Today, I am thankful for those who vote to take a stand.
We are in the midst of an election year in the United States, the 59th in our nation’s relatively young history. The first two Electoral Colleges, held in 1788 and 1792, were snoozers when it comes to voting suspense. The Electoral College unanimously chose George Washington as the President of the US – the only time in US history that a candidate would receive 100% of the vote. You might think landslides are not common in presidential elections, but, in fact, nearly two-thirds of the elections have been won relatively easily, with the winning candidate accruing at least 60% of the votes. Interestingly, between 1788 and 1820, almost every election was a monumental landslide, except for the two that immediately followed the George Washington presidency. In fact, the victories by John Adams in 1796 and Thomas Jefferson in 1800 still go down as two of the most hotly debated votes in the history of our nation. Ironically, these two elections would not be the toughest votes to occur in that century.
Nearly twenty years earlier in the town of Philadelphia, the Second Continental Congress had gathered to discuss the issue of colonial sovereignty. As you might recall, the First Continental Congress of 1774 had also convened in the City of Brotherly Love to rally the colonies to implore the English monarch to afford them the same rights in Parliament as those who reside in Great Britain. At that time, Americans were increasingly being taxed to support the British empire but without sufficient representation in the Palace of Westminster. In 1774, the colonists did not dare to raise the issue of independence, mainly because it was not necessary to do so. However, King George III’s chilling response to their invocation did not thrill the colonists, thereby leaving them in a bit of a political quandary. Meanwhile, the burgeoning, anti-imperialist sentiment among the colonial populace could not be ignored, as many colonies were vocally calling to sever ties with the island nation across the Atlantic. In fact, in April 1776, North Carolina’s government voted for independence, and Rhode Island followed suit a month later. At around this same time, time, the Second Continental Congress had convened at the Pennsylvania Statehouse to discuss colonial liberty. After a few weeks of debate in the sweltering heat, Virginia delegates issued a 3-part resolution on June 7, 1776, calling for a vote for independence, while also requesting to form a colonial federation and to seek foreign alliances.
Many of the congressional delegates balked at the idea. They lacked the authority from their home colonies to vote on such an austere resolution, so the Congress went on a 3-week hiatus to seek guidance from their brethren at home. When they reconvened on July 1, 1776, they decided to hold a vote that day, with a single vote cast for each of the 13 colonies. They had decided that independence would require a unanimous decision from all the colonies. Well, the vote for independence fell short on that day, with 9 voting in favor, 2 against (Pennsylvania and South Carolina), 1 split (Delaware), and 1 abstaining (New York).
After a night of robust debate over food and ale (I envision more ale than food), the 3 opposing or split colonies changed their vote, thanks to the arrival of a missing pro-independence delegate from Delaware (Caesar Rodney) and the purposeful absence of an anti-independence delegate from Pennsylvania (John Dickinson). On this day (July 2) exactly 244 years ago, the vote passed, 12 to 0 (with New York abstaining). Sadly, the New York delegates had still not heard from their representative government in Albany how to vote, so they chose to sit idly on the sidelines.
So, today is the true day of US independence, especially if anyone was ever to ask the spirits of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, or Benjamin Franklin. So, why do we celebrate the 4th? Well, the Declaration of Independence document needed some wordsmith among the delegates, before it was formally ratified. Two days later, the final agreed upon version had the words “In Congress, July 4, 1776” added at the top and the president of the Congress’ name, John Hancock, added to the bottom. So, naturally, July 4 seemed fitting to celebrate the cause for independence.
In celebration of the true day of US independence, I encourage all of you to register to vote today, if you have not already done so. Irrespective of your political beliefs, you want your vote to stand for something – unlike those idle New York delegates on that fateful day in July of 1776.
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