Why July 4th is not the original date of American Independence

July 2nd, NOT July 4th, is America's "historically accurate" day of independence day.

Massachusetts Historical Society

In a July 3, 1776 letter to his wife Abigail, John Adams wrote the following (page 3 of the letter, see right):

 

"The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States."

 

Why, then, was Adams so assured that July 2nd would become "the most memorable Epocha" and America's "great anniversary Festival?" On July 2, the Continental Congress unanimously affirmed independence from Great Britain. The vote had been anticipated for quite some time once Virginia's House of Burgess instructed its delegates in May 1776, led by Richard Henry Lee, to propose independence. Once Lee formally moved a resolution on June 7, a committee headed up by Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin, began drafting a document setting out the case for independence. Though the document was unfinished, the July 2 vote was the moment a handful of America's Founding Fathers crossed the Rubicon. According to the July 2nd Philadelphia Evening Post, "This day the Continental Congress declared the United States Free and Independent States." The deed was done. The die cast. Independence was a monumental action that had only then recently gained favor with the majority of Americans, thanks, in large part, to the work of Thomas Paine (a British citizen) and his pamphlet "Common Sense."

 

John Trumbull's Signing of the Declaration (Library of Congress)

But what about July 4th and Thomas Jefferson's ultimate breakup letter to Great Britain, the Declaration of Independence? The final draft of the Declaration of Independence, the very document that has "July 4" literally stamped at the top of the document and is believed to have been singularly authored by Thomas Jefferson, was, in fact, finally approved by Congress on July 4. However, the document's first clean copy was not produced until August 2, the date in which the first members of Congress signed their names--i.e. John Hancock becoming the first as he wrote his name so large that King George III would not need his spectacles to read the signature. Several other members did not sign until 1777. The Declaration of Independence itself, was largely ignored following the American Revolution because its "work" was accomplished.

Declaration of Independence (Library of Congress)

So, why do we celebrate July the 4th, not July the 2nd, the day in which Congress actually declared American independence? Because the document has since become a living, rather than a dead document. Though largely ignored for decades after it was completed and signed, the Declaration of Independence--the work of many, not one single man (Thomas Jefferson)--gradually emerged as a living force in American society in the nineteenth century. It was Abraham Lincoln, who in essence, dusted off the Declaration of Independence and began to invoke the Founding Father's "ideas" and language when he reentered the political realm in the 1850s. Lincoln's reinterpretation of the Declaration of Independence is stated briefly and eloquently in his 1863 Gettysburg Address in which he declared that the founding fathers had committed the nation in 1776 (you know, "four score and seven years ago") to "the proposition that all men are created equal." Lincoln challenged those who remained loyal to the United States to complete the "unfinished work" of the Union dead, who "gave the last full measure of devotion" to bring to "this nation, under God, a new birth of freedom." According to Lincoln, the Declaration of Independence, the national charter of our liberties, was what the American people chose to make of it. Binding the founders' generation with his and subsequent generations of Americans, Lincoln reinterpreted the Declaration of Independence as a living document in a continuing act of national self-definition.

Congress may have completed its work on July 2, 1776 when it declared independence from Great Britain; however, Americans of all stripes will continue to look to the document itself as they reinterpret that most sacred of American ideas--"that all men are created equal." Therefore, so long as the Declaration of Independence guides this nation and those fighting for human equality, I suspect July 4th is a fitting day to celebrate. In the meantime, for historical accuracy, let's push for recognition of July 2, 1776 as the date we officially severed our bonds with the "Mother Country" and, why not call for a 3-day national holiday to celebrate this great country. Huzzah!