Celebrating the Birth of a Nation

[VaBeachGuy 12]

 

 

In the United States we celebrate the 4th of July. What is it that we are celebrating though? The 4th of July is called Independence Day and it is the day we celebrate the birth of our nation in 1776. I've always felt it was a little misleading to call it Independence day though.

 

On April 19, 1775 war broke out between England and the 13 English colonies in north America at Lexington, Massachusetts and nearby Concord. This was the beginning of the American Revolution, known in the United States as the Revolutionary War.

 

More then a year after the war began, on July 2, 1776, the the Second Continental Congress officially resolved that the united colonies should be free and independent states. On July 4, the Declaration of Independence was formally approved by Congress and that is why we celebrate July 4th as the Birth date of the United States of America.

 

 

It would take an additional 7 years before Independence was truly won though when on September 3, 1783 the Treaty of Paris was signed ending the war and England recognized the United States independence. It wasn't until 5 more years had passed that on July 2, 1788 that our Constitution was ratified and became the law of the land, setting the frame work for what we now know as the Federal Government.

 

So, every July 4th we celebrate the birth of our nation and we celebrate the Declaration of our Independence from Great Britain and King George III. It is a day of great national pride where parades take place, families are in their back yards cooking on the grill or are in parks having picnics. In the evening, after the sun has gone down there are grand fireworks shows all across the country. It is a day of National unity where political boundaries vanish and we are all one people, one Nation.

 

So, to all of those that read this for which this day has meaning I want to say Happy 4th of July, and to the Nation that I love so much and to the flag that I saluted while I was in the Army I say Happy 230th Birthday.

[Takara_Soong 4]

To all our American members, have a happy and safe 4th of July.

[Stephen of Borg 2]

Happy Birthday to the country I love and live in!!!

[Krissy Phaserman 0]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!!!

[Jim Phaserman 0]

Happy 230th Birthday, America!

 

USA! USA! USA!

[Captain V. 0]

Happy 4'th of July!!! Please, be safe and responsible.

[savagediana 0]

Happy 4th!

[trekz 7]

Happy 4'th of July!!! Please, be safe and responsible.

Happy 4th of July! I echo Captain's V's message of being safe and responsible. Some folks seem to act as though American liberty means they can be as loud, thoughtless, and self absorbed as possible. Liberty and freedom also should bring imo responsisbility. Shooting off illegal fireworks, combining drinking and possible driving afterwards, is irresponsible. Let's hope most celebrations are responsible and respectful of the rights of their neighbors and others.

 

Have a safe and happy Fourth!

[Trekmachine 0]

Happy 4th Of July

[Theunicornhunter 2]

Happy 4'th of July!!! Please, be safe and responsible.

Happy 4th of July! I echo Captain's V's message of being safe and responsible. Some folks seem to act as though American liberty means they can be as loud, thoughtless, and self absorbed as possible. Liberty and freedom also should bring imo responsisbility. Shooting off illegal fireworks, combining drinking and possible driving afterwards, is irresponsible. Let's hope most celebrations are responsible and respectful of the rights of their neighbors and others.

 

Have a safe and happy Fourth!

 

Don't forget the drunk boaters

 

I do wish everyone a Happy Fourth and special thanks to all who have defended or supported freedom - whether formally serving in our military or as a private citizen standing up against injustice or oppression.

[master_q 0]

Independence Day!

The Celebration of Secession.

 

I hope all of you had a fun and safe Independence Day!

 

It would be a good time for everyone to actually read the Declaration of Independence.

[Data 0]

A day late. But it is better late than never. I posted this on several forums yesterday. The document that shows why the colonies chose to start their own country. I wonder what the men, who signed this document, would think of how their infant country turned out.

 

The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies

 

The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies

In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776

 

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America,

 

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

 

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. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

 

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

 

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

 

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

 

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

 

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

 

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

 

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

 

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

 

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

 

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

 

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.

 

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

 

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

 

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

 

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

 

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

 

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

 

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

 

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

 

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

 

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

 

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

 

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

 

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

 

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

 

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

 

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

 

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

 

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

 

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, 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; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

 

The signers of the Declaration represented the new states as follows:

 

New Hampshire

Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

 

Massachusetts

John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

 

Rhode Island

Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

 

Connecticut

Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

 

New York

William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

 

New Jersey

Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

 

Pennsylvania

Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

 

Delaware

Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

 

Maryland

Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

 

Virginia

George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

 

North Carolina

William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

 

South Carolina

Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

 

Georgia

Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

[master_q 0]

I might be wrong......but isn't "Free and Independent States" in all caps in the original? (All caps to show the emphasis in the original)

[Data 0]

I might be wrong......but isn't "Free and Independent States" in all caps in the original? (All caps to show the emphasis in the original)

 

This was just a copy I got from a web site. You are correct.

[master_q 0]

Ignore me...Just me nickpicking! :laugh:

 

The emphasis is very important.....at least to me

[Data 0]

http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-...ion_zoom_2.html

[MrPsychic 1]

Best line ever about the fourth of July is from The Simpsons: Celebrate the birth of your nation by blowing up a small part of it