Sailor Steve
07-02-07, 11:40 AM
What? Two days early?
Well, yes and no. Meaning you get to hear one of my favorite stories.
After the 'French and Indian War' (Known as the 'Seven-Years War' to the rest of the civilized western world), the British parliament decided that the American colonies should help pay for it, seeing as how a large part of the war was fought here, and colonial militia Major George Washington played a large in starting it.
Of course everyone knows how the colonists felt that they should levy their own taxes, or else get their own representatives in parliament - "No Taxation Without Representation", and all that. Originally that was all they wanted. Then they complained to King George III that parliament was treating them badly, and they wanted separate but equal status; which would have made them the first Commonwealth country - our own government, but still under the King. Unfortunately, George told them to stop acting like children and pay their taxes like good little subjects, and of course that made the colonials want to sit right up and say "Yes, Sire!" - NOT!
Most people also know how the Royal Governer of Massachussetts got scared and asked for troops to defend his a...um, keep the peace; and how in 1770 some of those troops got pushed around and shot back; and how in 1773 Sam Adams and friends objected to having to pay a tax on tea when the Honourable East India Company could import said tea for no charge, and said tea ended up at the bottom of Boston Harbor.
And of course the war actually started on April 19, 1775, when the troops were sent to seize the colonists armory at Concorde, Massachussetts, the first American Gun Control act. The colonists fought back at Lexington and Concorde, and the war was underway. Many of the colonial leaders at that time still hoped to reach an equitable peace and stay British.
Over the next fifteen months the Continental Congress was formed and formally declared war, and several commuities and colonies created their own declarations of independence. It was finally decided to make the independence general, and Congress set about making it official.
The Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia in May 1776, and on June 7 Richard Henry Lee issued a resolution That these united colonies are, and of a 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 disolved.
On June 11 Congress appointed the "Committee Of Five" to create a formal declaration, consisting of Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston. They voted that Jefferson should write the document, and the committee would then examine and revise it. Adams wrote years later that Jefferson offered him the job, but that he said Jefferson was better qualified Reason First. You are a Virginian and a Virginian ought to appear the head of the business.
Reason Second. I am obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular; you are very much otherwise.
Reason Third. You can write ten times better than I can.
Jefferson wrote that it didn't really happen that way, but it's still a great story.
Jefferson finished the first draft, discussed some changes with Adams and gave it to Franklin on June 21. On July 2, the revised copy was presented to Congress, and they voted for independence. They then proceeded to revise the document further as a whole. The most important record of that day was a letter from John Adams to his wife Abigail: The Second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epocha 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.
How could Adams have been so wrong? On July 3 the Congress made several more revisions, some of which broke Jeffersons's heart. Among these was a clause in which he accused King George of being responsible for the slave trade, a patently false premise which probably deserved removal.
The final copy was ready on July 4, and they took a vote deciding that this was the copy they wanted to send to the printers. Adams wrote nothing in his diary or a letter concerning that day, and Jefferson only wrote in his account book that he purchased a new thermometer and seven pairs of gloves for his wife.
So why the 4th, and not the 2nd? Two reasons:
1) The vote for independence really wasn't as important as the Declaration itself, as the stated purpose was to explain to the rest of the world why they were fighting against the Mother Country.
2) The copy that went to the printers on the fourth, and entered into history on the fifth; the copy we have today; says right there at the top, very first thing: IN CONGRESS, JULY 4TH, 1776...
One last irony: both Adams and Jefferson 'remembered' in old age signing the document on the 4th. This is also untrue - they all signed it in a special session a month later, on August 2nd. It was then that John Hancock signed in large letters, not so King George could "read it without his spectacles", but so there would be no mistaking that he was the president of the Congress and the ringleader of the rebels. It was also then that Benjamin Franklin made his famous statement "Now, gentlemen, we must all hang together, or most assuredly we will all hang separately."
Oh, one more reason to honor the 4th as the official day: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died the same day, exactly 50 years later, on July 4th, 1826.
Well, yes and no. Meaning you get to hear one of my favorite stories.
After the 'French and Indian War' (Known as the 'Seven-Years War' to the rest of the civilized western world), the British parliament decided that the American colonies should help pay for it, seeing as how a large part of the war was fought here, and colonial militia Major George Washington played a large in starting it.
Of course everyone knows how the colonists felt that they should levy their own taxes, or else get their own representatives in parliament - "No Taxation Without Representation", and all that. Originally that was all they wanted. Then they complained to King George III that parliament was treating them badly, and they wanted separate but equal status; which would have made them the first Commonwealth country - our own government, but still under the King. Unfortunately, George told them to stop acting like children and pay their taxes like good little subjects, and of course that made the colonials want to sit right up and say "Yes, Sire!" - NOT!
Most people also know how the Royal Governer of Massachussetts got scared and asked for troops to defend his a...um, keep the peace; and how in 1770 some of those troops got pushed around and shot back; and how in 1773 Sam Adams and friends objected to having to pay a tax on tea when the Honourable East India Company could import said tea for no charge, and said tea ended up at the bottom of Boston Harbor.
And of course the war actually started on April 19, 1775, when the troops were sent to seize the colonists armory at Concorde, Massachussetts, the first American Gun Control act. The colonists fought back at Lexington and Concorde, and the war was underway. Many of the colonial leaders at that time still hoped to reach an equitable peace and stay British.
Over the next fifteen months the Continental Congress was formed and formally declared war, and several commuities and colonies created their own declarations of independence. It was finally decided to make the independence general, and Congress set about making it official.
The Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia in May 1776, and on June 7 Richard Henry Lee issued a resolution That these united colonies are, and of a 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 disolved.
On June 11 Congress appointed the "Committee Of Five" to create a formal declaration, consisting of Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston. They voted that Jefferson should write the document, and the committee would then examine and revise it. Adams wrote years later that Jefferson offered him the job, but that he said Jefferson was better qualified Reason First. You are a Virginian and a Virginian ought to appear the head of the business.
Reason Second. I am obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular; you are very much otherwise.
Reason Third. You can write ten times better than I can.
Jefferson wrote that it didn't really happen that way, but it's still a great story.
Jefferson finished the first draft, discussed some changes with Adams and gave it to Franklin on June 21. On July 2, the revised copy was presented to Congress, and they voted for independence. They then proceeded to revise the document further as a whole. The most important record of that day was a letter from John Adams to his wife Abigail: The Second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epocha 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.
How could Adams have been so wrong? On July 3 the Congress made several more revisions, some of which broke Jeffersons's heart. Among these was a clause in which he accused King George of being responsible for the slave trade, a patently false premise which probably deserved removal.
The final copy was ready on July 4, and they took a vote deciding that this was the copy they wanted to send to the printers. Adams wrote nothing in his diary or a letter concerning that day, and Jefferson only wrote in his account book that he purchased a new thermometer and seven pairs of gloves for his wife.
So why the 4th, and not the 2nd? Two reasons:
1) The vote for independence really wasn't as important as the Declaration itself, as the stated purpose was to explain to the rest of the world why they were fighting against the Mother Country.
2) The copy that went to the printers on the fourth, and entered into history on the fifth; the copy we have today; says right there at the top, very first thing: IN CONGRESS, JULY 4TH, 1776...
One last irony: both Adams and Jefferson 'remembered' in old age signing the document on the 4th. This is also untrue - they all signed it in a special session a month later, on August 2nd. It was then that John Hancock signed in large letters, not so King George could "read it without his spectacles", but so there would be no mistaking that he was the president of the Congress and the ringleader of the rebels. It was also then that Benjamin Franklin made his famous statement "Now, gentlemen, we must all hang together, or most assuredly we will all hang separately."
Oh, one more reason to honor the 4th as the official day: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died the same day, exactly 50 years later, on July 4th, 1826.