Many of us Alabamians will enjoy a long Independence Day holiday. Since July 4th is on Monday, it is a three-day weekend. Alabama families will enjoy barbecue, the lake or beach, fireworks, and the gathering of family and friends.
246 years ago, on the first Independence Day (though it was not called that), it was a different scene altogether.
A little-known fact of history is that the Declaration of Independence was agreed to by the Continental Congress on July 2. Congress merely recessed and set the official signing for two days later.
Shortly afterward, signer John Adams, later the second President, predicted that the nation would commemorate each July 2. He was right about everything except the July 2 date.
“The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha in the history of America. I am 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. You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the gloom, I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is more than worth all the means. And that posterity will triumph in that days’ transaction, even although we should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.” __John Adams, Massachusetts
It was in Philadelphia at the Continental Congress on July 1, 1776. The signers of the Declaration of Independence knew that their signatures on that document might also be — literally — their own death sentences.
They knew that soon the British army would be sailing across the Atlantic to occupy the mostly defenseless colonies. They knew the colonies did not yet have the soldiers or arms or training to stand against the British and send them packing back to England. Yet they put their signatures, and their lives, their families, and their destinies, on the Declaration of Independence.
Against all odds, and even against reason, that Declaration told the world that “these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states.”
Most of the people living in the colonies had had enough of British domination, of working and virtually existing at the pleasure of a king they didn’t know and who obviously considered them less than English citizens. They wanted to be free, to make their own decisions, to govern themselves, and to breathe the sweet air of liberty.
The first celebration of American Independence took place in Philadelphia, where the Continental Congress was meeting. The ceremony began with a public reading of the Declaration of Independence. Then, from the tower of the State House, now called Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell rang out.
The coat of arms of the king of England was taken down, and there was a parade. Cannons boomed. The people, though aware of what lay ahead, cheered! A new nation sprang to life.
That’s what this day is meant to be about.
So it began. A more elaborate celebration was held there in 1788 after the new Constitution had been ratified. Then there was a much larger parade, speeches, and a dinner.
But between those two celebrations, in 1776 and 1788, there was much horrible fighting, rivers of bloodshed, the deaths and bankruptcies of many of the signers of the Declaration, families torn apart, and businesses and farms destroyed. The freedoms declared by the Declaration — and ushered into fact by the Constitution — were secured at a terrible cost.
Soon, across the growing nation, at sunrise on July 4, salutes were fired, and bells were rung. Flags were flown from buildings, from homes, and along the streets. Shop windows were decorated with red, white, and blue. Churches held special services.
What’s Independence Day like today? Do most people you know actually take time to purposely celebrate our independence in meaningful ways? Even while we are facing threats from inside and out.
What are we fighting for now? Is it anything like what motivated our Revolutionary Army?
Are we still one nation under God, with unalienable rights endowed equally to all — among these life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?
Surely this long weekend is a time for all of us who still cherish that original dream, the one for which so many have died, to individually and collectively re-declare our independence from tyranny, despotism, taxation without representation, and debts that no free society should ever bear. Independence from enemies within and without.
And allegiance to the blood-bought foundation of the government of a Constitutional Republic, by, and for the people . . . people determined to live free.
Jim Zeigler has been the State Auditor of Alabama since 2015.
