July 4th: The birthday of America

Human Events, Jul 2, 2001 by Barton, David

This year marks 225 years since our Founding Fathers gave us our National Birth Certificate. We continue to be the longest on-going constitutional republic in the history of the world. Blessings such as these are not by chance or accidental. They are blessings of God.

On July 2, 1776, Congress voted to approve a complete separation, from Great Britain. Two days afterwards, July 2, the early draft of the Declaration of Independence was signed, albeit by only two individuals at that time: John Hancock, president of Congress, and Charles Thompson, secretary of Congress.

Four days later, on July 8, members of Congress took that document and read it aloud from the steps of Independence Hall, proclaiming it to the city of Philadelphia, after which the Liberty Bell was rung. The inscription around the top of that bell, Leviticus 25:10, was most appropriate for the occasion: "Proclaim liberty throughout the land and to all the inhabitants thereof."

'Acts of Devotion To God Almighty'

To see the turmoil in other nations, their struggles and multiple revolutions, and yet to see the stability and blessings that we have here in America, we may ask how has this been achieved? What was the basis of American Independence? John Adams said, "The general principles on which the Fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity."

Perhaps the clearest identification of the spirit of the American Revolution was given by John Adams in a letter to Abigail the day after Congress approved the Declaration. He wrote her two letters on that day; the first was short and concise, jubilant that the Declaration had been approved.

The second was much longer and more pensive, giving serious consideration to what had been done that day. Adams cautiously noted: "This day ,will be the most memorable epic in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival."

It is amazing that on the very day they approved the Declaration, Adams was already foreseeing that their actions would be celebrated by future generations. Adams contemplated whether it would be proper to hold such celebrations, but then concluded that the day should be commemorated but in a particular manner and with a specific spirit. As he told Abigail: "It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty."

John Adams believed that the Fourth of July should become a religious holiday, a day when we remembered God's hand in deliverance and a day of religious activities when we committed ourselves to Him in "solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty." Such was the spirit of the American Revolution as seen through the eyes of those who led it, evidenced even further in the words of John Quincy Adams (the sixth President and eldest son of John Adams), one who was deeply involved in the activities of the Revolution.

In 1837, when he was 69 years old, John Quincy Adams delivered a Fourth of July speech at Newburyport, Mass. He began that address with a question: "Why is it, friends and fellow citizens, that you are here assembled? Why is it that entering on the 62nd year of our national existence you have honored [me] with an invitation to address you?"

The answer was easy: They had asked him to address them because he was old enough to remember what went on; they wanted an eye-witness to tell them of it! He next asked them: "Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day [the Fourth of July]?"

Fourth of July And Christmas

An interesting question: Why is it that in America the Fourth of July and Christmas were our two top holidays?

Note his answer: "Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the Gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity?"

According to John Quincy Adams, Christmas and the Fourth of July were intrinsically connected. On the Fourth of July, the Founders simply took the precepts of Christ, which came into the world through His birth (celebrated at Christmas), and incorporated those principles into civil government.

Have you ever considered what it meant for those 56 men--an eclectic group of ministers, business men, teachers, university professors, sailors, captains, farmers--to sign the Declaration of Independence? This was a contract that began with the reasons for the separation from Great Britain and closed in the final paragraph stating. "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."

Dr. Benjamin Rush, the father of American medicine and a signer, recorded that day in his diary. In 1781, he wrote to John Adams, "Do you recollect the pensive and awful silence which pervaded the House when we were called up, one after another, to the table of the President of Congress to subscribe to what was believed by many at that time to be our death warrants?