RE: July 4th

["Hollis, Mark (NBC Universal)" <Mark.Hollis(at)nbcuni.com>]

Title: RE: July 4th

I recall that King George III wrote in his diary on 4 July, 1776, "Nothing of import happened today."

Of course nobody had Sky TV back then and the transatlantic telephone cable had not been finished...

I sent a copy of the "complaints" portion of the Declaration of Independence to an English friend of mine some years back and he was horrified at what the Colonists were complaining about (he quickly sided with the Colonists against his own government, saying, "We must have taken leave of our senses."). But England was trying to recoup from the costs of the "Seven Years' War" as it was called in Europe, the "French and Indian War" as it was called in North America. The United Kingdom was experiencing a recession and the country's coffers were pretty empty.

Unfortunately, for the King, his Parliament and the history of the country, the American Colonists had relied on self-rule (due to really slow communications back then) since the 1600s and honestly felt that rule by Parliament (which had no delegates from any of the Colonies) was an usurpation of the home rule which had long been established, to the success of the entire system, including Parliament, the King and the Colonies.

This is, of course, not the whole story but it does include elements that tend to be largely ignored by "celebrants" on both sides of the issue.

For more information, please see: http://www.archives.gov/national_archives_experience/charters/declaration.html
and click on "Read Transcript."