Celebrating the 4th of July

By Jim Izzo

Two hundred and thirty-two years ago today, a group of colonists formally declared their independence from England, in a written document, the Declaration of Independence, which became the foundation of a new country, the United States of America.
The first recorded use of the term “Independence Day” was in 1791, and Americans’ observance of July 4 only became common after the War of 1812.
The Massachusetts legislature was the first to recognize the 4th of July, and Virginia had more signers -seven- of the Declaration of Independence than every colony except Pennsylvania, which had nine. On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee called for a resolution of independence, and four days later five men began drafting a declaration. The writing was entrusted to Thomas Jefferson.
It is interesting to note that the July 4 Declaration is merely a fuller statement of the resolution adopted by Congress on July 2, which could have become our Independence Day.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal . . .

The Fourth of July, or Independence Day, is not about dates and numbers, however; it is about ideas and ideals. Samuel Adams, of Massachusetts, and Thomas Paine and Patrick Henry, of Virginia, were the leading radical advocates of revolution. In his pamphlet, The Crisis, Paine argued that revolution was the only recourse for the colonies, which had tried all other means to win respect from England. “Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.”
Henry’s speech to the Virginia House of Burgesses at St. John’s Church in Richmond in 1775 became famous for its final line – “Give me liberty or give me death’ – but, in fact, the text of his speech did not appear in print until 1817 in a biography by William Wirt, who probably wrote it down after the fact, based on accounts of people who heard it. Whatever Henry said, however, helped to change history.
The contributions to the new nation of Alexander Hamilton should not be overlooked. More than any of the founding generation, Hamilton was responsible for building a strong central government and a strong economy which could compete in the world market. James Madison called Hamilton a genius; Jefferson called him “a colossus unto himself.”

. . . that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights . . .

Most of the Founding Fathers, like the first six Presidents, hailed from Virginia or Massachusetts. Countless books have been written about these men, but two of the leading historians are Richard Brookhiser and David McCullogh. Both authors books are well-researched and enjoyable to read. McCullogh is probably more well-known because of his biography of John Adams and its predecessor 1776, which focuses primarily on what happened at Independence Hall in Philadelphia during the summer of that famous year.
“If anyone deserves to be considered the voice of the ordinary man, it is John Adams. He lived among his fellow villagers. He didn’t believe that all men are created equal but that all men are equal in the eyes of God and before the law,” writes McCullogh in the Adams biography. Of Abigail Adams he writes, “Without question she was one of the most exceptional Americans of all time.”
Brookhiser is the more prolific of the two historians, however. His most recent and perhaps most interesting work is titled, What Would the Founders Do?, in which he discusses what their answers would be, based on what they wrote, to modern questions and problems, such as weapons of mass destruction, stem cell research, assisted suicide, privacy, immigration, and welfare, to name a few.
Previous Brookhiser books include Rules and Precepts that Guided our First President in War and Peace and Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington. The author writes that many of the rules that we still live under were precedents established by Washington. “If I had to rewrite the book in four words, they would be, ‘He really meant it.” In his Farewell Address, Washington warned against “foreign entanglements” and “impostors of pretended patriotism.”

. . . that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

The women (wives, mothers, sisters, daughters) who fought for and helped win America’s independence are finally given credit in Cokie Roberts’ book Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation. From the famous wives Abigail Adams and Martha Washington to little known women, including Mary Otis Warren, Deborah Read Franklin, Eliza Pickney, Catherine Littlefield Greene, and Esther Reed, Roberts brings to life the stories of these and other exemplary women who fought the Revolution as valiantly as the men. Some women, such as Prudence Wright, did so literally, disguising themselves as men in order to fight alongside them.
In the recently published Founding Faith, author Steven Waldman writes, “The founding faith was not Christianity, and it was not secularism. It was religious liberty.” In his conclusion, Waldmen encourages us to be like the founders, understand their principles and learn from their experiences. “We must pick up the argument that they began and do as they instructed – use our reason to determine our views.”

Who could argue with the soundness of his opinion? Most, if not all, of the historians who have written about the Founding Fathers agree that the United States of America would not have come into existence when and how it did without the uniquely extraordinary group of men and women who lived at that time and, despite their differences, worked together to give birth to a new nation.