July 4, 2012 How Did Our Founders Celebrate Independence?

  

Firm Reliance Reuniting Americans With Their True Heritage July 4, 2012                                                                                                                                                  On the evening of July 2, 1776, after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail expressing the significance of that day. In his letter he wrote about how future generations should celebrate with parades, shows, games, guns, bonfires and fireworks. For the most part, Americans have taken heed to Adams' call to celebrate that day. However, America has forgotten the most significant act of honoring this great occasion. First and foremost, Adams wrote, "It ought to be commemorated as the Day of Deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty." Our Founding Fathers believed that God was delivering us from the tyrannical hand of the British government, just as He had delivered the children of Israel from the bondage of Egypt. Evidence of this strongly held belief can be found in the first proposed seal of the United States. The seal was designed by the same committee that drafted the Declaration, which included Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams. The seal had the image of "Pharaoh sitting in a chariot, a crown on his head and a sword in his hand, passing through the divided waters of the Red Sea in pursuit of the Israelites: Rays from a pillar of fire in the Cloud, expressive of the Divine presence and command, beaming on Moses who stands on the shore and extending his hand over the sea causes it to overwhelm Pharaoh." As long as Israel honored God for delivering them from Egypt, his hand of protection was upon them. But when they turned their back to him is when they faced tribulation and judgment. This is why our Founders felt that the most important thing for us to do in celebration of our deliverance from tyranny is to give "solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty." On July 4, 1787 the delegates to the Constitutional Convention recessed their proceedings to celebrate the "Day of Deliverance." There were many opportunities to celebrate with games, parades and parties, but instead, under the leadership of George Washington, the delegates assembled at the Reformed Calvinistic Church in Philadelphia to worship and pray. Reverend William Rogers delivered a sermon about trusting in the wisdom of God to establish a "free and vigorous government." This Independence Day, share this story with others, and be sure to pray for our nation and honor God for his deliverance and for the strong faith and dedication of our Founding Fathers. Georgia State Senator Barry Loudermilk

July 4, 2011 Independence Day

The Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776. 

Hostilities between the British and the American colonists had already begun over a year before when the "shot heard round the world" was fired at the beginning of the battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775.

Paul Revere's famous "midnight ride" to warn his fellow patriots that the British were coming is commemorated in the following poem.

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, "If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,--

One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm."

Then he said "Good-night!" and with muffled oar
Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,
Just as the moon rose over the bay,
Where swinging wide at her moorings lay

The Somerset, British man-of-war;
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar
Across the moon like a prison bar,
And a huge black hulk, that was magnified
By its own reflection in the tide.

Meanwhile, his friend through alley and street
Wanders and watches, with eager ears,
Till in the silence around him he hears
The muster of men at the barrack door,
The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet,

And the measured tread of the grenadiers,
Marching down to their boats on the shore.
Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church,
By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,
To the belfry chamber overhead,

And startled the pigeons from their perch
On the sombre rafters, that round him made
Masses and moving shapes of shade,--
By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,
To the highest window in the wall,

Where he paused to listen and look down
A moment on the roofs of the town
And the moonlight flowing over all.
Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead,

In their night encampment on the hill,
Wrapped in silence so deep and still
That he could hear, like a sentinel's tread,
The watchful night-wind, as it went
Creeping along from tent to tent,

And seeming to whisper, "All is well!"
A moment only he feels the spell
Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread
Of the lonely belfry and the dead;
For suddenly all his thoughts are bent

On a shadowy something far away,
Where the river widens to meet the bay,--
A line of black that bends and floats
On the rising tide like a bridge of boats.

Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,
Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.
Now he patted his horse's side,
Now he gazed at the landscape far and near,

Then, impetuous, stamped the earth,
And turned and tightened his saddle girth;
But mostly he watched with eager search
The belfry tower of the Old North Church,
As it rose above the graves on the hill,
Lonely and spectral and sombre and still.

And lo! as he looks, on the belfry's height
A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!
He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns,
But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight
A second lamp in the belfry burns.

Scurry of hoofs in a village street,
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet;

That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,
The fate of a nation was riding that night;
And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,
Kindled the land into flame with its heat.
He has left the village and mounted the steep,

And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,
Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;
And under the alders that skirt its edge,
Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,
Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.

It was twelve by the village clock
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.
He heard the crowing of the cock,
And the barking of the farmer's dog,
And felt the damp of the river fog,

That rises after the sun goes down.
It was one by the village clock,
When he galloped into Lexington.
He saw the gilded weathercock
Swim in the moonlight as he passed,

And the meeting-house windows, black and bare,
Gaze at him with a spectral glare,
As if they already stood aghast
At the bloody work they would look upon.
It was two by the village clock,

When he came to the bridge in Concord town.
He heard the bleating of the flock,
And the twitter of birds among the trees,
And felt the breath of the morning breeze

Blowing over the meadow brown.
And one was safe and asleep in his bed
Who at the bridge would be first to fall,
Who that day would be lying dead,

Pierced by a British musket ball.
You know the rest. In the books you have read
How the British Regulars fired and fled,---
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,

From behind each fence and farmyard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,

And only pausing to fire and load.
So through the night rode Paul Revere;=
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,---

A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,

Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

July 4, 2010 The Declaration of Independence

July 4, 2010. Independence Day. The 234th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress, officially declaring that the thirteen colonies were independent states and no longer a part of the British Empire.

The Revolutionary War ended with the surrender of the British at Yorktown in 1781 and the eventual establishment of the United States of America and adoption of a constitutional form of government.

From the Declaration:

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.

The next section of the Declaration of Independence is the famous preamble, stating the ideals and basic principles of the Declaration. The Preamble also asserts what is known as the "right of revolution"--asserting that people have certain rights and when a government violates these rights, the people have the right to "alter or abolish" that government.

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.

July 4, 2008 Independence Day

The Fourth of July. Independence Day.

The Declaration of Independence is a thoughtful, well-reasoned, and at the same time stirring, recitation of the events in the history of the American Colonies leading up to the Declaration and the Revolutionary War with Great Britain. While I quote only an excerpt below, the entire document can and should be read for a better understanding of what the early American patriots endured as well as for an understanding of their view of government.

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 for 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 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....

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, ...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 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.

God Bless the USA (link)

July 5, 2005 Founding Fathers Letter to Editor

I found this excellent Letter to the Editor in an online edition of a Tennessee newspaper. The 4th of July is behind us, but the message contained in the words and deeds of the Founding Fathers is the same every day--- be visionaries and doers, have a passion for freedom, and work to protect and preserve freedom for future generations.

To the Editor:

America's Founding Fathers were doers. They collectively identified a problem, labored as a whole to devise a course of action and executed a plan to set America on a path to real freedom.


Nearly 250 years later, we still commend their spirit, laud their documents, and allude to their wisdom and foresight. Sadly, very few Americans today have much in common with those visionaries. We've become a population of watchers, voyeurs to our own existence and our nation's future.

We've come to expect that politicians will lie, that corporations are fueled by greed, that corruption is simply the way the game is played and there isn't anything we're ever going to do about it.

We've rationalized our discontent with jokes and the occasional snort. In our truly indignant moments we may even mutter "someone should do something." But "someone" won't be us because we're too busy, too tired, too this and too that. We have an inexhaustible supply of excuses that allow us to continue watching.

We have people who are happy to tell us what to think, what it means, why we should, why we shouldn't, and what's best for us. By letting them deal with those things that would require our time and energy to address, we can go on watching.

This Fourth of July, amidst all the hoopla of processed patriotism, we'll hear many references to our Founding Fathers. I wonder where we'd be today if those great men had been watchers instead of doers?

Mark Wehner

July 1, 2005 Independence Day Blessings of Liberty

Half the year is gone, and we are coming up on the 4th of July.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend and holiday. My husband Ron's sister and brother-in-law always host a 4th of July cookout for the whole family. Everyone has a terrific time.

Good food. Lots of laughter. Lots of fireworks-- A special family time to celebrate the birth of a wonderful, generous, and good nation that has endured through good times and bad.

I was talking with my children recently about the hardships the early patriots faced. Mostly we talked about the patriots' passion for freedom, and their willingness to sacrifice all, even their lives, for their beliefs.

This is a special country. Blessed. A beacon of light to the world. May we continue to hold freedom dear.

Happy 4th!