HAPPY SEMIQUINCENTENNIAL
America the beautiful, the land that we love has a special birthday in 2026. Although she’s sometimes a little bruised and banged up, she will elegantly turn 250 years old on July 4, 2026: a semiquincentennial birthday. It was more than 250 years ago when it all began when in 1620, Pilgrims, seeking religious freedom, boarded ships and landed in the New World, establishing the Plymouth Colony. The early years were marked by hardship, but the colony flourished and became a model for future colonies, influencing American governance and society. Throughout the 17th and early 18th centuries, 13 colonies were established. By the mid-18th century, the British Crown officially recognized the colonies. But the British had already made inroads in the New World. As early as 1585, England began colonizing the Americas and numerous permanent English settlements were made. It became clear that although the British Crown had officially recognized the new colonies, the British sought to control them. This all came to a head during the American Revolutionary War. A war that when referred to as the American War of Independence, hits the nail on the head. The young colonies wanted independence from the stronghold of the British. George Washington and the Continental Army’s decisive victory in the Siege of Yorktown in 1781 led King George III to negotiate an end to the war in the Treaty of Paris in 1783, in which the British monarchy acknowledged the independence of the Thirteen
Colonies, leading to the establishment of the United States as an independent and sovereign nation. But nothing really changed. Britain continued meddling and the colonists found it necessary to continue to assert independence. Fortunately, there were a few brave men who had had enough and acted. In Philadelphia, on June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia (I’m proud of my outspoken ancestors) introduced a resolution for independence to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia; John Adams seconded the motion. A committee consisting of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livington was promptly chosen on June 11 to prepare a statement justifying the decision to assert independence. This was only the beginning. The Declaration of Independence was approved by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, and that announced the separation of the 13 North American colonies from Great Britain. Then Congress on July 2 “unanimously”, by the votes of 12 colonies (with New York abstaining), resolved that “these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be Free and Independent States.” Accordingly, the day on which final separation was officially voted was July 2, although the 4th, the day on which the Declaration of Independence was adopted, has always been celebrated in the United States as the great national holiday—the Fourth of July or Independence Day.
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