Happy Independence Day!

But, is it really though -- independence day from Britain? 

If John Adams had his way, Americans would have celebrated it two days ago, on July 2. Read though to the end of the second page the letter [1] he wrote to his wife Abigail on July 3, 1776. Note the date Adams gives for American independence (which, he exclaimed on page 3, should be met with "Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other"). It is not July 4.  

The discrepancy is not because Adams had been celebrating too heartily the night before, but rather Continental Congress had voted for independence in closed session on July 2. July 4 was the the date Congress sent the text to a printer. Hence the words "In Congress, July 4, 1776 The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America..." in big letters across the top of the document. 

Some nitpickers have argued that Independence Day should not be celebrated until the date of the official signing ceremony, August 2, 1776. But not everyone who signed the Declaration was present that day, and apparently it just sat on a table for a while as more delegates trickled in and added their names. In fact the last signer, Thomas McKean of Delaware, may not have signed it until sometime after January 1777, as his name is not on the first "official printed version" published in January 1777. Obviously, the millions of Americans shooting off fireworks for the past week and half have yet to jump on that "August 2, 1776 is Independence Day!" bandwagon. That the Declaration spells out "July 4, 1776" across the top pretty much seals it, whatever John Adams or anyone else has argued to the contrary.

But in Rhode Island, the Continental Congress (and especially Thomas McKeen from Delaware) were all late to the party. The same way Rhode Islanders invoked violence against the Crown before other colonies -- burning the HMS Gaspee to the waterline a year and a half before the Boston Tea Party -- they also declared their independence from King George III before anyone else did (Mecklenburg County in North Carolina notwithstanding). 

On May 4, 1776, the Rhode Island General Assembly passed “An Act Repealing an Act Intituled [sic], ‘An Act for the More Effectual Securing to His Majesty the Allegiance of His Subjects in this His Colony and Dominion of Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations;’ and Altering the Form of Commissions, of All Writs and Processes in the Courts, and of the Oaths Prescribed by Law,” [2] which effectively severed Rhode Island's connection to King George III, and declared the colony's independence:

Rhode Island Historical Society

Note in three places where the word "State" is handwritten over the printed word "colony." This is because on July 18, 1776, the General Assembly followed up on the May 4 legislation by laconically declaring that from then on, the phrase, The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations would be replaced by The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in all official oaths, documents, stamps, and seals. Someone apparently retconned the May 4 broadside by hand on or sometime after the July 18 resolution. But given Rhode Island only bothered to print a copy of its laws 83 years after it was founded, some handwritten corrections to its Declaration of Independence is just fine. 

So while none of these pieces of legislation actually spell out the words "Declaration of Independence," a close read of the title, "...Repealing...to His Majesty the Allegiance of His Subjects in this His Colony and Dominion of Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations" means exactly that in 18th-century-ese. King George certainly would have spotted it, if he had ever read it. Rhode Island was in it to win it and had been since May 4, 1776.

So Happy Independence Day -- two months after the fact, if you're a dyed-in-the-wool Rhode Islander. Or two days ago, if you'd've voted for John Adams. Or today, or even a month from now. It's a free country. 

Whether or not its "Happy" is an entirely other construct. We will discuss that in another post...

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[1] Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 3 July 1776, "Had a Declaration..." [electronic edition]. Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society. http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams

[2] G1157 Broadsides 1776 No.6; Alden 661, https://www.rihs.org/happy-r-i-independence-day