I am in shock. OMG. I find myself agreeing with Ted Cruz, Republican, Senator from Texas, in his takedown of Tim Kaine, Democrat, Senator from Virginia.
In a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Kaine took issue with the opening statement of Riley Barnes, who has been nominated to serve as assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor.
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The date will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.
John Adams, Letter to his Wife Abigail, July 3, 1776.
That guy could sure write, couldn’t he? John Adams was prescient. He accurately described the way we celebrate Independence Day. He did get the date wrong. He was certain July 2nd would be the date we celebrate. That was the day the Continental Congress passed Virginia’s resolution on independence. July 4th, the day we do celebrate, was the day Congress approved the text of the Declaration of Independence. The document, primarily written by Thomas Jefferson, spelled out the reasons for the thirteen colonies’ separation from England.
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It has become a tradition for me to write a series of blogs at the end of the Supreme Court term reviewing the major cases decided during the court year. I’m still working on this project, but it is not ready yet. Give me a few more days to digest the opinions the conservative supermajority dumped on the nation in the last few weeks. I find myself nearly overwhelmed by their blatant attempt to rewrite the Constitution and change our lives in ways I view with disgust and disappointment. I find it difficult to concentrate.
At times like these I like to think of better moments in the history of our great nation. We celebrate tomorrow our Independence Day, noting the date, actually July 2, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress declared “That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States….”
“The Second Day of July 1776 will be the most memorable Epoch in the History of America,” Massachusetts delegate John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, on July 3. Adams, often prescient, vividly described the parades, “illuminations” and festivities he believed would be regular events, staged each year to note the occasion. We wound up celebrating the Fourth of July, the date of the signing of the final form of the declaration. But whatever the date the principal of the event was the delegates’ belief that a nation should rest not on the arbitrary rule of a single man and his hand-picked advisors, but on the rule of law.
Relax with your family. Celebrate your nation. Read something about our history. You can even watch the film of 1776, the Broadway musical based on that sizzling summer of 1776 in Philadelphia, when our nation was born. And reflect on what we are making of the legacy of the brave men who met and wrote the Declaration of Independence.
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I find myself still reeling from last week’s end of the term opinion dump by the Supreme Court, the conservative supermajority continuing its steady march back to the 19th century. Like last year’s disaster, this year will require a series of blogs assessing the damage. That will come on the other side of the Independence Day holiday.
For today I pass along two recommended references. The first, Professor Heather Cox Richardson of Boston College’s brilliant, as always, substack on the events leading up to the Declaration of Independence. If you don’t already subscribe to Professor Richardson’s “Letters from an American” you should.
And second, the wonderful film of the wonderful Broadway Musical, “1776“.
Both remind me of our struggle to form “a more perfect union.” And how we must continue that struggle in the face of headwinds that at times like these seem insurmountable.
Happy Fourth of July.
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