Quick blog post before I head out the door for a long Independence Day holiday! The “4th of July” has always been one of our favorite holidays, if not THE favorite. We love the time spent with family, the feasting, fun, and, of course fireworks. We usually slip away for some fishing too!
I have shared this quote before, from our country’s second president, John Adams. Seems particularly meaningful to me this year:
The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, 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 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.
(The Book of Abigail and John: Selected Letters of the Adams Family, 1762-1784, Harvard University Press, 1975, 142).
John thought the Declaration of Independence would be signed on the 2nd of July, but there were some revisions and debate that pushed that notable day back to the 4th.
But, we have been celebrating it as John would have wished, with “Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations” ever since!
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