The fireworks are over, and the red, white and blue bunting has been put away. America’s Fourth of July celebration of our 250th anniversary is now just a memory. But this summer’s celebration of our founding won’t be the last. The party will continue, and it may even get bigger.
In the coming years, celebrations will mark Revolutionary War battles in Boston, New York and Yorktown that came after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Americans will have a chance to hear about patriots they may never have known.
As a Southerner, I especially look forward to seeing patriots like Francis Marion, called the Swamp Fox, and Thomas Sumter, the Gamecock, celebrated in South Carolina. Long-forgotten battles such as Kings Mountain, Guilford Court House, Camden and Eutaw Springs — where Americans bent the course of history in the South and ultimately won — will also be commemorated.
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We would do well to keep our revolutionary heritage in mind. Historians describe the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence, beginning with the phrase, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal …,” as the most consequential sentence not just in American history, but for nations around the globe. America’s revolution inspired people around the world to depose despots and kings.
Jefferson’s words created a new understanding of government based on equality, natural rights and the consent of the governed. They were a spark for revolutions across the world. Ultimately, 100 nations would incorporate the Declaration’s ideals. From France to Mexico, Chile and Haiti, and decades later in Czechoslovakia and Korea, the document was copied and emulated.
I learned of this legacy at the Museum of the American Revolution, which is hosting an incredible exhibit about the Declaration’s journey around the world. If you are in Philadelphia, I highly encourage you to go.
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Here at home, the Declaration of Independence galvanized efforts toward independence. Colonies set up their own governments, contravening royal authority. Newly organized states agreed to unite under one central, elected government.
But as inspiring as Jefferson’s words were, the Declaration was, after all, only a document. It announced our determination to be a free people. But it did not secure that right. It would take five long years of battle to make the Declaration’s promise of a new nation a reality. In that time, Americans would face down the mightiest military in the world.
Britain had recently risen to the rank of the world’s mightiest imperial power. Its 400-ship navy commanded the seas. Britain’s battle-tested regulars had beaten its rival, France, and taken Quebec, Havana and India. Spain, another longtime foe, had lost territory to the British. At the close of the Seven Years’ War, the sun never set on the British Empire. In retrospect, the Americans’ mad dash to independence seems suicidal at best.
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But America’s fighting force, hastily assembled, underfunded, underarmed and underfed, would outlast and outmaneuver the king’s extensive forces. We would lose our share of battles, possibly more than our share. Schoolchildren know of the stunning American victories at Saratoga and Yorktown, but there were also crushing American defeats on Long Island and in Charleston.
After the British defeat at Yorktown, the secretary of state for the colonies, Lord George Germain, argued for continuing the war, describing America’s vulnerabilities at length to Parliament. He noted the patriots’ weak economy and runaway inflation. He wasn’t wrong. The Continental Congress’ coffers were empty, and soldiers starved; some mutinied in the final years of the war. There were rumors that Ethan Allen would declare Vermont for the British. Germain believed Britain could still prevail, but Parliament was not swayed by his arguments. Its members could see the futility of continuing the fight.
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Americans’ unbeatable resolve allowed us to win. What we had was an inability to give up, a tenacity that the British could not match. We had the will to secure our own future that the British drive to expand their empire could not match. Nathanael Greene, George Washington’s top military officer in the war’s Southern Department, summed up this essential characteristic this way: “We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again.”
As much as we celebrate the Founding Fathers, including Washington and Jefferson, they alone didn’t secure America’s promise. It took the willpower and endurance of tens of thousands of Americans to do that. Their blood, sweat and tears allowed the most important sentence ever written in American history to be more than just an interesting footnote. Instead, it became not only the cornerstone of a new republic but also an inspiration for people around the world who, like us, believe in freedom and liberty.
There is no better way to celebrate America’s founding document and its incredible people than to go to the battlefields and historic sites where the promise contained in the Declaration of Independence became reality. I look forward to seeing you there!
Gerri Willis’ book, “Lincoln’s Lady Spymaster,” has been nominated for the People’s Choice Award by the Library of Virginia. She is a North Carolina native.
