Just Pick a Date

As we celebrate the historical proclamation of being independent with all of the fireworks and hot dogs one can imagine, we are doing so on a seemingly random day chosen from the summer of 1776.

As tensions brewed during the hot summer days when the 2nd Continental Congress convened to write out a list of grievances the crown had imposed on the colonists, the foundations of our American government...well, began to work like our current American government - slow.

On June 7, Richard Henry Lee moved for independence with John Adams seconding the notion formally, although support had been growing for some time by then. But the issue was "deferred" until July 1 while Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston drafted a declaration. Although Jefferson claimed that he did not refer to other historical literature, many of the ideas and phrases he chose did make it into the document.

After the declaration was editted, a semi-unanimous vote was taken on July 2 (because New York delegates hadn't been given "official" voting power - though they did finally cast a vote July 9). Later in the month, July 19, the declaration was officially copied to parchment, which is the preserved copy now residing in a temperature-controlled case under guard) but it wasn't until August 2 that the delegate members actually signed that parchment with 3 absent members signing it later.

So the notion of celebrating the essential act of giving Britain the middle finger on the fourth day of July is arbitrary at most; really we should celebrate the entire summer and for most intents and purposes, we do. But everytime you pay taxes, participate in a trial and vote for elected officials, you are celebrating the real intent of the Declaration.

And that, my fellow citizens, should be celebrated all year.