By Ronald Richenburg
“Born on the Fourth of July” is the catchy title of a celebrated film, based on a book, which references a humorous patriotic American song with roots going back to the 18th century. Although in the film and the book the words are used in an ironic way, the tone is very different in the song where the singer describes himself as “a real live nephew of my Uncle Sam, born on the Fourth of July”.1
The 4th of July has long been celebrated as the birthday of the United States, but the key events of 1776 occurred over a period of several weeks, and it has sometimes been suggested that the 2nd of July was of equal or even greater importance.
Beginning in 1754, representatives from the various colonies met in a number of congresses, initially to discuss matters of common interest, and later to co-ordinate their responses to certain British policies that were causing increasing discontent.
The last and most important of these was the Second Continental Congress which first met in May 1775 and rapidly evolved into the de facto governing and legislative body of the American colonies in their collective capacity. It was this body that on July 2nd, 1776, approved a resolution, known as the Lee Resolution, actually declaring independence (with the delegates voting in accordance with instructions from their own state legislatures). In anticipation of the vote, a committee (including Thomas Jefferson) had already been appointed to draft a formal proclamation of independence, and this document, known as the Declaration of Independence, was approved on July 4th. Both the Resolution and the Declaration contain the key words, “that these United Colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states”.
At the time, considerable importance was attached to the vote on 2 July. The authority of the Declaration was, after all, based on the authority of the Resolution. The distinguished legal historian Charles Warren stated,
It was this action by Congress which was recognized by the newspapers and other records of the time, as constituting the effective declaration and proclamation of independence.2
In a much-publicized letter to his wife, future president John Adams (one of the co-authors of the Declaration) wrote,
The Second Day of July 1776 will be the most memorable Epocha in the History of America. 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 Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.3
[“Epocha” – an early form of the word “epoch”.]
But two days later, the Declaration itself was approved and, as stated by Charles Warren,
. . . the stirring and magnificent text of the . . . [Declaration] entirely wiped from the public mind the high significance and importance of the original action of Congress in voting for independence. As Mellen Chamberlain has said: “The glory of the act was overshadowed by the glory of its annunciation.4
Additionally, the formal engrossed version bears at its head, in large lettering, the words “In Congress, July 4, 1776”. The prominence of the July 4th date in this document must surely be a further factor in cementing it in the public consciousness.
Surprisingly, for a document that is at the very pinnacle of the American pantheon, there is very little definitive evidence about how and when the final engrossed copy was prepared and signed. Part of the problem was that many of the actions of Congress were carried out in secret and that record keeping was very inconsistent. In the years following American independence it was generally assumed that preparation of the engrossed copy had been completed by 4 July and that it was signed on that day. But in later years, as more accounts of the events became available, a new consensus emerged, holding that the engrossed copy was prepared in response to an order of Congress of 19 July and was signed on 2 August, with a few signatures being added even later. Supporting this view is the fact that the engrossed copy bears the title “The Unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America” yet unanimity was not attained until New York indicated its approval on 9 July. Additionally, not all the signers were even present on 4 July.5
On the other hand, several of the key players of the time, including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin, maintained throughout their lives that the Declaration was signed on 4 July, and some historians believe this is correct, pointing out that it is unlikely that all three would have suffered from failing memory, and that non-unanimous wording could have been altered after 9 July to indicate unanimity, and that a signing on 4 July does not preclude some signatures being added at later dates. Wilfrid J. Ritz, a very persuasive proponent of this view, suggests that the Declaration should be subjected to advanced scientific testing to try to obtain more information about how it was prepared and whether it could have been subsequently altered,6 but unfortunately there does not appear to be any evidence that this was ever done.
Although the events described here occurred two and a half centuries ago, they involve many issues that are still relevant today:
– How does one define “one people”, in the sense of a body of people reasonably entitled to (in the words of the Declaration) “dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another”?
– How does one decide whether a quasi-legislative body is the legitimate voice of the people?
– What are the criteria for statehood under international law?
– Why are some revolutions regarded as legitimate and others not?
There are undoubtedly many other such questions that could also be asked. None lend themselves to easy answers, and all of them involve political realities just as much as legal or political theory. What is certain is that discussion of these issues can easily fill the pages of law journals for many years to come.
(The author of this post, though long resident in the U.K., is a nephew of Uncle Sam and writes from that perspective.)
- “Born on the Fourth of July” was the title of a 1989 film by Oliver Stone about the war in Vietnam, based on the best-selling autobiography with the same title, published in 1976, by Ron Kovic, a paralyzed veteran of the war who really was born on that day (in 1946). (It has often been suggested that Kovic’s book was also an indirect influence on Bruce Springsteen when he wrote his song “Born in the USA”.)
The humorous patriotic song is “The Yankee Doodle Boy” from the Broadway musical “Little Johnny Jones” by George M. Cohan, which opened in 1904 and thus was one of the first American musicals. The song is also known as “Yankee Doodle Dandy”, and this was the title of a 1942 biographical film about Cohan, starring James Cagney.
The origins of the song go back at least as far as the 18th century when the tune, with varying words, was popular with British troops in America, and then, with other words, was adopted by American troops as a song of defiance and of national pride, and in the latter form is the basis of the song as it is usually sung today. ↩︎ - Charles Warren, “Fourth of July myths”, William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 3 (July 1945), pp. 237-272 at 240. ↩︎
- John Adams, Letter to Abigail Adams, 3 July 1776, quoted in “John Adams’s vision of July 4 was July 2” (authorship unclear, but apparently by Jim Worsham or Jessie Kratz), U.S. National Archives blog “Pieces of History”, 2 July 2014, https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2014/07/02/john-adams-vision-of-july-4-was-july-2/ (last accessed 4 July 2025). ↩︎
- Charles Warren (in part, quoting Mellen Chamberlain), op. cit., p. 242. ↩︎
- The prevailing view (that the Declaration was signed chiefly on 2 August) is most notably described by Charles Warren, op. cit. It is also the view taken by the U.S. National Archives and is described with great clarity on the National Archives website. See https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-history (last accessed 4 July 2025). ↩︎
- Wilfrid J. Ritz, “The authentication of the engrossed Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776”, Law and History Review, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Spring 1986), pp. 179-204. ↩︎
