Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Happy Independence Day!

I hope everyone will take time to celebrate our independene from tyrrany and reckless taxation.

Yep.

It may take a couple more years to get the celebration into full swing.

Yes! Happy Independence Day.

I'm happy to celebrate a holiday where armed Americans started an insurrection

Few people know any more about the 4th of July than it is a time to drink beer and set off Fireworks.

The Revolutionary War started in April of 1775 and lasted until 1783. July 4th is when the Declaration Of Independence was signed, and not the date our independence was won.

Significant, yes, understood, no…

I have often wondered on how different my life would have been if born in 1760 rather than 1960.

Don't let them be debbie downer to your Sam Kinneson...

If true I am astounded.... The Celebration was after the boys came out of (what is now) Independence Hall and read The Declaration. The torries then shunk and slinked back to theier homes "like mincie little [bleep] balls" (Bullet Tooth Tony)

Happy 4th all!

Back when I was a kid (1950s), our church had a big deal on the 4th. People began to gather early in the morning. Clay tile and planks were on loan from the lumber yard to make seating. A stock tank was borrowed from the IH dealer and filled with huge block of ice and water, later to be filled with bottled pop (no beer), watermelons and muskmelons. At noon there was a potluck meal in the church (which I loved!). After eating, we kids were required to present something patriotic - songs, poem, readings. Of course, my mom had to make sure that I had something lengthy to read. After that, we retired to the grassy plot where the ball field was located. It was always the men versus the boys in softball. There were various contests for the young and the women. I have a picture of Mom seriously winning the women's nail-pounding contest. At this time, the concessions were open, featuring the items in the tank, plus baked goods and ice cream kept in large, padded bags and set in the tank. Dad always had a half muskmelon with ice cream scooped into the center. All the while, there would be the pop of firecrackers (illegally smuggled in from South Dakota). I had a Zippo lighter for lighting them. One year I ran out of fluid. Dad and I walked home (just a block from the church) to refill it. Dad filled it over the sink and ran some down his arm. When he gave it a flick to test it, all of the hair (quite a bit) on that arm disappeared. The smell of burning hair still hung in the kitchen when we went home that evening.

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

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 shewn, 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.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

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

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

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

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, 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; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Good move Sqidge!

What isn’t widely know is that Connecticut and Massachusetts and all of New England were for the likes of King George the entire time that our Founders and General Washington were walking the walk fighting and dying! Many Tories were passing information to British Generals in exchange for port cities not to be shelled by offshore ships! In my opinion all of New England and the two states mentioned above have been a pain in the ass to all of modern day America!

April 19, 1775----THE SHOT HEARD AROUND THE WORLD! The day the colonials stood strong to oppose tyranny and the kings attempt to disarm Lexington and Cocord Massachusetts.
It was one of the most significant events in colonial America. The day many freedom loving people decided they would no longer be subjects of the crown.
In many ways it was the day the United States of America was born. That day changed the course of history not only for America, but the world.

Sadly, in the very place where our liberty and our nation were born, we are facing the same tyranny today. The 'king' is once again hell bent on disarming America.

God bless all those who rose up to secure our liberty and all those who have sense fought a died to maintain that liberty!

Happy 4th!

God bless the U.S A!!!

The porch monkeys are celebrating in Chicago big time. Where are they getting their ammo?

Democrat party headquarters office in Chicago or the mayor's office?

If Connecticut, Massachusetts, and all of New England supported the king the outcome would have been drastically different.
True, there were many Tories. But to claim Connecticut, Massachusetts, and all of New England was of that ilk is simply painting with to broad of brush.

"By the rude bridge that arched the flood, their flag to April's breeze unfurled, here once the embattled farmers stood..."

I've always loved those lines.

5sdad,
Me too!!!

Sung at the Completion of the Battle Monument, July 4, 1837

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world.

The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.

On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set today a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.


Ralph Waldo Emerson

🇺🇸