Save The Date
The Del Mar Foundation
and
The Del Mar Historical Society
Present a Celebration of the 250th Anniversary of the United States
This will be a FREE program of patriotic and Great American Songbook music
Registration information coming soon!
Officially, the Continental Congress declared its freedom from Great Britain on July 2, 1776, when it voted to approve a resolution submitted by delegate Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, declaring “That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.”
John Adams thought July 2 would be marked as a national holiday for generations to come. Adams wrote “[Independence Day] will be the most memorable epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade with shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”
After voting on independence on July 2, the Continental Congress then needed to draft a document explaining the move to the public. It had been proposed in draft form by the Committee of Five and it took two days for the Congress to agree on the edits. Once the Congress approved the actual Declaration of Independence document on July 4, 1776, it ordered that it be sent to a printer named John Dunlap. About 200 copies of the “Dunlap Broadside” version of the document was printed, with John Hancock’s name printed at the bottom. Today, 26 copies remain.