Our Day of Independence

The American Idea

In the hot, harrowing summer heat of 1776 in Philadelphia, The Second Continental Congress of  the American Colonies, met to discuss a proposal that met with much opposition. 

Over a year earlier, a war had broken out with The Empire of Great Britain, sparked in part by a massacre in Boston that the citizens of the colonies would propagandize in support of a complete and total separation from their mother land. This was not an overnight swing in mentality. British figures were burnt in effigy in the colonies, stemmed at least in part by what  most historians would agree was tyrannical taxation, with no representation by a delegate for the colonies in British parliament. 

After the unpleasantness in Lexington and Concord, and five years after the bloody Boston Massacre, while subject to royal and parliamentary statutes that pail in comparison to current law, the Continental Congress still chose to seek out amicable peace with the Crown through an "Olive Branch" petition in which free wealthy land owners put their lives, fortunes, family, and dignity at risk to grovel in front of the King for help to alleviate. 

"...While these recent and honorable acknowledgments of their merits remained on record in the journals and acts of the august legislature the Parliament, undefaced by the imputation or even the suspicion of any offence, they were alarmed by a new system of Statutes and regulations adopted for the administration of the colonies, that filled their minds with the most painful fears and jealousies; and to their inexpressible astonishment perceived the dangers of a foreign quarrel quickly succeeded by domestic dangers, in their judgment of a more dreadful kind.

"Nor were their anxieties alleviated by any tendancy in this system to promote the welfare of the Mother Country. For 'tho its effects were more immediately felt by them, yets its influence appeared to be injurious to the commerce and prosperity of Great Britain."

- The Olive Branch Petition

The King all but refused to read the petition, and declared that the colonists had proceeded to "open and avowed rebellion". This ended any hope of reconciliation with the Crown, and over the next year, Congress would move slowly towards complete and total separation from Great Britain.

On June 7, 1776, Congress, acting on the Lee Resolution stating:

"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."

The Congress, however, voted 7 delegates to 5 (New York abstaining) for a recess to obtain new direction from their various State legislatures. Before the recess, a committee of five members was charged to draft a "Declaration of Independence" which sought to openly declare sovereignty from Great Britain, in an effort to open up diplomatic possibilities between America and the rest of Europe. 

Congress was again in session on July 1st, and began to edit the newly penned Declaration until it was finally in its complete form and adopted on morning of July 4th. 

As I contemplate, on this Independence Day, the very nature of our Republic, and how it was formed, I am still in utter awe of the American Dream. 56 rich land owners, armed with the dream of a new nation, challenged the greatest colonial superpower to open war, to form a country they would be proud to pass to their children. They risked all they had to stem the arm of oppression. I believe the American spirit stayed with us through Civil War, World War, and is as rampant today, as it was that hot summer day in 1776. 

The past year has been one of great change and turmoil for our nation, but let us never forget  that our Republic is a great thing. Our founders risked all they were, so that we would  have the right to settle our differences amicably through debate, and not through war. The American Idea is one of great possibility. 

Americans are constantly barraged by negative compaigns and news, so it is understandable the level of cynicism  that underlines our society. We should, however, take today to remember all who gave their lives in pursuit of the rights of all, endowed through our creator. America's greatness is not defined solely by the current GDP. It is defined by our hope, and the prospects of being able to change our family tree through that hope. I believe the great vigor of 1776 still lives today, in every American.