The Declaration of Independence

On July 4, 2009, I watched two program on T.V. which gave me a depth perspective on how the United States came to be as a free nation. One program focused on General George Washington and how he ultimately beat the Redcoats in the field. The other program focused on how, on the home front, statesmen like John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, tried to hammer out a formal document, "The Declaration of Independence." Both programs made me aware of how problematic it was that the United States came to be.
George Washington, Comander In Chief of the American forces. fought a series of battles with the British and lost one battle after the other. England had sent over thousands of well trained and well equiped soldiers, along with some German mercenarys, to quash the partriot's rebellion. Washington had only a make-shift band of volunteer militia without the training or the equipment of the British forces. What the America forces did have was courage and cunning - they fought back with their own brand of fighting using guerilla tactics. Finally, Washington did assemble an army who could, and did, stand up to the British forces.
While Washington perservered in the field, partriotic statemen hammered out a document which came to be known as "The Declaration of Independence," the work of Adams, Franklin and Jefferson. The biggest obstacles to frameing this document came from southern land owners who were loyalists and identified with the British crown.
Both triumphs are success stories of the American spirit. They are stories of the struggle for freedom which American enjoy to this day. The story of the birth of the American nation has given all those who choose to stand up to tyrants courage, despite the price they have to pay in their quest to be free men and women. On this past July 4, I am grateful to men like Washington and Adams and Franklin and Jefferson, and many others, who had the courage to stand up to the tyrants who tried to prevent Americans from gaining their freedom.