Today is July 4th 2017 celebrating July 4th 1776
241 years ago The Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at the Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall) in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain, regarded themselves as thirteen newly independent sovereign states, and no longer under British rule. Instead they formed a new nation—the United States of America.
John Adams was a leader in pushing for independence, which was passed on July 2 with no opposing vote cast. A committee of five had already drafted the formal declaration, to be ready when Congress voted on independence.

John Adams persuaded the committee to select Thomas Jefferson to compose the original draft of the document, which Congress would edit to produce the final version. The Declaration was ultimately a formal explanation of why Congress had voted on July 2 to declare independence from Great Britain, more than a year after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. The next day, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail: “The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America.”
But Independence Day is actually celebrated on July 4, the date that the Declaration of Independence was approved.

Of the 56 signatories, 31 were relatives of mine.
From 2nd cousin 9 times removed Ben Franklin to Carter Braxton 14th once removed.
John Adams 3rd cousin 8 times removed.
Thomas Jefferson was an 8th cousin 7 times removed.
That’s some interesting informoation.

Why is this document important?
Abraham Lincoln said of it:
“”Let us revere the Declaration of Independence.” “Let us readopt the Declaration of Independence, and with it the practices and policy which harmonize with it.”
“I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence. …… It was not the mere matter of the separation of the Colonies from the motherland; but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but, I hope, to the world, for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weight would be lifted from the shoulders of all men. This is a sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence.”
He called our country based on these principles “the last best hope of earth.”

Alan Keyes started an organization called the Declaration Fountain to renew those principles.
“The Declaration Foundation has as its aim the restoration of that which is the foundation of the common ground which binds us all, whatever our backgrounds as Americans.”
“I think if we don’t soon recover the understanding they had at the beginning, then we shall continue down the road of a debased and dejected freedom that will in the end become such a burden to us, such a violation of our dignity, that we shall gladly give it up.”
“We want to restore to this country that understanding of law which is the ground for our claim of freedom. And in education, and in law, and in public policy, we want to begin to inspire people once again to have the boldness of their declaration convictions.”
(http://www.faithandfreedomfoundation.com/articles/keyes-principles-reborn.php)

So today instead of just wasting huge amounts of money on fireworks, perhaps it would be well to consider the document and the principles embodied in it.

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