A month beforehand, in June, Thomas Jefferson sat in his office in Monticello, scribbling away at one of the most historical documents for a country he and his fellow man were aiming to start. 

July 2, 1776, Thomas Jefferson submitted his draft to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. There, it was decided that they’d had enough of Great Britain’s tyranny, and declared their independence. 

After two whole days of edits, on July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress agreed on the final wording, and John Dunlap ran to his print shop that day with breaking news. The Dunlap Broadsides were distributed throughout the new nation, with a stark headline:

“IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776 A DECLARATION BY THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, IN GENERAL CONGRESS ASSEMBLED.”

This copy was only signed by John Hancock, president of the Second Continental Congress and attested by the secretary, Charles Thomson. The historic signing of the Declaration was done nearly a month later, on August 2, 1776. And since there wasn’t email back then, Britain didn’t get its copy until November 1776.

After the first distribution, there wasn’t much celebration. There was too much war and conflict going on for people to celebrate July 4th for several years. In the 1790s, it had even become controversial – one side, the Democratic-Republicans supported it, while the Federalists thought it was too French and too anti-Britain (I mean, on principle, it was). But after the War of 1812, the Federalist party started falling apart at the seams and started siding with the Democratic-Republicans in the 1820s and 1830s. The Declaration started circulating throughout the nation again, with July 4, 1776 emblazoned at the top. 

Exactly 50 years later, on July 4, 1826, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died, forever stamping in the minds of the American people the significance of that day.

94 years later, in 1870, Congress declared July 4th to be a national holiday (along with Christmas), although celebrations had already become more common as time had gone on. 

Today, we celebrate July 4th and how there were people brave enough to stand and fight against Great Britain’s tyranny, even though it cost the signers nearly everything (stay tuned for next year’s post on that topic). 

If you are not 100% sure that you’ll go to Heaven when you die, now is the time to repent and put your trust in Jesus Christ. If you have any questions or doubts about your salvation, click here to learn how you can be saved!

Let me know if you have any comments or suggestions below or you can contact me here! I love hearing from you!