The Spirit of '76 is a sentiment explored by Thomas Jefferson. According to the text published at Monticello, "The principles outlined in the Declaration of Independence promised to lead America—and other nations on the globe—into a new era of freedom. The revolution begun by Americans on July 4, 1776, would never end. It would inspire all peoples living under the burden of oppression and ignorance to open their eyes to the rights of mankind, to overturn the power of tyrants, and to declare the triumph of equality over inequality."[2]
Thomas Jewett wrote that at the time of the American Revolution, there was "an intangible something that is known as the 'Spirit of '76.' This spirit was personified by the beliefs and actions of that almost mythical group known as the Founding Fathers, and is perhaps best exemplified by Thomas Jefferson."[3]
Jefferson and the Second Continental Congress believed the Spirit of '76 "included the 'self-evident' truths of being 'created equal' and being 'endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights' including 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.'"[4]
According to the New York Times, in a review of What Kind of Nation: Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, and the Epic Struggle to Create a United States:
Jefferson's core conviction was that what might be called "the spirit of '76" had repudiated all energetic expressions of government power, most especially power exercised from faraway places, which included London, Philadelphia or Washington. In terms of domestic policy, he believed the states were sovereign and the federal government established by the Constitution was, as he put it, 'a foreign government.' Marshall's core conviction was that the spirit of '87 had trumped the spirit of '76, transforming the loose confederation of states into a coherent nation guided by a duly elected federal government empowered to make laws for all the American people.[5]
According to the Adam Smith Institute, "The spirit of '76 was animated by the desire for personal freedom, both in our relations with others and in our transactions with them... Ultimately, if Americans are to restore constitutionally limited government instituted to guarantee their personal liberty, then they must revive the Spirit of '76."[1]
Usage
In an 1806 court case, a Philadelphia judge wrote in his opinion: "General and individual liberty was the spirit of '76."[6]
The Spirit of '76 is a well-known painting by the Ohio artist and Union Civil War veteran Archibald Willard. The painting, originally titled Yankee Doodle, was created in 1875 for the Centennial Exposition. The piece acquired the name "Spirit of 76" while it was on tour in Boston. The painting was initially commissioned to be "semi-humorous," but the death of Willard's father, the model for one of the painting's figures, changed the direction of its tone.[7] It depicts three soldiers of the American Revolutionary War. Though one of them is wounded, the soldiers march on with spirit and determination.[8] The painting is on display at Abbot Hall in Marblehead, Massachusetts.[9]Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote of the spirit of '76 in reference to traveling to Philadelphia to celebrate the Centennial Exposition in 1876.[10]
In 1843, the historian Mellen Chamberlain wrote that the spirit of '76 was embodied by Levi Preston, a veteran of the American Revolutionary War. Chamberlain asked Preston, then aged 91, "Why did you go to the Concord Fight, the 19th of April, 1775? My histories tell me that you men took up arms against 'intolerable oppression.'" Preston responded:
Oppressions? I didn't feel them. I never saw one of those stamps, and always understood that Governor Bernard put them all in Castle William. I am certain I never paid a penny for one of them. Tea tax! I never drank a drop of the stuff; the boys threw it all overboard. We read only the Bible, the Catechism, Watt's Psalms and Hymns, and the Almanack. Young man, what we meant in going for those redcoats was this: we always had governed ourselves, and we always meant to. They didn't mean we should.[11][12]
In an 1899 speech, Liberty, Eugene V. Debs remarked: "Manifestly, the spirit of '76 still survives. The fires of liberty and noble aspirations are not yet extinguished."[13]
According to the Library of Congress, a 1915 postcard titled "Did I Save My Country for This!" "Calls forth the spirit of 1776 to support women's rights—particularly the right to vote. While women march for suffrage rights, George Washington is shown exclaiming, "Did I save my country for this!"[14]
L. Lloyd MacDonald wrote that "in 1776, a small group of thoughtful but defiant men gave new meaning to the definition of independence. Its embryo–a vibrant spirit of heart and mind known to many as 'the Spirit of '76."[15]
Ira Moore delivered a speech at Oxford in 1822 titled American Independence. In the speech's postscript, he wrote that the speech "was written, principally, for an audience of intelligent, Republican farmers. Its object is what ought to be the object of all Fourth of July orations, to inculcate the republican principles, and to cherish the patriotic spirit of '76, and not the party spirit of 1814, which brought our country to the verge of destruction."[16]
John Patrick Diggins wrote that after John Adams "went from being a revolutionary optimist to a constitutional pessimist, one who believed that liberty required controls and that the people needed to be protected, even from themselves...he came to be regarded as less than loyal to the 'Spirit of '76' and the very meaning of a republic."[17]
Diggins also wrote that Abraham Lincoln "took the Declaration, which Jefferson regarded as a scientific document, interpreted it as a sacred text, and in the process of doing so he sacralized the whole meaning of the Spirit of '76." Further, "It was Lincoln's deepest conviction that the ideological significance of the American Revolution expressed itself in the Declaration and that the Spirit of '76 endowed America with its meaning and purpose in human history."[18]
In 2009, John P. Resch authored Suffering Soldiers: Revolutionary War Veterans, Moral Sentiment, and Political Culture in the Early Republic, in which he wrote... "Veterans, particularly regular troops, became the principal symbols of the spirit of '76 and models of national character."[19]
The Spirit of '76, along with Custer's Last Stand and the Battle of the Alamo, has been noted as representing "moral and spiritual meaning that can motivate individuals and societies."[20]
In a 2001 book titled Harmonizing Sentiments: The Declaration of Independence and the Jeffersonian Idea of Self-Government, Hans L. Eicholz wrote... "The spirit of '76 has been lost—and with it so much else."[21]
In 2011, academic Daren Jonescu argued that "The Tea Party represents the modern incarnation of the Spirit of 1776."[22] Other commentators have tied modern manifestations of the Spirit of 1776 to conservative sentiment.[23]
Ron Grossman, writing for the Chicago Tribune in 2001, opined that the spirit of '76 is often lost in the fanfare over the Fourth of July, noting that "historians and descendants of the first American citizens wonder if modern celebrations--from food fests and rock concerts to fishing tournaments and car rallies--are missing the point."[24]
In a 2013 column titled Americans Still Embrace the Spirit of '76, Scott Rasmussen, a frequent guest on Fox News and other outlets, where he usually supports Republican talking points wrote: "We believe that we have the right to make our own decisions about our own lives, so long as they don't infringe on the rights of others. We use our freedom to solve problems by working together in communities. This attitude was described by Thomas Jefferson and others as "the Spirit of '76." It continues to create problems for political elites today because 63 percent think there is more danger with a government that is too powerful than with one that is not powerful enough."[25]
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765-83.
The Declaration of Sentiments, also known as the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments, is a document signed in 1848 by 68 women and 32 men—100 out of some 300 attendees at the first women's rights convention to be organized by women. Held in Seneca Falls, New York, the convention is now known as the Seneca Falls Convention. The principal author of the Declaration was Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who modeled it upon the United States Declaration of Independence. She was a key organizer of the convention along with Lucretia Coffin Mott, and Martha Coffin Wright.
The Declaration of Independence, headed The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, is the founding document of the United States. It was adopted on July 4, 1776 by the Second Continental Congress meeting at the Pennsylvania State House, later renamed Independence Hall, in Philadelphia. The declaration explains to the world why the Thirteen Colonies regarded themselves as independent sovereign states no longer subject to British colonial rule.
The Seneca Falls Convention was the first women's rights convention. It advertised itself as "a convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman". Held in the Wesleyan Chapel of the town of Seneca Falls, New York, it spanned two days over July 19–20, 1848. Attracting widespread attention, it was soon followed by other women's rights conventions, including the Rochester Women's Rights Convention in Rochester, New York, two weeks later. In 1850 the first in a series of annual National Women's Rights Conventions met in Worcester, Massachusetts.
1776 is a musical with music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards and a book by Peter Stone. The show is based on the events leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, telling a story of the efforts of John Adams to persuade his colleagues to vote for American independence and to sign the document. The show premiered on Broadway in 1969 where it received acclaim and won three Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The original production starred William Daniels as Adams, Ken Howard as Thomas Jefferson and Howard Da Silva as Benjamin Franklin.
The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence is a text published in 1819 with the now disputed claim that it was the first declaration of independence made in the Thirteen Colonies during the American Revolution. It was supposedly signed on May 20, 1775, in Charlotte, North Carolina, by a committee of citizens of Mecklenburg County, who declared independence from Great Britain after hearing of the battle of Lexington. If true, the Mecklenburg Declaration preceded the United States Declaration of Independence by more than a year.
Some philosophers distinguish two types of rights, natural rights and legal rights.
The quotation "all men are created equal" is found in the United States Declaration of Independence. The final form of the sentence was stylized by Benjamin Franklin and penned by Thomas Jefferson during the beginning of the Revolutionary War in 1776. It reads:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
"Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" is a well-known phrase from the United States Declaration of Independence. The phrase gives three examples of the unalienable rights which the Declaration says have been given to all humans by their Creator, and which governments are created to protect. Like the other principles in the Declaration of Independence, this phrase is not legally binding, but has been widely referenced and seen as an inspiration for the basis of government.
John Trumbull was an American artist of the early independence period, notable for his historical paintings of the American Revolutionary War, of which he was a veteran. He has been called the "Painter of the Revolution".
The Founding Fathers of the United States, commonly referred to simply as the Founding Fathers, were a group of late 18th century American revolutionary leaders who united the Thirteen Colonies, oversaw the War of Independence from Great Britain, established the United States, and crafted a framework of government for the new nation.
The American Enlightenment was a period of intellectual and philosophical fervor in the thirteen American colonies in the 18th to 19th century, which led to the American Revolution and the creation of the United States of America. The American Enlightenment was influenced by the 17th- and 18th-century Age of Enlightenment in Europe and native American philosophy. According to James MacGregor Burns, the spirit of the American Enlightenment was to give Enlightenment ideals a practical, useful form in the life of the nation and its people.
Liberty! The American Revolution is a six-hour documentary miniseries about the Revolutionary War, and the instigating factors, that brought about the United States' independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. It was first broadcast on the Public Broadcasting Service in 1997.
The values and ideals of republicanism are foundational in the constitution and history of the United States. As the United States constitution prohibits granting titles of nobility, republicanism in this context does not refer to a political movement to abolish such a social class, as it does in countries such as the UK, Australia, and the Netherlands. Instead, it refers to the core values that citizenry in a republic have, or ought to have.
Pennsylvania was the site of many key events associated with the American Revolution and American Revolutionary War. The city of Philadelphia, then capital of the Thirteen Colonies and the largest city in the colonies, was a gathering place for the Founding Fathers who discussed, debated, developed, and ultimately implemented many of the acts, including signing the Declaration of Independence, that inspired and launched the revolution and the quest for independence from the British Empire.
The Committee of Five of the Second Continental Congress was a group of five members who drafted and presented to the full Congress in Pennsylvania State House what would become the United States Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776. This Declaration committee operated from June 11, 1776, until July 5, 1776, the day on which the Declaration was published.
A bill of rights, sometimes called a declaration of rights or a charter of rights, is a list of the most important rights to the citizens of a country. The purpose is to protect those rights against infringement from public officials and private citizens.
The physical history of the United States Declaration of Independence spans from its original drafting in 1776 into the discovery of historical documents in modern time. This includes a number of drafts, handwritten copies, and published broadsides. The Declaration of Independence states that the thirteen colonies were now the "United Colonies" which "are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States"; and were no longer a part of the British Empire.
Sons of Liberty is an American television miniseries dramatizing the early American Revolution events in Boston, Massachusetts, the start of the Revolutionary War, and the negotiations of the Second Continental Congress which resulted in drafting and signing the 1776 United States Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The three-part miniseries premiered on History on January 25, 2015, directed by Kari Skogland. The theme music was composed by Hans Zimmer.
Commemoration of the American Revolution typifies the patriotic sentiment surrounding the American Revolution and the desire to preserve and honor the "Spirit of '76". As the founding story of the United States, it is covered in the schools, memorialized by a national holiday, and commemorated in monuments, artwork, and in popular culture. Independence Day is a major national holiday celebrated annually. Besides local sites such as Bunker Hill, one of the first national pilgrimages for memorial tourists was Mount Vernon, George Washington's estate, which attracted ten thousand visitors a year by the 1850s.
↑ Resch, John (2009). Suffering Soldiers: Revolutionary War Veterans, Moral Sentiment, and Political Culture in the Early Republic. University of Massachusetts Press. p.66.
↑ Gilchrist, Brent (2007). Cultus Americanus: Varieties of the Liberal Tradition in American Political Culture, 1600-1865. Lexington Books.
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