W. Howard Coop, 32°

Reading the Declaration of Independence this July Fourth is a fitting way to realize
and celebrate what it means to be an American.

On July 4, 2004, in observance of Independence Day, citizens of the United States of America, a nation known around the world as the land of the free and the home of the brave, will celebrate the 228th anniversary of the unanimous adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Congress composed of the original 13 states.
That document, written by Thomas Jefferson and including changes suggested by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and other representatives of the Congress, was signed by 56 stalwart colonial patriots who fully recognized the gravity of the political situation facing the American colonies. Of those 56 patriots, nine, according to existing records, were known to be Freemasons: President of the Congress John Hancock, Benjamin Franklin, Joseph Hewes, William Ellery, William Hooper, Robert Treat Paine Jr., Richard Stockton, George Walton, and William Whipple.* With that awareness in mind, those patriots affirmed their reliance on the protection of Divine Providence and mutually pledged to each other their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.
Consisting of 1,364 words, the Declaration of Independence is short, but it is a powerful document that has accomplished much. It irrevocably broke colonial allegiance to Great Britain and became the cornerstone of a new and great nation. That nation, founded upon the principles of political equality and individual liberty, has become a bastion of hope for all freedom-loving people around the world.
The Declaration of Indepen-dence stands as one of the greatest documents of American history. Francis Samuel Philbrick, a professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania, called it “the best known and the noblest of American State papers.”
Then, in Adventures in American Literature, author Rewey Belle Inglis wrote: “It is the finest expression of the American ideal ever formulated.” She went on to call it “a lasting inspiration to all Americans.”
Beyond fireworks, parades, picnics, and oratory with which ordinary Independence Day celebrating is associated, it would be beneficial if every citizen of the United States of America would spend a few minutes with the Declaration of Independence and come to grips with the fundamental ideals expressed in it, for these were the ideals for which colonial Americans were and patriotic citizens today are willing to risk their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. These same ideals form the basis of our nation today. May they ever remain unchanged.

W. Howard Coop,
Valley of Louisville, Kentucky, is a retired United Methodist Minister and has been a Mason since 1952. Contacts: 111 Dogwood Drive, Lancaster, KY 40444-1034; hkcoop@aol.com;
www.hometown.aol.com/hkcoop

*Hancock, Marchants Lodge #277, Quebec, and St. Andrew’s Lodge, Boston; Franklin, St. John’s Lodge, Philadelphia.; Hewes, exact Lodge membership unknown, but recorded as a visitor to Unanimity Lodge #7, Edenton, N.C.; Ellery, St. John’s Lodge, Boston, Mass., and St. John’s Lodge #4, Hartford, Conn.; Hooper, Hanover Lodge, Masonboro, N.C.; Paine, exact Lodge membership unknown, but recorded as present in the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts at Roxbury, June 26, 1796; Stockton, Charter Member and WM of St. John’s Lodge, Princeton, N.J.; Walton, Solomon’s Lodge #1, Savannah, Ga.; Whipple, St. John’s Lodge #1, Portsmouth, N.H.