On the Fourth of July we celebrate Independence Day, the day our founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence and committed themselves irreversibly to a cause for which they truly risked their lives and fortunes. As with all of history, this great event now has a certain sense of inevitability about it. We know now what happened, and it seems that it was ‘meant to be.’ Only when we go back and look at the details, however, do we see how uncertain this seminal event was and how God’s hand was involved in it.
The Continental Congress in 1776During the early months of 1776 representatives from the American colonies continued a protracted and frustrating dispute with King George and the British Parliament. After armed conflict at Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill the year before, a tense stalemate had developed around Boston. The king had rejected the so-called Olive Branch Petition, approved by Congress in 1775, and had declared the colonies to be in a state of rebellion. British reinforcements continued to arrive in Boston. The situation seemed to be growing worse as the tenuous military stalemate went on in Massachusetts and problems mounted keeping a colonial army in the field.
There was also a stalemate within the Continental Congress between radical and conservative factions. The radicals talked of independence from England and formation of a new nation. The conservatives favored efforts to redress grievances and return to ‘normal’ times. There was a great fear of war and probable ruin, and continued expectation of reconciliation. The conservative approach had prevailed so far during the Congress’ deliberations, even to the point where delegates from six colonies were under specific instructions to vote against independence.
Washington Takes the InitiativeOn March 4, 1776, General Washington took a bold and dangerous move to break the stalemate in Boston. During that night he moved a large force onto a hill known as Dorchester Heights, overlooking the waterfront and main shipping channel into Boston harbor. A similar move the year before on Bunker Hill, on the other side of Boston, had caused a violent and devastating retaliation from the British. This move was no different. The British commander, General William Howe, had to respond to the challenge. Both generals knew that a decisive defeat of these colonial forces would quickly end the so-called ‘rebellion.’
The MiracleOn March 5th the British mounted an all out attack on Dorchester Heights, moving troops by ship and boat across Boston harbor. At this crucial moment the weather took control of events. An unseasonal and violent storm came up that a local observer called a ‘hurrycane.’ The storm increased in violence during that day and into the night. Even though the harbor offered protected waters, torrential winds and rain scattered the British invasion force. Three ships were grounded on Governors Island and numerous boats were lost. It became impossible to carry out the attack.
On the morning of March 6, Howe assembled his subordinates. He feared that the rebels had so strengthened their positions over the previous day that an attack had become too dangerous. Since the opportunity had passed for offensive action, he ordered his forces back into garrison. There would be no British effort to take Dorchester Heights. Instead of an attack, Howe ordered an evacuation. On March 17 the British army and navy sailed out of Boston harbor. The eleven-month standoff was over.
IndependenceIn Philadelphia the mood took a new turn on March 23 when word arrived from Massachusetts that Washington’s troops had forced the British to abandon Boston. Celebrations broke out in the streets. The tone of the debate in Congress changed. In April the delegates from South Carolina, Georgia, and North Carolina received instructions permitting a vote for independence.
The momentum of events gathered from this point. In early May Congress passed a resolution that individual colonies assume all powers of government. On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee from Virginia rose before Congress to move “That these United Colonies are, and of a right ought to be, free and independent states.” Lee’s motion was taken up on July 1, and the issue addressed that Adams called “the greatest question ever debated in America and as great as ever was debated among men.” On July 4 Congress formally ratified the Declaration of Independence, and each of the fifty-six delegates individually signed the document.
A New Authority Thanks to a miracle in Boston, a new nation was created on July 4, 1776. On that day, the founding fathers took one of the greatest steps of faith in history. Cutting the ties of royal authority, representing centuries of law and tradition, they turned intentionally to God. They declared that all men are, “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.” Samuel Adams rose in the assembly to state that, “We have this day restored the Sovereign, to Whom alone men ought to be obedient.” The United States of America would be under the authority and protection of God and based on God given rights.
In Boston, George Washington did not have a victory celebration. Instead, he called for a church service and thanksgiving. He heard a sermon concluding with the passage: “The Lord is our King; it is he who will save us.” Washington himself firmly believed those words. He knew that God had saved his army at Boston and brought a great victory. He would later state as President that, “Every step, by which (the people of the United States) have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency.” He knew better than any other human being the role of God’s hand in winning a war and creating a new nation.
