The Forgotten History of America’s 4th of July

Independence Day: The Forgotten History of America’s 4th of July and What It Commemorates – Sam Jacobs - https://www.rev310.net/post/independence-day-the-forgotten-history-of-america-s-4th-of-july-and-what-it-commemorates Every American knows what Independence Day is. Alongside Christmas and Thanksgiving, it’s one of the few holidays that hasn’t fallen prey to having to be celebrated on theclosest Monday, rather than the actual day it falls on. However, less known is the history of the Fourth of July as a holiday. How did the celebrations emerge and what is the history of this, America’s birthday? Few know that the 13 Colonies actually legally separated from the mother country, the United Kingdom of Great Britain, on July 2nd, not July 4th. This was the day that theContinental Congress voted to approve a resolution of independence. After voting in favor of independence, the Congress then turned toward the actual drafting of the resolution, which we known today as the Declaration of Independence. It was on July 4th thatCongress approved the resolution. For his part, John Adams believed that July 2nd would be the day to be celebrated throughout the ages in the United States. While his prediction was two days off, his predictionof how the day would be celebrated is pretty close to the mark: “It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from thistime forward forever more.” Independence Was Radical In 1775, when independence first became discussed in the Congress, total independence was considered a very radical option among many. “Common Sense,” by Thomas Paine, however,radically changed the political mood of the country. If independence was “radical,” then Paine was successful at radicalizing a significant portion of the incipient country. It was on June 7, 1776, that Richard Henry Lee, the delegate from Virginia, firstintroduced the motion to declare total independence from the United Kingdom. A vigorous debate ensued, the final result of which was a five-man committee (Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston) charged withdrafting a document detailing the causes of separation. When the time came to vote on the Declaration of Independence, the vote was nearly unanimous – every state voted in favor, except for the delegate from New York who abstained,but later voted in favor, of the resolution. What’s more, while it’s commonly believed that the Declaration was signed on the 4th, it’s actually more likely that it was signed on August 2, 1776, despite the recollectionsof Thomas Jefferson and some of the other signatories. Only two of the signers eventually became President of the United States: the aforementioned Adams and Jefferson. Calvin Coolidge is, thus far, the only President to be born on the Fourth of July, in theyear 1872. Early Independence Day Celebrations It didn’t take long for the newly independent nation to begin celebrating its birth. In 1777, Bristol, Rhode Island, became the first town to celebrate the anniversary ofthe Declaration of Independence. At dawn and at nightfall, 13 gunshots were fired in remembrance. The July 18th edition of The Virginia Gazette notes a celebration filled with feasting, gun salutes, music, parades, and yes, fireworks. Ships were decked outwith red, white, and blue bunting for the occasion. Another early celebration took place in 1778 when General George Washington issued a double ration of rum to his soldiers, as well as an artillery salute. Meanwhile, in France,there were celebrations as well. John Adams and Benjamin Franklin held a celebration for the Americans living in France while on their ambassadorial duties. While we generally celebrate Independence Day on whatever day of the week July 4th falls on, in 1779when it first fell on a Sunday, celebrations took place the following Monday. July 4th was first officially declared a statewide celebration by Massachusetts in 1781. This set the precedent of states declaring that it was a day to be celebrated. In1783, Salem, North Carolina, held what it claims to be the first public celebration of the holiday, with a suite of music by Johann Friedrich Peter. This was documented by the Moravian Church, and there are no earlier records of public (i.e., government) celebrationsof the holiday prior to this event. In 1870, Congress declared that Independence Day would be an unpaid holiday for all federal workers. Some 58 years later, in 1938, Congress changed the holiday from unpaidto paid. It was the War of 1812 that saw Independence Day celebrations becoming widespread and common. This was due to an overall upsurge in patriotism and nationalist fervor duringwhat was effectively a Second War of Independence against Great Britain. Thomas Jefferson died on the Fourth of July (and in a twist of fate, John Adams died on the same day). He was invited to a 50th-anniversary celebration of Independence Dayin the nation’s capital, but Jefferson was extremely ill at the time and declined the invitation in what would be his last letter ever. In doing so, however, he stated his belief that American independence carried significant weight not just for the UnitedStates, but for the entire world, writing: “All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. ...For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminisheddevotion to them." Unlike other patriotic holidays like Memorial Day or Veterans’ Day, there is no underlying spectre of loss, sacrifice, and death with Independence Day. July 4th is a day ofcelebration for its own sake. So has it always been. There’s nothing wrong at all with partaking in the revelry of fireworks, hot dogs, and (if you’re on a capable military base) gunshots. The Founding Fathers, if they fought for anything, wanted you to haveat least one day where you could revel in the excess and largesse provided by their struggles. Written by Sam Jacobs ------------------------------------- Let us remember the American Revolution - Bill Wilson � www.dailyjot.com As we approach the day of our Independence from Britain, it may be helpful to be reminded of the sufferance of the Founding Fathers and what was going through their mindsas they decided to take on the most powerful political and military force on the planet. They said, �A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.� What happens when that �Prince� collectively becomes the Supreme Court, the Congress and the Executive Branch working in concert with one another toward a world order foreign and detrimental to the people they are charged with representing and to the Constitution they vowed to uphold? Whatare citizens to do? The Declaration of Independence is a masterful document that served as the true �preamble� to our Constitution. It begins by saying: �When in the Course of human events, itbecomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature�s God entitle them, a decent respectto the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. 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, thatamong 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 becomesdestructive 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 andHappiness. 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 rightthemselves 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 theirduty, 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 signaturesof 56 men were written on the Declaration after this sentence: �And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.� In other words, they risked everything. They counted the cost. They understood the will of God. They acted. This Independence Day, please take time to remind yourself andothers about the sufferance of those who made such a pledge on their Lives, Fortunes, and sacred Honor. Please contemplate our national condition. Please seek God. For as Peter and the disciples said in Acts 5:29, �We ought to obey God rather than men.� Andrecall the words of James 1:25, �But whoso looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.� The body without spirit is dead, faith without works isalso dead. Please consider your destiny. -------------------------------------- Are We Desperate Enough? - by Greg Laurie � www.harvest.org This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed �Romans 13:11 https://harvest.org/resources/devotion/are-we-desperate-enough/Listen When George Washington was fighting in the Revolutionary War as the general of the Continental Army, he had a special flag prepared with the words, �An Appeal to Heaven.� Washington understood that our only hope to become a nation was through God�s intervention. We still need to appeal to heaven for our nation today. In 2 Chronicles 7:14, God says, �If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hearfrom heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land� (NKJV). There�s no question that God has blessed our nation in so many ways. We even sing about it: �America! America! God shed His grace on thee. And crown thy good with brotherhoodfrom sea to shining sea.� But I believe America needs to wake up spiritually. Romans 13:11 says, �This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvationis nearer now than when we first believed� (NLT). It�s time for us to wake up. It�s time for us to turn back to God. Will God send a spiritual awakening to our country? I don�t know. I hope He does. I hope He sends one ortwo or three more. Chuck Smith is regarded as the father of the last great spiritual awakening known as the Jesus Movement. I once asked him whether he thought we would ever see another JesusMovement. �I don�t know, Greg,� he said. �I don�t know if we are desperate enough.� How desperate are we for God to send another spiritual awakening? If we are desperate enough, then we�ll start praying about it. This Fourth of July, I�m praying that Godwill send another spiritual awakening to our nation. Will you join me in that prayer? ------------------------- Of silence and treason - Bill Wilson � www.dailyjot.com As we stand in aftermath of the annual celebration of our national Liberty, I wonder what firebrand statesman will arise and proclaim to this nation that God�s Liberty isperfect liberty and that humanist freedom is akin to slavery. Galatians 5:1 says, �Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.� The bondage spoken herein is the bondage of sinfrom which Christ�s death and resurrection freed all believers. Yet, in the name of freedom, it is the humanist sin that continues to wrap itself around the very existence of this nation and is squeezing out the lifeblood of liberty. Have we become a nation where the grace of God in His perfect Liberty is laid as an excuse to become enslaved in humanistic bondage because what God judges as unrighteous,man judges as righteous? Have we become a silent kingdom of God�s people, betraying our Father in Heaven in tolerance of human correctness? Are we to remain with a mouth to speak, but our words are empty and powerless because we fear man rather than God? Thedoctrines of men are the deceptions to freedom and the chains of bondage. If you have ears to hear, and know the truth of that Liberty which frees all, to keep silent upon it is shear treason. Patrick Henry in his speech to the Virginia House of Commons on March 23, 1775 said, �For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery;and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions atsuch a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.� Christ said in Matthew 15:9, �but in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.� If God�s word is the standard to govern heaven, then those ofus who profess Christianity should accept nothing less than God�s precepts to govern our lives and our nation which was founded in His name. It is the responsibility of being Christian and American. Therefore, speak forth Liberty in its truth and totality.As Patrick Henry said, �Give me Liberty or give me death.� Liberty is of freedom in Christ, death is slavery to sin and humanism.