[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 91 (Friday, July 1, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7887-S7888]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           THE FOURTH OF JULY

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, many Americans will soon enjoy a long 3-day 
weekend, courtesy of the Fourth of July, which this year falls on a 
Monday.
  The Fourth of July is a wonderful time. Summer's heat has not yet 
worn us down. School has not been out so long that the days have begun 
to drag for the younger set--or for their parents. We are not tired of 
the season or of each other. The growth of the grass has slowed, so 
that weekends are not spent on mowing and yard work, but leaves some 
time for picnics and pools. Gardens are beginning to pour forth their 
bounty, but not yet in such abundance that we have become desperate to 
unload mounds of zucchini and tomatoes. Wild blackberries. I remember 
when I was a boy, reaching around the shed and picking off a few wild 
blackberries and having the color of the blackberries stain my 
lips. Wild blackberries are ripening along the edges of fields and the 
heavy perfume of honeysuckle vines makes rural walks a feast--a feast--
for the senses. The Fourth of July is a perfect time to glory in the 
gentle bounty of our Nation and of our Nation's families. Independence 
Day, together with Thanksgiving and Christmas, remains a uniquely 
family-oriented celebration. When Americans reflect on our freedom, our 
security, our liberties, our many blessings, we like to do it among our 
closest friends and family.

  Fourth of July parades--oh man, man, man, they will bring out the 
crowds along community main streets, big towns, little towns, middle-
size towns. Small hands--I can just see them, can't you?--small hands, 
little hands will clutch miniature flags as firetrucks roll past in all 
of their shining glory. Floats made by church groups, scout troops, and 
4-H clubs will compete, each hoping to demonstrate the greatest 
patriotism.
  After the parades, there will be family picnics and barbecues that 
host their own friendly competition as family cooks show off their 
talents at the grill or on tables laden with traditional favorites such 
as creamy macaroni and potato salad, slow-cooked baked beans--oh, how 
good they taste--deviled eggs, and chocolate cake.
  The menu is not as important, however, as the feeling of family 
solidarity as everyone settles in after a splendid meal to watch the 
cascading displays of fireworks set off in the growing dusk. With the 
exception of some small children and family pets, such as my little 
dog, Trouble, that howl at the thunderous booms and high-pitched 
squeals of some fireworks, the general response to the evening's finale 
is usually a unanimous ``oooh'' after each bloom of sparks.
  Even the earliest Independence Day celebrations were marked by 
similar displays of patriotism, often including the discharge of 
cannons, one for each State in the Union, and toasts, also one for each 
State in the Union.
  On July 3, 1776, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail and said:

       Yesterday the greatest question was decided which ever was 
     debated in America; and a greater perhaps never was, nor will 
     be, decided among men. A resolution was passed without one 
     dissenting colony, that those United Colonies are, and of 
     right ought to be, free and independent States.

  That resolution was on separation from England. It was not until July 
4 that the Declaration of Independence--the Declaration of 
Independence, there it is with my wife Erma's name on the front of the 
leather cover. It contains the Constitution, the Articles of 
Confederation, yes, and the Declaration of Independence, and some other 
historic documents.
  The Declaration of Independence was voted upon by the Continental 
Congress. Adams felt that the July 2 date was the one that would be 
marked by celebration, but the physical presence of the declaration 
document, along with its stirring rhetoric, allowed it to easily usurp 
the separation vote tally as the turning point in history.
  Eighty copies of the original declaration were printed that same 
night, July 4, for distribution among the rebelling colonies.
  At the very first Independence Day celebrations, those spontaneous 
ones that followed in the days and weeks after the Declaration of 
Independence was adopted and distributed, the Declaration of 
Independence was itself a central part of the festivity, read aloud to 
the crowds gathered at capitols, courthouses, and public places around 
the newly declared nation. In New York, the Declaration of Independence 
was read at the head of each brigade of the Continental Army posted 
around the city, to loud hurrahs--loud hurrahs.
  Today, as proud inhabitants of a powerful and wealthy nation, it can 
be difficult to recall that in 1776, the celebrations of independence 
must be seen as

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acts of incredible bravado. In 1776, the population of the United 
States was estimated to be between 2.2 million and 2.9 million people 
dispersed over an enormous swath of lightly populated country. Some 
70,000 British loyalists had fled the new United States after 
independence was declared. The remaining tiny population was taking on 
the British empire at the height of her power--a colossus five times 
larger in terms of population that was the greatest and richest in 
history since the fall of Rome and the recent victor of wars against 
France and Spain that left her in sole possession of much of the North 
American Continent. To wave flags and shoot off fireworks in 
celebration of the Declaration of Independence from such a behemoth was 
tantamount to a junior varsity football team taking on the entire 
National Football League for the Super Bowl and thumbing their noses to 
boot. In point of fact, it took everything the new Nation had to eke 
out a victory. There were many points during the Revolution at which 
the outcome was far from certain.
  Even in the aftermath of victory, the future of the new Nation was 
fragile. Burdened by war debt, exhausted, struggling to form a workable 
government out of 13 highly independent new States, the new Nation 
limped along without even an established capital. It was not until the 
Constitution was drafted in 1787 and the new Capital established in 
Washington, DC, that the new Nation took on a sense of stability and 
permanence. On July 4, 1801, President Thomas Jefferson, the principal 
drafter of the Declaration of Independence, opened the White House to 
guests while the Marine Band played patriotic music on the lawn and 
militia units conducted military drills with fixed bayonets.

  Independence Day celebrations were conducted far from Washington as 
well. Two hundred years ago, July 4, 1805, found the Lewis and Clark 
expedition traveling along the upper Missouri River in Montana. LT 
William Clark noted in his journal that the group honored the day with 
as much of a feast as they could muster, drank the last of their 
brandy, and pulled out the fiddle for dancing and merriment until ``a 
late hour.'' I am especially pleased to note that fiddle playing was 
part of the day's celebration. In my younger days, family gatherings 
always included some fiddle playing, a little singing, and maybe a 
little dancing. It is a tradition as old as the Fourth of July.
  I hope, Mr. President, that on this Independence Day, many Americans 
may enjoy a little fiddle music--it keeps you down to Earth--a healthy 
dollop of patriotism, and the pleasure of family. As we celebrate the 
day with friends and families at home or out amid our Nation's 
beautiful wild spaces, I hope all of our citizens will spare a moment 
or two to read the Declaration of Independence. Let us remember that 
each person who signed that Declaration of Independence virtually was 
signing his own death warrant. After all, they could have been charged 
with treason against the King and hanged. Think of it.
  The colonists rebelled against a government that was arbitrary, 
unjust, high handed, and unwilling to even hear the concerns of those 
it governed. They rebelled against a tyrant who made the military 
independent of and superior to civil authority, who imposed taxes 
without their consent, deprived them of the benefits of trial by jury, 
cut off their trade, abolished their laws, and fundamentally altered 
the form of government, suspended their legislatures, captured their 
people at sea, and forced them to bear arms against the colonists, and 
ignored their pleas for justice, these things among many other 
grievances.
  On the Fourth of July, Americans celebrate and honor the tremendous 
vision of our Founding Fathers, their incredible courage, and their 
willingness to take on a fight that must have seemed a desperate 
gamble. We celebrate a document that laid out for all the world to see 
just what kind of a nation we aim to be and just what kind of a 
government we would never stand for--we should never stand for.
  The Declaration of Independence is more than a piece of paper. The 
Declaration of Independence is more than a piece of history. It is a 
vow for the future, a call to battle, and the cornerstone of a new 
nation. As we watch the flags snap and pop in the breeze as the parade 
swings past, recall the words of the Declaration that put troops on the 
march to take on the King's armies. Each citizen, each family, has much 
to be grateful for as a result of that document.
  And so, Mr. President, let me read briefly from that beautiful 
Declaration:

       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.
  On this Fourth of July, let us honor and let us recall the 
generations of brave Americans who have fought on and off the 
battlefield to preserve our freedom, and then let us remember the words 
of Henry Van Dyke's poem ``America For Me.''

     Tis fine to see the old world, and travel up and down
     Among the famous palaces and cities of renown,
     To admire the crumbly castles and the statues of the kings;
     But now I think I've had enough of antiquated things.

     So it's home again, and home again, America for me!
     My heart is turning home again, and there I long to be,
     In the land of youth and freedom beyond the ocean bars,
     Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of 
           stars.

     Oh, London is a man's town, there's power in the air;
     And Paris is a woman's town, with flowers in her hair;
     And it's sweet to dream in Venice, and it's great to study in 
           Rome
     But when it comes to living there is just no place like home.

     I like the German firwoods, in green battalions drilled;
     I like the gardens of Versailles with flashing fountains 
           filled;
     But, oh, to take your hand, my dear, and ramble for a day in 
           the friendly [West Virginia hills] where nature has her 
           way!

     I know that Europe's wonderful, yet something seems to lack:
     The past is too much with her, and the people looking back.
     But the glory of the present is to make the future free;
     We love our land for what she is and what she is to be.

     Oh, it's home again, and home again, America for me!
     I want a ship that's westward bound to plough the rolling 
           sea,
     To the blessed land of room enough beyond the ocean bars,
     Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of 
           stars.

                                                 --Henry Van Dyke.

  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  Mr. BENNETT. Mr. President, I will say to my friend from West 
Virginia, I had occasion to live abroad for 2 years, and as I caught 
the ship to come home again, westward bound--I suppose that dates me 
because now you go by plane--I recited that poem. It is good to hear it 
recited on the floor of the Senate in the shadows of the Fourth of 
July.
  While I was waiting and heard the Senator from West Virginia urge us 
all to read the Declaration of Independence, I took the copy that is in 
my desk and I read it through so I can report to him that I have done 
my homework.
  Mr. BYRD. I thank the Senator.
  (The remarks of Mr. Bennett pertaining to the introduction of S. 1379 
are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')

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