Independence Day
Last Updated on 12/1/2008
Published on 7/1/2008
American founding father John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, that July 2 would be celebrated as American Independence Day. Congress moved excruciatingly slowly even in 1776, and it took two more days before the fledgling nation officially declared its independence from mother England.
The little known Adams has entered American consciousness this summer with a seven-part HBO miniseries based on David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography.
Actor Paul Giamatti interprets Adams as both intelligent and ordinary in a career that included a lawyer, member of the Continental Congress, ambassador to France and, eventually, the second president of the United States.
Adams was not a part of the aristocracy or merchant class and had no flair for diplomacy and could be a stern and distant father. The fact that he succeeds at all is testament to the power of his ideas and the force with which he presented them.
The miniseries portrays America's founding as a messy affair with more shouting than thinking. Yet it doesn't give short shrift to the absolute inspiration of it all.
As Benjamin Franklin read through Thomas Jefferson's original Declaration of Independence, he paused at the idea that certain inalienable rights are "sacred and undeniable." An irreligious Franklin said the wording "smacks of the pulpit" and suggested "self-evident" as a substitute.
The phrase became part of American consciousness.
The founding fathers left behind their plows to take up arms. The founding mothers -- Laura Linney's portrayal of Abigail Adams' strength was inspiring -- picked up the plows and added tilling to their other unheroic, exhausting duties, winning American freedom as surely as did the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
Those early Americans were stunned at what they had done. The revolution was more than war. It was life.
The Fourth of July has become a day for flying the flag and watching parades and fireworks. As it falls on Friday this year, it will kick off a three-day weekend. Somewhere, before the barbecue and the beach, take a minute to thank John Adams and the founders -- and don't forget Thomas Lynch Jr. of Hopsewee Plantation south of Georgetown. They could have been signing their own death warrants when they signed the Declaration of Independence. Yet they did it. And America was born 232 years ago.
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During a constitutional meeting when an agreement could not be reached, the irreligious Benjamin Franklin stated "In the beginning of the contest with G. Britain, when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for Divine Protection. -- Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a Superintending providence in our favor. To that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? or do we imagine that we no longer need His assistance?" They then prayed, with Franklin at 80 years of age kneeling, then proceeded, with the help of Providence, to devise the greatest document ever written - The Constitution of the United States Posted by Bonnie Wheeler on 7/9/2008
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