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Declaration Factoids
A few factoids to wrap up our Independence Day celebrations
1. The resolution on Independence was actually passed on the 2nd
2. The first public reading was on the 6th.
3. John Hancock, the first to sign, did so on August 2nd and nobody but the Congressional secretary was there to see it
4. The last signature didn’t happen until as late as 1781.
So really we can keep celebrating for another month…………..
2 Responses to “Declaration Factoids”
I spent a good part of the 4th watching the History International’s “The Revolution.” While it was a very good documentary detailing much of the blow by blow account of the war, one of the really important undercurrent themes that came to me was the fact this new form of government was written for and by elites. The Continental Army was commanded by well to do farmers, planters, and slave owners, and Jefferson himself had great ambivalence with the “all men created equal” concept and the slave, “non-persons” later ensconced with the Constitution.
The divide between ordinary soldier and the elitist officer core was never more obvious than the fact that officers had better housing, rations, and equipment. Valley Forge for everyday soldiers was a much different experience for them than it was for their leaders. This class-ism was directed derived from the culture of their British counterparts. The entire Republican form of government was largely designed to keep the will of the people safely removed from direct action. I know the argument against true democracy, but this is document was more about economics that freedom. The fact that both Jefferson and Adams were in Europe when the Constitution was written may have been the most unfortunate aspect of the Constitution’s birth.
Washington as President faced his first real challenge with Shay’s Rebellion as returning veteran soldiers lost their farm land to taxes that a post war economy could not generate. Forbearance was not an option, and meanwhile, the big discussion among the serious men running government was did the US have to pay back its war debt. Funny how things have not really changed that much.
Dave H.: Next, you may discover (or have it mean more to you than before) that there were property qualifications for the suffrage, that of course only was given to sufficiently prosperous white men. It’s the radical Left’s dream state. (Many such people haven’t awakened)
If you really did find it moving, the “economic” aspect to the Revolution, you might want to read someday “An Economic Interpretation of the United States,” by Charles A. Beard, and perhaps review some of his other works.
(Of course, you may have already done this and thus were especially attuned to the economic “angle” when watching “The Revolution,” which could well have been engineered with this kind of “economic, elites” view in mind from the start.)
As an additional Extra for Experts note, the economic “angle” was the subject of commentary and ["]analysis["][?] by New Deal major architect Rex Tugwell (who grew up with capital-P Progressive conditioning or political-environmental influence, which wouldn’t be surprising given the temporal context), who even viewed the constitutional federal system as well as the Constitution cynically, saying that in every way, the elites in the former colonies wanted to get what they wanted, “– and at cut rates.”