July 4, 2016 President Obama Remarks On Independance Day and Declaring Our Independence

The White House July 4, 2016

Hi everybody, and Happy Fourth of July weekend. On Monday, Michelle, Malia, Sasha, and I will celebrate the Fourth like most of you – in the backyard. We’ll hang out with family and friends, throw some burgers and dogs on the grill, and watch the fireworks show.

Of course, we’re fortunate enough to have the South Lawn as our backyard. So we’re also going to fill it with hundreds of our troops, our veterans, and their families. Over the past seven and a half years, it’s become one of my favorite traditions. We get to celebrate our freedoms while doing what we can to honor all those who serve and sacrifice to make that freedom possible.

And I know that honoring our service members, our veterans, and their families is something that so many Americans try to do every day, without fanfare, or expectation of anything in return.

For the past five years, Michelle and Dr. Jill Biden have tried to follow the example of so many of those Americans with their Joining Forces initiative. They’ve rallied businesses to hire more than 1.2 million veterans and military spouses, and helped reduce veteran homelessness. And just this week, Michelle and Jill announced a breakthrough on a concern they’ve heard again and again from the military spouses they spend so much time with – and that’s the issue of professional licensing.

This is something that most Americans aren’t familiar with. But for military families, it’s a big challenge. Here’s why. Our troops are often transferred from base to base. It’s part of the job. And because their families serve with them, that means their spouses move ten times more often than the rest of us. Ten times more often. That’s tough on a career. And more than one in three of these spouses works in a profession that requires a professional license or certification. Nurses. Childcare providers. Accountants. Social workers. And lots of other jobs.

And until recently, when these spouses were asked to move across state lines, they often needed to re-certify for a job they’re already qualified for. A nurse with years of experience might have to take entry-level classes, or pay a fee, or wait months for paperwork to be processed before he or she could get back to work on the job they love and that lets them support their families.

It didn’t make any sense. So we changed it. When Michelle and Jill took up this cause five years ago, only three states had taken action on military spouse licensing. But they rallied governors and state legislatures to action. And this week, we reached a milestone. Today, all fifty states have acted to streamline many of these licensing issues. This is a big step forward, but we’re not done yet. We’re going to keep working with states to make licensing simpler for more jobs and reach more qualified workers. But we can finally say to so many of our military families – when you move, you’ll no longer be forced to put the career you love on hold just because you and your families have chosen to serve this country.

That’s what this is about – serving our men and women in uniform as well as they have served us. But you don’t have to be a governor or a First Lady to make a difference. So this holiday weekend, take a look at JoiningForces.gov to find out how you can serve the troops, veterans, and military families in your community.

And to all our brave men and women in uniform – you represent the best of who we are as a nation. On this day and every day, we thank you.

Thanks everybody. Have a great Fourth of July.

Declaring Our Independence

Chronology Of Events: June 7, 1776 to January 18, 1777 1776 June 7 -- Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, receives Richard Henry Lee's resolution urging Congress to declare independence.

June 11 -- Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston appointed to a committee to draft a declaration of independence. American army retreats to Lake Champlain from Canada.

June 12 - 27 -- Jefferson, at the request of the committee, drafts a declaration, of which only a fragment exists. Jefferson's clean, or "fair" copy, the "original Rough draught," is reviewed by the committee. Both documents are in the manuscript collections of the Library of Congress.

June 28 -- A fair copy of the committee draft of the Declaration of Independence is read in Congress.

July 1 - 4 -- Congress debates and revises the Declaration of Independence.

July 2 -- Congress declares independence as the British fleet and army arrive at New York.

July 4 -- Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence in the morning of a bright, sunny, but cool Philadelphia day. John Dunlap prints the Declaration of Independence. These prints are now called "Dunlap Broadsides." Twenty-four copies are known to exist, two of which are in the Library of Congress. One of these was Washington's personal copy.

July 5 -- John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress, dispatches the first of Dunlap's broadsides of the Declaration of Independence to the legislatures of New Jersey and Delaware.

July 6 -- Pennsylvania Evening Post of July 6 prints the first newspaper rendition of the Declaration of Independence.

July 8 -- The first public reading of the Declaration is in Philadelphia.

July 9 -- Washington orders that the Declaration of Independence be read before the American army in New York -- from his personal copy of the "Dunlap Broadside."

July 19 -- Congress orders the Declaration of Independence engrossed (officially inscribed) and signed by members.

August 2 -- Delegates begin to sign engrossed copy of the Declaration of Independence. A large British reinforcement arrives at New York after being repelled at Charleston, S.C.

1777 January 18 -- Congress, now sitting in Baltimore, Maryland, orders that signed copies of the Declaration of Independence printed by Mary Katherine Goddard of Baltimore be sent to the states.

Drafting the Documents

Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia behind a veil of Congressionally imposed secrecy in June 1776 for a country wracked by military and political uncertainties. In anticipation of a vote for independence, the Continental Congress on June 11 appointed Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston as a committee to draft a declaration of independence. The committee then delegated Thomas Jefferson to undertake the task. Jefferson worked diligently in private for days to compose a document. Proof of the arduous nature of the work can be seen in the fragment of the first known composition draft of the declaration, which is on public display here for the first time.

Jefferson then made a clean or "fair" copy of the composition declaration, which became the foundation of the document, labeled by Jefferson as the "original Rough draught." Revised first by Adams, then by Franklin, and then by the full committee, a total of forty-seven alterations including the insertion of three complete paragraphs was made on the text before it was presented to Congress on June 28. After voting for independence on July 2, the Congress then continued to refine the document, making thirty-nine additional revisions to the committee draft before its final adoption on the morning of July 4. The "original Rough draught" embodies the multiplicity of corrections, additions and deletions that were made at each step. Although most of the alterations are in Jefferson's handwriting (Jefferson later indicated the changes he believed to have been made by Adams and Franklin), quite naturally he opposed many of the changes made to his document.

Congress then ordered the Declaration of Independence printed and late on July 4, John Dunlap, a Philadelphia printer, produced the first printed text of the Declaration of Independence, now known as the "Dunlap Broadside." The next day John Hancock, the president of the Continental Congress, began dispatching copies of the Declaration to America's political and military leaders. On July 9, George Washington ordered that his personal copy of the "Dunlap Broadside," sent to him by John Hancock on July 6, be read to the assembled American army at New York. In 1783 at the war's end, General Washington brought his copy of the broadside home to Mount Vernon. This remarkable document, which has come down to us only partially intact, is accompanied in this exhibit by a complete "Dunlap Broadside" -- one of only twenty-four known to exist.

On July 19, Congress ordered the production of an engrossed (officially inscribed) copy of the Declaration of Independence, which attending members of the Continental Congress, including some who had not voted for its adoption, began to sign on August 2, 1776. This document is on permanent display at the National Archives.

On July 4, 1995, more than two centuries after its composition, the Declaration of Independence, just as Jefferson predicted on its fiftieth anniversary in his letter to Roger C. Weightman, towers aloft as "the signal of arousing men to burst the chains...to assume the blessings and security of self-government" and to restore "the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion."

The Declaration of Independence Documents in Library of Congress