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July 4 - Day of Intention

© Anita Stratos

Happy Independence Day! If you're an American, you probably spent July 4 celebrating your country's hard-earned independence with fireworks, sparklers, parades, and barbecues. It's a day when people all over the United States celebrate America's independence from British rule, a long, fierce battle fought and won by their forefathers over 200 years ago. But rather than calling it Independence Day, July 4 should instead be referred to as Declaration of Intention Day.

Sound radical? Well, the fact is that American independence was not achieved on July 4, 1776, but rather seven years later on September 3, 1783.

Something important did happen on July 4, 1776, though, and that was the signing of the Declaration of Independence by American leaders. But it was nothing more than its name implies - it was merely a declaration - a written statement that was signed by America's leaders declaring their desire to be free of British rule. At no time on July 4 did King George III of England actually grant Americans their desired freedom. Let's face it, if freedom could be attained by an oppressed people simply by having the unhappy parties sign a declaration, many wars could have been prevented throughout history. People can state their desire to be free any way they want - they can write about it, they can shout about it, they can sing about it - but unless that freedom is granted by the governing power, the requested freedom is nothing more than a wish, a desire, a declaration of purpose by a peoples.

Besides, why would the Revolutionary War have continued if Americans had been granted their desired freedom in 1776? The war certainly did not end on July 4, 1776, but rather it raged on for another seven years, with some of the most brutal fighting yet to come. There were numerous battles and skirmishes in those seven years, some very well known and others lesser known but no less important. They include the Battle of Trenton on December 26, 1776, the Battle of Ridgefield on April 27, 1777, the Battle of Saratoga in the fall of 1777, the Battle of Monmouth on June 28, 1778, and the Battle of Yorktowne on October 19, 1781.

Upon reading America's Declaration of Independence, King George III was willing to "make peace" with the United States, but he wasn't willing to grant total independence; however, Benjamin Franklin would settle for nothing less. Finally, serious conferences between the king and American leaders began in 1782 and lasted for over a year when at long last the 1783 Definitive Treaty of Peace was signed in Paris, France. Article One states: "His Brittanic Majesty acknowledges the said United States...to be free sovereign and independent states, that he treats them as such, and for himself, his heirs, and successors, relinquishes all claims to the government, propriety, and territorial rights of the same and every part thereof."

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