Independence Day and the American Revolution

Posted on July 3, 2020

Facebooktwittermail

Independence Day offers an opportunity to reflect on the American Revolution and the difficult struggle to secure the blessings of liberty.  This national holiday commemorates when the Thirteen Colonies, after a year of undeclared war, resolved to become independent from Britain and approved the final text of the Declaration of Independence two days later – on July 4th.

Since the beginning, Connecticut played an outsized role in creating our country, with four signatories to the Declaration: Rodger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, and Oliver Wolcott – a native son of Windsor.

In that Declaration, our Founders did something truly extraordinary. They threw off British rule, rejected monarchy and despotism and most notably wrote, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” With these words they created an exceptional new country – not perfect – but exceptional in that our new country would be based on individual liberties, not hereditary rights of kings that defined countries in the old world.

The Declaration was just the beginning. The war with Britain was long and difficult, and success was not guaranteed even after America won. The new country had to create a system of self-government that reflected the ideals set forth in the Declaration.  Once again leaders from our state would play an important role – with Rodger Sherman, William Samuel Johnson, and Windsor’s own Oliver Ellsworth serving as delegates to the constitutional convention in 1787. One of the great debates of the day involved the structure of the federal government. The “Connecticut Compromise” proposed by our delegates created a House of Representatives based on population, and a Senate with equal representation for all states. This ensured that voices of people in small states would not be drowned out by those in more populous states.

In our Constitution, the framers once again based our government on the rights inherent to “We the People” and outlined for future generations a process to make necessary changes. Since then we have enacted 27 amendments to preserve and protect rights and freedom for more people.

The first ten known as the Bill of Rights outline our basic civil liberties. The 13th, 14th, & 15th amendments abolished slavery, granted citizenship to former slaves and offered equal protection under the law. In 1920 the 19th amendment granted women the right to vote, and in 1964 the 24th amendment prohibited poll taxes and secured voting rights.

Over the many decades since our founding on July 4, 1776, our country has created more hope and opportunity for more people from all corners of the world than any other. Nearly two and half centuries later, it is still a day worth celebrating – we must strive every day to live up to our country’s promises and make real the words of our founding.

I wish you and yours a happy, healthy and safe Independence Day weekend!

X