America's Natal Day

The Declaration of Independence: The Vision of a Free Society from the Jack Miller Center

 "The United States is the only country with a known birthday. All the rest began, they know not when, and grew into power, they know not how. If there had been no Independence Day, England and America combined would not be so great as each actually is. There is no "Republican," no "Democrat," on the Fourth of July, - all are Americans. All feel that their country is greater than party." James Gillespie Blaine

Our National Anniversary

OUR NATIONAL ANNIVERSARY BY A. H. RICE

       We celebrate to-day no idle tradition - the deeds of no fabulous race; for we tread in the scarcely obliterated footsteps of an earnest and valiant generation of men, who dared to stake life, and fortune, and sacred honor, upon a declaration of rights, whose promulgation shook tyrants on their thrones, gave hope to fainting freedom, and reformed the political ethics of the world.
       The greatest heroes of former days have sought renown in schemes of conquest, based on the love of dominion or the thirst for war; and such had been the worship of power in the minds of men, that adulation had ever followed in the wake of victory. How daring then the trial of an issue between a handful of oppressed and outlawed colonists, basing their cause, under God, upon an appeal to the justice of mankind and their own few valiant arms. And how immeasurably great was he, the fearless commander, who, after the fortunes and triumph of battle were over, scorned the thought of a regal throne in the hearts of his countrymen. Amidst the rejoicings of this day, let us mingle something of ' gratitude with our joy - something of reverence with our gratitude - and something of duty with our reverence.
       Let us cultivate personal independence in the spirit of loyalty to the State, and may God grant that we may always be able to maintain the sovereignty of the State in the spirit of integrity to the Union.
       Whatever shall be the fate of other governments, ours thus sustained, shall stand forever. As has been elsewhere said, nation after nation may rise and fall, kingdoms and empires crumble into ruin, but our own native land, gathering energy and strength from the lapse of time, shall go on and still go on its destined way to greatness and renown. And when thrones shall crumble into dust, when scepters and diadems shall have been forgotten, till heaven's last thunder shall shake the world below, the flag of the Republic shall still wave on, and its Stars, its Stripes, and its Eagle, shall still float in pride, and strength, and glory. 

"Whilst the earth bears a plant.
Or the sea rolls a wave."

Address of John Lathrop, 1796

"Let Independence be our boast,
Ever mindful what it cost."

ADDRESS OF JOHN LATHROP (JULY 4 , 1796, Boston.)

       In the war for independence America had but one object in view, for in independence are concentrated and condensed every blessing that makes life desirable, every right and privilege which can tend to the happiness, or secure the native dignity, of man. In the attainment of independence were all their passions, their desires, and their powers engaged. The intrepidity and magnanimity of their armies, the wisdom and inflexible firmness of their Congress, the ardency of their patriotism, their unrepining patience when assailed by dangers and perplexed with aggravated misfortune, have long and deservedly employed the pen of panegyric and the tongue of oratory.
       Through the whole Revolutionary conflict a consistency and systematic regularity were preserved, equally honorable as extraordinary. The unity of design and classically correct arrangement of the series of incidents which completed the epic story of American independence, were so wonderful, so well wrought, that political Hypercriticism was abashed at the mighty production, and forced to join her sister, Envy, in applauding the glorious composition.
        On the last page of Fatehs eventful volume, with the raptured ken of prophecy, I behold Columbia's name recorded, her future honors and happiness inscribed. In the same important book, the approaching end of tyranny and the triumph of right and justice are written, in indelible characters. The struggle will soon be over; the tottering thrones of despots will quickly fall, and bury their proud incumbents in their massy ruins. Extract.

• Who Was John Lathrop?
• American Antiquarian Society

Address of John Quincy Adams, 1793

Old Glory in the Sky.

ADDRESS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS (July 4, I793, Boston.)

       Americans! let us pause for a moment to consider the situation of our country at that eventful day when our national existence commenced. In the full possession and enjoyment of all those prerogatives for which you then dared to adventure upon ''all the varieties of untried being," the calm and settled moderation of the mind is scarcely competent to conceive the tone of heroism to which the souls of free-men were exalted in that hour of perilous magnanimity.
       Seventeen times has the sun, in the progress of his annual revolution, diffused his prolific radiance over the plains of independent America. Millions of hearts, which then palpitated with the rapturous glow of patriotism, have already been translated to brighter worlds; to the abodes of more than mortal freedom.
       Other millions have arisen, to receive from their parents and benefactors an inestimable recompense of their achievements.
       A large proportion of the audience, whose benevolence is at this moment listening to the speaker of the day, like him, were at that period too little advanced beyond the threshold of life to partake of the divine enthusiasm which inspired the American bosom: which prompted her voice to proclaim defiance to the thunders of Britain; which consecrated the banners of her armies ; and finally erected the holy temple of American Liberty over the tomb of departed tyranny.
       It is from those who have already passed the meridian of life; it is from you, ye venerable assertors of the rights of mankind, that we are to be informed what were the feelings which swayed within your breasts and impelled you to action; when, like the stripling of Israel, with scarcely a weapon to attack, and without a shield for your defense, you met and, undismayed, engaged with the gigantic greatness of the British power.
       Untutored in the disgraceful science of human butchery; destitute of the fatal materials which the ingenuity of man has combined to sharpen the scythe of death; unsupported by the arm of any friendly alliance, and unfortified against the powerful assaults of an unrelenting enemy, you did not hesitate at that moment, when your coasts were infested by a formidable fleet, when your territories were invaded by a numerous and veteran army, to pronounce the sentence of eternal separation from Britain, and to throw the gauntlet at a power, the terror of whose recent triumphs was almost coextensive with the earth.
       The interested and selfish propensities which, in times of prosperous tranquillity, have such powerful dominion over the heart, were all expelled, and in their stead the public virtues, the spirit of personal devotion to the common cause, a contempt of every danger, in comparison with the subserviency of the country, had assumed an unlimited control.
       The passion for the public had absorbed all the rest, as the glorious luminary of heaven extinguishes, in a flood of refulgence, the twinkling splendor of every inferior planet. Those of you, my countrymen, who were actors in those interesting scenes will best know how feeble and impotent is the language of this description, to express the impassioned emotions of the soul with which you were then agitated.
       Yet it were injustice to conclude from thence, or from the greater prevalence of private and personal motives in these days of calm serenity, that your sons have degenerated from the virtues of their fathers. Let it rather be a subject of pleasing reflection to you than the generous and disinterested energies which you were summoned to display, are permitted, by the bountiful indulgence of heaven, to remain latent in the bosoms of your children.
       From the present prosperous appearance of our public affairs, we may admit a rational hope that our country will have no occasion to require of us those extraordinary and heroic exertions, which it was your fortune to exhibit.
       But from the common versatility of all human destiny, should the prospect hereafter darken, and the clouds of public misfortune thicken to a tempest; should the voice of our country's calamity ever call us to her relief, we swear, by the precious memory of the sages who toiled and of the heroes who bled in her defense, that we will prove ourselves not unworthy of the prize which they so dearly purchased; that we will act as the faithful disciples of those who so magnanimously taught us the instructive lesson of republican virtue.

Address of Joel Barlow, 1787

Glorious Fourth postcard

 ADDRESS OF JOEL BARLOW (July 4, I787, Hartford, Conn.)

       On the anniversary of so great an event as the birth of the empire in which we live, none will question the propriety of passing a few moments in contemplating the various objects suggested to the mind by the important occasion ; and while the nourishment, the growth, and even the existence of our empire depend upon the united efforts of an extensive and divided people, the duties of this day ascend from amusement and congratulation to a serious patriotic employment.
        We are assembled, not to boast, but to realize, not to inflate our national vanity by a pompous relation of past achievements in the council or the field, but, from a modest retrospect of the truly dignified part already acted by our countrymen, from an accurate view of our present situation, and from an anticipation of the scenes that remain to be unfolded, to discern and familiarize the duties that still await us as citizens, as soldiers, and as men.
       Revolutions in other countries have been affected by accident. The faculties of human reason and the rights of human nature have been the sport of chance and the prey of ambition. When indignation has burst the bands of slavery, to the destruction of one tyrant, it was only to impose the manacles of another. This arose from the imperfection of that early stage of society, the foundations of empires being laid in ignorance, with a total inability of foreseeing the improvements of civilization, or of adapting government to a state of social refinement. On the western continent a new task, totally unknown to the legislators of other nations, was imposed upon the fathers of the American empire. Here was a people, lords of the soil on which they trod, commanding a prodigious length of coast, and an equal breadth of frontier, a people habituated to liberty, professing a mild and benevolent religion, and highly advanced in science and civilization. To conduct such a people in a revolution, the address must be made to reason, as well as the passions.
       In what other age or nation has a people, at ease upon their own farms, secure and distant from the approach of fleets and armies, tide-waiters and stamp-masters, reasoned, before they had felt, and, from the dictates of duty and conscience, encountered dangers, distress, and poverty, for the sake of securing to posterity a government of independence and peace? Here was no Cromwell to inflame the people with bigotry and zeal; no Caesar to reward his followers with the spoils of vanquished foes; and no territory to be acquired by conquest. Ambition, superstition, and avarice, those universal torches of war, never illumined an American field of battle. But the permanent principles of sober policy spread through the colonies, roused the people to assert their rights, and conducted the revolution. Those principles were noble, as they were new and unprecedented in the history of human nations. The majority of a great people, on a subject which they understand, will never act wrong.
       Our duty calls us to act worthy of the age and the country that gave us birth. Every possible encouragement for great and generous exertions is presented before us. The natural resources are inconceivably various and great The enterprising genius of the people promises a most rapid improvement in all the arts that embellish human nature. The blessings of a rational government will invite emigrations from the rest of the world and fill the empire with the worthiest and happiest of mankind; while the example of political wisdom and sagacity, here to be displayed, will excite emulation through the kingdoms of the earth, and meliorate the condition of the human race.

• Who was Joel Barlow?
• The Vision of Columbus (pdf.)

England And The Fourth of July

 ENGLAND AND THE FOURTH OF JULY
BY W, T. STEAD
(From The Independent.)

       I wish with all my heart that we could adopt the Fourth of July as the Festival Day of the whole  English-speaking race. If this suggestion should seem strange to Americans, it is not unfamiliar to many  Englishmen. We consider that the triumph of the American revolt against George III was a vindication of the essentially English idea of democratic self-government, and we believe that we have benefited by it almost as much as the Americans. It taught us a lesson which made the British Colonial Empire a possibility, and if we are now involved in a suicidal war in South Africa, it is largely because our Government has forgotten the principles of George Washington, and has gone back to the principles of George III.
       For some years past I have presided at a distinctly British celebration of the Fourth of July at my brother's settlement in Southeast London, at Browning Hall, and I have always repudiated the idea that Americans should be allowed to monopolize the Fourth of July. It is one of the great days of the English-speaking race in the celebration of which all members of the English-speaking nations should participate.

The 4th of July or Independence Day Index

A young American from the turn
of the 20th Century.

       Independence Day is the national holiday most dear to the hearts of the American people. It commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, July 4th, 1776. On the fourth of each July this great event is celebrated throughout the Union with patriotic exercises of varied nature and noisy demonstrations, in which firecrackers and other explosives have a prominent part.

• Search the Index for President's Day Artifacts
• 4rth of July Coloring Pages at Crayon Palace: American Patriot Coloring Pages

The Celebration of American Independence:

1. The Great American Holiday
2. The Nation's Birthday by Mary E. Vandyne  
3. How The Fourth of July Should Be Celebrated by Julia Ward Howe 

The Spirit and Significance of July 4th:

1. England and America by James Bryce 
2. The Birthday of the Nation by Daniel Webster
3. The Fourth of July by Charles Leonard Moore
4. Lift Up Your Hearts
5. England and the Fourth of July by W. T. Stead 
6. Address of Joel Barlow, 1787
   
7. Address of John Quincy Adams, 1793
8. Address of John Lathrop, 1796, Extract
   
9. The Fourth of July by Charles Sprague
10. Our National Anniversary by H. Rice
11. America's Natal Day by James Gillespie Blaine
12. Crises of Nations by Dr. Foss
13. The Fourth of July in Westminster Abbey by Phillips Brooks
14. Patriot Sons by Samuel F. Smith 
15. The Flag Day Poem by Lydia Coonley Ward
    

Before The Dawn of Independence:

1. America Resents British Dictation by Henry B. Carrington
2. Speech of James Otis 
3. Independence a Solemn Duty 
4. An Appeal for America by William Pitt 
5. Conciliation or War
6. "War is Actually Begun" by Patrick Henry 
7. Emancipation from British Dependence by Philip Freneau 
8. True Heroism 
   

The Declaration of Independence:

1. The Origin of the Declaration by Sydney George Fisher 
2. The Declaration of Independence by John D. Long
3. The Signing of the Declaration by George Lippard 
4. Supposed Speech of John Adams by Daniel Webster 
5. The Liberty Bell by J T. Headley
6. Independence Bell, Philadelphia
7. The Declaration of Independence
8. Independence Explained by Samuel Adams
9. The Dignity of Our Nation's Founders by William T, Evarts
10. The Character of the Declaration of Independence by George Bancroft 
11. The Declaration of Independence by Henry T. Randall 
12. The Declaration of Independence by John Quincy Adams 
13. The Declaration of Independence by Tudor Jenks 
14. The Declaration of Independence in the Light of Modern Criticism by Moses Coit Tyler

The Struggle for Independence:

1. The Principles of the Revolution
2. The Song of the Cannon by Sam Walter Foss
3. Paul Revere's Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 
4. Concord Hymn by Ralph Waldo Emerson
5. A Song for Lexington by Robert Kelly Weeks 
6. The Revolutionary Alarm by George Bancroft 
7. The Volunteer by Eldridge Jefferson Cutler 
8. Ticonderoga by V, B. Wilson 
9. Warren's Address by John Pierpont 
10. "The Lonely Bugle Grieves" by Grenville Mellen
11. The Battle of Bunker Hill
12. The Maryland Battalion by John Williamson Palmer
13. The Battle of Trenton
14. Columbia  by Timothy Dwight
15. The Fighting Parson by Henry Ames Blood 
16. The Saratoga Lesson by George William Curtis 
17. The Surrender of Burgoyne by James Watts De Peyster 
18. The Saratoga Monument Begun by Horatio Seymour 
19. Molly Maguire at Monmouth by William Collins 
20. The South in the Revolution by Robert Young Hayne 
21. The Song of Marion's Men by William Cullen Bryant 
22. Our Country Saved by James Russell Lowell 
23. New England and Virginia by Robert Charles Winthrop

Sweet Land of Liberty:

1. America by S, F. Smith
2. The Republic by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
3. The Antiquity of Freedom by William Cullen Bryant
4. America by William Cullen Bryant
5. Ode by Ralph Waldo Emerson
6. America First 
7. Liberty for All by William Lloyd Garrison 
8. Hymn
9. The Dawning Future by William Preston Johnson
10. Liberty
11. Freedom
12. A Rhapsody by Cassius Marcellus Clay
13. Columbia by Frederick Lawrence Knowles 
14. A Renaissance of Patriotism by George I, Manson
15. Centennial Poems by John Greenleaf Whittier
16. Welcome to the Nation by Oliver Wendell Holmes 
17. Liberty's Latest Daughter by Bayard Tayhir
18. "Scum of the Earth" by Robert Haven Schauffler
19. Liberty and Union One and Inseparable by Daniel Webster
20. Address to Liberty by William Cowper 
21. The Torch of Liberty by Thomas Moore 
22. Horologue of Liberty 
23. The American Republic by George Bancroft 
24. A New National Hymn by Francis Marion Crawford  
25. "Dear Old Uncle Sam"  
26. Under The Washington Elm, Cambridge

Fictional Stories:

• Jim's Aunt Frances by Bent Dillingham

The New Fourth of July:

1. Our Barbarous Fourth by Mrs, Isaac L. Rice
2. A Safe and Sane Fourth of July by Henry Litchdeld West 
3. The New Independence Day by Henry B. F. MacFarland and Richard B. Waltrous
4. New Fourths for Old by Mrs. Isaac L. Rice
5. Americanizing the Fourth by Robert Haven Schauffler 
6. The Fourth of July by Aunt Fanny 
7. His Wish
   
8. The Feathered Patriot

Patriotic Puzzles for Kids:

• Find Columbia Puzzle