The Birthday of the United States of America versus Independence Day

It is fitting that today, on the birthday of the United States of America, that I post a follow-up to my previous post celebrating Flag Day in the context of the approaching 250th anniversary of American Independence. On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth State to ratify the Constitution, thereby putting it into effect as a Union of States, as the minimal required number of state ratifications of the original 13 States, all of which would ratify the document by 1791. I have posted before that Independence Day is not the “birthday of the United States,” as it is sometimes popularly called, because the U.S. was not established until 1788, and the Constitution was not implemented until the following year. But in this post, it is appropriate also to explain particularly why Independence Day is the date of American independence, and not that of the formation of the American Union, as July 2, 1776 was the date the Second Continental Congress approved a resolution declaring the independence of the 13 former British Colonies in America from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Crown. The explanation of the vote that the Congress approved, called the “Declaration of Independence,” was dated July 4, 1776, which later became the date celebrated. Because the English Colonies had long been founded and settled by the English and others, July 2 or 4 is not the birthday of “America,” as it is commonly called, and not only because it is the name for the entire Western Hemisphere. Furthermore, some of the Colonies had already individually declared their independence before July 2. The dates we celebrate are instead the dates of the independence of each of the Colonies and thus their foundations as sovereign, independent States. The concept that they became a continental union of “America,” which did not occur until twelve years later, is an error based upon subsequent history that has distorted modern perspective. What is being celebrated on Independence Day is strictly independence — not anything else — except the principles that led to it and that were articulated in the Declaration, namely equality, liberty and representative government. The Americans declared independence when it became clear that the British Monarch would not treat them as subjects equal to his British subjects and began to oppress them and deprive them of their God-given freedoms and rights. Even when they began the Revolutionary War in 1775, the Americans did not necessarily have independence as their goal, but the actions of King George II validated their cause and left them no other recourse but to separate themselves permanently to protect their liberty. On July 2 or 4 of every year, and especially as we approach the semi-quincentenntial, we should celebrate American independence and save the celebration of the United States of America instead for today’s date.