Do We Still Have the Spirit of 1776?

Tomorrow we celebrate our nation's 250th birthday. But the passing of the Declaration of Independence was the culmination of a rather lengthy process. It wasn't a rash, hastily done act of impulsive rabblerousers or "influencers." It was the result of years of oppression and wrongs inflicted by the people's own government across the ocean and their deliberative reaction and response to it.

There were the numerous instances of "taxation without representation": the Stamp Act (1765), the Townshend Acts (1767), and the now-famous Tea Tax (1773). There were the so-called Intolerable Acts (1774). The Crown also threatened to take away the colonists' arms and sought to limit their assemblies. Finally, the colonists' delegates got together in the First and Second Continental Congresses to determine a mutual response aimed at a permanent resolution of the ongoing problems, ensuring their freedom.

Richard Henry Lee

On June 7, 1776, Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee introduced in Congress a three-part resolution that declared his and many Virginians' personal opinion as to what they considered the colonies' only viable solution. Lee's resolutions proposed that Congress take three distinct actions.

It first resolved "that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved."

The second action suggested "that it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances."

Finally, it proposed "that a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective Colonies for their consideration and approbation."

It's important to note that in these "Lee Resolutions," as they were known, each of the colonies was considered to be a separate State; the thirteen colonies were individual nations, not a single national entity. Even after independence was won and continuing until after the War Between the States, the states were considered to be independent nations united only for limited purposes. Moreover, they had entered into and were acting within that union with other states as sovereign nations. The union was referred to as a plural entity: the United States are, not the United States is. As such, they were free to continue in or withdraw from that union as they had entered it.

But getting back to the Lee Resolutions, on June 10, Congress referred them to a committee of five delegates. Their task was to draft a single document declaring the colonies' independence. Once the draft was completed, the whole Congress would debate and vote on it.

The members named to that committee were all eminent men.

Roger Sherman of Connecticut was the son of a small farmer and cobbler. He learned those trades from his father, but he became a surveyor, publisher of almanacs, and a small general store owner before entering the legal profession. That led to his political career, which resulted in his being sequentially a selectman, justice of the peace, member of the state's General Assembly, superior court judge, and delegate to both the First and the Second Continental Congresses.

Robert Livingston of New York was the youngest member of the committee at 29. Following his graduation from King's College (now Columbia), he was admitted to the bar. He was city recorder for the City of New York and a delegate to the Second Continental Congress.

John Adams of Massachusetts and the other two members of the committee are more familiar to us (unless some of the younger readers are products of our public school systems). Adams graduated from Harvard and taught school for a while before pursuing a career in law. He built his reputation for fairness by defending the British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre. However, he was a vocal critic of the Crown's treatment of the colonies and was elected a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses.

The oldest member of the committee, indeed the oldest delegate in Congress, was Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania at age 70. He was the proverbial jack of all trades: printer, newspaper publisher, almanac author, scientist, inventor, and community leader. He was chosen to be the colonists' diplomat to London during the days leading up to the Revolution. And he was a delegate to the Second Continental Congress.

Finally, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia represented the Southern colonies on the committee. He, too, was a multitalented man: lawyer, farmer, scientist, and writer. He graduated from William and Mary and was admitted to the bar. He was elected to the House of Burgesses, helped found the Virginia Committee of Correspondence, and was a delegate to the Second Constitutional Congress.

Currier & Ives depiction of the Committee of Five

The committee members decided that John Adams should write the draft Declaration of Independence, but he declined, saying that Jefferson had a better way with words. So Jefferson became known as the author of the document. The other members made negligible contributions to it.

The three most prominent members of the Declaration Committee: Franklin, Adams, and Jefferson

The committee's work completed, the men submitted the result to the whole Congress, and the delegates voted on it on July 2. It passed and was formally adopted on July 4. Although many of the delegates signed the document on that day, others signed it over the next several months. Some signers had not even been present to vote on it.

Although the Declaration's passage by Congress is considered to be the nation's birthday, what was declared then had to be won. Between July 1776 and 1783, when the Treaty of Paris ended the American Revolution, independence hung in the balance and had to be earned through intense warfare and personal sacrifices.

The signers of the Declaration knew that achieving independence wouldn't be easy. They knew it would come only at the price of sacrifice. But they were willing to pay that price for freedom and independence, and they swore themselves to do so, declaring in the closing lines of the Declaration, "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."

In the ensuing 250 years, countless others have sacrificed to preserve that independence and ensure our freedoms. Thousands have died and thousands more have given parts of their bodies, and some even their minds, to that cause. And we today are the beneficiaries of their cumulative sacrifices.

Are we living worthy of such a heritage? Will we have the courage to preserve what they have given us? Would we have the determination to sacrifice our own lives, fortunes, and sacred honor that our descendants might enjoy the same freedoms? Do we still have the spirit and spunk that animated our Founders, the "Spirit of '76"?

Time will tell.