Just Why Do We Celebrate the Fourth?
July the Second Is Really the Day On Which the Nation Was Born By Declaration of Independence
IT WAS ON THE FOURTH THAT JOHN HANCOCK AFFIXED HIS SIGNATURE TO THE FORMAL DOCUMENT, BUT THE FIRST AFFIRMATION OF FREEDOM WAS ADOPTED TWO DAYS BEFORE IN THE SECOND CONTINENTAL CONGRESS.
By Henry Wilson
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the one truly American holiday, July 4. The day is usually ushered in with much display of fireworks and military splendor and at the picnics a peculiarly type of "spread eagle" speech which has come to be known as "Fourth of July oratory," is freely dispensed along with the red lemonade. Then at night the casualties are reckoned and various hospitals.
In the bluster and noise of the day, there is little thought given to the reason for the celebration. In fact, the more timid just bundle up the golf togs or fishing kit and hie off to the links or the quiet sylvan stream for a real day of rest.
But why this Fourth of July? is a question which is often asked by the foreigner who loses his bearing amid the din. "Why, we are celebrating the birthday of the United States, this is the day the Declaration of Independence was signed," is the prompt schoolboy answer. "Everybody knows that," is added.
And, strange though it seems to most of us, neither of those answers is true. Our country was born on July 2, 1776, when a resolution which had been introduced in the Second Continental Congress by Richard Henry Lee, senior delegate from Virginia, was adopted. The resolution read: "These Colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent States," and marked our final separation from England.
On July 3, the Philadelphia newspaper in just twelve words told of the establishment of American independence. This is what was printed: "Yesterday the Continental Congress declared the United Colonies free and independent States." That was before the day of eight-column banners. Newspapers then were very modest and dignified. "What an opportunity for a spread," would have been the thought of a modern journalist.
On the night of July 2 John Adams, to whom is due the credit for maneuvering the resolution through an assembly actuated by many and diverging interests, wrote his good wife, Abigail Adams: "I am apt to believe that it (July 2) will be observed by succeeding generations as the great anniversary celebration. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, guns, bonfires and illuminations from one end of the country to the other from this time forevermore." The letter reads like a prophecy.
Some Signed Aug. 2.
But although July 4 is the day on which our country actually became independent, even if does not mark the signing of the Declaration of Independence. In fact, there is no particular day on which all signed. Of the fifty-six signatures, fifty were affixed on Aug. 2, 1776. The remaining six signed later, the last name being placed on this famous document in 1781.
There were many sad and good reasons for the delay in signing the declaration. The names placed thereon were published to the world. Each signer staked life, liberty and property. While England, of course, knew in a general way that the Continental Congress was in session, its proceedings were secret. No reports of the debates were ever made. John Hancock, as President of Congress, was the only signer on July 4, and his name also appeared on the first broadside which were printed by John Dunlap, the official printer, and which were circulated in all the colonies and were read from the pulpits of all the churches and to the Colonial troops by the commander of each unit. The British also knew that Richard Henry Lee had introduced the resolution. The English Army was on the out-look for these two. Capture meant imprisonment and death, for they were considered traitors to England.
Lee Was Almost Captured.
Soon afterward, Lee narrowly escaped when his house was broken into by a British captain of the marines. Only the quick wit of a negro servant saved him. The servant told the officer that his master had returned to Washington and the search stopped. Lee was asleep in a chamber upstairs.
The peril of the situation was further borne out by the statements of John Hancock on Aug. 2, when fifty signed the declaration. As they gathered around to place their names on the parchment, he said: "We must be unanimous, we must all hang together." Really, there was very grave danger of each being hanged.
Thus was the die cast.
The First Celebration.
It was after this formal signing of the declaration that the first real celebration took place. On Aug. 8, great crowds assembled on the State House grounds, raised on the Liberty Bell and heard the Declaration of Independence read by John Nixon. Great enthusiasm prevailed.
But what really happened on the Fourth of July? It was so named because, This was the day on which was adopted the formal declaration drawn up by Thomas Jefferson, which has since become the most celebrated document the world has ever known. It was on this day that the old sexton with snow-white hair and sunburnt face waited aloft in the wooden belfry of the old red brick State House for the signal that the liberty declaration had been adopted. The crowd was gathered about the grounds. Suddenly a flaxen-haired boy, with sunlight eyes of blue, rushed out of the building and into the street calling to his grandfather above, "Ring," and the bell tolled the glad news to the waiting throng. Messengers were dispatched in all directions to spread the news in every village and town. Boys lighted bonfires, cannon blazed and everyone tried to show his joy.
The Men Who Signed.
The men who signed the Declaration of Independence were typical of their time. Among the professions represented, there were twenty-one lawyers, thirteen wealthy farmers, nine merchants and five physicians in the group.
John Hancock was a well-to-do Boston merchant who rode in a carriage drawn by six bay horses and was dressed in cloth embroidered in gold and silver. As a youth he had been trained in the counting house of his uncle.
There was the wise and frugal, but at that time affluent Benjamin Franklin. He was a scholar, diplomat, and philosopher, and more than 70 years old. Through industry and enterprise he became a successful printer and publisher. He had a very humble start in life as the son of a tallow chandler.
Robert Morris of Philadelphia. Perhaps the wealthiest and greatest man in the assembly was Robert Morris. He had amassed a fortune in the mercantile business in Philadelphia. His was the first icehouse — the first icehouse in America. In the nation’s hour of greatest need, he advanced $1,400,000, which helped provide munitions, equipment, and food for the Revolutionary soldiers.
George Taylor was a Philadelphia iron founder; Stephen Hopkins, a Rhode Island farmer, ship captain, and manufacturer; Abraham Clark, a county sheriff of New Jersey; Roger Sherman, a shoemaker and later a lawyer. Robert Treat Paine was an army chaplain and lawyer; Matthew Thornton, a surgeon from Massachusetts; and William Whipple, a soldier, merchant, and ship captain, was from the same waterfront. Josiah Bartlett of Boston was a physician.
Many Were Scholars.
Most of these men were highly educated. Many had finished at Cambridge, England. There were graduates from Harvard, Yale and Princeton, American colleges then in their infancy. A few had only meager educational advantages. Twenty-five had traveled in Europe.
As a Statement of Human Rights, the Declaration of Independence is a masterpiece. It was written by Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, who chairman of the committee of five. The other members were: John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Robert Sherman of Connecticut and Robert R. Livingston of New York.
Other members of the committee and Congress modified it, but the omission only improved it. It was left to-day as Jefferson's declaration as rewritten and endorsed by the committee, and it could not be said that the document was perfectly original. The theories incorporated had been prevalent in the systems of philosophy of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and had been urged by Locke, Hobbs and Hooker. But it remained for American brains to expound them in concise concrete form and American arms to establish these scholarly deductions upon the battlefield.
The original engrossed copy was deposited with the Department of State when it was organized in 1789. In 1823 President John Quincy Adams had a copper plate facsimile made and gave copies to the signers and their heirs. Copies also were distributed to historical societies. It is this facimile copy which appears in our school textbooks and with which we are all familiar. Unfortunately, the original parchment was ruined in the process. The wet sheet which was pressed against its face drew out the ink so that most of the signatures have become illegible and almost invisible and the text partly so. It was exhibited on special occasions until 1894, when it was sealed in a steel case out of reach of light and air.
Winning the Expressed Rights. The Declaration of Independence was only a piece of paper until the rights contended for therein had been established on the field of battle by the valiant military genius, Gen. George Washington, and his courageous Colonial troops, aided by the intreped Marquis de Lafayette and the French soldiery and the French fellet under Count de Grasse. We might say that our independence became and established fact with the surrender of the British forces under Gen. Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown, Oct. 19, 1781, more than five years after the adoption of the declaration.
Six Months’ Celebration.
The most stupendous of the many celebrations of our country’s birth is that now in progress at Philadelphia, which started June 1 and will continue through to Dec. 31 to mark the 150th year of American liberty and was ushered into being by proclamation of President Coolidge issued on March 4, 1926, when he invited the nations of the world to participate in the Sesquicentennial International Exposition "for the purpose of celebrating the progress of the United States and other nations in art, science, industry, trade and commerce and the development of the products of the sir, nines, forcats and subs." and requested that they cooperate with the exposition by appointing representative and sending thereto such exhibits as "most fittingly and fully illustrate their industries and progress in civilization."
Over the main gate to the exposition grounds swings the Sesqui bell, which is patterned after the original Liberty Bell. It weighs eighty-two tons, is seventy-five feet high and is illuminated at night by 26,000 electric lights.
Philadelphia as a Shrine.
Perhaps, more things sacred to American liberty are to be found in Philadelphia than any other place in the country.
Independence Hall and Carpenter Hall still stand as they did in our country's infancy. Independence Hall is a low plain red brick building at Fifth and Chestnut streets. It is two stories in height and has the now famous belfry tower. It was commenced in 1732 and was completed in 1747 as the State House of the colony of Pennsylvania. It was occupied, though unfinished, in 1735. The tower was added in 1750. The building cost $28,000, at that time thought to be a very extravagant sum.
A Historic House.
First known as the State House, it was used for the General Assembly, the Supreme Court and Council of the Province of Pennsylvania. It was here that Continental Congress held its sessions - here the Declaration of Independence was adopted. Washington was appointed commander in chief of the American Army within its walls on motion of John Adams; it served as a hospital after the battle of Brandywine. After having enjoyed the highest public honors which his country could confer upon him, President George Washington delivered his farewell address to public life within its walls and retired to his estate. On his visit to the United States in 1824, hailed as "the Savior of America," here Gen. Lafayette, the French nobleman who aided us in time of need, entertained his friends. The building is now maintained as a museum of historic relics, especially of the Revolution.
Precious Relics.
In Independence chamber will be found the silver inkstand used in signing the now world famous document. Here is housed the Liberty Bell. This bell was cast in England and b rought to Philadelphia in 1753. In unloading it from the ship it was injured and had to be recast in 1758 in Philadelphia by Pass & Stow, founders. This was done under direction of Isaac Norris, speaker of the State Assembly. Norris suggested the motto which was cast on the bell: "Proclaim liberty throughout the land - to all the inhabitants thereof." To him it was a cherished Bible quotation, found in Leviticus, chapter 25, verse 10. Its real significance was more prophetic than he ever dreamed. The bell was hung in the Colonial State House. During the Revolution, when the British occupied Philadelphia, it was buried in the Delaware River near Trenton. When peace came it again graced the State House belfry. For many years, it was rung on each Fourth of July.
Liberty Bell is Broken.
While tolling the death of Chief Justice Marshall, July 8. 1835, the bell was broken. It was then taken from the belfry and placed on a pedestal with thirteen sides, representing the original States. This pedestal stands in the main entrance to the State House, now called Independence Hall, at the foot of the old stairway, where it is viewed by the thousands who come to "The Shrine of Liberty," as the old bell is called.
Liberty Bell has been placed on exhibition at the national fairs which have been held in America. In 1893, it was taken to the World's Fair at Chicago; to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis in 1904; the Panama-Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco in 1915.
The Betsy Ross House.
In Philadelphia will still be found the Betsy Ross House, where in 1776 was made the first American flag, with thriteen stars and thirteen stripes.
Here, too, will be found the house in which Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. It is a three-story brick building. At that time it was the residence of Hyman Gratz and stood in the western outskirts of the city, being the last dwelling in that direction. It later became a warehouse.
And in the Old Christ Church Burial Ground at Fifth and Arch streets will be found the humble grave of the great statesman and philosopher, Benjamin Franklin, buried near the scene of his life work.
The recent European war ceased with the signing of the German armistice and the cessation of hostilities on Nov. 1, 1918. Its favorable outcome was due in large measure to the timely aid of fresh American troops. And when our soldiers returned from victories on the battlefront, Armistice Day was added to our holdiays and for a time it seemed that this celebration might overshadow the old, stable Fourth of July. But the Fourth is still with us and now it really little matters just why we picked this one day to dedicate to American patriotism. It is the most universally celebrated of all our anniversaries. Wherever Americans may be found, in whatever country or clime, the day does not go by unnoticed.
Dallas Morning News
Dallas, Texas
Sunday, July 4, 1926
