Sweet Land of Liberty

We speak of the American “experiment” as if the outcome is uncertain. That’s because it is. It always has been.

There is a civic usefulness in reminding ourselves of the absolute audacity of the Founders. We tend to picture them in frock coats and knee-high breeches. Maybe we should picture them in lab coats. They were mad scientists.

Like all brilliant minds they had far-reaching imaginations. They conjured into being that which others couldn’t conceive—first in conversation and debate, then with quill pen and parchment, finally with musket and grapeshot.

Not every hypothesis panned out. Some elements wouldn’t combine without a catalyst. But the overall experiment has succeeded—so far—because of the soundness of its design. Our Founding documents are aspirational and inspirational. Our system of government is flexible and forgiving. It takes a licking, as the old commercial used to say, and keeps on ticking.

The American federal system has survived for 250 years because it separates power and balances competing interests. That each of our 50 states remains distinctly itself and yet distinctly American is miraculous.

Think about a road trip from New York to San Francisco. What would you see while driving a similar distance across Europe? You might cross dozens of national borders. You’d encounter cuisines and customs galore.

Moscow is closer to Madrid than Manhattan is to the Mission District. But while a New Yorker and a San Franciscan might disagree about baseball, you’ll never mistake either of them for anything but an American. Our similarities say more than our differences. We all share a commitment to certain self-evident truths.

This Fourth of July isn’t any old Fourth of July. It’s the big one. Or the biggest one those of us over 40 can reasonably expect to see. To celebrate our large and diverse...

“My country tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing” is a ripoff of God save the Queen anthem, done intentionally in 1831, by 24-year-old seminary student Samuel Francis Smith.

He wrote the lyrics to “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” for a July 4th children’s choir performance in Boston. He deliberately set his new verses to the stately, recognizable melody of the British anthem “God Save the Queen”.

At the time, reusing popular, pre-existing melodies—a practice known as contrafactum—was very common and culturally accepted. Smith simply wanted a catchy, stately, and familiar tune so the children could easily learn and sing it.

Furthermore, he used the British royal melody to intentionally rework an imperial British symbol into a proclamation of American democracy and liberty.

Because of its shared melody, many Americans easily memorized it, and the tune actually served as an unofficial de facto US national anthem for nearly 100 years before Congress officially adopted “The Star-Spangled Banner” in 1931. ——— Wikipedia

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