John Hancock put the most famous signature to the
Declaration of Independence even though he was not the most famous signer. His signature made its way into
riverrun en route to The University of Texas.
The document was an appointment, of someone name Robbins, to
military office. Hancock signed in
his capacity as governor of Massachusetts. With awe, I scanned the document.
The Hancock signature is large and bold. He signed the Declaration of
Independence as the president of the Continental Congress. The confidence expressed in that signature
lent additional authority the Declaration that we celebrate today.
But isn’t it interesting that we have selected that
document, that event, to mark the beginning of our country?
Lots of revolutionary activity went on beforehand. The Committees of Correspondence were
established well before 1776. The
Boston Tea Party took place in 1773 and the First Continental Congress met in
1774. Those key early battles at
Lexington & Concord were fought in 1775 and so was the Battle of Bunker
Hill.
The Green Mountain Boys captured Fort Ticonderoga and
valuable cannons and the Second Continental Congress sent “The Olive Branch
Petition” to King George lll all before the Declaration of Independence was
issued.
If I were writing the history books, I wouldn’t date the
beginning of the USA to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. I would date it neither from the
restive disturbances and outright battles of the early 1770s nor from any of
the many battles of the Revolutionary War, not even the one at Yorktown in 1781
when General Cornwallis surrendered.
For myself, I select the 1787 summer of the Constitutional
Convention as the birth of the United States of America. My USA is 230 years old this
summer. Not everyone would agree,
but I have my reasons. Nevertheless, I am perfectly happy to celebrate on this
day that others have chosen.
Actually, I am impressed with my fellow Americans in
selecting the publication of our Declaration of Independence as the most
significant moment in the birth legend of our country.
It is with the glory of oratory, not of battle, that we choose to date
our beginning.
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