. . . 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 tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.
So said John Adams to Abigail Adams on July 3, 1776. July 4, 1776 would come to be remembered as the great day of Independence but the resolution that was given meaning in the Declaration of Independence was passed on July 2.
And how far have we come in 228 years? I watched a show the other night called “Rebels and Redcoats: A British View of the American Revolution.” In it, a British historian travels the battlefields of the American Revolution. In one segement dealing with the war in the south he asks several modern Americans in Georgia or South Carolina what they think about the war. Two answer with the almost rote response, “It was about liberty, etc.” One younger man says something to the effect of:
I think it was a war for the rich and the poor made out badly. I was just discussing this with a friend the other night and we thought it wouldn’t be so bad if we’d lost the war. If we were still British we’d have socialized medicine and a decriminalized society. Cops without guns!
I wish I could find the exact quote because I imagine it’s hard to believe anyone would actually say such a thing. This man honestly feels that we would all be better off had the United States never existed!
That’s mind-boggling to me. In fact, it points to one of the great failings of the Left: their short-sightedness, their unwillingness to see the interplay of things and take in the big picture. Does this fellow actually think that if the American colonists had not risen against the British that the world we know would have evolved thus anyway? The “Great Experiment” which became our Republic set in motion many of the events that have brought us to this point in history.
Someday I’ll have to expand on the short-sightedness theme but for now, I’m getting too preachy.
Happy Birthday to the United States! May she be a beacon of hope and the bulwark of Liberty to generations to come just as she has been to generations past.
By the way, I don’t know what George III wrote in his diary on July 2 as the Continental Congress voted approval for the independency of the united colonies but I do know what he wrote on July 4 as John Hancock wrote his signature on the Declaration:
Nothing of importance happened today.
Care to offer a revision, King?