July 4th was 'day that really counted'

We’re late, according to at least one founding father.

Independence Day, wrote John Adams in a letter to his wife in 1776, should be celebrated on July 2 — the day the Continental Congress voted in favor of it.

So why is it two days later? July 4 is when the holiday was formally adopted. It’s also the date, in 1826, when Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration’s primary author, died.

Those first Fourth celebrations weren’t much different from today’s. In the same letter, Adams said Independence Day should be celebrated with “pomp and parade … games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other.”

And so it was. Bands played and cannons blasted as public officials read the Declaration of Independence before cheering crowds. In that first year some colonists held mock funerals for England’s King George, a contrast to former celebrations of his birthday.

So big were these celebrations, so central to new American life and identity, that July Fourth outpaced Christmas — then a much quieter, more private affair — in the 18th and 19th centuries.

An interview from the Federal Writer’s Project in the 1930s, which focused on rural life in the 19th century, described the Fourth as “the big event of the year.” A Miss Nettie Spencer, who grew up in rural Oregon in the 1870s, described it thus:

“Everyone in the countryside got together on that day for the only time in the year. The new babies were shown off, and the new brides who would be exhibiting babies next year. Everyone would load their wagons with all the food they could haul and come to town early in the morning. There would be floats in the morning and sometimes the driver wore an Uncle Sam hat and striped pants. All along the sides of the hay-rack were little girls who represented the states of the union. The smallest was always Rhode Island... The one (float) that got the eye was the Goddess of Liberty. She was supposed to be the most wholesome and prettiest girl in the countryside.

“Just before lunch — and we’d always hold lunch up for an hour — some Senator or lawyer would speak. These speeches always had one pattern. First the speaker would challenge England to a fight and berate the King and say that he was a skunk. This was known as twisting the lion’s tail.

“Then the next theme was that anyone could find freedom and liberty on our shores. The speaker would invite those who were heavy laden in other lands to come to us and find peace.

“The speeches were pretty fiery and by that time the men who drank got into fights and called each other Englishmen. In the afternoon we had what we called the ‘plug uglies’ — funny floats and clowns who took off on the political subjects of the day... The Fourth was the day of the year that really counted then.”

Safe and happy Fourth to tail twisters and plug uglies alike.

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Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network.

Contact her at Sholeh@cdapress.com.