What does the 4th of July mean to you?
2006-07-01 15:46:23 · 5 answers · asked by cancreations 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
Nothing really.
2006-07-01 15:50:32 · answer #1 · answered by ProfessorFarnsworth 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It commemorates the date that the Continental Congress ratified the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration was a document unique in history and set forth the reasons why America should be independent of the mother country. It also sets forth the basic theories of natural law, life, liberty,and the pursuit of happiness, to which all men aspire, or should.
John Adams said the following about it:
"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 Shews, Games, Sports, guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not. "
John Adams, letter to Abigail Adams, July 3, 1776
2006-07-01 17:35:41 · answer #2 · answered by aboukir200 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Every Fourth of July I take a few minutes to read the Declaration of Independence--to remember what it took those men to get to that point, and then consider how well I think the country is living up to the philosophical, political, moral challenge they threw down for the rest of us who came after.
Lately I think that if Jefferson was alive now, he'd be waving the passage about "a long train of abuses and usurpations evincing a design to reduce the people under absolute despotism" in our faces, and yelling, "Wake up!"...
2006-07-01 18:44:52 · answer #3 · answered by zeebaneighba 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Just a day to honor intellectual ancestors of colonial America.
2006-07-01 15:57:58 · answer #4 · answered by señor_rivera 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
FREEDOM, TO GO WHERE I PLEASE TO WORK WHERE I PLEASE TO WORSHIP THE LORD MY GOD JESUS FREEDOM WAS NOT FREE IT WAS PAYED FOR WITH BLOOD THINK BEFORE YOU SAY NOTHING MY FATHER GAVE HIS LIFE FOR THIS COUNTRY YOU MAY NOT AGREE WITH WAR BUT IT HAPPEN
2006-07-03 13:36:31 · answer #5 · answered by hosanna_eyes 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋