The Fourth of July. It has a certain ring to it, does n’t it? Every state has a July 4, but the word” Fourth of July” has long been associated with our vocabulary, but I can recall the father of a friend of mine saying that we should always speak to it as Independence Day.
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But it could’ve been unique. First, our Independence Day was going to be the Second of July.
The Declaration of Independence was signed by the Founding Fathers in July 1776, according to Scott Bomboy of the National Constitution Center. But July 2 or July 4 is the reasonable time for Independence Day?
Bomboy continues:
Actually, the Continental Congress ratified a solution a member Richard Henry Lee of Virginia passed on July 2, 1776, stating that” these United Colonies are, and of proper ought to be, free and independent States, are absolved from all all allegiance to the American Crown, and that all political ties between them and the State of Great Britain are, and ought to be, absolutely dissolved.”
John Adams was persuaded that the day would be remembered by everyone. He wrote to his family Abigail:
The Next Day of July 1776, will be the most wonderful Epocha, in the History of America. — I am apt to think that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the wonderful celebration Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by Grave Works of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be Solemnized with Pomp and Parade with Shrews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires, and Illuminations from one Close of this Peninsula to the other from this Time forth forever more.
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The newly independent territories needed a document outlining the terms and requirements of freedom, according to the Continental Congress. Thomas Jefferson had a draft report in the plays, and it took two days to compose, polish, and effectively change it. ( As an editor, it warms my heart that the founders made sure the Declaration of Independence had all the necessary edits. ) On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress approved what we now refer to as the Declaration of Independence.  ,
Bomboy writes:  ,
The real Declaration of Independence was approved by the Congress on July 4th, and it was ordered to be printed by John Dunlap. Around 200 copies of the” Dunlap Broadside” version of the report were printed, with John Hancock’s label printed at the bottom. Currently, 26 files remain.
That is why the Declaration has the terms,” IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776″, at its best, because that is the time the approved type was signed in Philadelphia.
On what is now Independence Square, Colonel John Nixon of Philadelphia gave the second reading of a published Declaration of Independence on July 8, 1776.
Many of the founding fathers did n’t sign the Declaration until Aug. 2, 1776. The Continental Congress signed it and continued running their respective businesses, which is what’s most amazing about. By July 1777, it had n’t occurred to members of Congress until someone realized it was almost a year since the anniversary, according to historian Pauline Maier.
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George Washington marked the occasion in 1778 by awarding his soldiers a double supply of rum, and Salem, N. C., the area that held the first system observing Independence Day in 1783, took the title. Independence Day was established as an unpaid vacation for federal employees in 1870, and in 1938, it was made a paid vacation for all employees.
Given that both Adams and Jefferson passed away on the 50th anniversary of the United States ‘ democracy, it’s fitting that July 4 ended up being Independence Day. In what would become Jefferson’s next letter, he wrote,” For ourselves, letting the annual profit of this day always refresh our thoughts of these privileges, and an unsurpassed devotion to them”. Amen.
