Two-hundred-fifty years ago, the Second Continental Congress lit the fuse for human freedom by declaring the United States of America independent from Great Britain.  Although we Americans celebrate the Fourth of July as our nation’s birthday, our country did not have an easy birth.

In July 1776, the men who became known as our “Founding Fathers” had many problems.  First among them was the reality that not everyone believed the United Colonies of North America (as they were then called) should sever ties with the Crown.  During the First Continental Congress, convened in Philadelphia for fewer than two months in the early autumn of 1774, delegates from twelve of the thirteen colonies (Loyalist Georgia did not attend.) could not agree how best to respond to Britain’s naval blockade of Boston Harbor and Parliament’s imposition of the Intolerable Acts as collective punishment for the Boston Tea Party.

Staunch Loyalist and Pennsylvania delegate Joseph Galloway even proposed a Plan of Union to formally unite Great Britain and the North American colonies.  That did not sit well with Massachusetts firebrand Samuel Adams, and the proposal was eventually struck from the official record of the proceedings.

Following the April 19, 1775, Battles of Lexington and Concord — the first armed conflicts in America’s War for Independence — colonial delegates reconvened in Philadelphia on May 10.  For the next fourteen months, the Second Continental Congress debated what to do next.  Formal separation from Great Britain remained a contentious issue.  Even after fighting in Massachusetts had begun, most American colonists resisted calls for independence throughout 1775.

However, public support for the cause of liberty grew as Christian ministers exhorted members of their congregations to recognize the fight against political tyranny as a struggle for God-given rights and a duty to pursue His will (and our happiness) here on Earth.  Patriots of Massachusetts and Virginia worked tirelessly to shift public sentiment throughout the colonies and to persuade each colony’s representatives that the time for revolution had arrived.

Then an anonymously authored forty-seven-page essay was published in Philadelphia on January 10, 1776.  Written by Thomas Paine and “Addressed to the Inhabitants of America,” its title was simple: Common Sense.  Described by recently deceased historian Gordon Wood as “the most incendiary and popular pamphlet of the entire revolutionary era,” it remains the best-selling American work of all time.

In the first half of 1776, American colonists read aloud from its pages in taverns and secret meeting places while British soldiers passed on nearby streets.  Colonial sentiment quickly transformed from hopes for reconciliation with Britain to fervent cries for independence.  Paine ignited in Protestant Christians a passion that united the colonies in a righteous war for freedom against the Crown.

After the Virginia Convention then meeting in Williamsburg instructed its delegates to the Continental Congress to push for independence, Richard Henry Lee proposed this motion in Philadelphia on June 7:  “Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.”  A year of back-and-forth debate was finally brought to a head.

Although the mood among delegates to the Second Continental Congress had shifted toward general acceptance that a war against Britain was inevitable, unanimity was far from certain.  The colonial governments of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina had not authorized their delegates to vote for independence.  Lee’s resolution was therefore tabled for three weeks, so that delegates could return home and make the case for a formal declaration of independence.

After a “trial vote” on July 1 indicated that South Carolina and Pennsylvania would vote against Lee’s resolution and that Delaware’s vote was split between two delegates present in Philadelphia, South Carolina’s Edward Rutledge requested that the official vote be postponed until the following day.

What happened next is the part of history that often gets left out of textbooks.  Between Monday and Tuesday, Benjamin Franklin strongly suggested to two of his fellow Pennsylvania delegates that they be absent for the final vote.  Rutledge managed to convince South Carolina’s delegates to flip in favor of independence.

Meanwhile, Delaware’s pro-independence delegate, Thomas McKean, had already dispatched an urgent letter to Caesar Rodney, Delaware’s third delegate to the Continental Congress and a consummate patriot in favor of independence.  Rodney was eighty miles away in Kent County training Delaware’s militia and providing General George Washington’s Continental Army with needed supplies.  He was also suffering from a serious facial cancer that took his life eight years later at the age of fifty-five.

McKean’s letter arrived in Dover on Monday, July 1.  Rodney, realizing that he was the tie-breaking vote for Delaware, did not hesitate.  Disregarding warnings from the physicians treating his cancer, he mounted his horse and took off.  Through thunderstorms and lightning, Rodney rode through the night over poor roads and across wild terrain.  Stopping only once to change horses, he made it to Philadelphia in eighteen hours, a trip that normally required two full days.

Just as the voting in Philadelphia began, delegates heard heavy hoofbeats on the cobblestone outside of the Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall).  Exhausted, still in his riding clothes with spurs attached, covered in mud, and wearing a green silk scarf around his cancer-ridden face, Rodney strode in and took his seat.

“As I believe the voice of my constituents and all sensible and honest men is in favor of independence,” Rodney announced, “and as my own judgment concurs with them, I give my vote for independence.”  His fateful ride secured Delaware’s vote for the cause of liberty.  (Next time you find a Delaware state quarter in your pocket, take a look at the man riding on a galloping horse; that’s Caesar Rodney!)

Virginian Richard Henry Lee’s resolution for independence secured support from twelve of the thirteen colonies, with New York’s delegates abstaining from the vote as they still lacked formal approval from their colonial government (an error remedied seven days later when it voted tardily to “join with the other colonies in supporting” independence).

Unanimity among the colonies was important.  It deprived the British of the opportunity to exploit colonial divisions.  It also demonstrated to the American people that the colonies were united in purpose.  The history of the War for Independence could have been much different had the delegates to the Second Continental Congress not found a way to come together.

The Pennsylvania Evening Post reported on July 2: “This day the CONTINENTAL CONGRESS declared the UNITED COLONIES FREE and INDEPENDENT STATES.”

John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail: “The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America.  I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival.  It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.  It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.”

The American people, on the other hand, immediately recognized July 4 — the date the Declaration of Independence was unanimously ratified and first published by a local printer — as America’s Independence Day.

The delegates to the Second Continental Congress committed acts of high treason against the Crown — crimes punishable by torture and death.  We Americans celebrate their treason every year on this day.

Our country was birthed in adversity, nourished on liberty, christened as the land of opportunity, guided by God, and preserved by His blessings.  Two-hundred-fifty years later, let us pray for two-hundred-fifty more.  Happy Independence Day!

Hat tip to John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, who died two hundred years ago today!

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.

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