1776-2005

This Fourth of July, let's pause for a moment to
consider the magnitude of America's founding.
 

In the mid-1700s the sentiment among the Colonists was that they should
not be paying taxes to England and King George III.  It was the event
now known as the Boston Tea Party (1767) that largely brought the 13
colonies together to oppose this taxation without representation.

An English-owned tea company in India had been losing money, compelling
England to levy a tax on tea sold in the colonies.  One of the great
heroes of the Revolution, Samuel Adams, along with several other
Bostonians, dressed as Indians and hurled the India Company Tea cargo
into the Massachusetts Bay.  King George III was livid; but he was
stubborn and refused to lift the tax.

Later, in the Boston harbor, as the colonists threw stones and taunted
British soldiers, the soldiers fired into the crowd, killing some of
the people.

The theme of war was quickly in the air.

Virginia was the first colony to call for independence,
voting to establish a committee to speak for the colonies.  They called
it the First Continental Congress and they met in September 1774, where
members sketched out a record of grievances against England.

The great George Washington, later to become our first president, was
given command of the Continental Army and combat soon broke out in
Massachusetts.  It was the onset of an eight-year Revolutionary War.

As the war raged on, the men who would come to be known as our Founders
gathered in Philadelphia.  On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental
Congress penned a second draft of the grievances against England.  John
Hancock, the president of the Second Continental Congress, was the
first to sign this document - the Declaration of Independence - his signature
outsized and flamboyant so that King George would quickly recognize it.

In total, 56 courageous men placed their signatures on the document.
England saw this declaration as an act of treason and the 56 men who
called for independence from the Crown expected that their very lives
were now in harm's way.  And they were right.  Five of them were later
captured by the British, tortured and killed.  Nine died in the war.
Twelve lost their homes.  Two lost their sons in war.  All of them paid
a heavy toll for their action.

But these men embodied the heartfelt words of Patrick Henry who said on
March 23, 1775, "I know not what course others may take; but as for me,
give me liberty or give me death!"

We can never imagine the pain and suffering that came to these men and
their families.  But they invested in the future of an adored nation
and in the future of freedom that we embrace today.

After the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, it was read
aloud in the public squares, stirring the Colonists to celebration and
a determined commitment to independence.

One year later, in Philadelphia, our nation celebrated what would become
an ongoing tradition, a pre-Independence Day we might call it since
independence was far from secure.  The Colonists rang out the bells of
the city and ships in the harbor fired off their great guns.
Firecrackers and candles were lighted in the streets.  And the people
joined together in hope and prayer for a swift end to the war and a
foundation for their freedom.
 
But the wearisome war would carry on until 1783.  When independence had
finally been secured, many lives had been given for the cause.  Those
brave Colonists had made the ultimate sacrifice that we remember even
today.  In the year 1783, the Colonists celebrated their first official
Independence Day.

John Adams, our second U.S. president and one of signers of the
Declaration of Independence, in a letter to his wife, wrote: "I believe
that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great
anniversary festival... it ought to be celebrated by pomp and parade,
with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from
one end of this continent to the other ..."

And so today we do celebrate the courage and valor of the men who
secured our freedoms.  In this age of rewriting history and ignoring the
Judeo-Christian underpinning of our nation, I pray that those who love
this nation will never let the truth of our founding die. 

This Independence Day, let's spend a little time

and understand what this wonderful day is really all about.
 

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