The Maui news. [volume] (Wailuku, Maui, H.I.) 1900-current, 1921-07-01
INDEPENDENCE A

The birthday of a great nation will be celebrated on Monday,
the birthday Of that nation whose timely intervention in the recent
World War preserved the liberty of the world and prevented the
triumph of tyranny. 1t was a nation which issued from tyranny,
as a protest to despoism and now, nearly a century and a half
later, it stands staunch and true to the ideals for the maintenance
of which it was born.
One hundred and forty-fve years have passed since "a handful
of impudent, rebeHious colonists,' the General Congress of the
United States of America, by its vote adopted the greatest human
document that history records. AS the years have been passed and
the country has travelled down the avenues of time, there has grown
more and more a world wild recognition of the great underlying
meaning of the document, of its wonderful Importance upon the
occurrences of the past, the events of today and the influence it
will have upon the future of all the nations of the earth, large and
small, great and strong, rich and poor. From a despised rebel the
country that was born lbs years ago Monday has become the world
leader. In that time there has been found nothing that need he
added to the Declaration of Independence, nothing that could be
taken from it. Unique among the worlds great documents it stands
On May H. l776, Virginia instructed her delegates to move a
Declaration of independence but that action wa not taken until
the seventh of June when Richard Henry Lee made the motion and
it was seconded by John Adams of Massachusetts. On the eighth
and tenth of June it was debated and on the latter day a commit
tee composed of Thomas jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of
Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania and Robert R.
Livingston of New York was appointed to draw up the Declaration.
1t is in the language of Thomas jefferson and i'll the debate in COM
mittee and afterwards in Congress nothing was added to it though
some things were taken from it.
The committee reported out on June %, and on July /, the de-
bate was begun afresh and that night the motion that 'these colo
MES 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, - was passed with II
affirmative and no negative votes, New York refraining from voting
at that time. Again on July {, the document itself was taken up
and, as amended, was passed unanimously by the representatives
of all 13 states on the evening of July 4. And the Liberty Bell
toned forth to the world the joyous news.
1t was a doubling world that heard the news, that defiance of
weak colonies hurled in the face Of the strongest nation of the
world of that day. Many a weary day, many a toilsome week, many
a discouraging month, heart breaking years, were to pass until the
Declaration Of independence was made effective, victory achieved,
the shackles Of despOtism broken and east aside forever { The Flower
of England had to be driven out, Hession hirelngs, ancestors of
the very ones that the United States has assisted her one time
enemies to crush and conquer, had to be chased from the land, but
it was done.
So it is that July 4, the anniversary of the adoption of the
Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia by those 10 "rebel
colonies is and has become the day of days, the one day when
every true American rejoices, when his or her blood pulses more
buoyantly through the veins than at any other time, the day when
the whole world may well unite in joyous acclaim and thanksgiving
for the birth of the United States of America, the nation of great
and high ideals.