Think About It. Truths. Evidently, some hotheads in the east were fed up with King George’s continued interference in the lives and businesses of the newly arrived inhabitants. Trouble had been brewing, tea had been tossed and a year had passed since the British Parliament decided to levy an intolerable tax. Oh yes. Men with muskets had left farms to join a “well regulated militia” and fight for their family’s homes and way of life.
On July second the Committee of Five, certainly among the more radical and, thankfully, thoughtful locals had agreed on a plan. That evening John Adams wrote to his wife that the day “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.” A month later, John Hancock’s name was flamboyantly drawn atop signatures of fifty-six representatives of the ” thirteen United States of America “. Thomas Jefferson took his handwritten original manuscript to the printer. A satisfactory number of Continental Congress members had already edited, modified and ratified the plan by July 4, 1776, now known as Independence Day. So let the party begin.
Enjoy the food, friends, family and fireworks. That was part of the plan. In addition, those men who sacrificed time and money while risking their lives making a statement to guide government in this new nation, deserve some thought of our profit from their efforts.
Let’s consider “certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” (Notice the period.) While that last word is capitalized, nothing there promises a life of happiness or entitles us to attach the wealth of others for our pleasures or perceived needs. It is the right of pursuit without governmental interference that is declared.
Those visionary pioneers had no misconception that their compromise of ideas was perfect. The phrase “all men are created equal” was the subject of considerable, sometimes heated debate. How about women” Really, “all men”? Remaining unclarified was the subject of slavery, deleted from an early draft, not to embarrass some of the British supporters. England had an active and profitable slave trade. Those words, however, continue to be a moral standard for us to constantly and consistently attempt to achieve.
Sometimes when family gathers, I try to talk about what happened then and later. How thousands and thousands and thousands served, fought and died to maintain this extraordinarily endowed nation. My reluctance is from fear that emotions will show as now, and my talented grandson Cameron will ask, “Are you going to cry again grandpa?’
Fifty years after they imagined, created and signed the revolutionary statement, two of them had served as Presidents of the United States of America. On the same day, July 4, 1826, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died. While we celebrate their grand accomplishment, please offer thanks for the Declaration of Independence that asserts those “self-evident” Truths. Think About It.