Happy Independence Day!

July 4th, 1776,  the day 56 delegates of the second continental congress,  signed the document proclaiming the colonies were now "free and independent States", no longer subjects of the Kingdom of Great Britain,  and, thus, no longer a part of the British Empire. 

Wishing you and your families a happy, fun, and safe 4th of July holiday!

Quotes from the Delegates

"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."   Thomas Jefferson,  primary author of the Declaration of Independence

"It is in the interest of tyrants to reduce the people to ignorance and vice. For they cannot live in any country where virtue and knowledge prevail."   Samuel Adams 

"Idleness and pride tax with a heavier hand than kings and parliaments. If we can get rid of the former, we may easily bear the latter." - Benjamin Franklin  

"Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right…and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean of the characters and conduct of their rulers." - John Adams