Posted on 07/04/2022 10:32:23 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Independence Day is celebrated in the United States on July 4, and features parades, ceremonies commemorating the historic event, fireworks, barbecues and the occasional retail store sale.
At the center of the observance is the Declaration of Independence, an influential political document that 56 members of the Continental Congress signed in 1776.
From the 18th century to the present day, the Declaration of Independence has garnered a lot of attention, as well as a few misconceptions and myths about its origins.
Here are five interesting facts about the Declaration of Independence. They include how it originally condemned slavery, how the signing of the document actually happened, and what is written on the back of the document.
Despite all of the celebrations and the federal holiday taking place on the Fourth of July, technically the Declaration of Independence was adopted two days earlier.
“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,’” wrote Scott Bomboy of the Constitution Center.
“After voting on independence on July 2, the Continental Congress then needed to draft a document explaining the move to the public. It had been proposed in draft form by the Committee of Five (John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson) and it took two days for the Congress to agree on the edits.”
As a result of this, explained Bomboy, some founding fathers, among them John Adams, would consider July 2 to be the real Independence Day, instead of July 4.
Adams himself had predicted that July 2 would be “celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival… 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.”
Although Thomas Jefferson was a lifelong slave owner, he had objections to the oppressive institution and believed that it should eventually be removed from society.
To wit, in an earlier draft of the Declaration of Independence , Jefferson included antislavery language, referring to the practice as “execrable commerce” and an “assemblage of horrors.”
The language blamed King George III for having “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.”
However, the antislavery language was eventually removed, reportedly at the insistence of representatives from South Carolina and Georgia, and because some northerners felt it was too divisive.
“The clause...reprobating the enslaving the inhabitants of Africa, was struck out in compliance to South Carolina and Georgia, who had never attempted to restrain the importation of slaves, and who on the contrary still wished to continue it,” Jefferson explained in his autobiography.
“Our Northern brethren also I believe felt a little tender under these censures; for tho' their people have very few slaves themselves, yet they had been pretty considerable carriers of them to others.”
Speaking of notable changes in the Declaration of Independence, another prominent alteration was the replacement of the term “subjects” with “citizens.”
In 2010, the Library of Congress’ Preservation, Research and Testing Division conducted a hyperspectral imaging of an earlier draft of Jefferson’s declaration.
The researchers found that Jefferson had initially used the phrase “our fellow subjects” in a rough draft, but then altered the last word to be “citizens” instead.
“The correction seems to illuminate an important moment for Jefferson and for a nation on the eve of breaking from monarchy: a moment when he reconsidered his choice of words and articulated the recognition that the people of the fledgling United States of America were no longer subjects of any nation, but citizens of an emerging democracy,” reported the LOC at the time.
“The correction occurs in the portion of the declaration that deals with U.S. grievances against King George III—in particular, his incitement of ‘treasonable insurrections.’ While the specific sentence didn’t make it into the final draft, a similar phrase was retained, and the word ‘citizens’ is used elsewhere in the final document. The sentence didn’t carry over, but the idea did.”
Despite the famous painting depicting the members of the Continental Congress all coming together to sign the document, the reality was that it did not happen all at once.
Rick Shenkman, editor of the History News Network, wrote in 2003 that signatories came on different days, with most signing the Declaration of Independence on Aug. 2, 1776.
“Most delegates signed the document on August 2, when a clean copy was finally produced by Timothy Matlack, assistant to the secretary of Congress. Several did not sign until later. And their names were not released to the public until later still, January 1777,” Shenkman noted.
Much of the reason why people think July 4 was the day for the signings can be attributed to Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, who both later claimed that that date was the day.
“Both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams wrote, years afterward, that the signing ceremony took place on July 4. When someone challenged Jefferson's memory in the early 1800s Jefferson insisted he was right,” continued Shenkman.
“The truth about the signing was not finally established until 1884 when historian Mellon Chamberlain, researching the manuscript minutes of the journal of Congress, came upon the entry for August 2 noting a signing ceremony.”
In 2004, a major action movie starring Nicholas Cage known as “National Treasure” was released to theaters, with the film’s plot claiming that there was a treasure map on the back of the Declaration of Independence.
According to the Declaration Resources Project at Harvard University, there is indeed something written on the back of the document, although it's not what one might think.
“There is no map, but there is something on the back of the engrossed and signed parchment. A label at the bottom of the parchment reads, ‘Original Declaration of Independence dated 4th July 1776,’” stated the Project.
“This handwritten note gives a real clue into the history of the Declaration of Independence, which spent much of its early existence rolled up with other documents, under the care of Charles Thomson, Secretary of the Continental Congress.”
Interesting.
I recall reading in a Bathroom Reader book that the house where Jefferson supposedly wrote the Declaration was (many years later) torn down to make way for a hamburger stand.
What a monumental movement and effort this was!! We were truly blessed by God to have such brilliant leaders who crafted this document which has guided us through the last almost 250 years!!
It makes you wonder what they would say if they were here again today. I think they would be very pleased with what we accomplished over the almost 250 years as a result of their leadership and God’s blessings. It is amazing when you think about it.
Too bad they can’t come back and take over from the imbeciles who are leading us in the exact opposite direction today.
“..and if My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.”
Happy Fourth of July. God, please come back and bless America (again)!
LOC confirmed the citizen/subject issue with hyperspectral imaging. They didn’t discover this correction as they would like everyone to believe. Julian P. Boyd (in 1957) wrote: “TJ originally wrote ‘fellow-subjects,’ copying the term from the corresponding passage in the first page of the First Draft of the Virginia Constitution; then, while the ink was still wet on the ‘Rough draught’ he expunged or erased ‘subjects’ and wrote ‘citizens’ over it.”
Conservators at the LOC have been shamelessly taking credit for Boyd’s work for more than 20 years.
he has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it's 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. this piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce: and that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, & murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded them; thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another.
While this is written is rather torturous prose, even by the standards of the day, it is clear that what is being condemned here is not the institution of chattel slavery itself, as was then being practiced in many of the Colonies (including Jefferson's Virginia) but, rather, the trans-Atlantic slave trade specifically. Moreover, the point that Jefferson was trying to make was that King George III had in the past allegedly worked to prevent the cessation of this slave trade (which Jefferson's draft did righteously condemn) but then, more recently, had allegedly worked through his agents to provoke a slave uprising in the slave-holding Colonies, as a wartime measure to suppress the ongoing rebellion.
It short, when all is said and done, Jefferson was trying with this clause to point out George III's cynical hypocrisy, but I believe that even men like John Adams, with their strong anti-slavery sentiments, found it a bit too esoteric a point, and one expressed in too convoluted a fashion, to warrant inclusion. Meanwhile, the representatives from the southernmost colonies, which still looked to the slave trade itself, obviously preferred that any such mention be dropped altogether.
blooming economies have mostly needed slaves, and the big economies of the world have all required slaves.
The idea is simple, yet heart-wrenching. What came first, the laborer or the paycheck?
Even the first few decades of our country (The presidents before Washington) had major issues with this because the continental army wasn’t getting paid.
China has slaves now. With that gold find (if it’s real) wait for things to get really bad in Uganda.
In order to be a global player, the economy is first built up on the backs of .. someone.
When you understand that we are all slaves, technically, today it will really sting. Just have to adjust a few things here and there and you’ll see it.
It didn’t originally condemn slavery. It condemned the slave trade while complaining the British were using slaves against their masters. Virginia was a slave exporter and generally opposed the African slave trade. South Carolina, Georgia, and Rhode Island objected to condemning the slave trade, Rhode Island because of involvement with the slave trade rather than slavery. The original draft also came off hypocritical.
The final version: “He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us” implying incouraging slaves to rebel.
The original version: “He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and 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. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian King of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where Men should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce. And that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people on whom he has obtruded them: thus paying off former crimes committed again the Liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another.”
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.
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