We were standing outside a pub on a famous golf course in Saint Andrews, Scotland. The discomfort of a misty rain was compounded by a steady breeze from a large body of water aptly named the North Sea. My wife Carla and I were prepared. We wore gloves, sweaters and hooded parkas. We were also armed with the knowledge that our bodies had been trained by Darwinian evolution to shiver in cold weather, thereby generating energy and heat that warmed us up. In other words, we were miserable.
It was Independence Day, the Fourth of July. We were naively surprised to learn that this day is not a public holiday in the British Isles. This was encouraging, as it meant that the pub would soon be open and our torment would be interrupted by the warmth of a small stove and the pleasure of hot tea as we silently thanked God for the land of our birth.
The Fourth of July is a wonderful and uniquely American holiday. We celebrate it with family trips and gatherings, hot dogs and hamburgers. Fireworks remind us of the red glow of rockets and a flag that still flies.
The Revolutionary War had been going on for over a year before 56 successful and brave men signed the Declaration of Independence on behalf of the Second Continental Congress. In doing so, they put their individual liberty, property, and lives at risk. As British citizens, this was an act of treason. Benjamin Franklin is said to have said, “Gentlemen, we hang together or we hang separately.” Many would see their property plundered by the Redcoats or the Loyalists. For some, their families were banished; their lives were turned upside down. But a nation was born, the greatest nation on earth, then and now.
Five men were ordered to write a statement explaining why the 13 colonies were demanding freedom and how the English king and his parliament had treated them unfairly. John Adams And Thomas Jefferson were among the five that Jefferson did the actual writing for. Both men initially wanted to include statements opposing slavery. Unlike revisionist historians, many of the Founding Fathers found slavery abhorrent. Jefferson, Adams, and others initially declared that all men, regardless of race, were created equal. But the body responsible for drafting and adopting the Declaration of Independence was the Second Continental Congress, a political body. To ensure consensus, the issue of slavery had to wait for another place and another time.
The flamboyant John Hancock, as chairman of the congressional body, was the first to sign the document. He said he wrote in letters large enough for King George III to read his name without glasses. On the day of the ratification, only Hancock and the secretary of the congress, Charles Thomas, signed their names. Most of the other signatures were added a few weeks later, on August 2. Others who ratified it on July 4, 1776, continued to add their names for up to a year.
Although it was adopted and signed by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia in what is now Independence Hall, the original document is on permanent display at the National Archives Museum in Washington, D.C. Everyone who can should travel there to see it. If you make the trip in July, you’re unlikely to need gloves or parkas. You can stand in a beautiful rotunda and read the most powerful words ever written: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
To live freely is to enjoy a life of opportunity. To live in a country where equality is guaranteed and celebrated guarantees the freedom of choice to do what we believe is in our best interest and the best interest of those we love. Equality does not guarantee fairness. Innate ability, hard work, self-denial, ethical and moral behavior, and more drive performance. Governments cannot and should not seek to demand equal outcomes. But it is only governments, secured and sanctioned by the people they govern, that can protect life, affirm equality, and enable the pursuit of happiness for all.
In the words of Lee Greenwood, “It’s good to be an American, where at least I know I’m free.” Happy Independence Day!
(To learn more about the signers of the Declaration of Independence, read “Signers of the Declaration” by Robert G. Ferris.)
Michael K. McMahan is a resident of Gastonia.
This article originally appeared in The Gaston Gazette: YOUR TURN: Celebrating America’s Independence Every Day
