Happy Independence Day

July 4th is the day we celebrate the Declaration of Independence, a profound document that declared our independence from England and established our nation’s birth. Most fittingly, a rare copy of the Declaration of Independence was found in West Sussex:

A rare parchment copy of the American Declaration of Independence has been found at a British archive among the papers of an aristocrat who supported the rebels, officials have said.

The manuscript was discovered at the West Sussex Record Office in the southern English city of Chichester by a team of researchers led by two Harvard University academics.

Tests supported the hypothesis that it was produced in the 1780s, West Sussex County Council said earlier this week – just a few years after the declaration itself was issued in 1776.

The document ‘is the only other contemporary manuscript copy of the Declaration of Independence on parchment apart from the signed copy at the National Archives in Washington DC,’ known as the Matlack Declaration, a council statement said earlier this week.

The parchment is believed to originally have belonged to Charles Lennox, the Third Duke of Richmond.

Lennox was an army officer and politician known as the ‘Radical Duke’ for his support of American colonists during the Revolution.

A bit of American history tells us about the Radical Duke:

Highland Scots were among the first to settle in this area of North Carolina. They pushed up the Cape Fear river in search of fresh grazing and crop lands. English settlers also came into the county from the direction of the “panhandle” in the northwest. Many of North Carolina’s counties were formed in response to complaints about having to travel long distances to get to court, and Richmond County was no exception.

The difficulty of having to cross the Pee Dee River to get to Anson’s county seat spurred the Assembly to create Richmond county from Anson in 1779. It was named in honor of Charles Lennox, the Duke of Richmond and friend of the American colonies. He petitioned the House of Lords to grant the colonies their independence.

We rarely think about how profound and life changing the decision to declare our independence was or what it meant to the men who chose to take such a big risk for freedom. Today is a great day to contemplate the sacrifices made on our behalf.

Hope you all have a wonderful July 4th!

An aside: J Soden you were way ahead of me this AM…happy 4th to you and yes, God bless America!

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17 Responses to Happy Independence Day

  1. Tina says:

    I’m watching the Giants and browsing the headlines…what a day for the crazies!

    Breitbart, “Facebook Removes Declaration of Independence Excerpt for ‘Hate Speech’”

  2. Harold says:

    Let’s just forget the crazies for a day, lets just relish in the freedoms of this country as prescribed by our founders and a special toast those who fight to preserve them.

    Happy 4th of July folks , hope you enjoyed your day in great country..

    MAGA, celebrate the rebuilding of “America the Beautiful and Rediscovering What Made This Nation Great” A good read by Ben Carson

  3. Peggy says:

    This. This Is What America Is All About. She EXISTS, Y’all. And She’s Tired Of People Assuming She Doesn’t.:

    “My name is Erica, and I just wanted to thank you for your site. Reading COTR is one of the first things that I do as part of my morning routine.

    In June, Hannah wrote an article about how no matter where you go in America, it always feels like “America”. I totally experienced that today. My job has me in Philly, so I ended up spending the 4th here. Words can’t express what I felt as I walked through Philadelphia. To be in the place where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were signed ON Independence Day was just awe inspiring. Just thinking about the history of this city made me love and appreciate this country even more. I don’t think that it gets more American than this. As I walked down the streets, seeing the flags of the various nations really drove home the concept of e” pluribus unum.” We come from all over and we all bring our own cultures, but all of those cultures come together to form something amazing.

    I am a young, black conservative woman who lives in Seattle. I normally don’t like to mention my demographics because that’s not important, but even after all that’s happened in the country, people still refuse to believe that people like me exist and because of my pigmentation, I’m supposed to think a certain way. I can’t tell you how many people on my timeline whine about how “racist” and horrible this country is, especially on this day. But as I walked along these streets, I felt nothing but pride and the realization of how blessed I am to be here.

    Keep doing what you’re doing-you’ve got a faithful lifelong reader. I am and forever will be proud to live under this flag!

    ~Erica~”

    https://www.chicksonright.com/blog/2018/07/04/this-this-is-what-america-is-all-about-she-exists-yall-and-shes-tired-of-people-assuming-she-doesnt/

    • Libby says:

      OMG ! I clicked on COTR … and immediately … I am highly motivated to clear my browsing history and scan my hard drive.

      Geez, Peggy … I don’t even want to think about what’s crawling around in yours.

  4. Tina says:

    American Greatness, “Shaun King is Right: The 4th of July Isn’t for BLM,” by Pedro Gonzales

    Gonzales writes about Frederick Douglas, who “denounced the Declaration and the Constitution” but later “came to revere the Constitution as ‘a glorious liberty document.’”

    Without the Constitution, we could not have attained the Union, but, Lincoln wrote, there is something behind the Constitution, “entwining itself more closely about the human heart.” Without the “expression of that principle, in our Declaration of Independence,” that all men are created equal, “we could not, I think, have secured our free government, and consequent prosperity.” A free government for a free people. Douglass embraced this truth.

    “Abolish slavery tomorrow,” said Douglass, “and not a sentence or syllable of the Constitution need be altered.” Why? Because emancipation is implicit in the Declaration, and the Declaration provided the philosophical framework of the Constitution.

    Slavery, Douglass concluded, was merely a “scaffolding to the magnificent structure, to be removed as soon as the building is completed.” That “magnificent structure” is this land most of us proudly call home. It might shock King to know that Douglass didn’t kneel for the national anthem. Rather, he played it on his violin for his grandchildren in the years after the Civil War—one life for every six slaves freed.

    Douglass, unlike King, condemned black “race pride, race love, race effort,” and “race superiority,” as “an effort to cast out Satan by Beelzebub.” The battle for liberty was not about black liberation, and it was not, according to Douglass:

    …because the victim of slavery was a negro, mulatto, or an Afro-American, but because the victim of slavery was a man and a brother to all other men, a child of God, and could claim with all mankind a common Father, and therefore should be recognized as an accountable being, a subject of government, and entitled to justice, liberty and equality before the law, and everywhere else.

    King is right. Today is not a holiday for Black Lives Matter. For Black Lives Matter has rejected the equality principle in our Declaration as a “sham,” and as scoffers, they do not have to celebrate the 4th. They also, however, do not have the right to impose their badly misinformed views on all those Americans who, like Douglass did, believe in and live by the principles of our Declaration of Independence.

    What a shame our educational system has failed to teach what is and always has been this fundamental truth.

    • Peggy says:

      Frederick Douglass also understood the true intent of the 3/5 clause was to guarantee the end of slavery by not allowing the southern democrats to gain control of congress and restore it when/if they gained control.

      To bad students for decades have not been taught the truth, which has resulted in a bunch of misinformed ignorant radicals who don’t know their protest and riots are completely unnecessary.

      The good news according to Candice Owens is there will be a mass exodus from the democrat party between now and 2020. People are waking up to the lies told by the party filled with liars.

      The Constitution’s 3/5 Clause Agrees, Black Lives Matter!:

      “It was Frederick Douglass who provided clarity on this issue. In a speech delivered in Glasgow, Scotland, March 26, 1860, Douglass explained the true meaning of the three-fifths compromise:

      “It is a downright disability laid upon the slaveholding States; one which deprives those States of two-fifths of their natural basis of representation. A black man in a free State is worth just two-fifths more than a black man in a slave State, as a basis of political power under the Constitution. Therefore, instead of encouraging slavery, the Constitution encourages freedom by giving an increase of “two-fifths” of political power to free over slave States.”

      Thus, the three-fifths clause was written for the sole purpose of limiting congressional representation of the slave states and denied the slave states additional pro-slavery representation in Congress!

      I believe adhering to our founding documents and the Christian God who created all men equal, will continue to provide solutions for the evil sickness of inequality and skin based hatred that continues to plague the human race.

      To solidify my stance I conclude with the words of Frederick Douglas,

      “Now, take the Constitution according to its plain reading and I defy the presentation of a single pro-slavery clause in it. On the other hand, it will be found to contain principles and purposes entirely hostile to the existence of slavery.”

      https://www.theamericanview.com/the-constitution-agrees-black-lives-matter/

      Even CNN got it right. Sure wish teachers and faculty would.

      3/5ths Clause , Not an Insult, A Blessing:

      “Democrats objected to the reading of the 3/5th clause of the Constitution was a pro-slavery provision – a provision declaring slaves to be only three-fifths of a person. However, the three-fifths clause was not a pro-slavery clause, and it did not relate to human worth. It was an anti-slavery apportionment provision designed to limit pro-slavery Southern representation in Congress.”

      http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-537422

      • Tina says:

        Well Peggy, the Democrats are a little slow…slow to let go of the hold they have over many blacks…just as they were in the days of slavery…and slow to get the truth.

      • Libby says:

        You people are sick. Peggy, this is disgusting.

        You really can’t see it ?????

        How can you vaunt the Constitution in one breath, and in the next, a nasty little bit of racist policy that appears no where in the Constitution.

        It’s appalling.

        • Peggy says:

          LOL You just showed your true color and total ignorance by attacking Frederick Douglass.

          I just copied Douglass’ own words and even posted a CNN article. You really are the sick one!

        • Peggy says:

          Oh but, Libs you’re wrong once again. The 3/5 clause does appear in the Constitution Article 1, Section 2. Read it for yourself slow one. I hope you can understand it and commit it to memory so we don’t have to go through this again.

          SECTION 2
          The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.

          No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.

          Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.”

          https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/articles/article-i

          • Peggy says:

            Just in case you didn’t get it Libs, “three fifths of all other Persons.” meant slaves, both black and white. There were also thousands of Irish slaves sold into slavery by the British too. Don’t believe, me look it up.

      • RHT447 says:

        More truth.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYzAqHD1gHc

        Liberal heads exploding in 3…2…1…

  5. Post Scripts says:

    Well done Tina, thank you!

    I spent part of my 4th taking a test drive in a new high end Tesla. Very impressed. Felt like all cars will some day be very similar to the Tesla.

    Details: It had a 300 mile range, takes 15 minutes to charge, ample super-charger stations available, 2 in Chico.

    It had auto-pilot, can park itself and it can come to you if you push a button. Auto pilot works best on freeway, features auto-braking for traffic and speed limits. Price was right, especially with rebates and savings on fuel. It will cost about 1/3rd the energy use of a gasoline type car. Pretty amazing overall.

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