Mixed Memories
The meaning(s) of the Fourth of July.
Atlanta, GA
July 4, 2025
On the Fourth of July, as on any momentous occasion, myths mingle with reality. Even the date we’re supposed to remember was initially in question.
Congress voted for independence two days before it was formally declared. John Adams always thought July 2 the more appropriate day to celebrate, and expected it would be the perpetual date to do so. There was some merit to his argument, and more than a little envy that prompted it.
As relations with Great Britain deteriorated and war raged to the north, separation became inevitable. Adams suggested to Thomas Jefferson that Jefferson write a declaration of independence.
Adams viewed the document as something of a press release, and certainly nothing epochal. After the tumult passed - either with new states on the world scene or a hangman’s noose around signatories’ necks - few would remember it. The actual vote was what mattered.
Jefferson was reluctant, and wondered why Adams shouldn’t write the announcement himself. Other than Robert Livingston, Jefferson was the youngest member of the committee of five assigned by the Second Continental Congress to draft a rationale for independence.
How was he qualified?
Jefferson brought unique ability…what Adams called “a reputation for literature, science, and a happy talent for composition”, as well as a “peculiar felicity of expression.” Adams then elaborated, with three additional reasons he preferred to defer to his younger colleague.
“Reason first”, he began, “you are a Virginian, and a Virginian should be at the head of this business.
“Reason second”, he continued, “I am obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular. You are very much otherwise.
“Reason third”, he concluded, “you can write ten times better than I can.”
Adams was right, and won that battle. But Jefferson won the war. From then on, the former always thought the latter had run away with the revolution. With a bit of retrospective bitterness, Adams continued to think July 2 was the date that truly mattered.
The Declaration ended up meaning more than Adams thought it would (or should), and the date atop the document became the one the rest of us would celebrate. That Adams and Jefferson both died on July 4… fifty years to the day after independence was declared…further cemented its mystique, reinforced their reputations, and gave us a day to remember.
But the Fourth wasn’t always and everywhere remembered fondly. While the day is an annual celebration of a successful secession, some Americans spent many generations mourning a thwarted attempt… which effectively died on the Fourth of July.
The Siege
General Grant had planned to approach Vicksburg the way Captain Lawrence attacked Aqaba: from the land. Much as Turkish guns aimed over the gulf, Confederate forts guarded the river. Grant’s only option was from the east.
But unbeknownst to Grant, General McClernand had proposed taking Vicksburg from upstream, using his own army of Illinois recruits. Lincoln agreed, but hadn’t told Grant.
As rumors swirled and word spread, Grant became aware of what was afoot. Wanting to take control of the project, he changed course and summoned Sherman to Memphis. But the Confederates intervened.
Bedford Forrest and General Van Dorn snuck behind Union lines, capturing supplies, severing railroads, and disconnecting telegraphs. With Grant stalled, Sherman proceeded without expected support, and was forced to wait on the west side of the river.
An irate McClernand and an irritated Grant eventually joined him. After nine months cutting futile canals in hopes of circumventing Vicksburg, Grant decided to march downstream, thru the thick marshes on the Louisiana side. Eluding Confederate guns, his army proceeded south, and crossed the Mississippi thirty miles below Vicksburg.
Their first target was Jackson, to cut Confederate supplies that came thru the capital. From there Grant moved west, and laid siege to the village of Vicksburg. The deprivation lasted forty-seven days.
Like so many southern farms, hamlets, and homes ravaged by Lincoln’s armies, Vicksburg was full of women, children, infirm, and elderly. As these civilians were shelled they dug shelters to survive. Many succumbed to starvation and disease.
The Surrender
About the moment Pickett’s charge was failing in Gettysburg, General Pemberton asked Grant for terms. The next day… four score and seven years after the Declaration was adopted… Vicksburg fell.
The defenders were reluctant to capitulate on Independence Day, thinking it would amplify their humiliation and provide fodder for Yankee propaganda. General Pemberton conceded the point, but offered a competing one.
Tho’ a Confederate general, Pemberton was a Pennsylvanian who knew the Northern mind:
“I know my people”, he assured objectors on his staff. “I know their particular weaknesses and their national vanity. I know we can get better terms from them on the Fourth of July than on any other day of the year. We must sacrifice our pride to these considerations.”
It initially seemed he needn’t have bothered. Grant responded to the request for terms with his familiar demand for “unconditional surrender.” But overnight negotiations softened him slightly.
The morning of the 4th, an acceptable agreement was arranged. Confederates would be paroled rather than imprisoned. Officers could retain their side-arms, clothing, and a single horse. The rank-and-file kept their clothes and nothing else.
Grant’s men took possession of the city. Despite surrendering on the 4th of July, there was apparently little of the gloating Confederates had feared. Perhaps the invaders felt pangs of conscience upon witnessing what they’d wrought: countless corpses, frail frames, and gaunt bodies reflected the civilian toll of Yankee shelling and siege.
Fighting persisted almost two more years, with unspeakable carnage inflicted on the South. But the fall of Vicksburg severed the Confederacy, and effectively decided the war.
For four generations… from Appomattox to Pearl Harbor… Vicksburg ignored the Fourth of July. For good reason. If anyone invaded my state, shelled my city, and tried to kill my kids or ruin my family, I’d be hard pressed to celebrate the date that evoked those atrocities.
Who wouldn’t?
Only after the Second World War did Vicksburg’s ambivalence begin to melt, with the holiday celebrated as the “Carnival of the Confederacy”. Not till the Bicentennial in 1976 did July 4 officially reclaim its “Independence Day” title.
Compact Fact
Most Americans who cherish the Fourth of July misunderstand why they should. They proudly recall thirteen colonies separating from a central power, while cheering that eleven states were later forbidden to leave.
If anything, the American states have more legal claim to secede than the colonies did. The Crown chartered the colonies, and never claimed to be a federation of sovereign entities.
But the states created the US government, a voluntary association from which they presumed they could depart. This isn’t merely a compact “theory” of the Union. It’s a compact fact.
The meaning of this day, as Jefferson put it, is to recall the right of free people “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.” [emphasis added]
The final paragraph of the Declaration removed any doubt:
“We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America [note the lower-case ‘u’], 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 [note the plural] United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States.”
These states seceded as “separate” sovereign entities, no different than Spain, Sweden, Russia, or France. “State” and “country” were synonymous. Jefferson regularly used the latter appellation when referring to Virginia, as most founders did regarding their own states.
Their people wanted to be left alone to manage their own affairs, without interference from external busybodies. Akin to the Catholic notion of subsidiarity, the idea was to enable empowerment at the most local level… to prioritize family over community, precinct over town, city over state, state over union. This is the core and essence of Jeffersonian philosophy, and of self-government.
The notion that states had a right to self-determination was precisely Jefferson’s argument in his Summary View of the Rights of British America. The states never yielded their sovereignty to a central government.
This was obvious under the Articles of Confederation. But even under the Constitution, states simply delegated specific powers they remained free to reclaim.
The state ratifying conventions were emphatic about this, with advocates for the Constitution assuring skeptics that fears of usurpation were overblown… and that the document included adequate mechanisms to inhibit any attempts.
As is abundantly evident in our own day, these safeguards weren’t good enough. But when they fail, the Declaration of Independence remains a welcome reminder of a worthy remedy.
JD
Indeed a good history lesson.
A most American point of view.