Saturday,July 4, 2026. What I intend to do (or not) for the 250th Anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. The Betrayal of the Revolution.

Protest by non observance, that's what I intend to do.

Or it's what I intended to do.

My attitude, which is quite pronounced on this, is already getting me in some trouble around the house, but I won't be "that guy" who has to answer why they didn't do anything at all when a tyrant was on the rise.

Everyone always imagines themselves on the side of right.  "If I'd lived in Nazi Germany, I wouldn't have gone along. . ."  Well, bull.  If recent history has shown us anything, it's that people will continue to travel along a path well after its obvious that they're being lead by a disaster.  People stampeded into voting for the NSDAP in 1932 were still supporting them in 1936, and if disquieted by September 1939, they went along still.

That's exactly what's going on now.  Trump's administration is authoritarian to the core and has people in it who hold shockingly racist views.  Just this past week there were cries to sterilize foreigners if they entered the US.

"Oh, they don't really mean that. . .they won't execute the Jews".

When the United States declared independence 250 years ago, it claimed, amongst its justifications, the following:

• He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

Trump has done this.

• He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

Trump has done this.

• He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

Trump has effectively done this.

• He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their substance.

Trump has done this, in the form of DOGE and ICE.

• He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislature.

Trump has done this, in the form of ICE.

• He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

Trump again has attempted to do this.

• He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

Executive orders, anyone?

• For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

ICE and deployments of the National Guard.

• For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

Trump is effectively attempting this.

• He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

January 6?

Trump has always been a completely illegitimate President, although nobody has bothered to challenge this at law.  Insurrectionist, which he is, are not allowed to serve in the office, and it has never previously been the case that those known to be insurrectionist are required to be proven such at law.  As he is an illegal occupant, he has no actual authority, other than what negligence affords him.

And that has been done on a vast scale.  He's take the country all the way into a war in the Middle East he cannot win, and which Americans are going to pay the price for, for years.

Freedom wasn't taken from the American people.  They surrendered it to a demented oligarch.  They did it through their votes, and their not bothering to vote.  This is going to get much worse before it gets better.  Some of the damage will be permanent, but it may also be the case that necessary reforms will come about.

More than anything, this betrayal of the founding principals of the nation has come about due to the abject cowardice of the American people.  People know this is wrong, but they aren't willing to say anything to anyone about it.

A cowardly people doesn't honor their brave ancestors by setting off fireworks.  In this case, those people would be best honored by turning their backs to a celebration which King Donald has tried to make all about himself.  Indeed, at last, their starting too.  The large "state fair" King Donald admiration fest is being ignored.

The entire Fourth of July should be ignored this year.  The nation dishonors the Revolution by attempting to celebrate it with an increasingly fascistic would be monarch in office.

Other folks noting the same thing:

Also, I read in article in the Washington Post that a fairly percentage of people like me who can remember the Bicentennial are sitting this one out, upset about the country falling into fascism.  

***

But a fairly high percentage will also likely find, like me, that family celebrations and whatnot will likely intervene.  

We'll have to be careful.

Honest, but careful.

***

Pope Leo addressed the United States, his home nation, yesterday.

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE LEO XIV

ACCEPTANCE OF THE LIBERTY MEDAL OF

THE NATIONAL CONSTITUTION CENTER (USA)

Friday, 3 July 2026

Dear friends,

I am honored to accept the Liberty Medal of the National Constitution Center in this year that marks the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America with the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. On the eve of this momentous occasion, I offer a warm greeting to all those assembled at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. As a son of this great country, founded by courageous men and women who dreamed of liberty and of a better life for themselves and for their children, I join you in asking God’s blessings upon America’s future, that the lofty ideals enshrined at the beginning of the Declaration of Independence may continue to guide the flourishing of the nation in unity, justice and peace.

From our youth, most of us have admired the eloquence of those words, with their resounding appeal to the law of nature and to nature’s God as the basis of their assertion that all men and women are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, including the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. While couched in the language of the Enlightenment, that claim is ultimately grounded in an understanding of the human person inspired by the great biblical vision of man and woman being created in the divine image. It is indeed here that we discover the basis of human dignity; dignity which precedes the establishment of any State, and whose custody constitutes its very purpose.

In these past two-hundred and fifty years, for so many peoples throughout the world, it was the firm resolve to achieve the noble vision of the nation’s founders that made America a byword for freedom, as the country opened its doors to successive waves of immigrants, enabling them and their children to play their part in shaping the future of the nation. It was this same love of freedom that inspired the United States, in the darkest hours of the last century, at the time of the two world wars, to look beyond itself and, at great sacrifice, to champion the cause of freedom beyond its own borders. 

As every American knows, however, the path to building a society that would embody those high ideals of liberty and justice for all was not always easy and, in many respects, is still a work in progress.  Indeed, the effort to realize this vision is one that must be taken up anew in each generation and in the face of ever new challenges. Today, as we look to the future, this historic anniversary presents us with the opportunity to reflect once again on the nation’s founding principles in the hope that America will remain ever true to the dream that has earned it the title of land of the free and home of the brave.

The first right enshrined by the nation’s founders was the right to life, for no one who is deprived of life can enjoy liberty or pursue happiness. A country’s vitality is deeply tied to the value it affords to human life in every form and condition, acknowledging the dignity endowed upon every human person by virtue of their very existence.  The inherent worth of every human life has led the noble hearts of generations to praise the marvelous works of the Creator (cf. Ps 139:14) and stand in reverence before so precious a gift. Indeed, it is precisely this reverence that we must continue to cultivate — one that sways the hearts of individuals and inspires laws that recognize and safeguard the gift from the moment of conception to natural death.  Reverence, too, will aid us in discovering that we are guardians and stewards of those entrusted to our care. In this regard, the moral greatness of a nation is manifested, above all, in its capacity to support, protect and cherish the lives of all, especially the most vulnerable and those whose worth is questioned.

Following the right to life, liberty was and is preeminent among the principles revered by the men and women who have sought within this nation’s borders a new beginning, often equating it with previously undreamed-of hope. Though frequently understood as the ability to act as one would like, authentic freedom runs much deeper.  It is founded upon the human person’s capacity to know the truth and adhere to what is good, even at great cost — a sacrifice well known to many who have labored to shape this country.  The desire for truth and freedom, as well as the very pursuit of happiness, continues to inspire people of all generations to ask fundamental questions regarding the meaning of life, our ultimate purpose, and indeed about God, and it is proper for magnanimous hearts to endeavor to answer these questions with sincerity.  These answers inevitably determine the direction which we seek to give to our lives, and America has long championed the religious freedom necessary to follow responsibly the dictates of conscience in this regard, free from fear and coercion, as enshrined in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

It is this freedom that holds sacred the inner sphere of the person where convictions are formed and where conscience can guide the decisions made in the intimacy of the human heart.  This same freedom also ensures the right of every person to worship according to one’s own belief, and of individuals, communities and associations to give public expression to their faith.  In fact, religious freedom gave rise to the American tradition of allowing for interfaith dialogue and interreligious cooperation in promoting the public good and enriching the debates on the great moral and ethical issues that have faced the nation and shaped the course of its history. It is my hope that this tradition will continue to bear fruit in a public discourse marked by moderation, respect for the views of others and an ongoing effort to find common ground in promoting the cause of peace and reconciliation, at home and abroad. 

The forbearers of this country, men and women of diverse backgrounds, religions and languages, were able to find that common ground and the strength necessary to pursue a better future.  The principles that inspired America’s founders, rooted as they are in the truth of the human person, brought them together in a single cause, a common dream. Unity lent strength to that dream, giving rise, under God, to the United States of America. E pluribus unum — out of many, one.  In order for a nation to flourish, it must be truly united; united not by goals bound to momentary endeavors, but by ideals that do not fade with the passing of time.  May the principles we have reflected upon today — a shared human dignity, equality and the rights laid out in the Declaration of Independence — ever be a source of such unity and a guiding light for the present moment and for the years to come. 

In accepting this award, I therefore pray that this, the 250th anniversary of the founding of this great nation, may be the occasion of a solemn recommitment to these ideals that have made America a country that values peace and prosperity, a country characterized by generosity and nobility of heart. I commend all of you, as well as the future of the Nation, to the One who is himself the source of true freedom and lasting peace, the One whose very name is Peace.

May God bless America! Thank you!

This is, I'd note, copyrighted, but I'm claiming the fair use exception here.

Pope Leo has really been a shining light for Americans who are horrified by Donald Trump.  He's particularly a shining light for people like me, who are conservatives horrified by Donald Trump. He's proof to the world that not all Americans are some sort of strange Dixiecrat vandals.

Related Threads:

The Boeing VC-25B Bridge. A reminder to that it is time to be the people that founded the country.

Labels: 1600s, 1620, 1770s, 1776, 2020s, 2026, 250th Anniversary of American Independence, Agrarianism, American Revolution, Distributism, Donald Trump, Evolutionary Biology, Mexican Revolution, Russian Revolution, The Wealthy

Saturday,July 4, 2026. What I intend to do (or not) for the 250th Anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. The Betrayal of the Revolution. Additional labels

Sunday, July 4, 1976. The Bicentennial.

 It was the Bicentennial of American Independence and I was 13 years old

There's been some recent focus on people like me who were young during the Bicentennial and who can recall it.  Many of us have real mixed feelings about today, the 250th Anniversary.

The celebrations for the Bicentennial were really a big deal.  Students, like me, who were in school at the time had been studying the Revolution in anticipation of it.  There were events everywhere.  State and local governments were very active in promoting it. The Federal government issued a special series of coins.

Looking back it's interesting to note how the celebrations came as a relief to the trauma of the Vietnam War and gave the country a sense of optimism again.  The war had torn the country apart, and of course we'd lost it.  Right after that the country went through the Watergate trauma, and it was suffering by inflation brought about by the war and the Arab Oil Embargo.  Things weren't going great, but the Bicentennial gave people a sense we'd get through it.

Gerald Ford was President at the time and was campaigning against right wing actor Ronald Reagan as well as the presumptive Democratic nominee, Jimmy Carter.

I'd just completed 7th Grade and turned 13 just before school let out for the summer.  I had a job at a wading pool as a lifeguard.  It's weird to think of, as I was the only city employee at the pool all day long.  I filled it up each day, and drained it every night. They wouldn't let a 13 year old do that now.

As noted, in civics we studied the Revolution that year.  I can't recall all that much about the instruction.  I do recall the teacher, whom bore sort of a resemblance to Tom Selleck, saying the country had lost the Vietnam War, which was a shock to me.  I went home and asked my father, and he had the same view.

They were right, of course.

Fireworks at that time were set off on the municipal golf course.  I went up on the roof to watch them.

The IDF conducted a hostage rescue mission at Entebbe, Uganda.  102 hostages, mostly Jewish, were being held by hijackers of the Palestinian PFLP–EO and German RZ groups.

All of the hostages, 33 Ugandan soldiers and 3 hostages died in the raid.

Assassins hired by the Argentine Navy killed three Catholic priests and two seminarians at the San Patricio church in the Belgrano neighborhood of Buenos Aires.

Related posts:

Random Camera Blog: The Summer of ’76

Labels: 1970s, 1976, American Bicentennial, Blog Mirror

Last edition:

Friday, July 2, 1976. Repent.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, American Bicentennial, Catholic, Christianity, Independence Day, Prisoners of War, religion, Sex, South Vietnam, Sudan, Vietnam, Vietnam War, Washington

Sunday, July 4, 1976. The Bicentennial., additional Labels.

Thursday, July 4, 1946. Philippine Independence.

The US recognized the independence of the Republic of the Philippines.

An armed uprising sparked by rent issues occured in Kadavendi, India.

The Kielce pogrom took place in Poland in which 40 Jews were murdered by a mob in Kielce, Poland.  The police did not intervene.  The event, in which soldiers and police participated, was sparked by a false accusation of kidnapping.

Female Stutthof Concentration Camp Guards Elisabeth Becker, Wanda Klaff was hung for war crimes.

Stutthhof is unusual in that the majority of the inmates there were Catholic Poles, many of whom were ethnic Germans.

Last edition:

Wednesday, July 3, 1946. Breaking the meat famine in Denver.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, Canadian Army, Food, Immigration, Office of Price Administration, Post War United States (and Canada), Rationing

Sunday, July 4, 1926. The Sesquicentennial.

The Sesquicentennial Exposition, again in Philadelphia, was being held to celebrate the Sesquicentennial of American independence.

Casper was celebrating the Fourth.

Some displeasure was expressed about "modern girls".

Tourism was being boosted.

The Battle of the Little Big Horn was being recalled while Casper was arguing for North Platte appropriations.

The Headquarters Troop of the state's National Guard cavalry regiment was hosting a rodeo.

Twentyone Mexican prisoners at the Blue Ridge State Prison Farm, in Blue Ridge, Texas in Fort Bend County, near Houston, escaped. Thirtytwo fellow countrymen chose to remain. The break was accomplished by sawing through the building.

The Nazi Party staged its 2nd Party Congress in Weimar. The Grossdeutsche Jugendbewegung (Greater German Youth Movement) was renamed Hitler Jugend Bund der deutschen Arbeiterjugend (Hitler Youth League of German Worker Youth.

I'm quite confident that if Pete Hegseth proposed renaming the Boy Scouts the Greater Trump Loving Boy's Movement, the current GOP would demand it.

Torrential rains hit the country on the same day.

Last edition:

Friday, July 2, 1926. Air Corps established.

Labels: 1920s, 1926, Calvin Coolidge, Canada, Politics, U.S. Air Force

Tuesday, July 4, 1876. The Centennial.

The Centennial Fair in Philadelphia.

July 4, 1876 was of course the Centennial of American independence and accordingly was widely celebrated throughout the US.  The country was also a mere eleven years out of the Civil War, which nearly split the country into two, and was dealing with the ongoing consequences of that.

President Grant, of course a general of the recent war, issued a proclamation calling the nation to prayer:

Proclamation 229—Recommending Religious Services on July 4, 1876

June 26, 1876

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

The centennial anniversary of the day on which the people of the United States declared their right to a separate and equal station among the powers of the earth seems to demand an exceptional observance.

The founders of the Government, at its birth and in its feebleness, invoked the blessings and the protection of a Divine Providence, and the thirteen colonies and three millions of people have expanded into a nation of strength and numbers commanding the position which then was asserted and for which fervent prayers were then offered.

It seems fitting that on the occurrence of the hundredth anniversary of our existence as a nation a grateful acknowledgment should be made to Almighty God for the protection and the bounties which He has vouchsafed to our beloved country.

I therefore invite the good people of the United States, on the approaching 4th day of July, in addition to the usual observances with which they are accustomed to greet the return of the day, further, in such manner and at such time as in their respective localities and religious associations may be most convenient, to mark its recurrence by some public religious and devout thanksgiving to Almighty God for the blessings which have been bestowed upon us as a nation during the century of our existence, and humbly to invoke a continuance of His favor and of His protection.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 26th day of June, A. D. 1876, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundredth.

U. S. GRANT.

By the President:

HAMILTON FISH,

Secretary of State.

Members of the National Woman Suffrage Association crashed the Centennial Celebration at Independence Hall in Philadelphia to present the “Declaration of the Rights of Women.”  It stated:

While the nation is buoyant with patriotism, and all hearts are attuned to praise, it is with sorrow we come to strike the one discordant note, on this one-hundredth anniversary of our country's birth. When subjects of kings, emperors, and czars, from the old world join in our national jubilee, shall the women of the republic refuse to lay their hands with benedictions on the nation's head? Surveying America's exposition, surpassing in magnificence those of London, Paris, and Vienna, shall we not rejoice at the success of the youngest rival among the nations of the earth? May not our hearts, in unison with all, swell with pride at our great achievements as a people: our free speech, free press, free schools, free church, and the rapid progress we have made in material wealth, trade, commerce and the inventive arts? And we do rejoice in the success, thus far, of our experiment of self-government. Our faith is firm and unwavering in the broad principles of human rights proclaimed in 1776, not only as abstract truths, but as the corner stones of a republic. Yet we cannot forget, even in this glad hour, that while all men of every race, and clime, and condition, have been invested with the full rights of citizenship under our hospitable flag, all women still suffer the degradation of disfranchisement.

The history of our country the past hundred years has been a series of assumptions and usurpations of power over woman, in direct opposition to the principles of just government, acknowledged by the United States as its foundation, which are:

First – The natural rights of each individual.

Second – The equality of these rights.

Third – That rights not delegated are retained by the individual.

Fourth – That no person can exercise the rights of others without delegated authority.

Fifth – That the non-use of rights does not destroy them.

And for the violation of these fundamental principles of our government, we arraign our rulers on this Fourth day of July, 1876, - and these are our articles of impeachment:

Bills of attainder have been passed by the introduction of the word "male" into all the State constitutions, denying to women the right of suffrage, and thereby making sex a crime – an exercise of power clearly forbidden in article I, sections 9, 10, of the United States constitution.

The writ of habeas corpus, the only protection against lettres de cachet and all forms of unjust imprisonment, which the constitution declares "shall not be suspended, except when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety demands it." is held inoperative in every State of the Union, in case of a married woman against her husband – the marital rights of the husband being in all cases primary, and the rights of the wife secondary.

The right of trial by a jury of one's peers was so jealously guarded that States refused to ratify the original constitution until it was guaranteed by the sixth amendment. And yet the women of this nation have never been allowed a jury of their peers – being tried in all cases by men, native and foreign, educated and ignorant, virtuous and vicious. Young girls have been arraigned in our courts for the crime of infanticide; tried, convicted, hanged – victims, perchance, of judge, jurors, advocates – while no woman's voice could be heard in their defense. And not only are women denied a jury of their peers, but in some cases, jury trial altogether. During the war, a woman was tried and hanged by military law, in defiance of the fifth amendment, which specifically declares: "No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases . . . . of persons in actual service in time of war." During the last presidential campaign, a woman, arrested for voting, was denied the protection of a jury, tried, convicted, and sentenced to a fine and costs of prosecution, by the absolute power of a judge of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Taxation without representation, the immediate cause of the rebellion of the colonies against Great Britain, is one of the grievous wrongs the women of this country have suffered during the century. Deploring war, with all the demoralization that follows in its train, we have been taxed to support standing armies, with their waste of life and wealth. Believing in temperance, we have been taxed to support the vice, crime and pauperism of the liquor traffic. While we suffer its wrongs and abuses infinitely more than man, we have no power to protect our sons against this giant evil. During the temperance crusade, mothers were arrested, fined, imprisoned, for even praying and singing in the streets, while men blockade the sidewalks with impunity, even on Sunday, with their military parades and political processions. Believing in honesty, we are taxed to support a dangerous army of civilians, buying and selling the offices of government and sacrificing the best interests of the people. And, moreover, we are taxed to support the very legislators and judges who make laws, and render decisions adverse to woman. And for refusing to pay such unjust taxation, the houses, lands, bonds and stock of women have been seized and sold within the present year, thus proving Lord Coke's assertion, that "The very act of taxing a man's property without his consent is, in effect, disfranchising him of every civil right."

Unequal codes for men and women. Held by law a perpetual minor, deemed incapable of self-protection, even in the industries of the world, woman is denied equality of rights. The fact of sex, not the quantity or quality of work, in most cases, decides the pay and position; and because of this injustice thousands of fatherless girls are compelled to choose between a life of shame and starvation. Laws catering to man's vices have created two codes of morals in which penalties are graded according to the political status of the offender. Under such laws, women are fined and imprisoned if found alone in the streets, or in public places of resort, at certain hours. Under the pretense of regulating public morals, police officers seizing the occupants of disreputable houses, march the women in platoons to prison, while the men, partners in their guilt, go free. While making a show of virtue in forbidding the importation of Chinese women on the Pacific coast for immoral purposes, our rulers, in many States, and even under the shadow of the national capitol, are now proposing to legalize the sale of American womanhood for the same vile purposes.

Special legislation for woman has placed us in a most anomalous position. Women invested with the rights of citizens in one section – voters, jurors, office-holders – crossing an imaginary line, are subjects in the next. In some States, a married woman may hold property and transact business in her own name; in others, her earnings belong to her husband. In some States, a woman may testify against her husband, sue and be sued in the courts; in others, she has no redress in case of damage to person, property, or character. In case of divorce on account of adultery in the husband, the innocent wife is held to possess no right to children or property, unless by special decree of the court. But in no State of the Union has the wife the right to her own person, or to any part of the joint earnings of the co-partnership during the life of her husband. In some States women may enter the law schools and practice in the courts; in others they are forbidden. In some universities girls enjoy equal educational advantages with boys, while many of the proudest institutions in the land deny them admittance, though the sons of China, Japan and Africa are welcomed there. But the privileges already granted in the several States are by no means secure. The right of suffrage once exercised by women in certain States and territories has been denied by subsequent legislation. A bill is now pending in congress to disfranchise the women of Utah, thus interfering to deprive United States citizens of the same rights which the Supreme Court has declared the national government powerless to protect anywhere. Laws passed after years of untiring effort, guaranteeing married women certain rights of property, and mothers the custody of their children, have been repealed in States where we supposed all was safe. Thus have our most sacred rights been made the football of legislative caprice, proving that a power which grants as a privilege what by nature is a right, may withhold the same as a penalty when deeming it necessary for its own perpetuation.

Representation of woman has had no place in the nation's thought. Since the incorporation of the thirteen original States, twenty-four have been admitted to the Union, not one of which has recognized woman's right of self-government. On this birthday of our national liberties, July Fourth, 1876, Colorado, like all her elder sisters, comes into the Union with the invidious word "male" in her constitution.

Universal manhood suffrage, by establishing an aristocracy of sex, imposes upon the women of this nation a more absolute and cruel depotism [sic] than monarchy; in that, woman finds a political master in her father, husband, brother, son. The aristocracies of the old world are based upon birth, wealth, refinement, education, nobility, brave deeds of chivalry; in this nation, on sex alone; exalting brute force above moral power, vice above virtue, ignorance above education, and the son above the mother who bore him.

The judiciary above the nation has proved itself but the echo of the party in power, by upholding and enforcing laws that are opposed to the spirit and letter of the constitution. When the slave power was dominant, the Supreme Court decided that a black man was not a citizen, because he had not the right to vote; and when the constitution was so amended as to make all persons citizens, the same high tribunal decided that a woman, though a citizen, had not the right to vote. Such vacillating interpretations of constitutional law unsettle our faith in judicial authority, and undermine the liberties of the whole people.

These articles of impeachment against our rulers we now submit to the impartial judgment of the people. To all these wrongs and oppressions woman has not submitted in silence and resignation. From the beginning of the century, when Abigail Adams, the wife of one president and mother of another, said, "We will not hold ourselves bound to obey laws in which we have no voice or representation," until now, woman's discontent has been steadily increasing, culminating nearly thirty years ago in a simultaneous movement among the women of the nation, demanding the right of suffrage. In making our just demands, a higher motive than the pride of sex inspires us; we feel that national safety and stability depend on the complete recognition of the broad principles of our government. Woman's degraded, helpless position is the weak point in our institutions to-day; a disturbing force everywhere, severing family ties, filling our asylums with the deaf, the dumb, the blind; our prisons with criminals, our cities with drunkenness and prostitution; our homes with disease and death. It was the boast of the founders of the republic, that the rights for which they contended were the rights of human nature. If these rights are ignored in the case of one-half the people, the nation is surely preparing for its downfall. Governments try themselves. The recognition of a governing and a governed class is incompatible with the first principles of freedom. Woman has not been a heedless spectator of the events of this century, nor a dull listener to the grand arguments for the equal rights of humanity. From the earliest history of our country woman has shown equal devotion with man to the cause of freedom, and has stood firmly by his side in its defense. Together, they have made this country what it is. Woman's wealth, thought and labor have cemented the stones of every monument man has raised to liberty.

And now, at the close of a hundred years, as the hour-hand of the great clock that marks the centuries points to 1876, we declare our faith in the principles of self-government; our full equality with man in natural rights; that woman was made first for her own happiness, with the absolute right to herself - to all the opportunities and advantages life affords for her complete development; and we deny that dogma of the centuries, incorporated in the codes of all nations – that woman was made for man – her best interests, in all cases, to be sacrificed to his will. We ask of our rulers, at this hour, no special favors, no special privileges, no special legislation. We ask justice, we ask equality, we ask that all the civil and political rights that belong to citizens of the United States, be guaranteed to us and our daughters forever.

The presentation of the declaration was a serious event, marking a rising movement that had taken strength from the Abolitionist movement, which they had largely supported.

The location of the demonstration is interesting in our current context.  Expositions were hugef deals at the time and would remain so up until after World War One, when they started to fade.  World's Fairs, a similar event, still continue to exist, but you hear very little about them, the last big one I recall hearing about being Toronto's Expo 67.  The current illegitimate occupant of the White House attempted to revive the centennial fair tradition with a "Great American State Fair"  running from June 25 through July 10, 2026,  but the public does not appear to be very interested in it.  

It's somewhat confusing on what day this article first appeared, and I've already noted it.  It was likely penned on July 2, and published in the Helena newspaper on July 4:

A TERRIBLE FIGHT

Gen. Custer and his Nephew

KILLED

The Seventh Cavalry cut to pieces

The Whole Number Killed 315

From our Special Correspondent

Mr. W. H. Norton

Stillwater, M. T.,

July 2nd, 1876.

Muggins Taylor, scout for Gen. Gibbons, got here last night, direct from Little Horn River with telegraphic despatches. General Custer found the Indian camp of about two thousand lodges on the Little Horn, and immediately attacked the camp. Custer took five companies and charged the thickest portion of the camp.

Nothing is Known of the Operation of this detachment, only as they trace it by the dead. Major Reno commanded the other seven companies and attacked the lower portion of the camp. The Indians poured in a murderous fire from all directions. Besides the greater portion fought on horseback. Custer, his two brothers, a nephew and a brother-in-law were

All Killed and not one of his detachment escaped, 207 men were buried in one place and the killed are estimated at 300 with only 31 wounded. The Indians surrounded Reno's command and held them one day in the hills

Cut Off from Water until Gibbons's command came in sight, when they broke camp in the night and left.

The Seventh Fought Like Tigers and were overcome by mere brute force. The Indian loss cannot be estimated, as they bore off and cached most of their killed. The remnant of the Seventh Cavalry and Gibbon's command are returning to the mouth of the Little Horn, where the steamboat lies. The Indians got all the arms of the killed soldiers. There were seventeen commissioned officers killed.

The Whole Custer Family died at the head of their column. The exact loss is not known as both Adjutants and the Sergeant Major were killed. The Indian camp was from three to four miles along and was twenty miles up the Little Horn from its mouth. The Indians actually pulled men off their horses in some instances. I give this as Taylor told me, as he was over the field after the battle.

The above is confirmed by other letters which say Custer met a fearful disaster.

The initial article was fairly accurate.

Last edition:

Sunday, July 2, 1876. Terry reaches the Yellowstone, Crook reaches Cloud Peak, News hits the Press

Labels: 1870s, 1876, Alfred Terry, Battle of Little Big Horn, Frederick Benteen, Great Sioux War, hunting, Montana, The Press, Wyoming, Wyoming (Cloud Peak), Yellowstone Expedition

Tuesday, July 4,1826. The Fiftieth Anniversary of American Independence.

July 4, 1826 was the fiftieth anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence, of course.  By that time the country had not only achieved independence, but it had also survived a second war with Britain, one which the United States provoked and which nearly caused New England to succeed from the union.  And it had grown from 13 states, to 24.

The United States in 1825/26.

It's probably best remembered in the United States for being the date on which both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died.  What's even more peculiar about that, however, is that while 90 year old John Adams was living in Quincy, Massachusetts and 83 year old Thomas Jefferson was in Monticello, Virginian, Adams knew when Jefferson died, and commented on it.

The two men were not very much alike temperamentally.  Adams was a lawyer and a farmer who first entered the public's consciousness when he defended British troops in court following the Boston Massacre.  He was truly one of those rare characters who loved the law, something made even better for him as he was a circuit riding lawyer who also loved horses.  Active in farming his entire life, he was more closely matched Jefferson's yeoman ideal than Jefferson.  Somewhat taciturn, he dreamed of being a soldier at the beginning of the Revolution, but his talents lay elsewhere and he never was.

His place in history is secure due to his being the second President of the United States, but by the 20th Century he was one who was very little focused on.  His popularity enjoyed a resurgence, however, due to  David McCullough 2001 book which is somewhat of a hagiography.  

During his lifetime he had a falling out with Jefferson, who served as his Vice President, but they repaired their rift in later years.

If Adams was well known during his lifetime and the somewhat placed on the shelf, Thomas Jefferson has never been out of the public imagination.  At the same time, probably no American President has had his character analyzed and reanalyzed as much.

From a Puritan background, Adams is problematic for modern American far right-wing Evangelist in that his religious views were unconventional.  While a Congregationalist, he tended towards Universalist views and did not regard the Trinity as well founded.  While we have argued here that the United States is a Protestant nation, figures like Adams cut against that argument.  Adams was very much opposed to state established churches, for instance.

Like Adams, Jefferson was also a lawyer by training but what he really was by temperament and occupation was a planter.  An absolute renaissance mind he dabbled in everything, including engineering and agronomy.  One of the most influential figures of the founding generation, he served as the country's third President and was the first American President to engage in an undeclared war.

Regarded as a founding member of the Democratic Party, it was Jefferson's foresight that caused the U.S. to purchase Louisiana, converting the country from an Atlantic maritime power to a continental power.  Arguably, no President is more responsible for what the US became than Jefferson, even though he did not see it becoming what it became.  An Agrarian philosopher, he thought that it would take Americans 1,000 years to spread across the continent and that gave the country a 1,000 year chance at remaining a democracy.

Historians have been tortured by trying to define Jefferson's character ever since he died.  He was clearly a genius but his personal life was often in grave conflict with his stated beliefs.  Once hugely adored, in recent years his relationship with his sister in law and slave, Sally Hemings, has caused a great deal of debate on his personal morality.

North America with territories as claimed by the United States.

That the country had survived fifty years was somewhat amazing.  The War of 1812, not well remembered in the United States, had been a US war of choice that had not been supported by New England and which the United States, in spite of what is commonly claimed, lost.  The central seaboard South, which  had favored the war, proved to retain a sizable population that retained strong sympathies with the United Kingdom.  The US Army was twice very badly defeated by Canadian militias which gained ground in the Midwest, something also rarely noted.  Only the logistical difficulties faced by the British and a high desertion rate of its troops kept the country from returning to British possession.

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Thursday, March 24, 1825. State Colonization Law of March 24, 1825.

Labels: 1820s, 1825, emigration, Hypocrisy, Immigration, Mexican State Colonization Law of March 24, Mexico, Slavery, Texas

Thursday, July 4, 1776. Declaring independence.

It's often been noted how hot the hall in Philadelphia was in July, 1776, in which case this illustration likely isn't accurate. Record heat was experienced there  yesterday.

On this day, the Continental Congress representing thirteen of the fourteen British North American colonies voted to approve a declaration of independence. The colonies had been at war with the United Kingdom for a little over a year at the time.

The declaration stated:

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

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.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, 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; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The act was bold as it was clearly treasonous and therefore the signatories stood a real chance of being executed if the effort failed.  It was additionally bold as it represented a minority opinion.  Only 1/3d of the residents of the colonies, at best, supported independence, while at least 1/3d opposed it.  While declaring all men to be equal, it came about with a large number of men and women being held in slavery, which was legal in all thirteen colonies at the time.

It's often been noted that its high principals have often failed to be realized and in fact they are not being realized right now. Several of the "intolerable acts" are presently afflicted upon the country by the illegitimate occupant of the White House, Donald Trump, including, in part or in whole;

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us,

Given that there is really not much to celebrate on this, our 250th year of independence, and I don't intend to.  It would make a complete mockery of what the Continental Congress declared 250 years ago.  

We've surrendered our liberties to an old, demented, king.

A food item:

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Saturday, June 29, 1776. A constitution for Virginia.

Labels: 1770s, 1776, American Revolution, Colonial North America, Declartion of Independence, law, Royal Navy, Thomas Jefferson, U.S. Navy, Virginia