(Richard Henry Lee)
It was Saturday, June 28, and I was looking over Bredemarket’s scheduled posts. And I saw that I had posts scheduled through Tuesday, July 1 and needed a post for Wednesday the 2nd.
That’s easy, I thought.
Since Bredemarket offers its marketing and writing services to identity/biometric and technology firms in the United States, July 2 is the perfect day for an Independence Day post.
But wait!
But…you heard me right. From the Constitution Center:
“Officially, the Continental Congress declared its freedom from Great Britain on July 2, 1776, when it voted to approve a resolution submitted by delegate Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, declaring ‘That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from 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.’”
That day was so momentous that John Adams predicted:
“The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America.
“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.”
Well, Adams ALMOST got it right.
Then what?
So what happened on July 4, if we actually declared independence on July 2?
You see, it’s one thing to declare independence from the United Kingdom. It’s another to let the United Kingdom know about it.
As John Adams knew all too well, a committee of five was working on a declaration to address the latter. But the committee’s work still required approval. And some in the Continental Congress were troubled by one part of Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration:
“He [King George III] has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither.”
Delegates from Southern and Northern colonies alike objected to the clause: Southerners like Jefferson himself who profited from slaves, and Northerners who profited from transporting them from Africa to here.
But that’s boring, so let’s listen to a song about it.
Anyway, the troublesome clause was removed from the Declaration of Independence, settling the slavery issue for all time so that the country would never have to deal with it again…until 1787. And 1820. And 1850. And 1861.
After all the edits were completed to the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress followed up on its momentous July 2 act with a minor bookkeeping detail two days later, actually approving the declaration.
Except…that the printed versions of the document included the July 4 date, not the date of Richard Henry Lee’s resolution on July 2.
So no red, white, and blue soup for you today. Wait a couple of days.
And marvel at how a single piece of written content resulted in profound changes to this country…and many others.
Bredemarket 