Looking Back at 250 Years
To the editor:
As we bask in our nation’s 250th anniversary and celebrate it in Fayette County, remember that our nation’s “birth” nearly failed to produce a healthy infant. Not until the Treaty of Ghent took effect on February 17, 1815, after the War of 1812, could Americans truly say they had achieved independence. We celebrate with “rockets red glare,” words written during the War of 1812. The first line of our Constitution, ratified on June 21, 1788, claimed “We the people.” The 56 signers of the Declaration risked capture and execution for treason. The British captured five signers. Incarceration was virtually a death sentence due to hunger, fetid water, and disease. Several were bankrupted for the cause of liberty. At least 12 had their homes sacked. Sons of signers were killed in action or died in captivity. Signers were wounded in military action; nine died in the war from battle wounds, imprisonment, or severe hardships.
The July 4th Declaration was designed to unify thirteen colonies, most of which did not like one another. General George Washington left Boston, after the British did, and moved to New York in early 1776 to build defenses. Close enough to Philadelphia and the Continental Congress, he could lobby for a declaration of independence to motivate the militia and Continental Army to persevere. He lacked troops, food, firewood, clothing, and armaments to defend New York. Once the Declaration was proclaimed, Washington had it read to the troops in lower Manhattan where they toppled King George’s equestrian statue and melted it down for musket balls.
Not until the Revolutionary War ended did its promise seem achievable and laudable. Celebrations before the first 50th anniversary were divisibly partisan. In 1826, the leaders of that division, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, died on July 4. John Qunicy Adams, John’s son, President at that time, remediated the division between Federalism (John Adams) and Democratic Republicanism (Jefferson).
The next 50th year celebration jumped our divisive Civil War. The 1876 celebration began with a six-month long Centennial Exposition opened by Ulysses S. Grant, commanding general of the United States during the Civil War and president during Reconstruction, 1869-1877. His successor, Rutherford B. Hayes was elected in the most controversial election in US history. Hayes’ election ended Reconstruction and was marred by excessive railroad speculation and bank failures.
Financial problems marred the 1926 celebration (Coolidge was in office). The Roaring Twenties turned into the Great Depression when the stock market crashed in 1929 during Hoover’s administration.
The 1976 (200th) celebration occurred after leading Republican senators encouraged President Nixon to resign on August 9, 1974. The trivia question is, who was president on July 4, 1976? Gerald Ford. President Nixon appointed Ford to be Vice President when Spiro Agnew resigned amid financial scandal. Ford, a respected, long-serving member of the House of Representatives, spoke in Philadelphia on July 4, 1976 to heal the wounds of the Viet Nam War and political scandal of Watergate.
Noting that Abraham Lincoln spoke there in 1861 on his way to Washington amidst secession, Ford recalled, “Like Lincoln, I feel both pride and humility, rejoicing and reverence as I stand in the place where two centuries ago the United States of America was conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Ford emphasized, “The American Revolution … was fought in the name of the law as well as liberty.” The purpose of government “is to secure the rights of the individuals against even government itself.” “The Declaration was not a protest against government but against the excesses of government. It prescribed the proper role of government to secure the rights of individuals and to effect their safety and their happiness.” “Liberty is a living flame to be fed, not dead ashes to be revered, even in a Bicentennial Year.” Ford’s address looked forward: “As we begin our third century, there is still so much to be done. We must increase the independence of the individual and the opportunity of all Americans to attain their full potential. We must ensure each citizen’s right to privacy. We must create a more beautiful America, making human works conform to the harmony of nature. We must develop a safer society, so ordered that happiness may be pursued without fear of crime or manmade hazards. We must build a more stable international order, politically, economically, and legally. We must match the great breakthroughs of the past century by improving health and conquering disease. We must continue to unlock the secrets of the universe beyond our planet as well as within ourselves. We must work to enrich the quality of American life at work, at play, and in our homes.”