Happy 4th of July and also happy 250th anniversary!
On the top left is John Trumbull's painting "Declaration of Independence," on the top right is a photograph of the Washington Monument on July 4th, on the bottom right is the Capitol on July 4th, on the bottom left is the Declaration of Independence, and in the middle is the Lee Resolution, which essentially "sealed" all subsequent events.
I described in more detail why Lee's resolution "sealed" all of these events in an article I wrote on this topic. I'm attaching it here.
The idea of โโcolonial independence had been in the air even before the Revolutionary War. Few colonists openly advocated independence from Great Britain even after the Revolution began, but the publication of Thomas Paine's pamphlet "Common Sense" in 1776 changed public opinion, and support for the idea began to grow.
At the Second Continental Congress, the independence movement was represented by an informal alliance of delegates, including John Adams and Samuel Adams from Massachusetts, and Richard Henry Lee from Virginia.
On May 15, 1776, the Fifth Virginia Convention met, unanimously passing a resolutionยน and giving a formal and unconditional order to demand complete independence. Richard Henry Lee was the chief delegate to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, which met on June 7, 1776. It was he who read the text of the resolution.
At that point, Congress was not yet ready to declare independence, as delegates from some colonies were not authorized to vote for independence. Therefore, the vote on Lee's Resolution was postponed for three weeks while independence supporters worked to secure the support of the colonial governments.
Meanwhile, a "Committee of Five" was appointed to prepare an official declaration so that it would be ready by the time independence was ratified. The committee prepared a declaration of independence, written largely by Thomas Jefferson, and presented it to Congress on June 28, 1776.
Congress debated and revised the declaration, ultimately adopting it on July 4. For the first time, the colonies were referred to as "United" in an official document. The day before, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail:
"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, withย Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more."
However, Adams was off by two days. The Resolution of Independence was adopted on July 2, and the Declaration of Independence was adopted and published on July 4. On August 2, the majority of delegates signed the historic parchment document.
Now, this holiday (which almost exactly matches John Adams's words) is accompanied by fireworks (for example, at the Washington Monument), parades, barbecues, carnivals, fairs, picnics, concerts, baseball games, family reunions, political addresses and ceremonies, and other public and private events traditional to the United States.
An independence resolutionยน is a political document or act declaring the separation of a territory from a metropolitan country and the creation of a new sovereign state.
References: 1)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Resolution
2)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence
3)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Henry_Lee
4)https://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/doc?id=L17760703jasecond
5)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Continental_Congress
6)https://louis.pressbooks.pub/theamericanrevolutionprimarysourcereadings/chapter/richard-henry-lee-resolution-for-independence/
