Happy July 4th!
From Garrison Keillor over at The Writer’s Almanac:
Today is Independence Day, celebrating the day in 1776 that the Second Continental Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence, and the United States officially broke from the rule of England.
Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in a second-floor room on Market Street in Philadelphia, on a little lap desk that he had designed himself. He described the task in a letter to a friend, saying, “The object of the Declaration [is] not to find out new principles, or new arguments… but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent, and to justify ourselves in the independent stand we are compelled to take…. [It is] intended to be an expression of the American mind.”
Jefferson finished the first draft after a few days work and sent it to Benjamin Franklin on the morning of June 21, asking for suggestions. Franklin made just a few changes. In the most famous passage, Jefferson had written, “We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable.” Franklin changed it to, “We hold these truths to be self-evident.”
The Continental Congress made a lot more changes to Jefferson’s draft when they considered its adoption. They deleted passages that attacked the British people, rather than just the king, and they cut an entire paragraph in which Jefferson had attacked the king for perpetuating the slave trade. The last five paragraphs were considered too long and rambling, and so they were reduced by half. In total, they made 86 changes, eliminating 480 words and leaving 1,337. Jefferson found the process of revision extremely painful. He later said, “I was sitting by Dr. Franklin, who perceived that I was not insensible to these mutilations.”
Now, how about a little National Anthem from Huntsville, Alabama’s own Take 6:
Read More: Independence Day, July 4th, America, democracy, down with the empire
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July 5th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
I hope you had a nice 4th of July! :)
I like that flag picture!
July 5th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
Thanks, Suzie-Q! I had a great one, and it rained a few days before (Alabama has had a worst-in-50-years drought this year) so most of the fireworks bans were lifted in time to blow off some fingers…;-) sorry, I mean have some good old-fashioned light-up-the-sky fun. It was good!
Hope you had a nice Independence Day, too!
July 5th, 2007 at 7:18 pm
Good historical reminder. Nice blog you have.