The Week…After July 4

Well, we all just celebrated – with great joy, light, sound, burgers, and thanksgiving – the 250th anniversary of July 4, 1776. We are, as we should be, a grateful nation! But did you ever wonder what happened the week AFTER that Declaration-signing day? Here it is.

Immediately after the Declaration was signed, a kind of national engine started, the Declaration printed, circulated, and read throughout the 13 Colonies, military preparations accelerating, from training to ammunition storage, and action replaced anticipation.

Examples are interesting, if also reinforcing g how serious the Declaration signing was in the moment.

On July 5th, John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress – and the character once played in a high school production of “1776” – initiated printing and distribution of the resolve to all colonies, military leaders, and allies. These print copies were called Dunlap broadsides,” and are today rare.

Of roughly 200 printed, only 26 remain, and yet one never knows. In 1989, a curious purchaser at a flea market bought what was thought to be a modern replica for four dollars. It turned out to be the real thing, an original broadside, and was sold for $8.1 million by Sotheby’s.

On July 8, notable in our family as my brother’s birthday, another action unfolded. The Declaration was read aloud to a “crowd” beside Independence Hall in Philadelphia. To assemble, the “cried,” the Liberty Bell was rung. The document was read by Colonel John Nixon, notably no relation to the nation’s later President Richard Nixon.

On July 9, George Washington “had the Declaration read aloud to his troops stationed in New York City.” After that July 9 reading, another crowd pulled down the 4000 pound stature of King George III in the city.

Not surprisingly, the British began to ramp up their forces around New York City, especially on Long Island and Staten Island. Later that summer, the entire operational tempo of battlefronts, especially around New York, would explode.

One can only imagine the combination of exhilaration, anticipation, anxiety in some quarters, relief, and preparations that must have followed that monumental signing day, July 3, 1776.

While history books are silent on the point, humans being human, physiology much the same today as then, one imagines Thomas Jefferson was also glad for a break, glad not to be dipping his feather pen in ink, likely resting his weary right hand, which had neatly penned the historic document.

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!