Independence Day is more than a 1996 cinematic blockbuster about outerspace aliens attacking our country. It is a day set aside to honor the creation and signing of the Declaration of Independence, which began the experiment in government that is the United States of America.
We celebrate the Declaration on July 4th, but it took years of effort by many people to resolve disputes between colonists and the King of England to bring it to fruition. The process of drafting the Declaration began in early June 1776. A resolution entered in the Continental Congress by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia said, “that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.”
On June 11, 1776 the Congress appointed a committee of five to draft a formal declaration of that resolution to be adopted by the people’s representatives. The committee included such historical luminaries as John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Rover R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman.
By the end of June, Jefferson had completed the initial draft and the committee had reviewed it. Over the next several days, the Congress debated and revised it in true democratic fashion.
On July 2, 1776, Lee’s resolution for independence was approved by the Continental Congress, thus making the decision to separate the colonies from English rule.
The Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 and the approved document was sent to its official printer, John Dunlap, to be set in print and distributed widely. These initial copies, “Dunlap Broadsides,” were over the names of just two individuals, John Hancock, President of Congress, and Charles Thomson, Congress’s Secretary.
Congress ordered that the Declaration be written neatly and officially on parchment on July 19.
It was ordered that the title be “The unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States of America.”
It wasn’t until August 2 that most of the 56 Delegates to the Congress actually signed the Declaration. The last signer Thomas McKean may have signed as late as 1781.
The Declaration lists 27 complaints against King George III as proof of the colonies’ right to rebellion. Congress cast “the causes which impel them to separation” in universal terms for an international audience. As the longest section of the document, these grievances outlined the abuses and power grabs, demonstrating the King’s intent to establish “an absolute Tyranny.”
Conflict with the governance of the King of England began years before the Declaration we honor today. The infamous “Boston Tea Party” took place on December 16, 1773. It was a response to Parliament’s Tea Act, granting the East India Company a monopoly on tea sales in the colonies.
The war for independence began April 19, 1775, more than a year before the Declaration was drafted and approved by the Congress. It started with “the shot heard round the world” in the battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts.
As we begin the 250th year since the Declaration, it remains one of the most respected and foundational statements of the people who put the principle of self-government over the tyranny of government overreach and domination.
Happy 4th of July, America!
