4TH OF JULY: HAPPY INDEPENDANCE DAY! WHY CELEBRATE?
John Trumbull's painting, Declaration of Independence, depicting the five-man drafting committee of the Declaration of Independence presenting their work to the Congress.
Independence Day, known colloquially as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States which commemorates the ratification of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing the United States of America.
The delegates of the Second Continental Congress, known as the Founding Fathers, proclaimed that the Thirteen Colonies were breaking away from the rule of King George III of Britain, declaring themselves as united, free, and independent states. On July 2, the Congress voted to support independence through the approval of the Lee Resolution, and two days later, on July 4, they formally adopted the Declaration of Independence.
Independence Day is typically linked with fireworks, parades, concerts, baseball games, family gatherings, and ceremonies, along with numerous other public and private activities that honor the history, government, and customs of the United States. Independence Day serves as the national holiday of the United States.
Declaration of Independance
The Declaration of Independence, formally titled The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America in both the engrossed version and the original printing, is the founding document of the United States. On July 4, 1776, it was adopted unanimously by the 56 delegates to the Second Continental Congress, who convened at the Pennsylvania State House, later renamed Independence Hall, in the colonial era capital of Philadelphia.
The Declaration explains to the world why the Thirteen Colonies regarded themselves as independent sovereign states no longer subject to British colonial rule.
The 56 delegates who signed the Declaration of Independence came to be known as the nation's Founding Fathers, and the Declaration has become one of the most circulated, reprinted, and influential documents in world history.
The Founding fathers
Seven individuals are acknowledged as key trailblazers, distinguished by their commitment to what he termed the "triple tests" of leadership, longevity, and statesmanship.
John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before his presidency, he was a leader of the American Revolution that achieved independence from Great Britain. During the latter part of the Revolutionary War and in the early years of the new nation, he served the U.S. government as a senior diplomat in Europe.
Benjamin Franklin FRS (Fellow of the Royal Society) FRSA (The Royal Society of Arts) FRSE (Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh), (January 17, 1706 – April 17, 1790, was an American, one of the foremost polymaths in history. A leading writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher, he was among the most influential intellectuals of his time, and also the first postmaster general.
Franklin became a successful newspaper editor and printer in Philadelphia, the leading city in the colonies, publishing the Pennsylvania Gazette at age 23. He became wealthy publishing this and Poor Richard's Almanack, which he wrote under the pseudonym "Richard Saunders".
John Trumbull's painting, Declaration of Independence, depicting the five-man drafting committee of the Declaration of Independence presenting their work to the Congress.
Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 – July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795 during George Washington's presidency. Born out of wedlock in Charlestown, Nevis, Hamilton was orphaned as a child and taken in by a prosperous merchant. He pursued his education in New York City where, despite his young age, he was a prolific and widely read pamphleteer advocating for the American revolutionary cause, though an anonymous one.
John Jay (December 23, 1745 – May 17, 1829) was an American statesman, diplomat, abolitionist, signatory of the Treaty of Paris, and a Founding Father of the United States. He served from 1789 to 1795 as the first chief justice of the United States and from 1795 to 1801 as the second governor of New York. Jay directed U.S. foreign policy for much of the 1780s and was an important leader of the Federalist Party after the ratification of the United States Constitution in 1788.
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 174 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence. Following the American Revolutionary War and prior to becoming president in 1801, Jefferson was the nation's first U.S. secretary of state under George Washington and then the nation's second vice president under John Adams. Jefferson was a leading proponent of democracy, republicanism, and individual rights, and produced formative documents and decisions at the state, national, and international levels. His writings and advocacy for human rights, including freedom of thought, speech, and religion, served as substantial inspirations to the American Revolution and subsequent Revolutionary War in which the Thirteen Colonies succeeded in breaking from British America and establishing the United States as a sovereign nation.
James Madison (March 16, 1751 – June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father who served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison was popularly acclaimed the "Father of the Constitution" for his pivotal role in drafting and promoting the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights.
Madison was born into a prominent slave-owning planter family in Virginia. He helped organize the Constitutional Convention, which produced a new constitution designed to strengthen republican government against democratic assembly.
George Washington (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799) was an American Founding Father, military officer, and politician who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Second Continental Congress as commander of the Continental Army in 1775, Washington led Patriot forces to victory in the American Revolutionary War and then served as president of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, which drafted the current Constitution of the United States. Washington has thus become commonly known as the "Father of his Country".
The majority of images and artworks were created by Gilbert Stuart, the individual depicted in the final picture. He was an American artist born in the Rhode Island Colony as Stewart on December 3, 1755 – July 9, 1828; widely recognized as one of America's leading portrait painters, his most famous piece is an incomplete portrait of George Washington, initiated in 1796, commonly known as the Athenaeum Portrait.
Women who were instrumental in the Declaration of Independence.
From Left to right: Abigail Adams, Dolley Todd Madison, Mercy Otis Warren
Abigail Adams (born Smith; November 22 1744 – October 28, 1818) was the wife and closest advisor of John Adams, the second president of the United States, and the mother of John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States. She was a founder of the United States, and was both the first second lady and second first lady of the United States, although such titles were not used at the time. She and Barbara Bush are the only two women in American history who were both married to a U.S. president and the mother of a U.S. president.
Dolley Todd Madison (born Payne; May 20, 1768 – July 12, 1849) was the wife of James Madison, the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. She was noted for holding Washington social functions in which she invited members of both political parties, essentially spearheading the concept of bipartisan cooperation.
Madison helped to create the idea that members of each party could amicably socialize, network, and negotiate with each other without violence.
By innovating political institutions as the wife of James Madison, Dolley Madison did much to define the role of the President's spouse, known only much later by the title First Lady—a function she had sometimes performed earlier for the widowed Thomas Jefferson
Mercy Otis Warren (September 25, 1728 – October 19, 1814) was an American activist poet, playwright, and pamphleteer during the American Revolution. During the years before the Revolution, she had published poems and plays that attacked royal authority in Massachusetts and urged colonists to resist British infringements on colonial rights and liberties. She was married to James Warren, who was likewise heavily active in the independence movement.
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Angèle V. ONYIE is a Sr Public Affairs expert and Communications Specialist, as well as an SDGs and International Development Consultant. She is a multi-awarded multilingual Executive Advisor for C-suite with over 25 years of experience. Being nominated as a LinkedIn Top Voice in Public Affairs placed her among the esteemed top 5% of 50,000 public affairs professionals worldwide on the platform. She writes about Public Affairs, Gender Equality, Sustainable Development, UN SDGs, and Leadership, which she teaches at Master's degree Business Schools in France and abroad. Angèle own among others degrees, an MBA in Management & Marketing from Universite Nice Cote d'Azur -UNCA and a MS. in Political Sciences & International Relations.
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