I would have liked to send this message on Saturday but the storms took away the internet on our campus and made it impossible. I hope you had a great celebration of America’s birthday. Here’s a little more about the history of our nation’s founding . . .
Thomas Jefferson wrote most of the original draft of the Declaration of Independence. It was debated by 56 delegates from the 13 colonies before they approved it on July 2, 1776. It was ratified by the Continental Congress on July 4, but wasn’t signed until August 2nd, after being professionally copied by hand onto parchment paper. Delegate and signer John Adams who would go on to become our second president, believed, July 2, not the 4th, would be the day remembered in history, as he wrote to his wife Abigail:
The second day of July 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.
Adams may have been wrong about the date, but he accurately predicted just how important this occasion would become and remain throughout history. Interestingly, both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the same day, July 4, 1831, America’s 50th birthday. Our 5th president James Monroe would also die on July 4th five years later.
This is the conclusion of the Declaration:
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Modern man can only marvel at the unity of purpose that these men shared, fighting for a common cause, and pledging their lives and livelihoods for one another, that all may be free. It seemed like all was lost less than a century later when the young United States was ripped in two by civil war, but the bonds held and were not broken. A century after that there was the struggle for civil rights and the necessity of ending racial mistreatment in our country. Our country is once again heavily divided by political, social and economic differences. Hopefully remembering what Independence Day is all about will help us to realize there is more that unites us than those things which divide us.
