An Independence Day Reflection

Revisiting how the earliest patriots celebrated our nation's declaration of independence. Plus: A warning from George Washington.

(Photo by miflippo via Getty Images)

I honestly haven’t felt much like celebrating America’s Independence Day lately, what with a Supreme Court immunity ruling that the fundamental principle that no one is above the law does not apply to presidents, essentially installing monarchy in America. Are the ideas of independence and equality not at the core of what American revolutionaries fought for—to end colonial rule by Britain and King George III?

But then I went back to those early days around July 4, 1776, to rethink my attitude. I was struck by stories of celebrations that honored the June 4 birthday of King George. For years, June 4 was celebrated in the colonies with bonfires, speeches and bell ringing. But not by 1776, when the birthday parties were replaced with mock funerals.

And then, on July 4, New York troops were read the contents of the newly written Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal….” It was met with cheers and more, both for the end of a king’s rule and the birth of a new, independent nation.

As Ron Chernow described in his biography, Washington: A Life, “Reading of the document led to such uproarious enthusiasm that soldiers sprinted down Broadway afterward and committed an act of vandalism: they toppled the equestrian statue of George III at Bowling Green, decapitating it, then parading the head around town to the lilting beat of fifes and drums.”

The hunger for independence was strong, reaching a fever pitch that helped sustain the painful and bloody fights in the years that followed to make the vision real. The completion of the Declaration of Independence on July 2, with an edited version of the document ratified by the Continental Congress on July 4, laid the foundation for the struggles ahead.

But it was not all struggle. On the first anniversary of that momentous day, July 4, 1777, Philadelphians celebrated with “joy and festivity,” the Pennsylvania Evening Post reported:

About noon all the armed ships and gallies in the river were drawn up before the city, dressed in the gayest manner, with the colors of the United States and streamers displayed. At one o’clock, the yards being properly manned, they began the celebration of the day by a discharge of thirteen cannon from each of the ships, and one from each of the thirteen gallies, in honor of the Thirteen United States…The evening was closed with the ringing of bells, and at night there was a grand exhibition of fireworks (which began and concluded with thirteen rockets) on the Commons, and the city was beautifully illuminated.

Revisiting the history of that first anniversary and the celebrations that have followed since then revives my desire to commemorate this day—to give thanks for what those early patriots achieved so that we can live in freedom. Despite a rogue extremist Supreme Court that has lost the founding ideals and principles that have guided our nation, I do plan to celebrate this Fourth of July with the knowledge of both what has come before and what work lies ahead to pursue the values and ideals upon which our nation depends.

While we know that the founders’ text failed to acknowledge the enslaved and women in its depiction of “all men,” the larger principle remains a guidepost: “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.”

I’m now looking at July 4 as an indelible reminder of what we’re fighting for, especially at a time when there are those among us bent on throwing it all away. Light some candles, burn some fireworks and lift a glass to cheer the assertion of American independence 248 years ago—and to the promise of securing its survival now if most Americans really care enough.

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I leave you with one sobering note from George Washington in his Farewell Address, released on September 19, 1796. While written 228 years ago, Washington speaks with such stark clarity that his words read now like a jeremiad. They serve as a necessary counterforce at a time when the tyranny of a minority seeks to break our commitment to established government and the will of the people. Washington warns:

All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community…they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.

This is not inevitable. This trajectory has not been predetermined. The “cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men” may seek to “subvert the power of the people” for their own benefit. But we the people have no obligation to comply with their grim and hateful agenda. We have 123 days before the November 5 election. So let’s celebrate today—and then get back to work.

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