An old-fashioned 4th of July celebration “on the bay” was held at Harbor Park, with moving speeches and song.
It’s been 233 years since a shy and reserved Virginian by the name of Thomas Jefferson was appointed by Congressional committee to draft the Declaration of Independence.
Thedate was June 23, 1779. Four others, including John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, reviewed and amended Jefferson’s original draft, and on July 4, 1779, the full Congress approved this country’s Declaration of Independence from the oppressive acts of Great Britain.
In declaring their independence, the emerging country shook the centers of monarchy to their bases with the proposition that the powers of government were derived from the people and should be employed for the benefit of the people.
However much our forefathers might have differed in other affairs, they were all agreed that they would not tolerate any invasion of their rights of person or property. In their case, division was destruction. Unison alone could preserve them.
Our forefathers had come to the point in their history where they realized the British crown had left them no choice. They needed to raise the vision of a better future so compelling that in its name men would sacrifice even life itself.
The agonizing struggle to birth a new nation would continue for the next seven years, until on September 3, 1783, the Treaty of Paris brought the Revolutionary War to an end. Somehow, as the world looked on, a collection of colonies on the edge of wilderness had defeated the most powerful nation on earth.
Representatives of each of the colonies exhibited not only wisdom but a certain sense of nobility in their willingness to work together despite differences. “United we stand, divided we fall,” penned patriot John Dickson.
Our Constitution illustrates the wisdom, the patriotism, and the unselfish motives that controlled the men who entrusted it to us.
Hear the words of John Adams after the signing of the document: “When we are in our graves, our children will honor it. They will celebrate it with thanksgiving, with festivity, with bonfires, and illuminations. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it; and I leave off as I began, that, live or die, survive or perish, I am for the Declaration. It is my living sentiment, and, by the blessing of God, it shall be my dying sentiment: independence now, and INDEPENDENCE FOR EVER.”
Ours is an honorable heritage. To learn how our forefathers secured it for us is also to learn how we and our children can preserve it. It was not gained without significant sacrifice; it cannot be preserved without watchful care and similar sacrifice.
If I read the lesson of these men’s lives correctly, they were true patriots: they were men who lived by principle. It was adherence to principle that made their efforts successful.
American writer George William Curtis, speaking in the late 1800s, observed, “A man’s country is not a certain area of land — of mountains, rivers, and woods — but it is principle; and patriotism is loyalty to that principle.”
You cannot take out of the story of America these names. You cannot take out of the story of America their achievements. You cannot take out of the story of America their record.
I believe it is in recalling the past that we best see our way into an uncertain future. It is in remembering what happened and why it happened that we rediscover the guiding principles by which our lives should be governed.
Let our children be taught the lesson of a brave and earnest loyalty to these United States and to each other. Let strife and rivalry exist only in enterprises for the public good.
Willingly accept the responsibility, as a true patriot, to help ensure that America’s ideals are strengthened, knowing that they have been entrusted to you for the generations to come.
Then, in the years that follow, when we celebrate our country’s freedom, and our children come together as we do now to take counsel from the lives of our forefathers, may they renew their pledge of allegiance for the preservation of our great country and the ideals upon which it was founded.
May God continue to bless America!
Editor’s note: This article was excerpted from a speech given by Garry Gamble at an Independence Day program in Harbor Park the evening of July 4, 2009.
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