| A Word Edgewise by Mary Joe Clendenin |
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| A Word Edgewise by Mary Joe Clendenin |
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Last Updated 01/20/06
THE 4TH OF JULY HOLIDAY HAD SERIOUS BEGINNINGS
Hope you had a fun, safe 4th of July. It seems to be a holiday dedicated to having fun: picnicking, barbecuing, visiting, swimming, boating, fishing, going to theme parks, watching fire works. Whatever your choice or choices.
In days gone by our greatest way to celebrate that holiday was to get mother to take us to some special place to swim. Maybe we could persuade her to take us (meaning my brother and I and all the other kids we could cram in the car) to Glen Rose where we could swim in a pool on the Paluxy. We always circled by the square to sample the "rotten egg" water from the fake stump. Usually a man was set up there to make instant pictures with one of those very first instant cameras.
Garner Lake was always a favorite, too. A high, to my young eyes, diving platform there challenged me. All of us jumped off it, but it took me some time to summon enough courage to dive from it.
To wind up the excursion we went home to eat a sweet, fresh watermelon on the big porch of our house.
Not much debate about fireworks. We didn't have them, usually. Sometimes we would have one package of little firecrackers, but, at least to me, they were never important.
Independence Day seems distant from 4th of July. In 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was signed, those men took their lives in their hands to witness such an insurrection. It was almost as if they were going against their countrymen. Though it seems the patriotic thing, the "will of the people", the signers didn't get the immediate support of those people.
In a letter written by one of the signers, Dr. Benjamin Rush, to John Adams, he described the solemnity of the occasion:
Do you recollect the pensive and awful silence which pervaded the house when we were called up, one after another, to the table of the President of Congress to subscribe what was believed by many at that time to be our own death warrants? (This was on August 2, when most signed. Only two signed on the 4th.) The silence and the gloom of the morning were interrupted, I well recollect, only for a moment by Colonel Harrison of Virginia, who said to Mr. Gerry at the table: "I shall have a great advantage over you, Mr. Gerry, when we are all hung for what we are now doing. From the size and weight of my body I shall die in a few minutes, but from the lightness of your body you will dance in the air an hour or two before you are dead."
The identities of the signers were kept secret for several months to prevent revenge by the British or by Loyalists. But even that did not protect them. Several families were chased from farms and homes that were then destroyed. Some of the signers and their wives were imprisoned. John Martin of Pennsylvania died following a breakdown by the strain of being shunned by friends. The wife of Francis Lewis died in prison.
After Congress had declared independence, most of Washington's army expected to be discharged. Officers had to go out and recruit soldiers. Captain Alexander Graydon wrote of the difficulty in finding men to back the cause of freedom with more than words. He told of being laughed at when he went into a public gathering place in Frankfort to recruit.
Every war has its heroes, but not all of them have such unpopular beginnings. The ideals seem high and worthy, but the cost of war in human suffering is only made heroic by looking back, by history.
Only now do I realize that I have been missing the seriousness of the occasion intended by celebrating the 4th of July. I have usually ignored the cause for celebrating. It is a great occasion, and many people and organizations celebrate with patriotic ceremony as John Adams wrote to his wife Abrigail:
I believe it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the Great Anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty...solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports...
However you celebrated--and are celebrating--I hope you will give a little thought and thanksgiving to those brave forefathers. Remembering our heritage and the price paid for our country in that and other wars makes me humble. Whoever lies in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier represents many heroes. May we ever choose just causes to demand the necessary price in human suffering.