Happy Independence Day!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!

Today marks the 231st anniversary of American Independence. On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress voted unanimously to adopt the final draft of the Declaration of Independence, which it had approved just two days earlier on July 2nd. But Congress did not sign that document (they had to prepare an engrossed copy, the one with which we are familiar) until August 2 of that year. Hence, some of the men who voted for the Declaration were not present to sign it in August because they were called away from Congress in order to serve the military/government needs of their own states. For instance, Robert R. Livingston of New York was one of the five men (John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Livingston) on the committee which drafted the Declaration, but though he voted for it on July 4, he was called away to his state before he could sign it on August 2.

After Congress adopted the draft on the second of July, John Adams, who not only had been a fellow-drafter with Thomas Jefferson of that document, but had also been responsible for bulldogging for it in Congress (earning him the title "the Atlas of Independence" from one of his colleagues), wrote to his wife Abigail Adams that the second of July

"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."

Although most Americans think of the Fourth of July as a day to blow up firecrackers (our teenage neighbors celebrate this ritual quite heartily into the night), that day was both animating and yet somber for the men who supported that document. Today's American Minute sums up the moment:

American Minute with Bill Federer

July 4

The Declaration of Independence was approved JULY 4, 1776.

John Hancock signed first, saying "the price on my head has just doubled."

Benjamin Franklin said "We must hang together or most assuredly we shall hang separately."

Of the 56 signers: 17 lost their fortunes, 12 had their homes destroyed, 5 became prisoners of war, 1 had two sons imprisoned on the British starving ship Jersey, 1 had a son killed in battle, 1 had his wife die from harsh prison treatment and 9 signers died during the War.

As Samuel Adams signed the Declaration, he said:

"We have this day restored the Sovereign to whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His kingdom come."

John Adams said:

"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."

Adams continued:

"I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost to maintain this Declaration...Yet through all the gloom I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory... Posterity will triumph in that day's transaction, even though we [may regret] it, which I trust in God we shall not."

This is the ultimate American holiday, because our forefathers did the most honorable thing that civil statesmen have ever done in the history of the world (to re-quote Sam Adams, the "Father of the American Revolution"):

"We have this day restored the Sovereign to whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His kingdom come."

Here are some documents I heartily recommend to all Americans. These must be read in order to understand the ideals of American liberty.

• The Declaration of Independence
• "The War Inevitable," speech by Patrick Henry
• "The Rights of the Colonists," by Samuel Adams
• The Virginia Declaration of Rights, by George Mason
  
• "The Farmer Refuted," by Alexander Hamilton
  

I will close with the words of John Quincy Adams, son of John and Abigail Adams and a true son of the American Revolution:

"The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: that it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity."

Happy Independence Day!