The Independence Day Discussion of July 4, 1776
“When in the Course of human events….”
Words that came alive in the calm, concerned heads of men--aged twenty-six to seventy--from New York to South Carolina, all born in a foreign land. Assembled together in the frantic, summer air.
Rebelling against repeated injuries, usurpations, and tyranny, they met on that hot Philadelphia day, on the first of July, seventeen hundred and seventy-six.
And on the second day, 12 of 13 Colonies replied “Aye” to Richard Henry Lee’s motion for Independence from the King—a treasonable act, punishable by death, they knew.
Over the next two days and nights, Jefferson and the Committee of Five listened to the debate, with quill in hand.
“Let facts be submitted to a candid world,” one said.
“When should governments long established be changed? John Dickinson and the delegation from New York asked.
“Surely, prudently, not for light and transient causes,” the answer came. “And nor are these.”
“So what exactly are these sacred truths we hold?” Anothe
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