The World Economic Forum is calling for more direct action to end the pending food crisis. Amazing how that is timed with Oregon and Idaho water restrictions and Michigan Avian Flu crisis. Want fries with the grasshopper burger?
We take it for granted that the Founding Fathers were of a single mind and that they somehow possessed a single dispensation from above that gave us 250 years of liberty and prosperity which would be unfathomable to them at the time of our country’s founding. We see our segment of western civilization as the result of a natural progression and evolution. Indeed it was an evoluation in thinking, but it was not guaranteed.
The process of forming the ideals of the Declaration of Independence were, naturally, a long process of disagreement, reasoning, introspection and harsh debate. If we trace back a few years and read the documents that Dickinson, Adams and others wrote during the First and Second Continental Congresses, we can see many threads from contemporaries and events that shaped Thomas Jefferson’s most famous writing.
The other striking fact was that we were essentially at war in 1775 yet the majority of the colonists didn’t realize the full implications. A year had transpired after the battles of Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill. Yet a majority of the colonists hoped to return to the stability of the colonial system they knew. The Continental Congress had formed an army, they issued a currency, and sanctioned the attack by private ships on British vessels. Yet officially the Continental Congress sought reconciliation. The American people resisted the British while it seemed that the American leadership was reluctant to fully accept the circumstances. Delays in communication resulted in misunderstanding and escalation by both the British and Amercians. Would that have been avoided in this day and age?
Founding Fathers Rutledge and Dickinson urged caution, remaining resolute that independence from the Crown would bring even more violence and destruction upon the colonies. Dickinson, who framed the rights of the colonists in terms of English law, was unwilling break with the society which formed the foundation of his concepts of freedom. Clearly Dickinson believed in liberty as granted to him from the monarchical system, stating the he found the source of his freedom not in Natural Law but within English law.
Massachusetts and Virginia were in the minority regarding adopting measures for independence as soon as possible. Massachusets was the focal point of the British aggression, and Adams was the primary force behind pushing for the colonies to take action as there was no other choice. The battles at Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill only illustrated what the British felt about the rights of the colonists.
“Powder and artillery are the most efficacious, sure and infallible conciliatory measures we can adopt”
John Adams
This timeline shows how quickly the minority convinced Dickinson and others that they had no other recourse but to assert their right to self determination. Making demands of the King were pointless as this stage.
First came the Lee Resolution, it accelerated the process of asserting our right to self determination quite plainly, if not tersely:
Resolved, 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.
While the Lee Resolution stated what the colonies intended, the Declaration Of Independence clearly galvanized Americans as to WHY they needed to establish their own nation. Jefferson, with the help of Franklin’s edit, clearly articulated what everyone could acknowledge as a fact. Facts matter. Truth matters.
It was the ultimate assertion.
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
Below are the events leading to our official creed as nation being adopted.
June 7, 1776: Richard Henry Lee of Virginia presents the resolution for independence to the Continental Congress. The Lee Resolution provided the “What We Intend To Do” in response to British escalation of hostilities.
June 10, 1776: Consideration of the resolution is postponed until July 1 to allow moderates to build a coalition. New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and South Carolina opposed declaring independence and it was resolved to delay the vote 20 days.
June 11, 1776:
Congress appoints a committee (the “Committee of Five”) to draft a declaration of independence.
The committee consists of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston.
June 12-27, 1776: Jefferson drafts the declaration, which is then reviewed by the committee.
June 28, 1776: A fair copy of the committee draft is read in Congress.
July 1, 1776: Congress votes on the resolution for independence. Nine colonies vote in favor, two against (Pennsylvania and South Carolina), one abstains (New York), and one is deadlocked (Delaware).
July 2, 1776:
12 of the 13 colonies vote for the resolution, with New York abstaining.
Congress officially declares the resolution to be in effect.
July 2-4, 1776: Congress debates and revises the Declaration of Independence.
July 4, 1776: Congress approves the final text of the Declaration of Independence.
July 19, 1776: Congress orders the Declaration to be engrossed (officially inscribed) for signatures.
August 2, 1776: The majority of delegates (likely 50 of the 56) sign the engrossed copy of the Declaration of Independence.
After August 2, 1776: The remaining signers add their signatures at later dates, with Thomas McKean being the last to sign sometime after January 1777.
Misiginebig is an underwater horned serpent, common to the legends of most Algonquian tribes, which is said to lurk in lakes and eat humans. Their sworn enemies are the Thunder Birds, who can kill them with bolts of thunder. The name misiginebig literally means Great Serpent in the Anishinabe languages.
Lake Ontario
September 14, 1821
The following affidavits of John Maupin of Montreal, and James Sigler of Jefferson Co. N. Y. describes a very large and singular animal that has made its appearance in Lake Ontario, resembling that celebrated sea fish or snake, which has crowded the columns of the eastern papers for the last two or three summers. This, there is but little doubt, is one of the same species, and that which was seen ascending the St. Lawrence last spring by some boatmen.
On the morning of the 25th July, 1821, about one hundred miles from Niagara and about 20 from land, aboard the canoe Lightfoot, on our passage from Montreal to Mackinac, in company with eight voyagers, we discovered at the distance of five or six hundred yards a large body floating on the surface of the water, very much like a burnt log from 20 to 25 feet length; but on approaching it three or four hundred yards closer, it proved to be an animal motionless and apparently asleep.
We continued to advance towards it until within 30 yards, when the animal raised its head about 10 feet out of the water, looking around him in the most awful and ferocious manner, and darting forward with great velocity, making the water fly in every direction, and throwing columns of it at a vertical height of 7 to 8 feet with his tail.
After having gone in a western direction about one or two miles, he appeared to resume his former state, we then resolved to attack him, and accordingly loaded our guns for this purpose, and moved slowly toward him within gun shot. We here had a good view of the animal, he is at least 37 feet long, 2.5 feet in diameter, (if measured through the thickest part of the body) is covered with black scales which appeared to create consternation only, he disappearing as before – he has a tremendous head and similar to that of a common snake — frequently thrusting from his mouth a large red and venomous looking tongue. After the animal disappeared we continued our course with a lively oar as may well be imagined. His figure when in motion is serpentine.
September 26, 1849
“A Miniature Sea-Serpent.”
We have been informed, not by an actual eye-witness, but by one on whose word we can rely, that one day last week, as the schooner Enterprise was coming up Big Bay, a snake described as being some 12 feet in length, and having a large head, which was elevated a couple of feet above the water, was discovered by the Captain following in the wake of the vessel, at a fast rate, and finally passed her, in sight of the crew on board, and also of two individuals residing in town, who were in a small boat in tow of the schooner. We have frequently heard of snakes being seen in the Bay, but never before of the size here described. If any think the story “fishy,” they are referred to the eye-witnesses, who watched the “marine monster” until it was out of sight; his snake ships appearance in these waters, and apparent haste, have given rise to various conjectures, – amongst others, that as free navigation is about to be introduced, he was on a tour of inspection to report the feasibility of cutting a canal, in order to unite the waters of the Bay and Lake.
Lake Eerie –
Oniare, the ancient water spirit of the Great Lakes
Bessie has been the subject of superstitious sailors, drunk tourists, and newspaper hoaxes over the centuries. But the legend of the serpentine creature living in Lake Erie actually originated in First Nations culture.
First Nations groups in the Lake Erie region, particularly the Iroquois tribe, would speak of Oniare (“own-yar-eh”), a water spirit that lives in the Great Lakes. The name “Oniare” is the Mohawk word for “snake.”
Oniare is a horned dragon-like snake that breathes both poison and fire (talk about bad breath!). Oniare is said to capsize canoes and devour humans, though the creature will sometimes spare travelers who make great enough offerings.
Lake Michigan – Wisconsin
September 1, 1934, roughly 23 years after the verified Axel Green sighting.
The story, which appeared in The Bismarck Tribune out of North Dakota, featured on its front page the following story. “Famous ‘Sea Serpent’ Again Seen in Lake: Chicago, Sept. 1. Fact or fancy- that famous “sea serpent” has bobbed up in Lake Michigan. ‘We were about four miles off shore,’ said Capt. G.E. Stufflebeam of the S.S. Theodore Roosevelt, Friday night, ‘when Donald Steele, the lookout saw it.’ ‘I ordered two floodlights thrown on the creature, and there he was wriggling and twisting around and going faster than the ship. We kept it in sight for five minutes. The passengers on deck cried out, ‘what is it,’ but I didn’t know nor did H.J. Cook, former steamship line official who was with me. ‘It flipped its tail and the creature – about 60 feet long – started toward Benton Harbor, Mich.’ That’s Captain Stufflebeam’s story and he said he’ll stick to it.”