The 240th anniversary of American independence will be celebrated in myriad ways on the Fourth of July. Amid gala festivities from Cape May Point to Ocean City, Cape May County’s swelled summer population will continue the tradition that began when the former colonies declared themselves free from Great Britain.
Today’s citizens cannot grasp what it meant to those 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. There was likely no joyous sentiment in the room as the Second Continental Congress convened to adopt the declaration. Those who affixed their signatures to the hand-written proclamation of freedom knew too well what their fate would be if captured. What they did was stake their futures and lives to the words written thereupon.
The most senior signer was Philadelphian Benjamin Franklin, 70, and the youngest, at 27, was Thomas Lynch, Jr., a South Carolinian.
Five, including Richard Stockton, whose namesake university is close to this county, were captured by the British. Those fellow signers were Thomas Heyward, Arthur Middleton, and Capt. Edward Rutledge, all taken prisoner in 1780 at the Battle of Charleston, and Col. George Walton, injured and taken captive in the Battle of Savannah.
The Garden State’s Stockton did not recover while under Loyalists’ chains and died in 1781.
Ready to bear arms by their action of signing the Declaration were 17 who subsequently served in the young nation’s military in the Revolution.
Eleven of the signers had homes and property destroyed by the enemy.
The ideals those brave men cherished motivated them to do what many would be reluctant to do today. They valued the nation’s greater gain over their personal loss. Can today’s citizens comprehend those principles?
Through the centuries, neither turmoil nor prosperity trimmed the nation’s zeal to mark independence. The spirit of freedom burns in patriots’ hearts today as it did 240 years ago.
President Harry S. Truman, spoke these words July 4, 1945:
“We have pride in the combined might of this nation which has contributed signally to the defeat of the enemy in Europe. We have confidence that, under Providence, we soon may crush the enemy in the Pacific. We have humility for the guidance that has been given us of God in serving His will as a leader of freedom for the world.
“This year, the men and women of our armed forces, and many civilians as well, are celebrating the anniversary of American Independence in other countries throughout the world. Citizens of these other lands will understand what we celebrate and why for freedom is dear to the hearts of all men everywhere. In other lands, others will join us in honoring our declaration that all men are created equal and are endowed with certain inalienable rights–life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
“Here at home, on this July 4, 1945, let us honor our Nation’s creed of liberty and the men and women of our armed forces who are carrying this creed with them throughout the world.”
The above from Truman was researched by James R. Heintze. American University, Washington, D.C.
President John F. Kennedy
July 4, 1962
At Independence Hall, Philadelphia.
“Today, 186 years later, that Declaration whose yellowing parchment and fading, almost illegible lines I saw in the past week in the National Archives in Washington is still a revolutionary document. To read it today is to hear a trumpet call.
“For that Declaration unleashed not merely a revolution against the British, but a revolution in human affairs. Its authors were highly conscious of its worldwide implications. And George Washington declared that liberty and self-government everywhere were, in his words, “finally staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.”
“This prophecy has been borne out. For 186 years this doctrine of national independence has shaken the globe, and it remains the most powerful force anywhere in the world today.
“There are those struggling to eke out a bare existence in a barren land who have never heard of free enterprise, but who cherish the idea of independence.
“There are those who are grappling with overpowering problems of illiteracy and ill-health and who are ill-equipped to hold free elections. But they are determined to hold fast to their national independence. Even those unwilling or unable to take part in any struggle between East and West are strongly on the side of their own national independence.
“If there is a single issue that divides the world today, it is independence–the independence of Berlin or Laos or Viet-Nam; the longing for independence behind the Iron Curtain; the peaceful transition to independence in those newly emerging areas whose troubles some hope to exploit.
“The theory of independence is as old as man himself, and it was not invented in this hall. But it was in this hall that the theory became a practice; that the word went out to all, in Thomas Jefferson’s phrase, that “the God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time.” And today this Nation–conceived in revolution, nurtured in liberty, maturing in independence–has no intention of abdicating its leadership in that worldwide movement for independence to any nation or society committed to systematic human oppression.
“On Washington’s birthday in 1861, standing right there, President-elect Abraham Lincoln spoke in this hall on his way to the Nation’s Capital. And he paid a brief but eloquent tribute to the men who wrote, who fought for, and who died for the Declaration of Independence. Its essence, he said, was its promise not only of liberty “to the people of this country but hope to the world . . . (hope) that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance.”
Included in the audience were members of the 54th National Governors’ Conference.
The above is excerpted from the speech retained by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, Mass.
First Fourth of July
Celebrated at the President’s House
Although John Adams was the first president to occupy the executive mansion, it was Thomas Jefferson who established the traditions of a July 4th celebration at the White House or President’s House as it was called in his time. Jefferson opened the house and greeted the people along with diplomats, civil and military officers, and Cherokee chiefs in the center of the oval saloon under Gilbert Stuart’s famous portrait of George Washington. Jefferson also added music to the celebration. The Marine Band, already “The President’s Own,” played in the Entrance Hall performing “The President’s March” and other “patriotic airs.”
The north grounds of the President’s Park—the “common”—came alive at daybreak with the raising of tents and booths, soon followed by crowds of people. A festival took place just for the day. Food and drink and cottage goods of all types were sold. There were horse races and cockfights and parades of the Washington Militia and other military companies. A bare headed Jefferson with his “grey locks waving in the air” watched from the steps of the White House. Then he invited everyone in to partake of his hospitality and his thanksgiving for the preservation of independence.
The above is from the White House Historical Society.
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