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TRUE
STORIES: Story of Independence Day
Independence Day is the national holiday of
the United States of America commemorating the signing of the Declaration
of Independence by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
At the time of the signing the US consisted of 13 colonies under the rule
of England's King George III. There was growing unrest in the colonies
concerning the taxes that had to be paid to England. This was commonly
referred to as "Taxation without Representation" as the colonists did not
have any representation in the English Parliament and had no say in what
went on. As the unrest grew in the colonies, King George sent extra troops
to help control any rebellion. In 1774 the 13 colonies sent delegates to
Philadelphia Pennsylvania to form the First Continental Congress. The
delegates were unhappy with England, but were not yet ready to declare war.
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In April 1775 as the King's troops advanced on Concord Massachusetts Paul
Revere would sound the alarm that "The British are coming, the British are
coming" as he rode his horse through the late night streets. The battle of
Concord and its "shot heard round the world" would mark the unofficial
beginning of the colonies war for Independence.
The following May the colonies again sent delegates to the Second
Continental Congress. For almost a year the congress tried to work out its
differences with England, again without formally declaring war.
By June 1776 their efforts had become hopeless and a committee was formed
to compose a formal declaration of independence. Headed by Thomas Jefferson,
the committee included John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Philip Livingston and
Roger Sherman. Thomas Jefferson was chosen to write the first draft which
was presented to the congress on June 28. After various changes a vote was
taken late in the afternoon of July 4th. Of the 13 colonies, 9 voted in
favor of the Declaration, 2 - Pennsylvania and South Carolina voted No,
Delaware undecided and New York abstained.
To make it official John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress,
signed the Declaration of Independence. It is said that John Hancock signed
his name "with a great flourish" so "King George can read that without
spectacles!."
The following day copies of the Declaration were distributed. The first
newspaper to print the Declaration was the Pennsylvania Evening Post on July
6, 1776. On July 8th the Declaration had its first public reading in
Philadelphia's Independence Square. Twice that day the Declaration was read
to cheering crowds and pealing church bells. Even the bell in Independence
Hall was rung. The "Province Bell" would later be renamed "Liberty Bell"
after its inscription - Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land Unto All
the Inhabitants Thereof
And although the signing of the Declaration was not completed until
August, the 4th of July has been accepted as the official anniversary of
United States independence. The first Independence Day celebration took
place the following year - July 4 1777. By the early 1800s the traditions of
parades, picnics, and fireworks were established as the way to celebrate
America's birthday. And although fireworks have been banned in most places
because of their danger, most towns and cities usually have big firework
displays for all to see and enjoy.
The Declaration of Independence
of the Thirteen Colonies
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
 When in the Course of human events, it
becomes 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 respect to 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, that among 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 becomes destructive 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 and Happiness.
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 right themselves 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 their duty, 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 history of the present King of Great
Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all
having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these
States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most
wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws
of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation
till his Assent should be obtained, and when so suspended, he has utterly
neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the
accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would
relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right
inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies
at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their
public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with
his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses
repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of
the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such
dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers,
incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their
exercise; the State remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of
invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the
population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for
Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their
migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of
Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of
Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will
alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their
salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices,
and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their
substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace,
Standing Armies, without the consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military
independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us
to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our
laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
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For protecting them by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders
which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
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For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
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For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
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For depriving us in many cases of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
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For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
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For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring
Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its
Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for
introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
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For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and
altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
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For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested
with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here by
declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our
Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large
Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and
tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely
paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a
civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens
taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become
the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by
their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections
amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our
frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare is an
undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have
Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms. Our repeated Petitions have
been answered only by repeated injury. 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.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to
our British brethren.
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We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature
to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us.
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We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and
settlement here.
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We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have
conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these
usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and
correspondence.
They too have been deaf to the voice of
justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the
necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the
rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the
United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the
Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the
Name, and by the authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly
publish and declare.
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;
and that as Free and Independent States,
they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances,
establish Commerce,
and to do all other Acts and Things which
Independent States may of right do. 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.
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