Happy 4th of July everyone! In the event you were wondering why we celebrate today - here is a little history of what was accomplished on July 4th so many years ago... It was June 1776. Fighting between the American Colonists and the British forces had been going on for nearly a year. The Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia to wrestle with the question of independence. A decision was made that a document which declared independence for the colonies had to be created. Congress then appointed a Committee of Five to write and edit the document that would become America’s birth certificate. The members were Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. The best writer of the group, Thomas Jefferson, was given the task of drafting the text. He worked diligently for 17 days consulting several sources, including the Virginia Constitution and Bill of Rights, as well as the writings from the English philosopher John Locke. Locke’s concept of “life, liberty and the pursuit of property” would be instrumental to the idea and phrase in the Declaration “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Upon Jefferson’s completion of his draft it was revised, first by Adams and then by Franklin, from which Jefferson composed the final draft to be presented to the Continental Congress. On July 2, 1776, Congress received the Committee of Five’s final draft of the declaration and by July 4 they reached an agreement to declare the new states as a free and independent nation, “absolved of all allegiance to the British crown and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.” A war was on, but a side was solidified, and the Declaration of Independence was the glue that bound our rebellion and led the path for our great country!
Posted on: Fri, 04 Jul 2014 13:21:26 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015