The Superior Express -

Happy 245th Birthday of The United States of America! As we celebrate Independence Day over the week-end and into Monday, there will be picnics, BBQs, ball games, camping by a lake, fishing, boating and the firing off of numerous fireworks. Some people will be sporting patriotic shirts, caps, and displaying American flags at homes, businesses, campgrounds and on the towns’ main streets. What exactly are we as Americans celebrating besides the official birth of our country? It should be we are also celebrating our freedom that was won at a price. Throughout the years since this country was established, each generation has fought battles to preserve freedoms we enjoy today. We need to continue to defend this legacy of freedom for the next generations to come, that our forefathers so earnestly fought for.

It began a few years before 1776 when the 13 colonies faced hard rules and high taxes by the British government and king. Finally when the British leaders refused to listen to the colonist leaders and make changes, there began talk and later a revolution began. On April 19, 1775, the battles of Lexington and Concord brought the first shots fired between the colonists and the British troops beginning the revolution. These shots were known as “The Shots That Were Heard Around The World.”

On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress, with representatives from the 13 colonies, met in session and voted for independence from Britain. Two days later the Declaration took place at the Pennsylvania States House. With the President of the Continental Congress, John Hancock, a merchant, politician, and American Patriot, signing the Declaration in large bold letters. 200 copies of the Declaration were printed and sent throughout the 13 colonies with the official date on the Declaration being July 4, 1776. On July 3, John Adams wrote in a letter to his wife, “yesterday the greatest question was decided which ever was debated in America; and a greater perhaps never was, nor will be, decided among men. A resolution was passed without one dissenting colony, that those United Colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states.” It wasn’t until August 2 that the Declaration was officially signed by all the all the other 50 representatives of the Second Continental Congress.

Some may wonder where George Washington was when the Declaration was signed, well in July of 1776, he was serving as the Commander of the Continental Army and was in New York with his troops. It wasn’t until July 9, that he received the news the Declaration had been signed.

These brave colonists and their leaders were well aware of the huge odds they were facing when this Declaration was made. The British had a better, bigger army and navy and was a wealthy empire. One of the beginning advantages for the colonists was an understanding of the local geography. The colonists were determined they needed to fight for their country’s independence and freedom. It would take eight long and hard years to achieve it.

It was Benjamin Franklin, a member of that Second Continental Congress, who would later state, “Only a virtuous people are cable of freedom.”

God Bless The U.S.A.