The 4th of July is annually ushered in with breathtaking fireworks, beautiful displays of red, white, and blue, and activities for everyone! It's a day we take a moment to commemorate our Declaration of Independence, but why the 4th of July when the formal declaration was made on July 2nd?
A declaration of independence was actually formally declared on July 2nd, 1776 and you wouldn't blame John Adams for thinking THIS date would be the most memorable and celebrated in our nation. After all, July 2nd is when the Continental Congress voted on a resolution to declare freedom from Great Britain.
However, it was on July 4th that the Continental Congress, after MANY revisions, formally approved the Declaration of Independence document, and eventually, it was signed on August 2nd, 1776. Those careful words would unite a fledgling nation and would inspire generations after, well into even our future. Happy Independence Day!
Transcript for the Declaration of Independence
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...
