Independence... A certain cause for celebration

It is only fitting that I start my two-part post on American Independence on July 2, as this was the day that was originally the day sought out for American independence. It was actually the 2nd of July that John Adams was referring to when he wrote to his wife Abigail and said that this day will “be the most memorable Epocha in the history of America… It ought to be Solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires, and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.” Well Mr. Adams was not wrong about the celebration, only slightly off on the date.

Technically the United States of America declared its Independence on July 2nd 1776, but after congress adjourned on the July 2nd, they used the 3rd and the 4th to make a few minimal changes, making the official date the famous 4th of July. While it is the fourth that we celebrate, I would like to talk about the actual document that declared American Independence on the day of its unofficial completion.

The Declaration of Independence is famously known as Thomas Jefferson’s greatest literary achievement. Drafted in the month of June, Jefferson (who received significant help from John Adams and there have often been disputes about who actually wrote it) created the document that immediately became America’s most cherished symbol of liberty and freedom. The philosophy of the Declaration was not something new to civilized society. Something that John Locke and other philosophers had touched on many generations before. The ideals were nothing new, but the circumstances of these tiny unproven colonies splitting apart from mighty England would not only prove to be monumental, but would eventually change the course of history. The Declaration of Independence marked a new era in the world: the emergence of a new country, but also with the later creation of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence set the stage for democracy that the world had yet to see.


Here is an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence. The first three or four lines are of course ones that everyone knows, but I challenge you all to read on and see what else that Jefferson and Adams sought was vital to the success of a new nation:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.