Independence Day 2011

The Fourth of July, or as it is more commonly known here in the United States, "Independence Day", is the day we celebrate the adoption of the "Declaration of Independence" in 1776. 

With this document, we were declaring our independence from Great Britain.  A reality that was not yet set in stone at this point.  There were still 7 long years of war yet to come.  But the Second Continental Congress was just chock full of optimism at this point in time (where it came from, this historian has yet to discover) and was convinced that declaring our independence from Great Britain before really being able to back it up militarily was the way to go.  And so the Continental Congress had decided to vote to formally break ties with Great Britain.  However, they had voted to do so on:  02 July 1776, so what is the big deal about 04 July 1776?  Well, even though the Continental Congress felt pretty confident in their voting results (there were only 13 colonies after all) they thought that maybe they needed something more concrete, explaining exactly WHY they had felt the need to formally declare their independence.  So a "Committee of Five" had been delegated (even back before the Constitution statesmen and politicians just LOVED committees it seems!) back in June of 1776 to draft a written declaration of independence.  These five men were:  John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.  On 28 June 1776, the Committee of Five presented their first draft (written primarily by Thomas Jefferson, that much of the story surrounding the Declaration is true) to the Continental Congress. 

This austere body considered the wording, argued over wording and disagreed over wording, right up to the evening of 03 July 1776. 

Yes, you read those last words correctly.  The Continental Congress, voted to declare America's independence from Great Britain BEFORE they had a written document stating as much.  Good to know that our government had just as much trouble agreeing on things in 1776 as they do today. 

Regardless, by 04 July 1776, the Second Continental Congress had reached an agreement, signed the formal "Declaration of Independence" and then ordered broadsheets of the declaration to be printed and distributed throughout the land.  If by "signed on 04 July 1776" you actually mean "signed on 02 August 1776", which was when the signatures (including President John Hancock's enormous scrawl) were actually added, then yes, everyone signed on 04 July 1776.

So how exactly did "04 July 1776" become America's birthday anyway?  Since the Continental Congress:

1)  Had commissioned a committee to write a formal declaration in June 1776

2)  Had taken receipt of a rough draft of said formal declaration of independence on 28 June 1776

2)  Had already voted to declare independence on 02 July 1776

3)  Was still debating the wording of said formal declaration of independence on 03 July 1776

4)  Didn't finally accept the Committee of Five's "Declaration of Independence" and have broadsheets printed until 04 July 1776

5)  But didn't bother to sign this "formal", and so important enough that we had to form the country's very first "committee" in order to get it written, "Declaration of Independence" until 02 August 1776.

Why did Americans settle on 04 July 1776 as the nation's birthday?  The cynical historian wants to say that the American people were just too lazy to properly take the time to sort this muddle out and went with the easy choice of "04 July 1776".  But I think that the answer is simply that the first time the ordinary people (those not privy to the governmental secrets of the Second Continental Congress) heard about the "Declaration of Independence" was when they saw copies of it plastered across the walls of buildings and being hawked in the streets by printers in every town and hamlet across the now "former" 13 colonies and adopted THAT day, 04 July 1776, as America's birthday.  It is probably fitting anyway, since the common people of America are the backbone of this country and back in 1776, they were the ones who were actively fighting for the independence that Thomas Jefferson was talking about in such grand and abstract words. 

"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".

Might have been written by Jefferson, but it was embodied by every American citizen, from 1776 up to 04 July 2011.