Thanks for posting that history ...good to be reminded of our roots and the risks taken by our Founders!

Michelle,

Good looking fotos of the Car ...LOL  (read YOU!!)  Nice to see your point of views on the US of A recognized and so appreciated!  Hope they all listened and took to heart, the value of your address on the values of our great country!!  Good goin', Gal!

OrrinS
Albany, NY area
Best Wishes

Michelle

With age comes wisdom: GGISAVI

www.michellesfords.com

Besure to remind me on Sept 13th for somethingI have planned for all of you on the 14th you are going to love it. 

 

With age comes wisdom: GGISAVI

www.michellesfords.com

Thanks Mike

IH & DD Old & New

The Declaration of Independence

The Founding Fathers
Photo Credit: National Archives

The Declaration of Independence document proclaimed the independence of the 13 British colonies in America and was adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. The declaration recounted the grievances of the colonies against the British crown and declared the colonies to be free and independent states. The proclamation of independence marked the culmination of a political process that had begun as a protest against oppressive restrictions imposed by the mother country on colonial trade, manufacturing, and political liberty and had developed into a revolutionary struggle resulting in the establishment of a new nation.

After the U.S. was established, the statement of grievances in the declaration ceased to have any but historic significance. The political philosophy enunciated in the declaration, however, had a continuing influence on political developments in America and Europe for many years. It served as a source of authority for the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution. Its influence is manifest in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, adopted by the National Assembly of France in 1789, during the French Revolution. In the 19th century, various peoples of Europe and of Latin America fighting for freedom incorporated in their programs the principles formulated in the Declaration of Independence.

The procedure by which the Declaration of Independence came into being was as follows: On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee, in the name of the Virginia delegates to the Continental Congress, moved that "these united colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved." This motion was seconded by John Adams of Massachusetts, but action thereon was deferred until July 1, and the resolution was passed on the following day.

The Committee
Photo Credit: National Archives

In the meantime, a committee (appointed June 11) comprising the delegates Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston was preparing a declaration in line with Lee's resolution. Jefferson prepared the draft, using "neither book nor pamphlet," as he later said. Adams and Franklin made a number of minor changes in Jefferson's draft before it was submitted to Congress, which, on July 4, made a number of additional small alterations, deleted several sections, including one condemning black slavery, incorporated Lee's resolution, and issued the whole as the Declaration of Independence.

After the Declaration was adopted, July 4, 1776, it was turned over to John Dunlap, printer, to be printed on broadsides. The original copy was lost and one of his broadsides was attached to a page in the journal of the Congress. It was read aloud July 8 in Philadelphia, PA, Easton, PA, and Trenton, NJ. On July 9 at 6 p.m. it was read by order of Gen. George Washington to the troops assembled on the Common in New York City (City Hall Park).

The declaration was adopted by a unanimous vote of the delegates of 12 colonies, those representing New York not voting because they had not been authorized to do so. On July 9, however, the New York Provincial Congress voted to endorse the declaration:

"Resolved, That the Declaration passed on the 4th, be fairly engrossed on parchment with the title and stile of 'The Unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America' and that the same, when engrossed, be signed by every member of Congress."

The document was engrossed on parchment

SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

Congress directed that copies be sent "to the Assemblies, Conventions, and Committees or Councils of Safety, and to the several commanding officers of the continental troops, that it be proclaimed in each of the United States and at the head of the army."

Upon organization of the national government in 1789, the Declaration of Independence was assigned for safekeeping to the Department of State. In 1841, it was deposited in the Patent Office, then a bureau of the Department of State; in 1877 it was returned to the State Department. Because of the rapid fading of the text and the deterioration of the parchment, the document was withdrawn from exhibition in 1894. With other historic American documents, it is now enshrined in the National Archives Exhibition Hall, Washington, D.C., and is sealed in a glass and bronze case filled with inert

 

The History of July 4th

Tocsin of Liberty: rung by the state house bell, (Independence Hall Philadelphia, July 4th. 1776
Photo Credit: National Archives

Independence Day in the U.S., is an annual holiday commemorating the formal adoption by the Continental Congress of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, in Philadelphia. Although the signing of the Declaration was not completed until August, the Fourth of July holiday has been accepted as the official anniversary of U.S. independence and is celebrated in all states and territories of the U.S.

The holiday was first observed in Philadelphia on July 8, 1776, at which time the Declaration of Independence was read aloud, city bells rang, and bands played. It was not declared a legal holiday, however, until 1941. The Fourth is traditionally celebrated publicly with parades and pageants, patriotic speeches, and organized firing of guns and cannons and displays of fireworks; early in the 20th century public concern for a "safe and sane" holiday resulted in restrictions on general use of fireworks. Family picnics and outings are a feature of private Fourth of July celebrations.