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July 4th 2011: Friday, the annual Dunwoody Parade wound its way down Mt Vernon Road. The Parade information: http://dunwoodyga.org/calendar_july4.html: http://www.thecrier.net/articles/2009/06/30/front/parade.txt (2009 article). The City of Dunwoody joins with others across the Nation to celebrate Independence Day in the United States of America. In 2010 the parade was held on Monday the 5th. Next year the Dunwoody Homeowners Association and the Dunwoody Crier newspaper again will host the annual Fourth of July Parade, featuring marching bands, floats, clowns, animal units and local celebrities.
Boy Scout Troop 266 from Dunwoody United Methodist Church, Boy Scouts of America, once again served BBQ at the end of the parade route this year and for many past years, in the village centre. The Troop reminds you not to forget why we celebrate this day.
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The Declaration of Independence
of the Thirteen Colonies
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 [George III]
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 meantime 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 harass 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 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 complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with
circumstances of cruelty and 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 British 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 the 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.
Some Background and Context
On June 5th of 1775: The first Liberty Pole in Georgia was erected in Savannah, in front of Tondee's Tavern. This city, like those throughout the colonies, by this time was divided into two hostile factions with a group in the middle who hoped for peace. As usual there is much more to this story than first meets the eye. Peter Tondee was known as a Tavern Keeper. Georgia's roster of Revolution records him as Son of Liberty and a member of the Provincial Congress. He referred to himself as a "carpenter."
Pierre Tondu born in 1684, in Chatillon-sur-Loire, one year prior to the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, fled France and went to England. It is believed he settled near Leicester Square, in London. His son Peter Tondee was born in 1723, in London. At age 10 Peter came to the Georgia Colony, settling in Savannah. Orphaned, he and his brother Charles lived with several families until Rev. George Whitfield arrived and set up an orphanage called Bethesda. By that time Peter had learned the carpentry trade. In 1765 the Georgia Colonial Council employed him to build a structure for the courts of the Province of Georgia. Also in 1767, he was appointed inspector of lumber for the port of Savannah. http://members.aol.com/ldsed/
Peter had acquired several land grants and between 1766 and 1770 he built a tavern. Tondee's Tavern, located on the corner of Broughton and Whitaker Streets in Savannah, was the chief rallying place of the town for social, as well as business, activities for the last decade of the Colonial era, including the secret and not-so-secret meetings in protest of British taxes.
On the 5th of June, 1775, Georgia patriots raised the Liberty Pole in front of his tavern. On the 21st they summoned the people of Savannah to choose a committee for obtaining association with other patriots in other colonies. After all business transactions, the liberty flag was hoisted upon the liberty pole and several of the gentlemen dined in the Tavern and drank thirteen patriotic toasts. On the 4th of July, 1775, the seating of the first Provincial Congress of Georgia took place in the Tondee Tavern Long Room. http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-819
The story of the Liberty Pole begins about 1765. The Sons of Liberty was an organization started by Samuel Adams to protest British taxes. Patriots rallied around the town Liberty Pole, and flew a Liberty flag from the pole, which consisted of nine vertical stripes of alternating red and white. As might be expected, rallies tended to be night-time ventures to avoid the British. The goal: organize public and patriotic actions.
At first the Sons of Liberty met by large Liberty Trees, found on many village greens. A pine tree motif was used already on Colonial Flags of New England, so that a pine-shaped Liberty Tree is featured on the flags of the New England Colonies at the outset of the Revolutionary War. However, in towns that lacked a massive tree and elsewhere in the Colonies, Patriots began to raise a tall pole instead, as a symbol of a Liberty Tree. It naturally became known as the Liberty Pole.
For a lot more information about the Liberty symbolism at the time, try: http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/xf-cap.html -- http://www.coinsite.com/CoinSite-PF/PParticles/005c1793.htm -- http://www.coinsite.com/CoinSite-PF/PParticles/005cclcap.htm And, for an alternative explanation of these symbols, you may wish to try: http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/mason8.htm
Happy Birthday -- June 14, 1775: Today is the birthday of the U.S. Army. It was founded when the Continental Congress first authorized a muster of troops under its sponsorship. A new constellation rises, a new emblem is created for a new nation. This is also the birthday of our Flag (1777): http://LaRocheUSA.org/FlagDay.htm -- one of our oldest pages, still kept up to date. As an aside, on this date in 1989, the late President Ronald Reagan received an honorary knighthood from Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, about six months after leaving office.
June 17, 1775: The confrontation lasted less than 2 hours and was one of the deadliest of the Revolutionary War. The British captured Breed’s Hill on their third attempt but suffered over 1,000 casualties (226 dead and 828 wounded) versus about 440 for the Americans (140 dead and 301 wounded). Patriot General William Prescott allegedly told his men, Don't one of you fire until you see the whites of their eyes !
The Battle at Bunker Hill was actually fought on Breed’s Hill near Boston. It is doubtful that the American side carried any flag at the Bunker Hill Battle. If so, the flag was more probably red like the New England flag (above). The existence in history books of a "blue" Bunker Hill flag (left) is thought to arise from a coloring error in an illustration from 1710.
June 7, 1776: Richard Henry Lee of Virginia had proposed to the Second Continental Congress a resolution calling for a Declaration of Independence: 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. The Continental Congress delayed the vote on the resolution until July. On June 11, 1776, the Congress appointed three concurrent committees in response to the Lee Resolution: one to draft a declaration of independence, a second to draw up a plan "for forming foreign alliances," and a third to "prepare and digest the form of a confederation." On July first and third, the approval came and the Congress adopted the Resolution. July 4th marked the day the deed was done, signed and sealed. Delivery by publication: http://www.historicaldocuments.com/LeeResolution.htm.
The Declaration of Independence was first printed by John Dunlop in Philadelphia on the 5th of July 1776. Some 200 copies were prepared July 5-6 and distributed to the states. Col. John Nixon gave the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence to a crowd gathered at Independence Square in Philadelphia on July 8th. The reading was announced by the Liberty Bell. The instrument had the inscription: proclaim liberty throughout all the land onto all the inhabitants thereof, which is a paraphrase alluding to, inter alia, Luke 4:15-21 and Isaiah 61:1-2.
«Toute l'Europe a applaudi au sublime manifeste des États-Unis d'Amérique . . . . » Mirabeau
écrira, dans ses Lettres de Cachet (1782)
June 4, 1789: Many Websites report that the Constitution of the United States of America, written and adopted sometime earlier through the approval of the 13 former colonial states, went into effect on this date in history. What happened on June 4, 1789, was that in the brand-new US Senate, Vice President John Adams administered an oath to all Senators, setting a pattern that future Presiding Officers followed, without controversy, for the next 74 years. In true "chicken or the egg" fashion, the Oath Act was the first act approved by Congress and signed by the President on June 1st. The true business of the Country under the new Constitution did not begin until the 4th when Adams administered the oath. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r105:S07JA7-94:
Declaration of the Rights of Man and the
Citizen (26 August 1789), which claimed to be universal in application -- e.g.
tous les hommes sont frères;
la guerre est le plus grand des maux, les conquêtes relèvent de l'injustice;
le roi est fait pour ses sujets et non les sujets pour le roi.
Le despotisme est une faute grave. La tyrannie est un crime;
Il est une trahison votre nation à appauvrir le pays et dépouiller sa monnaie;
il faut établir la liberté du commerce;
toute organisation sociale doit reposer sur la Vertu;
la nature est bonne, l'humanité est bonne, aimons-nous entre hommes et soyons bons.
Is it not clear why one failed and the other has success? See The French Revolution, A History by Thomas Carlyle -- see also Our French Revolution Page.
«Rien ne recule plus le progrès des connoissances, qu'un
mauvais ouvrage d'un Auteur célèbre: parce qu'avant
d'instuire, il faut commencer par détromper.»
MONTESQUIEU Espirit: des Lois, L. XXX. Ch. XV.
Celebrate the 4th
A wonderful
Declaration site -- documents Galore
The first great confrontation of the
Cold War began in June 1948: 50th Anniversary of the Berlin Airlift
The Berlin Airlift begins June 26, 1948 |
June 24, 1948: West Berlin, Germany, physically located entirely within communist-held East Germany, was isolated completely from the Western world on this day. Joseph Stalin, premier of Soviet Union, who had already cut rail and road access to the city for three months, now blocked all ground and water entry. He cut electric power to the Western sector. Within a few days, the great Berlin Airlift began. U.S. planes flew up to 13,000 tons of goods per day into the city for the next 10 months. Stalin lifted the blockade on May 23, 1949. Berlin--Retracing the Cold War begins at: http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/european_travel/6745. See also USAFE Berlin Airlift Web Site; more here too. The organization of CARE was involved in the process of giving humanitarian aid, in the face of Soviet domination. |
Vor 50 Jahren war es eine Luftbrücke, die den
Berlinern das Leben rettete....
Misc: Schauen
Saints' Days --
Liturgical Year -- Other Holidays