Two-hundred-and-fifty years ago today, the Continental Congress voted to adopt Richard Henry Lee’s resolution of June 7 that
“Resolved, 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.”
(Tally sheet from the vote for Independence, July 2, 1776; image from National Archives.)
Even until this morning a quarter-millennium ago, it was uncertain if the vote to separate from Great Britain would be unanimous. As I recount in National Treasure: How the Declaration of Independence Made America, only after the delegates reconvened after their marathon nine-hour debate of the day before did the opposition to “independency” dissolve, climaxed by the dramatic arrival of Caesar Rodney of Delaware who had ridden through “thunder and rain” the entire night from Dover to assure his colony’s support of the resolution. Only New York abstained, not having instructions to vote for Independence, but they would join the other twelve colonies a week later.
It was July 2 that John Adams, leader of the Patriot cause, assumed would be the great day of celebration. As he famously wrote Abigail, who was back in Braintree,
“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.”
In a separate letter to Abigail that day, the 39-year-old Adams reflected more philosophically on what had brought events to this pass:
“"Yesterday the greatest Question was decided, which ever was debated in America, and a greater perhaps, never was or will be decided among Men…You will see in a few days a Declaration setting forth the Causes, which have impell’d Us to this mighty Revolution, and the Reasons which will justify it, in the Sight of God and Man…
“When I look back to the Year 1761, and recollect the Argument concerning Writs of Assistance, in the Superiour Court, which I have hitherto considered as the Commencement of the Controversy, between Great Britain and America, and run through the whole Period from that Time to this, and recollect the series of political Events, the Chain of Causes and Effects, I am surprized at the Suddenness, as well as Greatness of this Revolution. Britain has been fill’d with Folly, and America with Wisdom, at least this is my Judgment.—Time must determine. It is the Will of Heaven, that the two Countries should be sundered forever. It may be the Will of Heaven that America shall suffer Calamities still more wasting and Distresses yet more dreadfull. If this is to be the Case, it will have this good Effect, at least: it will inspire Us with many Virtues, which We have not, and correct many Errors, Follies, and Vices, which threaten to disturb, dishonour, and destroy Us.—The Furnace of Affliction produces Refinement, in States as well as Individuals. And the new Governments we are assuming, in every Part, will require a Purification from our Vices, and an Augmentation of our Virtues or they will be no Blessings. The People will have unbounded Power. And the People are extreamly addicted to Corruption and Venality, as well as the Great.—I am not without Apprehensions from this Quarter. But I must submit all my Hopes and Fears, to an overruling Providence, in which, unfashionable as the Faith may be, I firmly believe.”
A more sober, far-sighted, perceptive, realistic, and yet hopeful statement may never have been uttered by any American leader. It is also one of the great assertions of the need for civic, or republican, virtue among a self-governing people.
(Portrait of John Adams, by John Singleton Copley, 1783; image from Wikipedia.)
But Adams had been there from the beginning, had witnessed almost every major action and response that had led to this morning. The glorious cause that asserted rights and freedoms, that would expand over the generations to become a universal and eternal set of principles, that would be so indelibly and majestically expressed in a Declaration two days later, had both culminated and just begun 250 years ago today.
So join with all Adams partisans and joyfully celebrate July 2. Happy Independence Day!
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