On Independence Day, perhaps consider upon what principles and habits of sociality liberty depends.
Here is food for that contemplation:
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Upon What Does Liberty Rest?
Öküz saraya çıkınca kral olmaz. Ama saray ahır olur.
When an ox enters a palace, it doesn’t become a king but the palace turns into a barn.
Circassian proverb, traditional.
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July Fourth Events
1054 — A supernova was spotted by Chinese, Arab, and possibly Amerindian observers. The celestial event occurred near the star Zeta Tauri, remaining, for several months, bright enough to be seen during the day. Its remnants form the Crab Nebula.
1776 — The Second Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence that had been submitted by committee members Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams, thus formalizing its policy of secession from the empire of the Kingdom of Great Britain.
1803 — The Louisiana Purchase was announced to the American people.
1804 — Nathaniel Hawthorne, American author of The Scarlet Letter, House of Seven Gables, The Blithesdale Romance, and other classics, was born. Hawthorne became part of the Young America literary movement spawned by Loco-Foco political activism in New England.
1826 — Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, died a few hours before John Adams, second president of the United States, on the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the United States’ Declaration of Independence.
1826 — Stephen Foster, composer of “Old Black Joe,” “Beautiful Dreamer,” and many other classic American songs, was born.
1827 — Slavery was abolished in New York State.
1831 — Samuel Francis Smith wrote “My Country, ’Tis of Thee” for Boston’s July 4th festivities, set to the tune of Great Britain’s national anthem, “God Save the King/Queen.”
2009 — The Statue of Liberty’s crown re-opened to the public after eight years of closure that resulted from security concerns following the September 11, 2001, attacks.
I’ve been a U.S. citizen for more than a quarter of the 250 years that there has been a United States.
Proud to be an American? Yes. Not because my country, or more specifically our government, has always been spectacular, or even in the right. I’ve taken a few lumps battling against the government.
More than “proud to be an American,” which was admittedly an accident of birth, I’m proud of America. Even with all its faults, this country has been the greatest force for good, for freedom, for peace, for human dignity in the entire history of the world.
Certainly, I get no personal credit for the revolution. I wasn’t around. I had no hand in writing the Declaration of Independence or the First Amendment. But I can recite parts.
And defend them against modern foes.
No blame goes to me for slavery — or any glory for ending it. Likewise, I didn’t storm the beaches of Normandy or plant the flag at Iwo Jima. I’m honored, however, to know men who did. Without those American kids, Europe and Asia would have been completely conquered by regimes of unspeakable evil.
Those GIs were billionaires . . . saving truly billions of lives, physically and spiritually.
We Americans — and the whole world — owe a grand debt to the ideals of the American Revolution and the blood and courage of Americans of yesteryear. One we can never fully repay.
But we can pay it forward. By fighting to keep the Republic alive and well.
I think we all sense that these current times are those “that try men’s souls.” There are internal forces ripping at the fabric of our culture as well as militarized authoritarian forces on the march abroad.
The first 250 years proved difficult; the next 250 may even be more so. But we say “The United States of America,” not “The United States of Easy.”
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Dr. Edward P. Philpots
Voyager upon life’s sea:—
Dr. Edward P. Philpots, Paddle your own Canoe; written for Harry Clifton; appeared in Harper’s Monthly, May 1854.
To yourself be true,
And whate’er your lot may be,
Paddle your own canoe.
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July Third
On July 3, 1775, George Washington took command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
In 1952 on July 3, Puerto Rico’s Constitution was approved by the Congress of the United States.
The semiquincentennial of the United States could be celebrated today, July 2, 2026.
It was on the Second of July in A.D. 1776 that the Continental Congress decided to remove itself from the sovereignty of the king in Great Britain, George III. The representatives from the breakaway colonies did this in the affirmative with Richard Henry Lee’s “Resolution of Independence.” Congress appointed a “Committee of Five” to draft a Declaration, which was accepted on July Fourth — the day we have come to celebrate Independence Day.
But independence was not mere congressional fiat. It had been brewing in the states; at least six of the colonies’ royal governors had fled or been sent packing in the revolutionary summer of 1775.
In 1775, most colonies possessed
- functioning legislative bodies making domestic policy decisions;
- militias organized without royal direction;
- courts operating with locally appointed judges;
- trade regulation occurred despite Parliamentary acts.
And some colonies even raised taxes and spent money sans royal approval.
By late 1775, several colonies had taken major steps toward self-government. Virginians had created a new form of government, the “constituent convention,” independent of the Crown, in 1774. Colonial New Hampshire became the first to adopt a written constitution. South Carolina had adopted an interim constitution in March 1776. Weeks later, the Halifax Resolves explicitly authorized a vote for independence. On the Fourth of May, Rhode Island publicly rejected the King.
There’s a lesson here. The groundwork was not laid in Congress — much of it conceived and brought to fruition by men and women who are not in the history books.
If we want to Make America Free Again, we have to lay a foundation.
In the states.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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When laws, customs, or institutions cease to be beneficial to man, they cease to be obligatory.
Henry Ward Beecher, Life Thoughts (1858), p. 34.
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Secession & Abolition
On July 2, 1776, the Continental Congress un-tabled the Lee Resolution and voted to sever ties with the Kingdom of Great Britain.
One year later, to the day, Vermont became the first American territory to abolish slavery.
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Unpacking the Court
“Once again, the Supreme Court has shown that it’s not in the tank!” Dan Abrams exuberantly reminded his SiriusXM listeners yesterday.
That is, the same High Court that Democrats have so harshly demonized as in President Trump’s pocket just handed him yet another defeat, striking down his executive order restricting birthright citizenship.
“It’s a very conservative court. I disagree with some of the rulings, I agree with others,” continued Abrams. “That’s not the question. The question is . . . questioning the legitimacy of the court.”
Calling that a “problem,” he added, “that’s what we’ve seen liberals doing again and again and again.”
Even to the point of advocating court-packing, arguing that when Democrats ever win back the White House and Congress, they should add enough new justices to gain an immediate majority. As Sen. Corey Booker (D-NJ) puts it, Democrats are looking “to reform the court and bring it back into alignment.”
If you ask me, a judiciary independent enough to be out of political “alignment” is a good thing. But the number of Supreme Court justices is not constitutionally prescribed; Congress could alter it at any time.
As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the birth of these United States, we should recognize what a gift our justice system is. With all of its flaws, it’s still the envy of the world.
We need a constitutional amendment to set the number of justices. Leaving to Congress the option of remaking the Court every time partisan control changes in Washington is . . . corrupting.
And let’s do that before we edit the 14th Amendment to end birthright citizenship for those entering the country illegally . . . as well as Chinese nationals and others practicing “birthright tourism.”
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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