I have always admired the importance of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson’s beautifully written document, with those strong, familiar sentences written during a time of great peril for the American colonies.
America is the only nation that knows exactly when it was created. Most nations developed and evolved over a series of centuries.
Before the American Revolution, the birthday of King George III was marked with bonfires, speeches, and the ringing of bells. In 1776, as a patriotic fervor swept through the colonies, praising birthday celebrations turned to mock funerals for the King.
On July 2, 1776, the Continental Congress voted in favor of American independence. On July 4, after making several minor changes to Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence, Congress officially adopted the document. For the colonists, it was a huge gamble.
On July 9, 1776, General George Washington ordered the Continental Army to gather in Lower Manhattan to hear the Declaration of Independence read aloud. The troops had recently arrived in New York to defend the city from the British. The reading took place in the parade grounds and became a significant moment in the American Revolution, according to the National Park Service.
Here is Ron Chernow, author of Washington: A Life:
“The troops rejoiced upon hearing the document. The Declaration was read at the head of each brigade and was received with three huzzas by the troops.
Reading of the document led to such uproarious enthusiasm that soldiers sprinted down Broadway afterward and committed an act of vandalism: they toppled the equestrian statue of George III at Bowling Green, decapitating it, then parading the head around town to the lilting beat of fifes and drums.”
There were many parades, bonfires, and the firing of muskets and cannons greeted the document’s public readings on July 8 of that year, but the first organized July 4 celebration took place in 1777 in Philadelphia and Boston. According to the Pennsylvania Evening Post on July 5, 1777:
“Yesterday, the 4th of July, being the anniversary of the Independence of the United States of America, was celebrated in this city with demonstrations of joy and festivity. About noon, all the armed ships and gallies in the river were drawn up before the city, dressed in the gayest manner, with the colors of the United States and streamers displayed. At one o’clock, the yards being properly manned, they began the celebration of the day by a discharge of thirteen cannon from each of the ships, and one from each of the thirteen gallies, in honor of the Thirteen United States … The evening was closed with the ringing of bells, and at night there was a grand exhibition of fireworks (which began and concluded with thirteen rockets) on the Commons, and the city was beautifully illuminated.”
In 1781, Massachusetts became the first state to make July 4th an official state holiday. July 4th was officially made a national holiday in 1870. Specifically, Congress declared it a federal holiday as part of a broader bill that also recognized other holidays, including Christmas. Initially, it was an unpaid holiday for federal employees, but it was later changed to a paid holiday in 1941.
And so it has continued and should continue. As Benjamin Franklin so poignantly said while answering a question regarding what type of government the Constitutional Convention adopted, his response was, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
For all its flaws and tragic, violent history, the United States of America deserves to survive and prosper.
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