Independence Days

I’m pretty lucky.  I get to celebrate two independence days.

The first is Texas Independence Day which falls on March 2.  It was on that day that signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence met at Washington-On-The-Brazos and signed the document written primarily by George C. Childress.

That document almost didn’t get signed.  Those in attendance at the constitutional  convention had received a letter from the Alamo urging them to send aid to the embattled forces there.  However, cool heads persevered and the founding fathers of Texas remained at their tasks while the defenders of the  Alamo fought to the last man.  If those men who were writing the document that declared freedom for all of Texas had gone to the aid of the Alamo, they would also have surely perished and the Republic would not have been formed.

Much of the Texas Declaration of Independence contains language of the American Declaration of Independence.

My other Independence Day celebration of course comes on July 4th.

It was in 1776 that the Second Continental Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence of The United States, more than a year after the Revolutionary War began in Lexington, Massachusetts — and then it was more than seven years before the war would come to an end with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

The July 4th party started small.  One year later, there was a small celebration of Independence Day in Philadelphia, but celebrations didn’t become common until after the War of 1812, and in 1870 Congress passed a law declaring it a federal holiday.

Back to the present day….These days, almost all communities — from small towns to major metropolitan areas — have 4th of July parades and set off fireworks. Washington, D.C., has a parade down Constitution Avenue and fireworks above the Washington Monument. In Boston, the Boston Pops Orchestra performs a free concert that ends with fireworks over the Charles River. Chicago, New Orleans, Houston, and Philadelphia also have huge festivities. But the longest-running 4th of July parade in the country takes place in Bristol, Rhode Island, a town of just over 20,000, which has had a parade every year since 1785.

Tagged as: david werst, Real Texas Blog, Texas Lifestyle