BREAKING NEWS 1776: FIRST REPORTS OF INDEPENDENCE

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Silver
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BREAKING NEWS 1776: FIRST REPORTS OF INDEPENDENCE

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https://allthingsliberty.com/2013/08/br ... ependence/

BREAKING NEWS 1776: FIRST REPORTS OF INDEPENDENCE
by Todd Andrlik

Each year, more than a million people walk through the cold, dark Rotunda of the National Archives in Washington DC to glimpse the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Called the engrossed copy, the text of the Declaration is handwritten in large letters on parchment that is encased in a frame of pure titanium with gold plating. The document, featuring the signatures of fifty-six members of the Second Continental Congress, is badly faded, but the headline still reads clearly: “In Congress, July 4, 1776. The unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States of America.”[1]

What the majority of visitors don’t know is that the displayed Declaration, so carefully preserved and protected, was old news even in 1776. The engrossed copy wasn’t authorized by Congress until July 19, 1776, and wasn’t signed by most members until August 2. By then, the Declaration had been printed and reprinted in at least twenty-nine American newspapers and one magazine.

On July 2, Congress voted for independence, and two days later it approved the text of its official declaration. The July 2 issue of the Pennsylvania Evening Post and July 3 edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette, both Philadelphia newspapers, contained the first official word that “the CONTINENTAL CONGRESS declared the UNITED COLONIES FREE and INDEPENDENT STATES.” Then, on July 5, the full text of the Declaration was typeset and printed in John Dunlap’s Philadelphia print shop with copies quickly dispatched to various committees, assemblies, military commanders and foreign nations.


Breaking news today is practically instantaneous with journalists, bloggers and citizen reporters often competing to broadcast announcements on Twitter, Facebook, cable news, radio and websites. During the American Revolution, even the most critical intelligence could only travel at the pace of the fastest horse or ship, often taking weeks to reach other colonies or countries by treacherous postal roads or sea routes. Nevertheless, the British Empire’s eighteenth-century newspaper network was the quickest way of spreading news, which was still considered fresh on arrival because it was the latest information people had.

News of American independence reached London the second week of August via the Mercury packet ship, which sailed with important correspondence from General William Howe to Lord George Germain, dated July 7 and 8, at Staten Island. The London Gazette, the official Crown organ, first broke the news in its Saturday, August 10 edition. A 16-word, 106-character, Twitter-esque extract from a Howe letter read: “I am informed that the Continental Congress have declared the United Colonies free and independent States.”

Later that day, the London Evening-Post included its own version of the breaking news: “Advice is received that the Congress resolved upon independence the 4th of July; and have declared war against Great Britain in form.” The same blurb appeared in the Tuesday, August 13 issue of the London Chronicle. On Wednesday, the Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser printed “Copies of the Declarations of War by the Provincials are now in Town and are said to be couched in the strongest terms.”

Back in America, independence celebrations were short-lived as the Continental Army suffered crushing defeat after defeat during the New York Campaign. Later that winter, following decisive American victories at Trenton and Princeton, Congress ordered Baltimore printer Mary Katherine Goddard to print a broadside based on the engrossed copy. With this January 1777 broadside, the American public first learned of all fifty-five signers of the Declaration (Thomas McKlean of Delaware added his fifty-sixth signature later in the war).

Silver
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Re: BREAKING NEWS 1776: FIRST REPORTS OF INDEPENDENCE

Post by Silver »

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-hist ... dependence

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: AUG 10
American Revolution
1776
London learns of American independence

On this day in 1776, news reaches London that the Americans had drafted the Declaration of Independence.

Until the Declaration of Independence formally transformed the 13 British colonies into states, both Americans and the British saw the conflict centered in Massachusetts as a local uprising within the British empire. To King George III, it was a colonial rebellion, and to the Americans, it was a struggle for their rights as British citizens. However, when Parliament continued to oppose any reform and remained unwilling to negotiate with the American rebels and instead hired Hessians, German mercenaries, to help the British army crush the rebellion, the Continental Congress began to pass measures abolishing British authority in the colonies.

In January 1776, Thomas Paine published Common Sense, an influential political pamphlet that convincingly argued for American independence from the British monarchy. It sold more than 500,000 copies in just a few months. By the spring of 1776, support for independence had swept through the colonies, the Continental Congress called for states to form their own governments and a five-man committee was assigned to draft a document declaring independence from the British king.

The Declaration of Independence was largely the work of Virginian Thomas Jefferson. In justifying American independence, Jefferson drew generously from the political philosophy of John Locke, an advocate of natural rights, and from the work of other British theorists. The declaration features the immortal lines “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It then goes on to present a long list of grievances that provided the American rationale for rebellion.

Silver
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Re: BREAKING NEWS 1776: FIRST REPORTS OF INDEPENDENCE

Post by Silver »

The wise statesman recognizes that the real estate shyster from NY is not the answer to continued government abuse of our God-given rights.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-0 ... dependence

Ron Paul: We Must Declare Independence

by Tyler Durden
Jul 4, 2017 7:00 AM

Authored by Ron Paul via The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity,

As Independence Day comes around again we should spend a few moments between barbecue and fireworks to think about the meaning of independence. The colonists who rebelled against the British Crown were, among other things, unhappy about taxation. Yet, as economist Gary North points out, the total burden of British imperial taxation was about one-to-two percent of national income.

Some 241 years later, Washington claims more of our money as its own than King George could have ever imagined. What do we get in this bargain? We get a federal government larger and more oppressive than before 1776, a government that increasingly views us as the enemy.

Think about NSA surveillance. As we have learned from brave whistleblowers like William Binney and Edward Snowden, the US intelligence community is not protecting us from foreigners who seek to destroy our way of life. The US intelligence community is itself destroying our way of life. Literally every one of our electronic communications is captured and stored in vast computer networks. Perhaps they will be used against “dissidents” in the future who question government tyranny.

We have no privacy in our computers or our phones. If the government wants to see what we are doing at any time, it simply switches on our phone camera or computer camera – or our “smart” television. Yet today we continue to hear, “I’ve got nothing to hide.”

In a recent interview on our Liberty Report, Edward Snowden made the excellent point that,

“saying that you don’t care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about freedom of speech because you have nothing to say.”

Think about the TSA. The freedom to travel is fundamental, and our Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures is the law of the land. But if you dare to exercise that right by purchasing an air ticket, you are treated like a Guantanamo Bay detainee. Don’t dare question as the TSA agents commit acts that would be crimes were they done by anyone else. Yet so many Americans still believe this is what it takes to be “safe.”

Think about the military industrial complex. The US government spends more on its military empire than much of the rest of the world combined. Our so-called mortal enemy Russia spends ten cents to every dollar we spend on weapons of war. Yet we are told we must spend more! Imagine the amazing peaceful scientific discoveries that might be made were so many researchers and scientists not on the government payroll designing new ways to end life on earth.

Think about the Fed. Since the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913 the US dollar has lost some 98 percent of its value. Is the destruction of our currency not a cruel form of tyranny, hitting hardest those who can least afford it?

I think it’s time for us to declare our independence from an oppressive government that seeks to control our money and our lives in ways unimaginable to those who rebelled against the British Crown in 1776. Our revolution is peaceful, and it concentrates on winning hearts and minds one at a time. But it marches on. We must reclaim the spirit of independence every day and every night and intensify the struggle against those who seek to impose tyranny upon us.

Silver
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 5247

Re: BREAKING NEWS 1776: FIRST REPORTS OF INDEPENDENCE

Post by Silver »

https://mises.org/blog/3-things-remembe ... ndence-day

3 Things to Remember on Independence Day

15 HOURS AGO
Ryan McMaken

It's difficult to say what most Americans commemorate or celebrate on Independence Day nowadays. Many appear to focus on some vague notion of "America." Others even take to jingoism equating the United States government with the very notion of "freedom."

Lost in all of this is the fact that the Declaration of Independence — the document we're supposed to remember today — is a document that promotes secession, rebellion, and what the British at the time regarded as treason.

On the other hand, those who do recall the radical nature of the Declaration often tend to romanticize the American Revolution in a way that is neither instructive nor helpful today.

So, what should we remember about Independence Day, and what can it teach us? For starters, here are three things about the history and context of this holiday that should continue to inform us today and into the future.

One: If You Can't Secede, You're Not Really Free

The very first sentence of the Declaration of Independence lays it out. Sometimes, "it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another..."

The document then goes on to list in detail why 1776's specific act of secession was justified and necessary for preserving the rights of the colonists.

By the 19th century, this philosophy of self-determination would become a foundational element of the ideology now known internationally as liberalism — or "classical liberalism" in the United States.

Not surprisingly, we find this idea in the later writings of liberals such as Ludwig von Mises who, writing in Vienna in 1927, concluded:

It must always be possible to shift the boundaries of the state if the will of the inhabitants of an area to attach themselves to a state other than the one to which they presently belong has made itself clearly known...

[W]henever the inhabitants of a particular territory ... make it known ... that they no longer wish to remain united to the state to which they belong at the time ... their wishes are to be respected and complied with.
Mises, like Jefferson, understood that without this right of self-determination, there is no freedom.

Nevertheless, modern opponents of self-determination and secession will claim that secession cannot be tolerated because it is not "legal."

This is scarcely relevant. After all, the colonial uprising against the King was not "legal," and it hardly matters whether political victors consider any breakaway secession movements legal. Times and societies change, and nothing is forever or written in stone.

For Mises, secession must be tolerated for pragmatic reasons. It is "the only feasible and effective way of preventing revolutions and civil and international wars." But For Jefferson, as for his fellow secessionists, it was a moral imperative, whether "treasonous" or not.

Two: Independence Day Is Not a Military Holiday

For obvious reasons, government institutions have little motivation to emphasize the Declaration of Independence or the philosophy it represents. This would amount to the government undermining itself. Consequently, many have attempted to turn the Fourth of July into a holiday that embraces vague notions of celebrating "America."

These ahistorical interpretations notwithstanding, Independence Day recalls resistance and a withdrawal of fealty to a hostile political power. We should not twist it into a celebration of our current rulers in Washington, the federal government, or the troops that work for and represent the federal government.

It should be a celebration against government and a reminder that Americans can once again walk away from tyranny, even if force of arms is required.

This does not defame or insult the American troops, but rather reminds us that we are a civilian nation and the government (and its troops) is supposed to be our servant rather than our master. Slavish displays of patriotism and loyalty to the state are inimical to the real meaning of the holiday.

Three: Armed Revolt Is a Serious and Rare Event

Among those who do wish to commemorate the true resistance offered by the revolutionaries, there is a different error: thinking that armed resistance is always right around the corner.

In some corners of America, it's become almost commonplace to hear claims that surely the Second American Revolution will come with just a few more outrages committed against life, liberty, or property. All it will take is a few more no-knock raids committed against peaceful families sleeping in their beds. Or perhaps the government need only seize a few more guns before the American people "wake up." Or perhaps once someone reveals the extent to which the US government spies on us all — as Edward Snowden has already done — then Americans will simply refuse to tolerate it any more.

In truth, armed resistance tends to only materialize in the midst of poverty or foreign invasion. Not surprisingly, over the past century, despite decades of immense growth in government power, rising taxes, and stifling government regulations, virtually no Americans have been taking up arms against the American state.

Some of this may stem from admirable prudence. After all, the American Revolution was an exceptionally bloody conflict, and such conflicts should not be started lightly. As noted by the Library of Congress, "[t]he Revolution ... was, after the Civil War, the costliest conflict in American history in terms of the proportion of the population killed in service. It was three times more lethal than World War II." The poverty, property destruction, and loss of life was immense given the tiny size of the American population at the time.

Most Americans are unaware of these specifics, but most people instinctively know that armed conflict can bring with it a very high price.

This doesn't mean armed resistance is impossible, of course. It's simply worth recognizing that so long as Americans enjoy some of the world's highest standards of living few will be motivated to take up arms.

Ideas Always Matter

It is also helpful to remember that armed conflict can be especially disastrous when motivated by the wrong ideas and the wrong ideologies. Who can say with confidence that if the US government were wiped away today, that it would not be replaced with something even worse? Under such circumstances, we must never abandon the important work of laying the foundations first for a revolution in ideas. Without a true respect for the freedoms outlined in the Declaration of Independence, political resistance is of little value. Moreover, in a society where true freedom is valued — and where a majority embraces liberal ideals — violence will prove to be totally unnecessary. And this would be the best outcome of all.

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kittycat51
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Posts: 1794
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Re: BREAKING NEWS 1776: FIRST REPORTS OF INDEPENDENCE

Post by kittycat51 »

Silver wrote: July 4th, 2017, 11:30 am The wise statesman recognizes that the real estate shyster from NY is not the answer to continued government abuse of our God-given rights.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-0 ... dependence

Ron Paul: We Must Declare Independence

by Tyler Durden
Jul 4, 2017 7:00 AM

Authored by Ron Paul via The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity,

As Independence Day comes around again we should spend a few moments between barbecue and fireworks to think about the meaning of independence. The colonists who rebelled against the British Crown were, among other things, unhappy about taxation. Yet, as economist Gary North points out, the total burden of British imperial taxation was about one-to-two percent of national income.

Some 241 years later, Washington claims more of our money as its own than King George could have ever imagined. What do we get in this bargain? We get a federal government larger and more oppressive than before 1776, a government that increasingly views us as the enemy.

Think about NSA surveillance. As we have learned from brave whistleblowers like William Binney and Edward Snowden, the US intelligence community is not protecting us from foreigners who seek to destroy our way of life. The US intelligence community is itself destroying our way of life. Literally every one of our electronic communications is captured and stored in vast computer networks. Perhaps they will be used against “dissidents” in the future who question government tyranny.

We have no privacy in our computers or our phones. If the government wants to see what we are doing at any time, it simply switches on our phone camera or computer camera – or our “smart” television. Yet today we continue to hear, “I’ve got nothing to hide.”

In a recent interview on our Liberty Report, Edward Snowden made the excellent point that,

“saying that you don’t care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about freedom of speech because you have nothing to say.”

Think about the TSA. The freedom to travel is fundamental, and our Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures is the law of the land. But if you dare to exercise that right by purchasing an air ticket, you are treated like a Guantanamo Bay detainee. Don’t dare question as the TSA agents commit acts that would be crimes were they done by anyone else. Yet so many Americans still believe this is what it takes to be “safe.”

Think about the military industrial complex. The US government spends more on its military empire than much of the rest of the world combined. Our so-called mortal enemy Russia spends ten cents to every dollar we spend on weapons of war. Yet we are told we must spend more! Imagine the amazing peaceful scientific discoveries that might be made were so many researchers and scientists not on the government payroll designing new ways to end life on earth.

Think about the Fed. Since the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913 the US dollar has lost some 98 percent of its value. Is the destruction of our currency not a cruel form of tyranny, hitting hardest those who can least afford it?

I think it’s time for us to declare our independence from an oppressive government that seeks to control our money and our lives in ways unimaginable to those who rebelled against the British Crown in 1776. Our revolution is peaceful, and it concentrates on winning hearts and minds one at a time. But it marches on. We must reclaim the spirit of independence every day and every night and intensify the struggle against those who seek to impose tyranny upon us.
:ymapplause: :ymapplause: :ymapplause: :ymapplause: :ymapplause:

Silver
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Posts: 5247

Re: BREAKING NEWS 1776: FIRST REPORTS OF INDEPENDENCE

Post by Silver »

The article in the previous post contains this line: "In truth, armed resistance tends to only materialize in the midst of poverty or foreign invasion." We can see the truth of a claim like that with just a little consideration. A man with nothing left to lose, as under conditions of poverty, is more likely to strike out than a man enjoying a life of comfort. And, of course, an attack from an external source will motivate most men to defend themselves and their family.

Patrick Henry, well known for his fiery oratory, remarked months before the Declaration of Independence was written:
It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

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mirkwood
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Re: BREAKING NEWS 1776: FIRST REPORTS OF INDEPENDENCE

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Brexit 1776

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