Independence Day, 235 years ago

     from Bootmaker to the Nation: The Story of the American Revolution
    
     Late in the evening of Thursday, July 4, 1776, the entire edited document was read aloud one final time.  Approved by twelve states, it was signed by the President of the Congress, John Hancock.  The man whom the British had hoped to capture in Lexington (and to hang in London) signed the document with script so large that his signature was over four inches long.
     Though the thirteen states had not yet defined their relationship to each other, they now took their places among the family of nations.
     New York's assent finally arrived on July 19.  On August 2, a copy of the unanimous Declaration, engrossed (handwritten) on parchment, was signed by delegates from all thirteen states.  A few signatures were added later, bringing the total to fifty-five brave men who risked "our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

     On July 8, the Declaration was read aloud to the public for the first time in the courtyard behind Pennsylvania's State House.  Its author, Thomas Jefferson, left no record as to whether or not he was listening, or watching the reaction of the crowd.
     On July 9, General Washington ordered the Declaration to be read aloud to his troops in New York City.  Papa attended that reading, as he will later tell you.
     On July 18, Abigail Adams stood with a crowd in the very square where British troops had once fired upon a Boston mob; on that sacred spot, she listened to the Declaration as it was read from a balcony of the Massachusetts State House.
     Wherever the great document was read, church bells rang day and night, bonfires were lit on the commons, and tavern signs bearing any references to royal Britain were torn down and burned.
     The news finally reached Georgia in mid-August.  A coffin bearing King George's "political presence" was carried through the streets of Savanna in a joyous funeral procession.
     The United States of America, the new nation in the New World, after one hundred sixty-seven years of fervent preparation, was finally born.

     John Slade
     Bootmaker to the Nation: The Story of the American Revolution
     Woodgate International
     http://www.woodgateintl.com/