Yes, on September 3rd 1783, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay (representing the US), met with David Hartley (representing King George III) at the Hotel de York in France to sign the Treaty of Paris. This treaty was the document that, for the first time, gave the United States of America international recognition as a nation and not a conglomeration of rebellious British colonies.
It was on this day that the nation of the United States of America arguably started in the eyes of the world at large.
So, what of the signing of the Declaration of Independence 7 years earlier? We've always hailed July 4th as the beginning of our great nation, but why? If you think about it, at the time of it's writing, what did the Declaration of Independence really mean? It was a summary of Enlightenment ideals that A) justified the present conflict against Great Britain and B) declared that the conflict would continue until the British left them alone. Politically, it meant very little, except to perhaps define why the colonists were fighting and to what end.
It would be the equivalent of me writing a letter to President Bush and telling him that I consider my farm to be a the sovereign nation of Samdom and would really be obliged if he didn't send me an income tax form this year. You can write as many 'Declarations of Independence' as you would like, but until everyone recognizes you as a nation (and stops trying to blow you up) you're probably just tooting your own horn.
Now don't hear me wrong, I'm not trying to bash the D of I, it was a great day in the annals of history. I'm simply trying to make the case that perhaps September 3rd would be a better day to commemorate the 'Birthday of America'.
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Now, here I've discussed two arguable dates for the 'Birthday of the US', but according to my tally there are actually four. The first person to guess the other two events that could be argued as the Birthday of the US will get the 'Genius of the Hour' award.
Happy Guessing.
4 comments:
would they be when the constitution was signed (by all but 2 people) or when those two signers actually put their names to the paper?
-Graydon :-)
Nope, those two events are not the two events that I have in mind.
The signing of the Constitution by the last two people really wasn't that important as their votes weren't needed in order to pass it.
Guess again!
How about the Passing of the Constitution and the passing of the bill of rights?
Bzzzzzt.
Try again.
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