HAPPY SEMIQUINCENTENNIAL!

The Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Twenty-Six will see the word “Semiquincentennial” more than any other.

By far.

Rest assured. 

It is just one word, but seven strenuous syllables and quite a mouthful. Patriotic celebrations, demonstrations, and various genuflections shall surely abound. 

So, what are we commemorating? By most popular accounts, it is “America’s 250th Birthday.” While this may be beneficial for promotional purposes, it is inaccurate and pointing out why is important. Even if it means being accused of throwing wet blankets on everyone’s red, white, and blue festivities. 

ndeed, this year marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence was adopted and proclaimed. That is why the annual holiday was specifically entitled “Independence Day” rather than “The Fourth of July” or the country’s “birthday.”

"America" as a geographic location had already existed for hundreds of years prior to 1776. It was not long after Columbus came upon the shores of what was initially called “The New World” in 1492 that the freshly discovered continent started being identified as “America,” the most likely theory being that it was named after Italian explorer and navigator Amerigo Vespucci. 

The name was popularized by a world map created by Martin Waldseemuller in 1507, a map sometimes called “America’s Birth Certificate.” This puts the designation 269 years before the “birthday” in 1776, when the thirteen colonies were already referred to as “American Colonies” by Mother England.

Well, some may say, what we really mean is that it is the “birthday” of the United States of America! So please allow us to get back to cranking up the Lee Greenwood and Toby Keith while celebrating freedom with mass amounts of beer and barbeque…

Ah, but that is also incorrect, strictly speaking. While the Second Continental Congress did begin using that term in September of 1776, a country had still yet to be formed.

Just consider it. From the first settlement at Jamestown in 1607 almost through Washington’s victory over the British at Yorktown in 1781, THERE WAS NO FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. It did not exist, as astoundingly perplexing this must sound to 21st-Century ‘Murikans, indoctrinated into believing there is no possible way we could exist without such forbearance, guidance, and tender benevolence.

In particular, and most unfortunately, my fellow Southerners have drunk deeply of this Potomac brew. However, entirely without the U.S. government, Southerners created a thriving civilization. 

They cleared lands; built roads, bridges, and forts; created and maintained farms; fed, clothed, and housed themselves; cared for and educated their children; devised amazing inventions; established workshops; supported themselves; birthed fascinating literature; and cared for their neighbor. And they established Christianity on a continent that had not known it before, and the Faith thrived here for centuries. They did this without federal grants and government handouts. No welfare, no government health care, no cradle-to-grave federal oversight.

The "United States," as a political entity, would not exist until several more years of military struggle against the mightiest empire on earth. Terms such as “United Colonies” gave way to “the thirteen united States of America” seen in the first line of the Declaration of Independence. The capitalization used in that line and that document was very intentional and gives modern-day spelling autochecks a workout. 

The point being made by Mr. Jefferson and company was that these were thirteen sovereign States (“States” then being capitalized to emphasize that sovereignty) seceding from England and asserting their individual independence. They were united in their struggle, but had not yet banded together to form a federal union. 

Those thirteen States, while allied,  remained autonomous until all thirteen ratified the Articles of Confederation and it went into effect on 1 March 1781. That was the birth of the country known as the “United States of America.”

But who in his right mind wants to have a barbeque on “The First of March?” Plus we’d have to wait five more years! And by that time, most folks will have forgotten how to pronounce “semiquincentennial.” It really takes all the fun out of it. 

Yes, the Lee Resolution of 2 July 1776 and the famous Declaration that followed it two days later were documents of secession by those deemed “rebels” by the English. If unsuccessful, the consequences for those "rebels" would have been paid to King George III in blood. Their desire for self-government free from centralized tyranny was not at all politically expedient – it was an act of beautiful courageousness.

Calling it "America's birthday" is not only inaccurate, it does a disservice to the significance of what actually occurred. A republic was not “born.” Thirteen separate colonies declared themselves States, then had to ally together to defend themselves in a war of aggression to make that successful. 

That is what happened 250 years ago.

And we could discuss the indispensable role France played in making it successful, but that really does not digest well with beer, barbeque, jingoism, and Freedom fries.