Happy Independence Day! Two hundred thirty-eight years ago to the day, 4 July 1776, a gathering of patriots calling themselves the Second Continental Congress committed treason against the British crown by declaring the Thirteen Colonies a new & independent nation, the United States of America. Thus was formed the first democratic republic of the modern era (as opposed to the oligarchic republics of the mediæval Italian city-states). The freedom of the new United States was only won by force of arms, including the vital & seemingly contradictory aid of the most despotic monarchy in Western Christendom, the Kingdom of France, the traditional archenemy of the Kingdom of Great Britain (after 1801, the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Ireland). We must never forget that in the last resort it is only through force of arms that America's freedom is preserved.
The United States of America is an exceptional nation, by which I mean truly exceptional, not the cynical way in which President Obama proclaimed America to be exceptional, but no more exceptional than Greece or any other nation-state, which is to say not at all exceptional. In the Eighteenth Century, & ever since, the United States has pioneered a model of popular sovereignty & the rule of law—liberal democracy—unprecedented in the history of the world. Throughout the Nineteenth Century, the United States subdued a vast continental empire that laid the groundwork for the most prosperous nation the world has ever known. Throughout the Twentieth Century, the Unites States exported liberal democracy & our free-market-based model of prosperity to a world racked by tyranny, poverty, & the misery of two World Wars. In the Twenty-first Century, despite a crisis of self-confidence, under American leadership more persons are more secure & more prosperous throughout the world entire than at any other time in history. The world is not perfect, indeed this world by its nature cannot be perfected this side of the Kingdom Come, but under the American aegis things are better than they have ever been before. The utopian temptation must be resisted at all costs, but it is part of American exceptionalism that we have successfully resisted that temptation.
Thus, my fellow Americans, celebrate! For though our freedom is under threat by enemies both foreign & domestic, this always has been so & always will be so; eternal vigilance, as the man* said, is the price of liberty. The Americans remain a free people, the Unites States remains a free nation, & what better time to celebrate that freedom than on the anniversary of our declaration of independence? The Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Second Continental Congress, declaring the existence of the United States of America as an independent polity, two hundred thirty-eight years ago to-day. Happy Independence Day!
The Rebel Black Dot Song of Independence Day
The University of Michigan Marching Band, "The Star-Spangled Banner" from Hurrah for the Yellow and Blue (T.L.A.M.)
Commentary: Our national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner," was not written during the Revolutionary War (1775-1783) for independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain, but during the War of 1812 (1812-1815) to defend our independence against the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Ireland. This itself serves as a reminder that we did not simply have to fight for our freedom once, but that we have been & shall be called upon to fight for our freedom time & again. Brave men & women fight for our freedom even now, & we all should be thankful for their service.
*There is some dispute over who that man was, though indications are that it was not, as is so often erroneously attributed, Thomas Jefferson, but rather the Irish politician & orator John Philpot Curran.
Urbi et Orbi
Today is the feast day of Saint Elizabeth of Portugal, A.K.A. Saint Elizabeth of Aragon (1271-1336): saint-link.
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