200 Years of Independence

ON July 4, 1776, the United States of America was “born.” That was the day when the thirteen colonies in North America declared their independence from Great Britain.

July 4, 1976, marks the 200th anniversary of that occasion. The event has been called the “Bicentennial,” from bi, meaning “two,” and centennial, meaning “hundredth anniversary.”

In two hundred years the United States has become the fourth-largest country in the world, both in population and in land area. Its population is now about 215 million.

But as nations go, the country is relatively young. The first permanent European settlement was established by the British at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. Most of those early settlers came in search of religious or political freedom, or to try to improve their economic condition.

Revolution Begins

By 1776 there were thirteen colonies, having a total population of about 2,600,000. But long before that year, antagonisms had been building between the colonists and the British government of King George III. Most of the colonists demanded more political and economic freedom. When it was not granted, they rebelled and formed their own Continental Congress.

The first successful aggressive military action by the American revolutionaries took place in May 1775. Ethan Allen and his “Green Mountain Boys” of Vermont attacked the British fortress of Ticonderoga, New York. Allen demanded and got the British to surrender “in the name of the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress.”

The next year, the Continental Congress met at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. There, on July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was approved.

Desired Freedoms

The Declaration spelled out the freedoms desired. It embodied high and noble ideals, stating in part: “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.”

The Declaration also included protests against Britain’s ‘refusal to pass laws for the rights of the people, obstructing the administration of justice, depriving in many cases the benefits of trial by jury, plundering our seas, ravaging our coasts, burning our towns, destroying the lives of our people, and taking citizens captive and forcing them into the King’s service.’

Finally, after eight bitter years of war, a peace treaty was signed in 1783. All British forces were withdrawn. The United States was now its own master.

What has happened since then? What have two hundred years of proclaimed liberty brought to the nation? Is its future bright? What are the prospects for a “Tricentennial”?