First off, not trying to be provocative, simply asking a question. July fourth is the date we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence. However I could sign I’m the King of America, it’s not that significant, especially if we had lost the war.
Where I’m going with is why we don’t celebrate other key parts of that story, the surrender by Cornwallis on October 19th, 1781, or more importantly, the signing of the treaty by Britain on September 3rd, 1783, that acknowledged the colonies as a free nation.
Then there’s the date of September 17th, 1787, which is the signing of the Constitution. If anything, these three events are very significant in their representation of the start of this country. Just as we’ve forgotten the holidays of Washington’s birthday and Jefferson’s birthday, merging them to “President’s day”, it loses the meaning behind why those men were special enough to warrant this honor. We’re also losing sight of the eight year struggle this country took against long odds and hard times to get to this point of having a bbq and lighting a firecracker.
ok, getting off the soapbox now.
3 replies on “What’s so special about July 4th?”
Regularly recalling all of those dates and persons and their significance to the story would be salutary for the Republic.
Yet there’s something almost mystical about words on a page congealing the zeitgeist of the age among a small band of visionaries who put down a marker, when the odds of success seemed dodgy at best.
It’s not a moment of triumph, but of determination. Not a reflection upon achievement, but a bold assertion of intention — stated as if it had already happened.
Other revolutionaries have won battles, but few declared in advance an entitlement from “nature’s God”, a “firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence,” and an appeal to the “Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions” to morally will their future into existence.
They scratched onto common parchment the evidence of things unseen in the history of the world.
This moment, rather than Yorktown, marked the true victory.
Sounds like an excellent Right Angle episode. Thank you.
What’s so special about “July 4th” is that it’s Independence Day. When you call it “July the Fourth” instead of “Independence Day,” then it’s just a mid-summer day when a lot of people don’t have to work and take the opportunity to have a back-yard cookout or something, plus some fireworks during the long summer evening. It becomes a modern version of the pagan summer solstice.
I for one would love to see a Constitution Day established. But I think that if you had to pick just one, the Declaration is indeed the most important. None of the other events would have happened without the Declaration. The Declaration was when and where those revolutionaries put it all on the line.
There was a blog post a few days ago, titled “Texas, my Texas,” which features Allen West’s video about Independence Day. I cannot recommend it highly enough. While a significant part of it is a rant about unconstitutional fiats at the state level, the overall message is about Independence Day.