Happy July 2-- Part 3: It Was A Printing Thing

This article was started in my today's Saw the Elephant: Civil War blog with parts 1 and 2.

This is why we celebrate the Declaration of Independence on July 4 and not July 2 as John Adams thought it would.

On July 2, 1776, Congress, after succumbing to a demand by South Carolinian delegates to cut an anti-slavery passage out of the drafted Declaration of Independence, unanimously voted on Virginian Richard Lee's resolution 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 dissolved."

Over the next two days, final edits were made to the Declaration of Independence, the document that would announce Congress' decision to the world.  On July 4, the declaration was finally sent to the printing press.  hence the masthead at the top of the declaration, first printed by John Dunlap, "In Congress, July 4, 1776.  A Declaration by the representatives of the United States of America."

So, That's How It came to Be July 4th.  --Old B-Runner