Thread: Americans: Did you think that we should have celebrated Independence Day last Thursday instead of yesterday?

The fact that we won The Revolutionary War was acknowledged on July 2, 1776. Two days later, The Declaration Of Independence was officialized. It was silly to make July 4 the holiday of freedom just because it was the date that our victory was stated in a legal document. The essence and power of the matter sat in another part of the month. For this reason, one of our presidents wanted July 2 to be Independence Day, and I agreed with him. Did anyone else feel that we made the celebration of our nationality on the wrong day? Regardless of opinion, Happy Fourth Of July!

Originally Posted by Theresa

The fact that we won The Revolutionary War was acknowledged on July 2, 1776. Two days later, The Declaration Of Independence was officialized. It was silly to make July 4 the holiday of freedom just because it was the date that our victory was stated in a legal document. The essence and power of the matter sat in another part of the month. For this reason, one of our presidents wanted July 2 to be Independence Day, and I agreed with him. Did anyone else feel that we made the celebration of our nationality on the wrong day? Regardless of opinion, Happy Fourth Of July!

You've gotten your history a bit mixed up. The Revolutionary War lasted for years past the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. While the last major battle and the practical victory occurred in September of 1781, the war officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on Sept. 3, 1783.

July 2, 1776 was the day that The Resolution of Independence was approved by the Continental Congress, So it could be argued that this was the day when the colonies officially broke ties with England. This was done in closed session so the first document dealing with this that the general public learned of was the Declaration of Independence, which bore the date of July 4, 1976.

It's too late to change. Reminds me of a movement to use 2pi rather than pi as a standard constant. It won't happen.

Thank you Janus. I thought that the later battles were separate from the revolution itself and simply an attempt of the English to regain control of America. It might have been more accurate for me to have said that, in its own right, we won The Revolutionary War in 1776 since we attained our independence then, but the victory was not accepted by our opponents. This was especially since we had to involve other nationalities to stop the fighting. Did you think that July 2 would have made a more appropriate independence day than July 4 did?