JULY 4th 1776: The National Myth EXPLODED

[Guest guest]

PROLOGUE IN TWO QUOTATIONS

 

[A]David Ovason, THE SECRET ARCHITECTURE OF THE NATION’S CAPITAL: The Masons and the Building of Washington, D.C. (London, 1999; New York, 2000):

 

“When did North America become the United States?” (p.141) “The formal vote for Independence was not taken by Congress until July 2, 1776. Two days later, on the now famous July 4 …the document drawn up in

recognition of this was signed…only by the president and secretary of Congress. In spite of what is generally believed, the formal signing by all members of Congress took place on later dates, at various times.” (p.143) “This Declaration of July 4 was nothing more than… something which had already been agreed—it was not itself the declaration of independence of July 2, but a formal presentation of the declaration now promulgated for the benefit of the world.” “What then is the horoscope of the new nation?” “I am minded to choose July 2, 1776. In truth I am not arguing about dates so much as about stellar

influences…then the influence of the fixed star Sirius asserts itself in the horoscope of the United States.” (p.149) “On July 2, 1776—the Sun was in the 12th degree of Cancer (20th degree of Sidereal Gemini), which meant that it was in the same degree as Sirius, definitely ‘conjunct Sirius’…In the course of the day, when Independence was agreed, the Sun must have passed over Sirius.” (p.150) “Having

considered these facts, we have to ask, what is this strange connection which Sirius—the most important star of ancient times—has with the United States of America?” (p.151)

 

 

Steve Wiegand, U.S. HISTORY FOR DUMMIES (Wiley Publishing, N.Y., 2001):

“Then, on July 2, Congress adopted the resolution by Lee that’ the colonies ARE, and of right ought to be, FREE and INDEPENDENT STATES’. Predicted John Adams: ‘The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America’. However, John Adams missed it by two days, because America has chosen to remember July 4 instead. That’s the day Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence, or as one member put it, ‘Mr. Jefferson’s (July 4th) explanation of Mr. Lee’s (July 2nd) resolution’.” (p.76)

ELEVEN TOP SCHOLARS ON THE HISTORIC MOMENT OF INDEPENDENCE:

[1] Peter, Force, THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE: Or Notes on Lord Mahon’s History of the American Declaration of Independence. (London, 1855):

“The Resolution on Independency (adopted on July 2nd) and the Declaration of Independency (adopted on July 4th) were ‘separate’ and ‘distinct’ measures before Congress, proposed at different times, considered at different times, and decided at different times; that the Resolution was the great question of American Independence—the Declaration was the announcement of Independence to the world” (p38). “The adoption of this Resolution on the 2nd of July, 1776 was the termination of all lawful authority of the King over the thirteen United Colonies —made by this act of the Congress thirteen United States of America” ….. ”This day on which was consummated the most important measure that had ever been debated in America”. (p.59). ”It should be remembered

that on the 4th of July 1776 the document was entitled: ‘A DECLARATION’ as it could not then be called a ‘UNANIMOUS DECLARATION’, not until New York’s later constitutional sanction on July 9th could it then be called The Unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States….when on August 2nd the Declaration of Independence, being engrossed, was to be signed by every member, by order of Congress” ..”The Declaration was adopted on July 4th by the vote of States, the same that 2 days before had as Colonies passed the act of Independence”….”It was the universal diffusion of the Declaration that made the 4th of July the great festival day of the nation, instead of the 2nd day of July, the real birthday of American freedom. (p.60).

[2] George Bancroft, THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, Vol. II in HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. VIII (Boston, 1860):

“American independence was not an act of sudden passion, nor the work of one man or one assembly. It had been discussed in every part of the country by farmers and merchants, by mechanics and planters, by the fishermen along the coast and by the backwoodsmen of the West; in town meetings and from the pulpit; at social gatherings and around the camp fires; in newspapers and in pamphlets; in county conventions and in conferences of committees; in colonial congresses and assemblies. The decision on Independency was put off only to hear the voice of the people.” (p.432). ”The July 2nd

Resolution of Congress changed the old thirteen British colonies into free and independent states. It remained to set forth the reason for this act, and the principle which the new people would own as their guides” (p.462) ”The war was no longer a Civil War; Britain was become to the United States a foreign country.” (p.474) ”But the states which were henceforth independent of Britain were not independent of one another; the United States of America assumed powers over war, peace, foreign alliances, and commerce.”…..“The Declaration was not signed by the members of Congress on the day on which it was agreed to, but it was duly authenticated by the President and Secretary, and published to the world.

(p475).

[3] Mellen. Chamberlain, THE AUTHENTICATION OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE (Boston, 1885); reprinted in JOHN ADAMS, THE STATESMAN OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION with Other Essays. (Boston, 1898):

“If the Declaration was signed on July 4th, it should be found in the files of that day; but search has repeatedly been made for it without success, nor has it ever been seen or heard of. It may have been lost; but there are facts making it by far more probable that it never existed.” (p.15) ”I trust it has been made to appear that the Public Journal of July 4, reciting that the Declaration of Independence was signed by the members of Congress on that day, is erroneous…The error is in the printed Journal, which does not conform to the original manuscripts” (p16). “The printed Journal, so far as relates to what took place on the 4th of July, 1776, is clearly untrustworthy; and one of the manuscript Journals is not altogether accurate”…..The printed copy of the Declaration of

Independence was made to assert facts of the 4th of July which actually occurred on the 5th “. (p.25) “When Lee’s resolution was agreed to by the Congress on the 2nd of July, the battle had been fought and the victory won.”….”What was done on July 2nd realized the ardent wishes of the patriotic party in the thirteen colonies. Its consummated act was a notable achievement of advocacy; and the great patriot, John Adams, fondly hoped that it would be celebrated to the remotest times. But it is otherwise: the glory of the act is overshadowed by the glory of its annunciation.” (p.27).

[4] John W. Burgess, Founder of the Dept of Political Science, Columbia University. POLITICAL SCIENCE AND COMPARATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL LAW: Volume I: SOVEREIGNTY AND LIBERTY (New York, 1890):

“The first enduring form of the American state was the Continental Congress; there was something more on this side of the Atlantic than thirteen local governments. There was a sovereignty, a state; not in idea simply, or upon paper, but in fact and in organization. The revolution was an accomplished fact before the Declaration of 1776, and so was independence. The act of the 4th of July was a notification to the world of a ‘fait accomplis’. A nation and a state did not spring into existence through that declaration, as dramatic publicists are wont to express it.” (p.100)

[5] Herbert Friedenwald, THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE: An Interpretation and an Analysis. (New York, 1904 and reprinted 1974):

“For the diffusion of popular misconception respecting the signing of the Declaration of Independence there is ample warrant, in that the two principle sources of information which should be authoritative are misleading. They are an incorrectly printed journal of the proceedings of the Congress, and a carelessly composed heading to the engrossed document.” (p.134). ”Nothing but additional confusion has resulted from placing reliance upon the recollections of the participants, as embodied in letters written more than forty years after the occurrences to which they refer.” (p139). “As all other documents of importance to which signatures are attached (e.g. the Olive Branch Petition, July 8, 1775) are in existence, having been carefully preserved by Secretary Thomson; he would certainly not have

allowed an original of such value to have been destroyed.” (p142). ”The engrossed document is itself largely responsible for the erroneous views which have been held respecting the date of the signing. Being headed by the legend, ‘In Congress, July 4th 1776’ and ending with the 56 signatures, the natural inference to be made, until better information was available, was that this official document was signed on that day. It is further misinforming in its title ‘The Unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America’, under the date July 4th; for on that day only 12 States took part in the ballot.” (p148).

[6] John Hazelton, THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE: ITS HISTORY (New York, 1906 and reprinted 1970):

“Thomas McKean, a member of Congress on July 4th, maintains that no person signed the Declaration of Independence on that day. However, Jefferson’s ‘Notes’ say that the debates in the evening of the 4th closed, the Declaration was reported by the Committee, agreed to by the House and signed by every member present except Mr. Dickinson.” (p193). “These contradictory statements of McKean and Jefferson have very naturally given rise to much dispute and many lengthy arguments. Our own opinion is that Jefferson is mistaken. Neither the ‘Rough’ nor the ‘Corrected’ Journal mentions any signing on the 4th; nor does the printed copy of the Declaration wafered

in the ‘Rough’ Journal (except the authentication of the President) or the Declaration as embodied in the ‘Corrected’ Journal show the name of a single member.” (p203). “The 2nd of JULY, and NOT the 4th of JULY, therefore, was the day upon which America declared her independence…’Independence of that nation whose morning drum beat’, in the language of Daniel Webster, ’following the sun, and keeping company with the hours, circles the earth with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England’.” (p166).

[7] John W. Burgess, Founder of the Dept of Political Science, Columbia University. THE RECONCILIATION OF GOVERNMENT WITH LIBERTY (New York, 1915)

“After May 1775 this second Continental Convention (The term ‘Congress’ has been too much connected with Government to designate correctly this body), began to assume constituent powers, that is, the powers of sovereignty: it created an army, a navy, a treasury and a post office…Further in May 1776, upon proposition that it create a uniform system of local Government to take the place, of the British Colonial Governments, it authorized, under form of suggestion, the inhabitants of the several Colonial Territories to create local governmental institutions for themselves on the basis of the broadest possible suffrage. Finally, after all this constructive constituent work had been done, this second Continental ‘Convention’ declared, in the name and by the authority of the good people of the Colonies, the United Colonies to be free and independent. National unity and National sovereignty PRECEDED thus the

Declaration of Independence AND PRODUCED IT.” (p.294)

[8] Carl Becker, THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE: A Study in the History of Political Ideas. (New York, 1922 and reprinted 1942):

“A book on this subject would naturally begin by noting with some precision what the famous document purported to be. It turned out not be the formal act of separation from Great Britain, voted by Congress on July 2nd, but “A DECLARATION” of July 4th, designed to convince a “candid world” that the separation was necessary and right – in short, an argument in support of an action.” (p.ix). “It is often forgotten that the document which we know as the Declaration of Independence is not the official act by which the Continental Congress voted in favor of separation from Great Britain. Richard Henry Lee’s Resolution on Independency was finally voted by the Continental Congress on the 2nd of July, 1776. Strictly speaking, this was the official Declaration of Independence; and if we were a

nation of antiquaries we should no doubt find an incongruity in celebrating the anniversary of our independence on the 4th of July.” (p3). ”This title of the document, ‘The Declaration of Independence’, is not, strictly speaking, the official title of the document in question. The document never knew itself, in any of its various forms, by that name. Jefferson, in making the first draft, gave it the following title: ‘A DECLARATION by the Representatives of the United States of America in General Congress assembled’. This title was retained in all copies of the Declaration, except the engrossed parchment copy with the title and stile of ‘The UNANIMOUS DECLARATION of the thirteen united States of America’. It is true, the Declaration, in the form adopted by Congress, incorporates

in its final paragraph the Resolution of July 2nd; and so the Declaration may be said to be a declaration of independence, as much as in it Congress once more declared what it had already declared two days before. Nevertheless, the primary purpose of the Declaration was not to declare independence, but to proclaim to the world the reasons for declaring independence. It was intended as a formal justification of an act already accomplished.” (p 4)

[9] Charles Warren, FOURTH OF JULY MYTHS (The William and Mary Quarterly, (July 1945).

“It is a singular fact that the greatest event in American history—the Declaration of Independence—has been the subject of more incorrect popular belief, more bad memory on the part of participants, and more false history than any other occurrence in our national life”…..”The first mistaken popular belief is that the Fourth of July is the anniversary of American Independence. The fact is that Independence Day was properly the day on which Congress passed the resolution which actually established our Independence; and that day was July 2nd 1776 and not July 4th, 1776.” (p.237), “The second mistaken belief, long popularly held, is that the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776. Most Americans have seen either a facsimile or the original document now in the Library of Congress, with the names signed at the end; and most believe that it was signed on the day that the Congress on July 4, 1776 adopted it. This belief was generally held for over one hundred years. The fact is, however, that it was NOT so signed; and historians are now agreed on this point.” (p.242).

[10] John Alden, A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (N.Y., 1969):

“Why it is that the Americans do not, and never did, handsomely celebrate the anniversary of July 2nd, a day of so great importance in their history? Because, in faulty memory, they afterward recalled that the Patriots tore free from the shackles of tyrannical George III on July 4th”…..”The Declaration of Independence repeated and defended the Lee Resolution in such extraordinary fashion that the decision taken two days earlier on July 2nd was forgotten. The recollections of the ablest of men, even those concerning the most momentous events, are not to be trusted. The author of

the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson himself, later remembered July 4th as the day on which America announced her freedom.”

(p.241).

[11] David Armitage (Prof., Harvard Univ.), THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE AND INTER-NATIONAL LAW (The William and Mary Quarterly, January 2002):

“The Declaration of Independence was neither a statute nor a constitution. It was originally irrelevant to domestic law, however often its ideals may have since been invoked ... It was not intended to become a document of constitutional law despite its popular association with the Constitution and in particular with the Bill of Rights as a statement of basic political principle. It is therefore inappropriate to call it ‘America’s most fundamental constitutional document’, or ’the real preamble to the Constitution of the United States,’ or even the key to constitutional interpretations in light of a natural rights philosophy, if by that it is understood to be a document equivalent in legal standing to the Constitution itself.” (p.39) “Disagreement about the Declaration’s sources and character has created confusion about its original purpose….. Maintained here is that the Declaration should be interpreted as a document performed in the discourse of the LAW OF NATIONS rather than CIVIL LAW and hence as a statement of the powers and capacities of STATES as much as of the rights and duties of individuals.” (p.42) “The American Revolutionaries could only declare that Independence to a “candid world” in the available languages of the law of nations; by so doing they offered themselves as willing participants in an international system created by common norms, customs and agreements…The successful incorporation of the United States into that international order obscured the fact that the

American Revolution was as much about the creation of states as it was about the birth of a nation” (p.64).

THE ACT OF JULY 2nd ORDAINED THE ANNUNCIATION OF JULY 4th

Not unlikely, and notwithstanding what has been maintained here already, many readers may be inclined to some skepticism, in particular to the events pertaining specifically to July 4th. After all, if one just performs a random search in the internet for websites featuring the history of the birth of the USA, one finds numerous instances of citations contradicting the settled findings of the leading scholarship on the Declaration of Independence, findings demonstrated between the years 1855 and 1945: which in particular conclude (1) that the actual enactment date of Independence was NOT on July 4th, but on July 2nd; (2) that the Declaration was NOT signed by the members of the General Congress on July 4th, but only on and after August 2nd; and (3) that the Declaration’s adoption was NOT unanimous on July 2nd or 4th, but only

on July 15th, 1776. [A notable exception to the extensive evidence of myth and misinformation in popular histories as well as numerous Early American history internet websites is that of the United States National Archives, (which exception contradicts nothing that is herein maintained to be so, as this extended comment is based largely on the eleven authorities cited above).]

RESOLUTION'S ENACTMENT: JULY 2nd, 1776

Between 1855 and 1945 the foremost scholarship, devoted to the matter of the history of America’s Independence, found agreement here: that the "United States" was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Tuesday July 2, 1776 at the moment of the enactment of Independence by the Continental Congress; with its public Declaration devised two days later being the justification of Independence after the fact. The moment of enactment arrived when the Continental Congress' vote on the resolution for "Independency" was counted and verified: 12 votes "Yes"; 1 "abstention" (although inclined to consent, the New York members lacking instructions, abstained). Until

just prior to that historic moment the “Continental Congress” was acting on behalf of the "13 United Colonies" (More precisely, Rhode Island already had resolved for Independency, re-constituting itself a “State” on Saturday, May 4th; Virginia had done so on Saturday June 29th). Yet from that very moment of adoption going forward the Continental Congress became the “General Congress of the United States” acting on behalf of 12 "States" and the late-to-join Province of New York, all 13 still "United", nonetheless, as they had been since July 20, 1775 when Georgia’s July 8th resolve to join The Continental Association as the 13th colony was formally recognized by the Continental Congress.

In terms of the concepts of political (Constitutional) law, what transformed these provinces from British colonies into American States then-and-there on

July 2nd was the adopted resolve of Congress to be henceforth "sovereign", "free" and "independent" of the State (Crown) of Great Britain; the United Colonies henceforth United States in their own right. The Continental Congress effected the enactment based on the formally expressed instructions of 12 of the 13 provincial authorities to do so in this regard, as received variously during 1776 (and keeping in mind that the limited number of assumed constituent powers of Congress did not include the authority to act on its own in this regard). Instructions to allow delegates to vote for Independency were issued on the following dates: Massachusetts, January 18; South Carolina, March 23; Georgia, April 5; North Carolina, April 12; Rhode Island, May 4; Virginia, May 15; Connecticut, June 14; Delaware, June 15; New

Hampshire, June, 15; New Jersey, June 21; Pennsylvania, June 24; Maryland, June 28]. The 13th, New York, gave expressed approval in its Convention on the afternoon of July 9th, and it was soon after, on July 15, formally recognized to be so by the General Congress of the United States.

THE ANNUNCIATION: AFTER JULY 4th, 1776

The first public action of this General Congress of the United States took place 3 days into the life of the United States, with the July 5th broadside publication of its declaration of Independency, entitled: "A DECLARATION by the Representatives of the United States of America in General Congress..." This was the aboriginal version of what was to become the American nation’s truly first state document, only later in 1777 to be officially designated as it is now known, “The Declaration of Independence” Published on Friday July 5, 1776, although dated for the day the text was finally adopted by the General Congress, on the previous day of July 4th.

About a month later, on August 2, 1776 the text of A DECLARATION was re-titled "THE UNANIMOUS DECLARATION OF THE THIRTEEN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA", and "54" delegates signed autographically (Most on August 2nd, a few others on various dates in the months after) by the time this "UNANIMOUS DECLARATION" was first published in Baltimore, MD in January 1777. (Delegates Henry Wisner and Thomas McKean signed even later than January 1777, making the final official version that of "56" delegates as signatories).Not much later that year, on September 9, 1776 the General Congress resolved that in reference to the identity of these 13 sovereign states concerned, all official documents shall use the sovereigns’ stile: "United States". Then, on March 1, 1781 with the 13th

and final state ratification of the United States’ first constitution, the ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION, the official stile of the sovereigns was amended as per Article #1 to be: "The United States Of America"

[“NOTICE”: IN ORDER TO DISPUTE THE FACTS SUMMARIZED ABOVE, one must necessarily dispute them by taking issue with the considered findings of the eleven leading authorities on this historic matter, and authorities comprising the source material of this extended comment, each quoted representatively in the previous section: (1) Peter Force, THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE (1855); (2) George Bancroft, THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, Vol. II (1860); (3) Mellen Chamberlain, THE AUTHENTICATION OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE (1885); (4) John Burgess, SOVEREIGNTY AND LIBERTY (1890); (5) Herbert Friedenwald, THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE (1904); (6) John Hazelton, THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE: IT’S HISTORY (1906); (7) John Burgess, THE RECONCILIATION OF GOVERNMENT WITH LIBERTY (1915); (8)

Carl Becker, THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE (1922); (9) Charles Warren, FOURTH OF JULY MYTHS (1945); (10) John Alden, A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION; (11) David Armitage, THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE AND INTERNATIONAL LAW (2002). And as one may plainly glimpse from the quotations excerpted from these sources, the matters of relevant historic fact were seriously investigated and conclusively laid bare by experts in the scholarship; most of them quite a long time ago.]

DEVIL IN THE DETAIL OF JULY 4th

Contrary to the widespread and popular belief among educated Americans, there were no autographical signatures on this July 4th state document. The members of Congress did not sign what became known as the July 4th Dunlap Broadside; one sees only that the President authenticated the order of Congress and the Secretary attested. The document contains only the sole printed-name of John Hancock, President, representing that he “signed”, which is strictly speaking on this occasion, an authenticating non-autographical signature; and right below John Hancock’s, the printed-name of Charles Thomson, Secretary, duly “attesting”, but not, again strictly speaking, “signing”.

First, as regards the absence of voting members’ signatures, autographical or printed, on the July 5th Dunlap Broadside, the Dunlap Broadside wasn't "signed" by anyone at all as this action is commonly understood. There was but one official printed "signature", that of the President of the General Congress of the United States, John Hancock. Just refer to a copy of the Dunlap Broadside, the first printing of The Declaration on July 5th, entitled simply: "A DECLARATION". There it is in plain letter-press print, towards the bottom immediately following the text: to wit, "Signed

by Order and in Behalf of Congress, JOHN HANCOCK, President." What one sees is exactly what it purports to be: a authenticating non-autographical signature by the presiding officer of the General Congress, thereby making official each and every true letter-press copy of this document distributed to the public. John Hancock didn't take pen (or quill) to paper to achieve this. The adopted draft that went out the door of Independence Hall to the printer, John Dunlap, on the evening of July 4th didn't have either the finished copy’s top line legend: "In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776." or the three names and titles, "John Hancock, President", "Charles Thomson, Secretary", "John Dunlap, Printer", found towards the bottom, making up the

concluding lines of the document. These additions to the draft after its adoption, at the top and bottom, were added by the printer in accordance with the instructions of Congress to the Committee of Five to "superintend and correct the press" and in the process to have the resulting printer’s proof-copy, the master, "authenticated". The official evidence of record of this authentication of the document is the Dunlap Broadside itself, wherein the non-autographical signature of John Hancock is simply printed, not autographically signed.

Second, on the evening of July 4th there was no authenticated final draft, with autographical signature, to be archived; yet since WWII this hasn’t deterred a burgeoning minor academic industry from believing that somehow the autographical signature copy has been lost to history. One may only discover by dint of investigation evidences of the incomprehension of those historians, and the public they confuse, who fail to work through to the established requirements of the parliamentary practice of official authentication: and so too, the difference between an "autographical signature", which such an original signature is necessarily inscribed by hand, and an "authenticating signature",

which may be either autographical or simply printed (as Law dictionaries do confirm this basic distinction). In keeping with this parliamentary practice Charles Thomson, unlike John Hancock, did not in any sense whatsoever "sign" on this same occasion; Charles Thomson, the Congressional Secretary, merely "attested" the official, sole authenticating signature of John Hancock. Attestation is required of the authenticating process; and so Charles Thomson "attested"; though he did not autographically sign.Third, the earliest scholarly statement (after those of statesmen, Thomas McKean and Daniel Webster) to point out that John Hancock was sole signatory that historic July 4th, to be pointed it out in a publication then 79 years after the fact, was that of Peter Force in 1855. (Ref #1 above: THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, Or Notes on Lord Mahon's History of the American Declaration of Independence). By the date of his monograph not even a scholar of Peter Force's pre-eminent status, as founder of the Library of Congress, could stop the flow of popular and academic histories sustaining the mythologies regarding this historic event, such as the various works of Benson J. Lossing: for example, the ultimate in myth-making: to wit, "On July 4th the Declaration of Independence was finally adopted and signed by every member present at the time, except Dickinson".

EPILOGUE

Carey Winfrey, Editor, SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE, in the July 2004 issue: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian/issues04/jul04/editorsnote.html

“We're also pleased to have found historian John Ferling, Professor Emeritus of History at the State University of West Georgia.”

“In "The Rocky Road to Revolution," Ferling reminds us of the contentious debates of 1776 that finally led the Second Continental Congress to declare independence from England. The historic vote was taken on that fateful July 2nd, 1776.”

“That's right," says Ferling. "July 2nd! I like to grill outside or picnic on July 2nd. I feel that I am remembering the proper day, and it also enables me to celebrate twice — on the real Independence Day and two days later on the contrived holiday."

“So how did July 4 come to be the official holiday?”

“Pure accident. In 1777, no one in Congress, busy prosecuting a war, gave much thought to the July 2 anniversary until it was at hand. "Given such short notice, it was obvious that not much of a celebration was possible," says Ferling. Only by buying 48 hours, could they do the thing justice. "As the sky darkened on July 4, 1777, and a band composed of Hessian prisoners of war provided music," Ferling goes on, "13 rockets were fired into the sky above Philadelphia." And the fourth of July—which

was, after all, the day Congress adopted the text of the Declaration—became Independence Day.”

Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.