July 4
INDEPENDENCE DAY
U.S. citizens celebrate their independence from the British on this day. July 4th commemorates the approval of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. No it wasn’t signed on this day - just approved. The actual signing didn’t take place until a month later. Most of the delegates signed the Declaration on August 2, 1776, the first signature being that of John Hancock. Several signatures were obtained later ... George Wythe (Virginia) on August 27; Richard Henry Lee (Virginia), Elbridge Gerry (Massachusetts), Oliver Wolcott (Connecticut) signed in September; Matthew Thornton (New Hampshire) in November. Thomas McKean, representing Delaware, was serving in the army and was unavailable to add his ‘John Hancock’ until 1781.
Thomas Jefferson was the major author of the Declaration of Independence, but he had help from John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston and Roger Sherman. Following the natural rights theory of John Locke, the document proclaimed the equality of “all men” and their “unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” The authors wrote that governments were established to secure these rights; when they failed to do so, the people could abolish them. This one statement alone was considered as treason to the British crown.
And so, at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, John Hancock said, “Now we must all hang together.” Always the sharp wit, Benjamin Franklin smilingly stated, “Or most assuredly we will all hang separately.”
Those Were the Days, the Today in History service from 440 International
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