Iam apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.” So John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, concerning the act of the Continental Congress in declaring independence from Great Britain. His letter sounds much like our current idealized celebration of Independence Day, July 4th. John Adams, however, was speaking of July 2! If the events of that day so moved Adams, what had happened? And what happened on July 4th?
The process of declaring independence was not completed rapidly or in a single step. When we began the revolt against British rule, the colonies, soon to be states, were very suspicious of each other. Ever since they had been founded they had looked to their local colonial capital for leadership, and they trusted only their local colonial assemblies to make laws. There was no experience of cooperation among the colonies and many of the Revolutionary leaders wanted the very minimum of cooperation. One of the chief complaints the colonists made against Great Britain was that the government was too big, too powerful, and too far away. As a result, the men who assembled as the First Continental Congress did not want to recreate the sort of government against which they were rebelling. The delegates from the various states could take only actions that had been authorized by the voters of the states they represented. When the war began in 1775 and the First Continental Congress met, no state had authorized separation from Britain. Shots had been fired, soldiers of the king’s army had been killed, but no decision had been made as to what the colonists wanted to accomplish. Even when the British forces sent to maintain royal rule in Boston were surrounded, even after the spectacular stand made by the Continental forces at Bunker Hill, the idea of separation from Britain to become an independent nation had not been accepted by most of those residing in the colonies.
The war had been going on for over a year and showed no signs of ending when King George III declared the colonies in rebellion. This move forced the Patriot leaders to reevaluate their position. They had just been declared traitors and if the war stopped, they would be caught and hanged. North Carolina became the first to call for separation on April 12, 1776. Virginia and Georgia quickly followed this lead, so the larger southern colonies were firmly in favor of independence. Of the northern colonies, only Massachusetts and Rhode Island were resolutely in favor of separation. The tide did not begin to flow in favor of independence until the middle of June. On June 14, Connecticut instructed its delegates to vote for independence; on the 15th, New Hampshire and Delaware joined in; Pennsylvania did so on the 18th; New Jersey on the 21st; and Maryland on the 28th. South Carolina approved separation on July 2. New York City had just been occupied by the British Army and their state assembly was not in session, so New York’s delegates to the Continental Congress did not receive instructions to support separation until after independence had been declared. New York would abstain when the vote was taken. On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress voted to declare that they were separate nations—each state was considered sovereign.
There is no firm HISTORICAL EVIDENCE as to who designed the U.S. flag.
On June 11, a committee composed of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman had been instructed to make a formal statement as to the reasons for separation since it seemed that such action was inevitable. Thomas Jefferson was chosen by general assent to draw up a draft of the statement because he had a reputation as a good writer. The other members of the committee read, discussed, edited, and made suggestions for Jefferson to put into the finished form.
At the same time, the Congress was debating whether or not to make a complete break with Britain. Once the Congress had declared independence, the document the committee had been working on was presented to the assembly. The Congress debated the document for two days, editing the wording and cutting out almost a fourth of the text. John Adams did most of the arguing in favor of the document the committee had produced; Jefferson was a good writer, but he was bashful about speaking in public. As a result of Jefferson’s clear writing and Adam’s reasoned arguments, the Declaration of Independence was accepted by the Congress.
Congress voted on July 4th to approve this formal statement, explaining that “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should explain the causes which impels them to the separation”—a separation that had actually been approved two days earlier. A copy of the Declaration of Independence was sent to printer John Dunlap for publication and distribution. Dunlap’s printing shop was only two blocks away from the place where Congress was meeting. This copy probably had no signatures, or perhaps, only the signature of the presiding officer of the Congress, John Hancock. This document either has been lost or was destroyed by the printer once the type had been set, but 200 copies were printed.
It was not until July 6 that the Declaration of Independence was made public. On that day, General George Washington ordered it read aloud to the troops at evening parade. John Nixon read the document to the public in Philadelphia on July 8 in front of what is now called Independence Hall. On July 19, the Congress voted to create an engrossed, or carefully handwritten, copy of the Declaration of Independence that would be signed by the members of Congress.Since all states had agreed to the Declaration, the word “unanimous” was added to the heading of the document. Over the next month, members of Congress affixed their signatures to the Declaration. A printed copy that included these signatures was made available to the public.
So what happened on July 4, 1776? Not much. There was no vote to declare independence, no gathering of members of the Continental Congress around a table to watch as John Hancock signed with a large and elaborate signature. There was no ringing of the Liberty Bell, no gunfire, no fireworks, no speeches, no public celebration. The image most Americans of today have in mind is that of Jonathan Trumbull, the painter, whose famous painting “The Signing of the Declaration” hangs in the United States Capitol. This painting is the creation of Trumbull’s imagination and is not an accurate, historical depiction. The painting was not done until 1862.
What happened on July 4, 1776? There was the formal approval of a document whose words have become immortal and that defines what is best and most promising about the nation it created. Really, July 4 was not the day on which independence was declared, but was one day among many during which a series of events occurred that led to the making of the United States as an independent nation. July 4 is the day representatives of the states let the world know why and for what purpose the great enterprise we call the United States of America was founded.
MARY KATHERINE
GODDARD
JUNE 16, 1738–
AUGUST 12, 1816
Mary Katherine Goddard has the distinction of holding two “firsts” associated with the Revolutionary War. Born in Connecticut, Goddard moved to Providence, Rhode Island, when her father died, and became a partner to her brother, who was a printer. The family moved to Philadelphia in 1768 where they became publishers of the Pennsylvania Chronicle, an early voice of the movement for independence from Britain. Still later, the family moved to Baltimore and published the Maryland Journal . Beginning in 1775 the masthead of the paper stated “M.K. Goddard, Publisher.”
As the family moved to Baltimore, Goddard was appointed Postmaster of the town, the appointment being made by Benjamin Franklin. She became the first woman to hold a government office under the new government established following the Declaration of Independence, a position she would hold for fourteen years.
An even more historic record was made by Goddard in 1777. The Second Continental Congress asked the Maryland Journal to print a copy of the Declaration of Independence for widespread distribution. One printing had been done in 1776 but the Goddard printing is the first to contain the names of the signers of the Declaration. Today, this printing is known as “the Goddard Broadside.” Following this printing the Maryland Journal continued to support the Patriot cause, despite the vulnerability of the city of Baltimore to naval attack by the Royal navy.
Goddard lost her job in the postal department in 1789 because the responsibilities of the position were changed to require travel throughout the southern states, and it was thought that a woman could not undertake this duty alone. Undaunted, Goddard opened a bookstore and ran it until near the time of her death.