the American flag flew; shops displayed red, white, and blue decorations; and people marched in parades that were followed by public readings of the Declaration of Independence.

In 1941, Congress declared July 4 a federal legal holiday.

The Declaration of Independence is more than just a piece of paper. It is a symbol of our country’s independence and commitment to certain ideas. The signers of the Declaration of Independence wanted the citizens of the United States to have a document that spelled out what was important to our leaders and citizens.

They wanted us to be able to look at the Declaration of Independence and immediately think of the goals we should always be working for, and about the people who have fought so hard to make these ideas possible.

The people who signed the Declaration risked being hanged for treason by the leaders in Great Britain. They had to be very brave to sign something that would be considered treason, a crime punishable by death!

So every time we look at the Declaration of Independence, we should think about all of the effort and ideas that went into the document, and about the courage it took for these people to stand up for what they knew was right — independence!

Our Independence.

Happy Birthday America.

I assembled this information from the question from my daughter, “why do we celebrate July 4^th?”