Do We Celebrate The Wrong Independence Day?

This is a repeat of the column I ran at this time last year.  I cannot ignore our coming holiday even though I already had written a column. So this is a week when I write two columns, one for everyone, and one for those who won’t be “offended” by a political opinion. You can read it right below this one if you want to see what a conservative thinks about recent events. I hope you will.

We in America all receive numerous email messages around this time of year relating to our celebration of the 4^th of July, or Independence Day.  I received one this week that stood out, not because it was more patriotic than the others, but because it seemed to contradict them.

The email message was titled, “John Adams writing about the 4^th of July.” Of course, John Adams, our second president was a very important figure among the Founding Fathers. Therefore, any of his writings had to be important and sacrosanct.

Here is the exact quote from a letter to Adams’ 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, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not. (The Book of Abigail and John: Selected Letters of the Adams Family, 1762-1784, Harvard University Press, 1975, 142).

I don’t know about you, but I did a literal double take when I saw that date at the beginning of the quote. Why would John Adams consider July 2, 1776 to be our Independence Day? So I did some research and here is what I found.

It turns out that the above quote was taken from a letter John Adams wrote on July 3^rd, after the Continental Congress voted in the affirmative on a resolution by Richard Henry Lee calling for independence from Great Britain. That vote took place the day before on July 2^nd. 

Here is his resolution of July 2, 1776:

Resolved: That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.

After the vote tally, a committee was appointed to draft the actual statement.  It consisted of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston. They in turn appointed Jefferson to draft the document.

While John Adams was penning his letter to his wife, Abigail, Thomas Jefferson was penning a more important document that would eclipse the events of July 2^nd.

He was drafting the Declaration of Independence, which he presented the following day for reading and signing.  Thus July 4^th became the true day of independence. 

Richard Henry Lee, the person who first wrote and proposed independence, wasn’t even present two days later when the Jefferson document was signed.  He had gone back to his home in Virginia. He did, however, sign later.  Eventually he became the president of the Second Continental Congress and later a senator from Virginia in the United States Senate. His name has never been closely associated with the Declaration of Independence and he faded into obscurity in history.

As to the true date of our independence, I can understand why it became July 4^th instead of July 2^nd.  It’s a lot harder to say “The Second of July” than it is “The Fourth of July.” The latter expression just kind of rolls off the tongue.

So now you’ve had a history lesson that I hope will motivate you to think about the true meaning of Independence Day and how far we’ve come from that fateful day 236 years ago.

God bless America!

Brilliance at the Supreme Court

Now that the Supreme Court has finally ruled on the constitutionality of the Affordable Health Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) there is a great deal of either jubilation in the streets or hand wringing and grief.

When I learned of the decision I was one of the latter and, frankly, it ruined my whole day.  I was even coining a new term for the SCOTUS, the Kow-towing Kangaroo Kourt. Yes, that translates to the acronym KKK, but it signifies a different kind of Klan.

But then I started using the right side of my brain—not right in the political sense, but right in the literal sense—to parse the true meaning of the ruling.  After all, one of my heroes, Chief Justice John Roberts, had just apparently come down on the other side of the aisle in joining the four liberal justices on the court.

Here is what I’ve determined based on all the facts I now have.

The Honorable John Roberts just turned the election season on its head!

Here is why I opine that result:

1. One of the key campaign issues for President Obama was going to be the mean-spirited Supreme Court that took away your affordable health care and he, Obama, needs a second term to change the balance of the court. That issue is now a dead one. Justice Roberts upheld the legitimacy of the Supreme Court.
2. The Supreme Court Ruling clearly specifies the mandate is a tax, which is exactly what President Obama claimed it is not.  Therefore, upholding Obamacare as constitutional means that Democrats have just levied one of the most onerous taxes in history on all Americans, estimated—and we all know that Federal estimates are always low—at two-and-a-half trillion dollars.
3. Mitt Romney now has a whole new campaign platform to run on, repeal of the new law. He can also now accuse Obama of going back on his promises and raising everyone’s taxes.  Is it mere coincidence that Romney’s campaign fund gained over four million dollars on Thursday after the Supreme Court ruling?  I think not!
4. Democrats can no longer use the Commerce Clause in the Constitution to force a mandate for Americans to buy anything.  I’m not being racist here when I use the cliché, “call a spade a spade.”  Justice Roberts made it perfectly clear that the mandate is a TAX.  

So, if you were, like I was, saddened and disheartened by the turn of events on Thursday, take heart.  This is just the beginning of a new chapter.  A lot has changed in the past week, and it isn’t all bad news.  We still have four months to take back this country.

Oh, for those of you who are Democrats and/or Obama supporters, I don’t apologize for informing you of the fight you have ahead of you.  If it energizes you in the opposite direction to read this, then you too have benefited from it. 

Don’t worry. Be happy!