Independence Day 2022

Independence Day 2022

Today is July 4, 2022, the 246th year since the second Continental Congress unanimously agreed that the established colonies of the British kingdom in the new world would no longer be subject to the crown. The Declaration of Independence is not a legal document (like the Constitution) on which our laws depend; it is moral treatise which the delegates of the 13 colonies agreed a government should adhere and how King George III and the British Parliament were failing to do so.

This was a document written during conflict; the American Revolution had started on April 19, 1775 at Lexington and Concord when the British Commander-in-Chief attempted to capture or destroy arms belonging to American patriots. As the colonists defended their property and rights --as British subjects-- the force brought down upon them only grew. It took over a year for the colonists resisting the British military and attempting to persuade the British parliament to hold the King accountable for his actions, to no avail before the decision to break from British rule was agreed upon.

It was from events both before and after Lexington and Concord, that the delegates perceived they were not being treated as equals under British tradition and law. In making their case with the famous words of the opening Declaration, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness," they appealed to not only their fellow colonists, but to the British people to see the disparate treatment they were receiving.

The parallel to the abolition movement which preceded the Civil War is obvious. Even during the drafting of the Constitution, delegates debated how to address the issue of slavery. The 3/5ths compromise, which is incorrectly claimed as evidence the slave-holding states did not consider slaves to be full people, was actually a measure proposed by the free states to limit the power of the slave-holding states. The 14th Amendment (adopted in 1868) repealed the 3/5ths compromise, counting every person ("excluding Indians not taxed") for the purposes of allocating Representatives in Congress. The Democrats used this increase in representation to block Federal action on allowing blacks to vote in former slave-holding states until the 1960s.

America was founded on the ideal that all men (people) are created equal and we have been slowly working towards that goal. In 2022, every citizen is fully counted for purposes of representation, every citizen has the right to vote, and every citizen has the rights secured by the Constitution. The ideals of America still beacon across the world, inviting people to come to the United States and live in a country that promises equality of opportunity and equality under the law. The United States is an amazing nation and I'm thankful to celebrate the history and progress of our country.

Edit 2022-07-04: corrected multiple misspellings