Posted on 07/03/2005 10:06:12 PM PDT by SmithL
Looking back over our history, our arrival at this July Fourth - free, secure and prosperous and celebrating Independence Day with fireworks and flags - now seems like an inevitable historical progression.
But the American republic was never inevitable, and it was probably least inevitable 229 years ago on the day when the Founding Fathers signed it into existence, as historian David McCullough usefully reminds us in his marvelous new book on that perilous and pivotal year, "1776."
What is justly best known from the Declaration of Independence is Thomas Jefferson's brilliant summation of the American ideal, "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."
However, the rest of the Declaration is an angry bill of particulars listing several dozen very specific grievances against the British Crown. Even at this remove, you can almost feel Jefferson's anger rise as he writes.
"The lines were drawn now as never before, the stakes far higher," McCullough writes. There was no going back. The Americans gathered in Philadelphia had committed treason. And it was one thing to declare independence and another for the scattered and divided colonies to seize it from the world's largest military power.
Even as the Declaration was being signed, a huge British fleet, eventually numbering hundreds of ships, was arriving off New York loaded with highly trained, well-fed and highly motivated professional soldiers. If their commander, Lord Howe, could not overawe the colonials into surrender, he was to quickly crush them militarily.
The birth year of the republic, 1776, McCullough observes, was "a year of all-too-few victories, of sustained suffering, disease, hunger, desertion, cowardice, disillusionment, defeat, terrible discouragement, and fear ."
But George Washington and his makeshift little army endured and ultimately prevailed. And because of them we celebrate the glorious Fourth in the spirit of the revolutionary officers in New York who, upon receiving news of the signing of the Declaration, "went to a public house to testify our joy at the happy news of Independence. We spent the afternoon merrily."
Spend your July Fourth merrily and safely.
I can`t wait to play my favorite 4th of July drinking game tomorrow; M-80 shots. You take an M-80 and put it in your mouth and light the fuse and if you chicken out and take it out of your mouth before your friends do, you have to take a shot of whiskey or beer. That game is cool.
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Another great one -
"The birth year of the republic, 1776, McCullough observes, was 'a year of all-too-few victories, of sustained suffering, disease, hunger, desertion, cowardice, disillusionment, defeat, terrible discouragement, and fear .'"
Couldn't Washington see he'd led them into a quagmire?
It appears that the first Independence Day was marked with more grimness than jollity, befitting the task that the revolutionary government had set itself. But they succeeded in taking out the trash and for that we rejoice.
I missed this post of yours earlier! That Flag Poem is a keeper, isn't it!
Oh, you found a copy of the New York Times, circa 1776!!
It's a good one -
Happy Birthday, America!
Sounds like a blast !
(be sure to read all the warning labels first, and always wear your safety glasses ! )
and I expect that this game will hold a special status when next year's Darwin Awards are issued.
Hear! Hear!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!!!
Last night as the pre fourth party, went to dinner with family, then saw a wonderful fireworks show in Red Bank, NJ. Ate funnel cakes and Italian ices.
Afterwards we sat in traffic for 2 hours trying to get out of town so we can go home.
It was fantastic!!!!
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