Well, sort of. That’s when we said we were independent. I suppose America’s real birthdate is either September 3, 1783, when Great Britain signed the Treaty of Paris, officially dropping its claim to the colonies and recognizing that America was a sovereign nation, or June 21, 1788 when the constitution was ratified by the required 9 states.
Obscure American history o’ the day:
It is common knowledge that George Washington was elected unanimously. But did you know that only eight states cast all of their potential electors for Washington? We had a rag-tag system in those days, and all sorts of things went wrong. North Carolina and Rhode Island are easy to explain. The were not eligible to cast electoral votes because they still had not ratified the constitution. The other three problem states demonstrate how fragile the system was. New York’s legislature failed to make the deadline to field electors. Virginia was entitled to 12 electors, but only eleven were chosen because one district failed to submit its results on time, and only ten electors voted. I don’t know what happened to the eleventh guy, Warner Lewis, George Washington’s cousin. Apparently he was chosen and just never showed up. Maryland was the real oddball. They were eligible to submit eight electors, but only six showed up to vote, thanks to “bad weather.”
Fortunately, none of that really mattered because the selection of Washington was a foregone conclusion, but all those missing electors might have been crucial in a close election.
Yes, as I mentioned, we had a rag-tag system in those days.
Doubtful it is going to make it to 250.
Not with that attitude, no. But don’t count an underdog out.
The break-up of the United States has go t be the way forward.
The West Coast states to go their own way, the North-East Coast states to go their own way, the states in the middle and South-East left alone to get on with their MAGA madness.
The problem is, the cities within these areas are isolated islands that aren’t MAGA. The rest of the rural areas within the state will gladly accept the major liberal city’s state tax dollar revenue though for their own public services and utilities. And the same for the vast majority of deep south red states in general off the welfare dime of the blue states.
MAGA Marxism at its finest.
And there are rural areas of ‘liberal’ states which are die-hard MAGA. Upstate New York, very close to where I am in Canada, is an example. The biggest ideological divide in the U.S. right now is not actually red state vs. blue state, but rural vs. urban. It has been that way for a number of years and a similar phenomenon exists in Canada and in various countries in Europe.
As opposed to the well-oiled machine we have now.
Good thing we don’t have a rag-tag system now!
July 2nd was the actual day that the Continental Congress voted in favor of independence; John Adams, for one, predicted that would be the day celebrated for generations to come. But that’s not the date they put on the Declaration, so you know.
True. I was going to mention that one, but got distracted.
Anyway, happy Independence Day, from a Canadian, to our neighbours to the south. The state of relations between our countries is not the greatest right now, but most of us have friends and family on both sides of the border and we still love the USA. We are just a bit confused and frustrated with some of what has happened over the last 6 months, but I guess so too are any number of Americans.
Thanks, and you are right about any number of Americans right now.
Most of us still know that we could not possibly have better neighbors than you guys. Hope you had a good Canada Day Tuesday.
Thanks for your kind words and support.
Happy Birthday to all of us peasants that have now just got FUCKED by our imbecilic congresspeople.
“had a rag-tag system in those days”.. hilarious , you still have..
Since we had an Army since 1775, to enforce our declaration, the July 4, 1776 date is reasonable. Alternately, the Continental Congress actually voted independence on July 2, and France formally recognized the United States on February 6, 1778, by signing the Treaty of Amity and Commerce and the Treaty of Alliance.