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4th of
July History
There has been
a share of criticism for this document. It has been claimed
that the Declaration of Independence is an
exaggerated propaganda against the royal crimes. But the
document concludes with the relationship between Britain and
America, and of the signatories’ pledge to support it with
their “Lives”,” Fortune” and “Sacred Honor”. The theory that
reluctant colonies were forced to join the War of
Independence is fanciful, because the Continental Congress
was completely united in the adoption of the Declaration.
The Stamp Act Congress (1765) and the first Continental
Congress (1774) were all conservative assemblies—they wanted
a redress not a complete independence. It was only with the
skirmishes at Lexington and Concord (1775) that the American
Revolution burst off.
The principles of the Declaration of Independence
were the founding guidelines for the US Constitution as well
as the declarations of independence of Vietnam and Rhodesia.
Holding up the concepts of law and self-determination, the
Declaration is influenced by the Oath of Abjuration of the
Dutch Republic and by the Discourses of Algernon Sydney, to
whose legacy Jefferson and Adams was equally devoted. On
August 2, 1776, 56 delegates signed a handwritten copy of
the document in geographic order of the colonies. The
document is now in display in the National Archives.
Some myths surrounding the Declaration of Independence
document are:
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It was signed
on July 4th for it was adopted on that day
-
That John
Hancock’s signature appears the boldest to enable king
George III read it without his spectacles
-
John
Trumbull’s painting depicting the signing ceremony—no such
ceremony ever took place
-
The story of
the Liberty Bell cracking on being rung to celebrate
independence, comes from children’s fiction—it was so
named in the 19th century as a symbol of the anti-slavery
movement
The musical
comedy ‘1776’ and the 1972 movie feature the history of the
adoption of the Declaration of Independence and how
it was almost defeated by the divided opinion on the
anti-slavery issue.
The declaration begins (capitalization and punctuation are
modernized): “When, in the course of human events, it
becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political
bands which have connected them with another, and to assume,
among the powers of the Earth, the separate and equal
station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God
entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind
requires that they should declare the causes which impel
them to the separation.”
The Independence, above all is an emotional bonding that
ties up the people of America through time and ages. The
4th of July history makes the people aware of the value
of what they have—Freedom, to be respected and celebrated
with fonder regard every year.
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