Happy Birthday, America

It is the eve of the 4th of July, America's 249th birthday in a time of turmoil and tumult, a country divided, and not that far off from where we started. The House of Representatives, then the Senate, then the House again, have all passed the "Big Beautiful Bill," to Donald Trump's delight, taxing the poor and giving to the rich, desecrating the environment, and ignoring the "Mother of Exiles" who's held a torch for "huddled masses yearning to breathe free" for over 140 years in New York Harbor. It reminded me to do my homework, remember a few stats from AP U.S. History, and turn up the music.

"A colony that runs independently, meanwhile, Britain keeps shittin' on us endlessly. Essentially, they tax us relentlessly, then King George turns around, runs a spendin' spree. He ain't ever gonna set his descendants free, so there will be a revolution in this century." - Hamilton, the Musical

Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton

So what got us here in the first place? Why leave an established, wealthy, first-world stronghold to step foot on a new nation without industry, comfort, safety, or any promise of a future? Well, they had good reason.

The first, and maybe most familiar, was "no taxation without representation," the eventual slogan of the American Revolution, which was the idea that no citizen of a country should be taxed if they have no say and are not represented by their government. The colonists felt like they had no representation in British Parliament and were being unfairly treated by being denied jury trials, quartering troops (being forced to house soldiers in their homes), and by restrictions on trade. The latter included tariffs on imported goods in American colonies, including sugar, molasses, glass, paint, paper, and tea.

Artist unknown

As a result, colonists boycotted British goods and protested as the Boston Tea Party. After the British Parliament created a monopoly on tea sales via the British East India Company, colonists disguised themselves as members of the Mohawk (Kanien'kehá:ka) Tribe and boarded three British ships, dumping 342 chests of tea into the harbor. The act of defiance escalated tensions between the colonists and Great Britain, who responded with the Coercive (Intolerable) Acts to punish the colonists by reasserting authority. They did this by curtailing self-governance in Massachusetts and giving power back to the royal governor, closing the Port of Boston, and requiring British Officials accused of crimes to be tried in Britain, not Massachusetts.

Think of it as taking away federal judges' authority, giving states' rights back to the Executive Branch, and requiring all federal crimes of an official to be tried by their own party members. But I digress.

Eventually leadership formed among the colonists, known today as the "Founding Fathers," and began to visualize a government where people, instead of leadership, held the power and decision-making. No longer would there be a hereditary monarchy, where control was handed down through bloodlines and a predetermined order of succession. Now they wanted a republic, where citizens had a voice, could participate in governance, and without fear of tyranny or power of one individual, as was the case with the British monarchy. A republic would create checks and balances, protecting the individual liberties of its citizens. The way to get there, the Founding Fathers believed, was through "Enlightenment thinkers," people like Voltaire, who championed religious tolerance and separation of church and state, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who laid the groundwork for socialist thought regarding the importance of equality, and John Locke, who developed theories of natural rights, including life, liberty, and property.

Apu Gomes

One thing that isn't mentioned often are the "standing armies," or presence of British military personnel sent by leadership during peacetime, which was seen as a threat to liberty and an unnecessary burden.

I'm sure Gavin Newsom remembers that part.

But the biggest grievance colonists and Founding Fathers had against British rule was King George III, himself. The Declaration of Independence listed 27 grievances (not quite 34) against him, including, but not limited to:

• He has refused to Assent to (follow) Laws...for the public good

• He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws...till his Assent should be obtained (i.e. no law can be passed without his say so)

• He has endeavored to prevent the population...obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners (discouraging immigration)

• For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world

• For imposing taxes on us without our consent

• For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever

Benjamin West, 1770

Eventually, of course, all this led to the Revolutionary War beginning on April 19th, 1775 with the Battles of Lexington and Concord and the "shot heard 'round the world." A month later the Second Continental Congress met with delegates from all thirteen colonies, soon after appointing George Washington as Commander-In-Chief of the Continental Army. Fighting continued throughout the year, but so did development, including the Postal Service, the Navy, and issuing currency. And by June of 1776 a new resolution proposed making the colonies independent. By July 2nd they were just that, and on July 4th, 1776 Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence, which was adopted by the Continental Congress, officially declaring the thirteen American colonies free from Great Britain.

John Trumbull, 1819

Friends, I'm not just giving you a history lesson here; I'm offering up some hope. Our country was built on the standards that we're fighting for right now, in this very moment: fair taxes for working people, removal of tariffs on allied countries, a Supreme Court that stands for truth and justice, free and fair trials, a republic where it is the people who lead, checks and balances, individual liberties, separation of church and state, social welfare, natural rights, fair immigration policies, the right to peacefully protest, and above all, freedom from tyranny and the power of one individual, as was the British monarchy.

I leave you with these words, edited and approved by the Committee of Five, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman:

"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. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security." - The Preamble to the Declaration of Independence - July 4th, 1776

Ellie is an author, editor, and owner of Red Pencil Transcripts, and works with filmmakers, podcasts, and journalists all over the world. She lives with her family just outside of New York City.