July 4th: Events and Thoughts

Intending to write a patriotic blog this July 4, I began musing about the American Revolution. I quickly realized how much I had forgotten about the War for Independence so I began listing a few important events:

• 1776: The Colonial population was 2,400,000.  Philadelphia, 30,000; New York, 25,000; Boston, 15,000; Charleston, 12,000; Newport, 11,000.
• March 5, 1770: The "Boston Massacre"became a rallying call when 6 or 7 British soldiers fired into an unruly crowd of 50 jeering Bostonians protesting tariffs and taxes, killing three protestors.
• May 10, 1773: The British Parliament passed the Tea Act allowing the British East India Company to sell a huge tea surplus without paying duty charges. Established tea merchants objected bitterly since the Tea Act allowing the East Indian Company to undersell them.
• December 16, 1773: The Boston Tea Party prevented the East Indian Company's duty-free tea from reaching the Colonial market when 150 men disguised as Mohawk Indians boarded three ships and emptied 342 tea chests into the Boston harbor.
  
• March 31, 1774: In reprisal for the "Tea Party" the British closed to Boston harbor.
• June 2, 1774: A Quartering Act called for billeting troops in private homes.
• March 23, 1775: At Virginia's 2nd Revolutionary Convention Patrick Henry bestirred by peaceful proposals with the British exhorted the delegates to arm the militia concluding with these words: 

Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains. Forbid it, Almighty God. I know not what course others may take but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.

• September 5-October 26, 1774: The 1st Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia.
• April 18, 1775: The midnight ride of Paul Revere commemorated in 1860 by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow became a memory poem for elementary kids sixty years ago: 

Listen, my children, and you shall hear 

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, 

On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five; 

Hardly a man is now alive 

Who remembers that famous day and year....

So through the night rode Paul Revere;

And with the ride his cry of alarm

To every Middlesex village and farm

A cry of defiance, and not of fear

A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,

And a word that shall echo forevermore!

In the hour of darkness and peril and need

The people will waken and listen to hear

The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,

and the midnight message of Paul Revere

• April 19, 1775 : The first shot of the American Revolutionary War, "the shot heard round the world" occurred at the North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts where the first British soldiers fell.  
• June 7, 1775: The date known as Landmark Day when the United Colonies became the United States.
• June 15, 1775: Congress selected George Washington to be military commander in chief.
• June 16, 1775: The Battle of Bunker Hill marked the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Although the colonists lost the battle when they ran out of ammunition the heavy casualties they inflicted gave them confidence that they could win the war. 
  
• January 9, 1776: Thomas Paine published Common Sense setting forth arguments in favor of independence. The pamphlet electrified the American Revolution. 
• June 11, 1776: A 5-man committee consisting of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston were named to produce a Declaration of Independence. Jefferson wrote the first draft. Although the committee later omitted some clauses and Congress made alterations when they vetted the manuscript paragraph by paragraph most of Jefferson's words remained intact.
• July 4, 1776: Congress approved the Declaration of Independence containing these familiar words:
  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. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
• The Declaration of Independence consists of six sections:

1. The introduction asserts the ability of a people to assume political independence that the motivation must be reasonable and ought to be explained.
2. The preamble outlines a general philosophy of government that justifies revolution.
3. The indictment gives a list of the king's "repeated injuries and usurpations" of the Americans' rights and liberties.
4. The denunciation registers the past appeals of the colonies to "our British brethren."
5. The conclusion asserts that the British transgressions have impelled the colonies to become independent states.
6. The fifty-six signatures penned to the Declaration included those of John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress, two future presidents, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin.

• December 25, 1776: Washington ordered a night-time crossing of the icy Delaware River to route the British-hired Hessian troops the following morning at the Battle of Trenton. Emanuel Leutze's oil on canvas of 1851 depicts this crossing.  
  
• June 14, 1777: The Stars and Stripes became the official United States flag.
• October 17, 1777: To the strains of Yankee Doodle British General Burgoyne surrendered to General Gates to end the Battle of Saratoga.
• Winter of 1777-78: The American Continental Army spent the winter at Valley Forge where starvation, disease, malnutrition and exposure killed over 2,500 American soldiers.
• September 23, 1779: John Paul Jones replied "Sir, I have not begun to fight," when Captain Pearson demanded he surrender the sinking Bon Homme Richard. After a 3 hour battle Jones and his intrepid seamen boarded Pearson's ship the Serapis winning the sea battle off Scarborough, England.
• September 26, 1781: Cornwallis surrendered to Washington at Yorktown.
  
• March 4, 1782: The British Parliament called for the end of the war and the recognition of the Colonies' independence. 
•  September 17, 1787: The Constitution of the United States was created. It began:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

• The original seven articles of the Constitution describe the government foundation. 
• The first three articles cover the separation of powers whereby the federal government  is divided into three branches: the legislative consisting of two separate assemblies the House of Representatives and the Senate;  the executive consisting of the President and the judicial consisting of the Supreme Court and other federal courts. 
• Articles Four, Five and Six describe the rights and responsibilities of the states. 
• Article Seven describes the procedure used by the thirteen states to ratify it. 
• The Constitution has been amended twenty-seven times. 
• The first ten amendments, known collectively as the Bill of Rights offer specific protections of individual liberty and justice and place restrictions on the powers of government. 
• The majority of the seventeen later amendments expand individual civil rights protections. 
• Others address issues related to federal authority or modify government processes and procedures. 
  

• June 21, 1788: By a vote of 57 to 47 New Hampshire became the 9th state to ratify the Constitution, the last approval needed to put it into effect. Due to its centralism and emphasis on Federal government over State rights North Carolina and Rhode Island rejected it outright. In a 30-27 vote New York approved the constitution with minimal support. Virginia and Massachusetts approved by slim margins. 
• July 4, 2016: The debate continues. Some like the Federalist Alexander Hamilton believe the larger the central government the better. Some like James Madison favor state and individual power. 

When asked if the Constitution Convention of 1787 had given the people a Republic or a monarchy Benjamin Franklin replied, "A Republic, if you can keep it."

That raises the question: What is the difference between a republic and a democracy? A republic gives sovereignty to each individual. A democracy provides no minority rights. Those who win an election 51% to 49% dominate all decisions.The 49% have no power and no rights. Socrates was executed by a democracy: though he harmed no one, the majority found him intolerable.

Can we keep our Republic? Is our country turning toward a democracy? Do some of the entries above seem similar to some of the events today? Those are questions for each individual. To make correct decisions we must become critical thinkers. To do so requires understanding all points of view. Arguing, name-calling, group-think, criticizing and hating interfere with clear thinking. Respect for the other point of view and for the other person enhances clear thought.