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INDEPENDENCE DAY

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DRAPER’S PAPER ROUTE

INDEPENDENCE DAY

by Adam Carroll Draper

I had a child custody case a while back (don’t like doing them) in which one of the parties insisted on having their kid every Fourth of July; however, that party was willing to concede the entire holiday if the ex could articulate what it commemorated.  That’s not nice, but it is funny (in a tragic deprecation of our system of education) because the ex had gone to college.  Did you know that you can get a major in history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (the flagship of the UNC system – where I went to law school) and never take a single Western History survey course?  This has been true for at least fifteen years now.  It makes me wonder how Independence Day will be thought of (if at all) once those who have been taught American history pass on.  Maybe it will be something like this:

For those who are unaware of the nuances of the European colonization of North America (which is no reflection upon you because you know all about anthropogenic climate change and same-sex sexual activity in primates), there is this document called the Declaration of Independence that was passed in its final form by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia on July 4th, 1776.  It listed a bunch of grievances that the people living in the colonies had with Great Britain (now the UK).  There were thirteen colonies from New Hampshire to Georgia (Maine was part of Massachusetts).  This guy, named King George III, who was a jerk with some mental issues, was the King of Great Britain.  He was from a German family (House of Hanover), but they got to rule because the Brits needed a Protestant King (it was a religious thing).  Queen Elizabeth II (the current queen, who may live until she is 150) is from the same family, sort of, through Queen Victoria’s husband, Albert, but his family’s name was too German (House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha) which is why they changed their name to the House of Windsor in World War I, since they were at war with Germany and all (anyway, there is a series on Netflix about this if you want to know more). 

So like, yeah, these colonists were pissed at King George for being a jerk.  The Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson, who was later the third President of the United States, and (like I said) it listed all the stuff they were pissed about.  In this declaration, the Second Continental Congress, “appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world” (this was before everyone knew it was offensive for the government to mention God), told King George “these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, Free and Independent States;” and they dissolved the colonies’ political connection to the “British Crown.”  We actually still have copies of this document, and it is a big deal to a lot of people, which is why we celebrate July 4th as Independence Day.  You can read the Declaration of Independence, although you have to fight through it because it assumes you read really well and concentrate and stuff:

https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript

King George III (King of all the Britons - like Arthur in the Holy Grail) did not take this declaration well.  Great Britain was like the most powerful country in the world and had a huge navy.  So the Revolutionary War was fought over this Declaration of Independence.  The white men who signed it (there were 56 of them – and they did not actually sign it until August 2, 1776) knew there was going to be a war over their declaration, but they all vowed to join the fight for independence.  I think the document’s last line is really cool:  “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”  So quaint.  “Divine Providence” is another reference to God, but Jefferson referenced God repeatedly in this declaration because he hadn’t decided it was offensive yet.  Plus, a lot of the signers owned slaves, so it was pitiful for them to talk about freedom and all.  They probably should not have bothered fighting for their freedom since they were such hypocrites. 

The thing you have to remember about that time, though, is that the whole history of the world until then had been mostly of powerful kings and empires ruling over everyone without much concern for freedom at all.  In fact, slavery was simply a fact of life for all of human history until America and Great Britain ended it (later) - ended slavery all over the world.  In fact, you can tie that march toward freedom as a basic human right back to the Declaration of Independence.  It is incumbent upon me to add, however, that the people who signed it were racists, who ought to have their statues torn down, so we can remember great communist leaders like Mao Tse Tung, who murdered a hundred million Chinese people so that they could be equal. Most every person of renown in antiquity owned slaves, so all statues of them should be removed, even Michelangelo’s David - since King David owned slaves, too.

The really big thing to remember about the Declaration of Independence from a historical perspective is that it recognized the rights of individual people to live in freedom.  The most famous part of that declaration is at the beginning of the second paragraph, where it says:

“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.”

Of course, Jefferson mentioned God again, and you have to discount the moral authority of what he said in light of the fact that he was obviously a misogynist because he only said that men were created equal (even though – at the time – everyone who spoke English must have been a misogynist because that usage of “men” was considered gender neutral), but this was still a really important document.  I also must disclose that I am distantly related (on my mother’s side) to Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a very wealthy, white man who signed the Declaration of Independence for Maryland.  He was thought to have been the largest holder of slaves at the time of the revolution (having 400 to 500).  Although my mom grew up in a very poor family (as did my dad), I must acknowledge the many people who think that I should not be allowed discuss history, and that I should probably not be allowed to even practice law (since my tenuous connection to Charles Carroll is such a stain on my character).

Well, having said that, I hope that this walk down memory lane helps us remember the bourgeois reasons for this holiday; and (in some small way) I hope it reminded you of being in school.  One day, we may not have to commemorate this holiday at all.

If you got anything out of this missive, please give it a thumbs up, comment and/or share it. It helps. I sincerely appreciate that you took the time to read it.

Adam Draper4 Comments