Independence Day

[eyer]

http://www.founding.com/repository/imgLib/20071018_declaration.jpg​

There, I guess King George will be able to read that.

- John Hancock

[ Another source has Hancock saying:

"There! His Majesty can now read my name without glasses. And he can double the reward on my head!"

Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of 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 dissolved.

That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances.

That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective Colonies for their consideration and approbation

- Richard Henry Lee's resolution introduced to the Continental Congress on June 7, 1776

Everything that is right or reasonable pleads for separation. The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries; tis time to part.

- Thomas Paine

If we wish to be free, if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending, if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight!

- Patrick Henry

While Gen'l Howe with a Large Armament is advancing towards N. York, our Congress resolved to Declare the United Colonies free and Independent States. A Declaration for this Purpose, I expect, will this day pass Congress...It is gone so far that we must now be a free independent State, or a Conquered Country.

- Abraham Clark

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 Shews, Games, Sports, guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.

- John Adams to wife Abigail

["the Day of Deliverance" Adams was referring to was July 2, 1776...

...the day Congress actually voted on Lee's resolution to declare independence from Britain.

The primary author of The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America penned innumerable letters during his life...

...this was Thomas Jefferson's very last:

Respected Sir,

The kind invitation I receive from you, on the part of the citizens of the city of Washington, to be present with them at their celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of American Independence, as one of the surviving signers of an instrument pregnant with our own, and the fate of the world, is most flattering to myself, and heightened by the honorable accompaniment proposed for the comfort of such a journey. It adds sensibly to the sufferings of sickness, to be deprived by it of a personal participation in the rejoicings of that day. But acquiescence is a duty, under circumstances not placed among those we are permitted to control. I should, indeed, with peculiar delight, have met and exchanged there congratulations personally with the small band, the remnant of that host of worthies, who joined with us on that day, in the bold and doubtful election we were to make for our country, between submission or the sword; and to have enjoyed with them the consolatory fact, that our fellow citizens, after half a century of experience and prosperity, continue to approve the choice we made. May it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. That form which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. These are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.

I will ask permission here to express the pleasure with which I should have met my ancient neighbors of the city of Washington and its vicinities, with whom I passed so many years of a pleasing social intercourse; an intercourse which so much relieved the anxieties of the public cares, and left impressions so deeply engraved in my affections, as never to be forgotten. With my regret that ill health forbids me the gratification of an acceptance, be pleased to receive for yourself, and those for whom you write, the assurance of my highest respect and friendly attachments.

Thomas Jefferson to Roger C. Weightman
Monticello, June 24, 1826

As the 50th Independence Day approached, signers John Adams and Thomas Jefferson only grew more ill...

...they would die within hours of each other on the 4th of July, 1826.

All experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable
than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

Declaration of Independence​

 

[Bill_S]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFgBNU_Ewdk

 

[run_silent]

Nice post and research.

 

[contrifan32]

Thats for inspiring me today. I just made a copy of the Declaration Of Independence and I am going to have each kid thats here today a section to read to us parents. I think I will start a new tradition here today.

 

[LiFeNdEaTh]

sweeet...

 

[eyer]

May it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. That form which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. These are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.

- Thomas Jefferson

Bolding mine, and excerpted from the 1st post in this thread.

It needs to be remembered that just 56 Americans signed the Declaration...

...and that at that time, roughly 75% of the inhabinants of these united States were either fully against independence from Britain (25%), or just didn't give a crap one way or the other (roughly 51%).

Somewhere around 25% of Americans were for independence, although a much smaller number were emphatically in favor...

...and even less were willing to, "with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence", "pledge to each other" their "lives", their "fortunes and" their "sacred honor" by fighting for American independence.

What are you willing to fight and die for?​

 

[IrezumiKiss]

http://courses.swarthmore.edu/spring2013/romanticism/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2013/01/Am-I-Not-A-Man-and-A-Brother-Abolitionist-Slogan.jpg

Yes, let's all keep stroking ourselves about what it was like to be American in 1776.

 

[pete]

Yes, let's all keep stroking ourselves about what it was like to be American in 1776.

i can honestly say i've never shot a load of geesh whilst thinking about living in 1776

the only historical chicken-choking i think i've done is to thoughts of banging out cleopatra. i had on one of those long beardy things on my chin, too

egyptian style, yo

 

[Byron In Exile]

http://courses.swarthmore.edu/spring2013/romanticism/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2013/01/Am-I-Not-A-Man-and-A-Brother-Abolitionist-Slogan.jpg

Yes, let's all keep stroking ourselves about what it was like to be American in 1776.

You're right, of course.

They never should have been brought here.

 

[KingOrfeo]

http://courses.swarthmore.edu/spring2013/romanticism/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2013/01/Am-I-Not-A-Man-and-A-Brother-Abolitionist-Slogan.jpg

Yes, let's all keep stroking ourselves about what it was like to be American in 1776.

Slavery and the Declaration:

The contradiction between the claim that "all men are created equal" and the existence of American slavery attracted comment when the Declaration was first published. As mentioned above, although Jefferson had included a paragraph in his initial draft that strongly indicted Britain's role in the slave trade, this was deleted from the final version.[74] Jefferson himself was a prominent Virginia slave holder having owned hundreds of slaves.[154] Referring to this seeming contradiction, English abolitionist Thomas Day wrote in a 1776 letter, "If there be an object truly ridiculous in nature, it is an American patriot, signing resolutions of independency with the one hand, and with the other brandishing a whip over his affrighted slaves."[155] In the 19th century, the Declaration took on a special significance for the abolitionist movement. Historian Bertram Wyatt-Brown wrote that "abolitionists tended to interpret the Declaration of Independence as a theological as well as a political document".[156] Abolitionist leaders Benjamin Lundy and William Lloyd Garrison adopted the "twin rocks" of "the Bible and the Declaration of Independence" as the basis for their philosophies. "As long as there remains a single copy of the Declaration of Independence, or of the Bible, in our land," wrote Garrison, "we will not despair."[157] For radical abolitionists like Garrison, the most important part of the Declaration was its assertion of the right of revolution: Garrison called for the destruction of the government under the Constitution, and the creation of a new state dedicated to the principles of the Declaration.[158]

The controversial question of whether to add additional slave states to the United States coincided with the growing stature of the Declaration. The first major public debate about slavery and the Declaration took place during the Missouri controversy of 1819 to 1821.[159] Antislavery Congressmen argued that the language of the Declaration indicated that the Founding Fathers of the United States had been opposed to slavery in principle, and so new slave states should not be added to the country.[160] Proslavery Congressmen, led by Senator Nathaniel Macon of North Carolina, argued that since the Declaration was not a part of the Constitution, it had no relevance to the question.[161]

With the antislavery movement gaining momentum, defenders of slavery such as John Randolph and John C. Calhoun found it necessary to argue that the Declaration's assertion that "all men are created equal" was false, or at least that it did not apply to black people.[162] During the debate over the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1853, for example, Senator John Pettit of Indiana argued that "all men are created equal", rather than a "self-evident truth", was a "self-evident lie".[163] Opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, including Salmon P. Chase and Benjamin Wade, defended the Declaration and what they saw as its antislavery principles.[164]

 

[Byron In Exile]

Slavery and the Declaration:

They would no doubt have been much better off had they remained enslaved in Africa.

Plus, we'd all be spared these perpetual silly Civil War re-enactments.

 

[doctor_insanus]

Nah, we would have found something to fight about.

 

[Byron In Exile]

Nah, we would have found something to fight about.

Are you saying the Civil War happened because people were bored?

 

[Bill_S]

You're right, of course.

They never should have been brought here.

They never should have been allowed to immigrate either.

 

[Bill_S]

Address of the International Working Men's Association to Abraham Lincoln, President

Are you saying the Civil War happened because people were bored?

The Civil War happened because Abraham Lincoln was a Marxist. This proves it.

Written: by Marx between November 22 & 29, 1864

Sir:

We congratulate the American people upon your re-election by a large majority. If resistance to the Slave Power was the reserved watchword of your first election, the triumphant war cry of your re-election is Death to Slavery.

From the commencement of the titanic American strife the workingmen of Europe felt instinctively that the star-spangled banner carried the destiny of their class.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/iwma/documents/1864/lincoln-letter.htm