Holiday footnotes

Tomorrow we will collectively remember the unanimous approval by the 13 colonies of our nation's founding document, with far-flung fanfare of the sort famously foreseen by John Adams in a jubilant letter written to his wife:

"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 shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward, forevermore."

Part of the joys surrounding every long-standing holiday are the interesting historical footnotes which punctuate it, and Independence Day is no exception.

Yet in our modern era of tweeting and texting, we like short summations that are easily grasped. Accordingly, the concise 140-character-limit version might go something like this:

Jefferson wrote, Congress approved Declaration of Independence July 4, prompting King George to send redcoats to quash rebellion.

Annotations flesh out facts, both those slightly skewed and others omitted altogether. And all literature is enhanced by contextual notes, so in a truly historical Spirit of '76 here is a recap of some little-known truisms about our Declaration.

• Right idea, wrong date--The first such item is John Adams' seemingly prophetic letter. He nailed the nature of hoopla that has consistently attended our celebrations--but he missed with the calendar. He thought the anniversary would be the Second of July (the date the resolution was approved) not the Fourth (when the document was ratified).

Between those dates the Continental Congress debated and amended Thomas Jefferson's final draft (TJ described the waiting period as "writhing"), altogether deleting 630 words and adding 146.

• Two titles--It's true that the original declaration is the first place the phrase "United States of America" appears, but the original title was "A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America in General Congress assembled."

That's because the Declaration of Independence was not unanimously ratified on July 4, 1776, thanks to the slow communications of the time. New York's delegation didn't receive instructions to give its "aye" vote until July 15.

That's the date when the document was titled, "The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America." It wasn't actually signed until August 2.

The copy sent to King George bore the original title, however, and was unsigned (the same version distributed among the colonies).

• Sacred & undeniable truths--Jefferson's original wording of the Declaration's second paragraph was edited by the committee of five--Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston and Roger Sherman--tasked with reviewing his first draft. Among the edits and revisions the committee made, someone (Franklin, most believe) substituted the words "self-evident" for "sacred & undeniable."

• Virginia verbiage--George Mason wasn't on the committee of five, but he had a heavy hand in the language used throughout the Declaration.

Mason was the author of Virginia's Declaration of Rights, from which several phrases such as the "alter or abolish" language regarding any government that fails to derive its just power from the consent of the governed was lifted nearly verbatim. "... all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights ..." is the final wording Mason used, which Jefferson kept nearly intact.

Mason alluded to the laws of nature, but it was Jefferson who added "nature's God." It was also Jefferson who inserted the word "Creator" when editing Mason's prose regarding the source of mankind's inherent rights.

• Locke language--When Jefferson substituted the expression "the pursuit of happiness" for Mason's clumsier "pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety," he was reaching back a century to an essay including that phrase by philosopher John Locke called "Concerning Human Understanding."

Locke called the necessity of pursuing happiness "the foundation of liberty," and as such Jefferson evidently deemed it worthy enough, in fact, to replace property, which Mason had listed among the natural rights.

• Spelling bee question--Jefferson's original draft used the word "inalienable," which is the spelling we would expect today. John Adams reportedly altered the word during congressional debate, thinking "unalienable" a more proper spelling of the lofty word.

• Grievances foretold--When Jefferson wrote "... let facts be submitted to a candid world ..." the recital of grievances that followed were, again, largely lifted in substance (and sometimes in identical wording) from the pen of George Mason, who had enumerated them previously in the recently proposed Virginia Constitution.

• Mangled in stone--Incredibly, monument architects in 1943 tasked with finishing the Jefferson Memorial deleted five words from excerpts of the Declaration's preamble so it would fit better on the stone visage.

• Jacob Graff hospitality--Hardly a household name, it was in his house at the corner of Market and Seventh streets in Philadelphia that Jefferson took up residence with his portable desk on June 11 to spend two weeks writing the Declaration.

Tomorrow is endlessly rich with history and legacy. Enjoy!

Dana D. Kelley is a freelance writer from Jonesboro.

Editorial on 07/03/2015

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