Happy 2nd of July?
Did you know it was the Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee who introduced a motion calling for the colonies’ independence from Great Britain at the June 7, 1776 meeting of the Continental Congress?

 On July 2nd, the Continental Congress voted in favor of Lee’s resolution for independence in a near-unanimous vote.   On that day, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail that July 2, “will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival” and that the celebration should include “Pomp and Parade…Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other.” 

On July 4th, the Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence. Though the vote for actual independence took place on July 2nd, from then on the 4th became the day that was celebrated as the birth of American independence.

 John Adams believed that July 2nd was the correct date on which to celebrate the birth of American independence,  and would reportedly turn down invitations to appear at July 4th events in protest.   Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826--the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

 (Source: www.history.com)

Ginny Jones 
(Virginia A. Jones, CRM, FAI) 
Records Manager 
Information Technology Division 
Newport News Dept. of Public Utilities 
Newport News, VA 
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