Honoring 250 Years Of America Independence 1776 - 2026 -- The Declaration Of Independence

 

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

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. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The signers of the Declaration of Independence of the original thirteen American States ratified by the Second Continental Congress at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Thursday, July 4, 1776: 

Georgia:  

Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

North Carolina:  

William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn 

South Carolina:  

Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward Jr., Thomas Lynch Jr., Arthur Middleton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock

Maryland: Samual Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll 

Delaware: 

Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

New York:

William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris 

New Jersey:

Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

New Hampshire:  

Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple

Massachusetts:

 Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry 

 Rhode Island: 

Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut: 

Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New Hampshire: 

Matthew Thornton    

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson Jr.,
Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

Pennsylvania:

Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor,
James Wilson, George Ross

Declaration of Independence by American artist John Trumbull. (1826)

From one of the original thirteen independent American States, 
this blogger would like to wish each and every one of my fellow Americans across these United States a very
 Happy Independence Day and Happy 250th Birthday America! 

U.S. Memorial Day Is NOT Just A Three-Day Weekend

Ten U.S. Navy sailors being laid to rest at sea aboard the USS Intrepid (CV-11) following a
Japanese kamikaze attack on October 27, 1944.

Fallen U.S. soldiers from Omaha Beach following the Operation
Overlord (D-Day) June 6, 1944 waiting for burial.

Just remember while y'all are enjoying your day off today that U.S. Memorial Day isn't just about having a three-day weekend, or barbecues and family gatherings, or watching war movies.

Its about the men and women in those graves that fought and paid that ultimate sacrifice so y'all can have the freedom to enjoy those activities, as well as the freedoms and liberties granted to us by God, our U.S. Constitution, and by our Constitutional Republic -- all in that order.

So take time out today to remember and reflect on those lives while you enjoy your grilling and your celebration of the federal holiday honoring their memories.

Remember them. Never forget!

God Bless Y'all and Happy U.S. Memorial Day today!

Honoring Pearl Harbor Day -- Remember December 7th!

 

Today, the United States of America honors National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, marking the anniversary of the attack on the US Naval Station at Pearl Harbor, near Honolulu, Hawaii on Sunday, December 7, 1941 by what was then the Empire of Japan.

This day honors the memories of over those killed and wounded during the attack including: 

2,403 US military personal killed, 1,178 wounded. 

68 Hawaiian and US civilians killed, 35 wounded. 

64 Japanese military personal killed.
 

To honor of the memories of those American military personal who died that day and those veterans who survived the Pacific Theater of World War II (December 1941 - September 1945) this blogger proudly remembers National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.

God Bless America! 

George Washington's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation 1789 -- America's First Thanksgiving Day

The Prayer At Valley Forge by Arnold Friberg (1976).

Exactly 230 years ago today in American history, President George Washington issued the following proclamation on Saturday, October 3, 1789, designating Thursday, November 26th of that year as a national day of thanks. 

In his proclamation, Washington declared that the necessity for such a day sprung from the Almighty’s care of Americans prior to the Revolution, assistance to them in achieving independence, and help in establishing the constitutional government. 

George Washington was the first United States president to issue a Thanksgiving proclamation. This was the first official American Thanksgiving Day as a nation under the US Constitution.

  

Thanksgiving Proclamation
New York, 3 October 1789

By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation.

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor -- and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me "to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness."

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be -- That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks -- for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation—for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war—for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed -- for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted -- for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions -- to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually -- to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed -- to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord -- To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us -- and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.

Go: Washington

Source: Thanksgiving Proclamation, 3 October 1789, Founders Online, National Archives, last modified June 29, 2017.

The Blue And The Gray

The Blue And The Gray

  
Francis Miles Finch (1827-1907)


By the flow of the inland river,
Whence the fleets of iron have fled,
Where the blades of the grave-grass quiver,
Asleep are the ranks of the dead:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day;
Under the one, the Blue,
Under the other, the Gray.

These in the robings of glory,
Those in the gloom of defeat,
All with the battle-blood gory,
In the dusk of eternity meet:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting in judgment-day
Under the laurel, the Blue
Under the willow, the Gray.

From the silence of sorrowful hours
The desolate mourners go,
Lovingly laden with flowers
Alike for the friend and the foe;
Under the sod and the dew.
Waiting the judgment-day;
Under the roses, the Blue,
Under the lilies, the Gray.

So with an equal splendor,
The mourning sun-day fall,
With a touch impartially tender,
On the blossoms blooming for all:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day;
Broidered with gold, the Blue,
Mellowed with gold, the Gray.

So, when the summer calleth,
On forest and field of grain,
With an equal murmur falleth
The cooling drip of the rain:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day,
Wet with the rain, the Blue,
Wet with the rain, the Gray.

Sadly, but not the upbraiding,
The generous deed was done,
In the storm of the years that are fading
No braver battle was won:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day;
Under the blossoms, the Blue,
Under the garlands, the Gray.

No more shall the war cry sever,
Or the winding rivers be red;
They banish out anger forever
When they laurel the graves of our dead!
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day,
Love and tears for the Blue,
Tears and love for the Gray.
   

Hailed as a national classic from the moment of its publication in 1867, this poem is perhaps the most touching and expressive of all the "reconciliation poems" written after the War's end. It was inspired by the following brief news item, which appeared in the New York Tribune: "The women of Columbus, Mississippi, animated by nobler sentiments than many of their sisters, have shown themselves impartial in their offerings made to the memory of the dead. They strewed flowers alike on the graves of the Confederate and of the National soldiers."

 

Francis Miles Finch (1827-1907).

Francis Miles Finch (1827–1907), a judge, law professor, and poet, was deeply moved by the story of the women of Columbus, Mississippi, who in 1866 -- only a year after the end of the War Between The States -- decorated the graves of both Union and Confederate dead. 

In the town of Columbus, Mississippi, a few Union soldiers killed at the battle of Shiloh were buried in the local cemetery along with the much larger number of Confederate soldiers. In 1866, four women from Columbus decorated the Confederates' graves and decided to honor those of the Union soldiers as well. They also sent notes condolence to the northern soldiers' families. Based on this act of commemoration and conciliation, Columbus, Mississippi considers itself as the originator of Memorial Day -- although several other American cities also make that claim as well. 

Seeing the moment as a symbol of reconciliation, Finch composed “The Blue and the Gray” as a commemoration honoring the universality of mourning in the North and South in the years preceding the war's end. through the acknowledgment of mutual sympathies, he epitomized the new national tradition of memorializing our American dead. 
 

Recitals of the poem continued for years to come at Decoration Days -- Later renamed US Memorial Day -- and reunions of the aged Union and Confederate veterans. 

 

Christmas Candlelight Tour At Historic Brattonsville 2016

Greetings and Salutations Y'all!

On Saturday, December 10th, my travels once again took me back to Historic Brattonsville for the annual Christmas Candlelight Tours. This time I traveled with my sister's family -- including my two favorite nephews: Jacob Tyler (J.T.) and Caleab. 

You might remember from last year that I attended the 2015 Christmas Candlelight Tour, the blog post can be seen HERE. 

The annual evening event draws close to 15,000 people a year to Historic Brattonsville over two weekends in early December. It includes food, bonfires, and traditional Christmas music. 

The highlight of course is the candlelight tour itself, an educational recreation by several groups of living history reenactors depicting how Christmas was (and in some cases, was not) kept by pre-Colonial Scots-Irish Presbyterians that settled in the South Carolina Upcountry in the 1700s, then how the practice progressed among area residents on till the mid-1800s and modern-day. 

Here are the photos that I took from the event. Also included in this blog post is a planetary photograph I got of Venus in the early evening sky.

My brother-in-law David, sister Olivia,
& youngest nephew Caleab.

Historic Brattonsville Gift Shop.

Props from the film The Patriot (2000)
filmed largely at Historic Brattonsville.

Venus in the early evening sky over
Historic Brattonsville's Christmas Candlelight Tours.

Yours truly with Tyler & Caleab Morris.
Tyler looks like he is soooo evil here. LOL!

My sister Olivia & Caleab.

As with the previous year, I would like to thanks those volunteers and reenactors who again helped make the 2016 Christmas Candlelight Tours an overwhelming success. I know my nephews loved it, as did my sister and brother-in-law. Tyler especially enjoys learning new things whenever he can, as do I. 

As always, I hope y'all enjoyed this post.