The American Democracy Minute Radio News Report & Podcast for July 4, 2025

Thomas Jefferson is credited with most of the text of the Declaration of Independence.   But the “independence” part came from a Virginian named Richard Henry Lee on June 7th, 1776.

The First Continental Congress sent a list of grievances in 1774 to King George III, among them the loss of their rights under English law, the occupation by British forces in peacetime, and the oppressive Coercive Acts, passed by Parliament to shut down colonial unrest. The King and Parliament didn’t respond, other than to pass more restrictive laws. 

By mid-May 1776, eight colonies supported independence, including Virginia, which directed its delegates to support independence at the Second Continental Congress.  Virginia plantation-owner and delegate Richard Henry Lee, on June 7, 1776, presented his resolution for independence to the congress in Philadelphia, which tabled action to July 2.  

In the interim, Thomas Jefferson, with light editing by Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, crafted a statement which would become the Declaration of Independence which included Richard Henry Lee’s independence resolution word for word: 
“Resolved: That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.”   Read the full Declaration of Independence at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:

National Archives Foundation – 1774 Articles of Association
Yale Law School Goldman Library – Text of the Articles of Association
National Constitution Center – On this day: The First Continental Congress concludes
National Archives – The Declaration of Independence – A Transcription
National Archives – The Declaration of Independence: A History   
Library of Virginia – Richard Henry Lee Biography
National Archives – Creating the Declaration: A Timeline 

Register or Check Your Voter Registration:

U.S. Election Assistance Commission – Register And Vote in Your State

Please follow us on Facebook and Bluesky Social, and SHARE! 

Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

Want ADM sent to your email?  Sign up here!

Are you a radio station?  Find our broadcast files at Pacifica Radio Network’s Audioport and PRX

#News #Democracy  #DemocracyNews #1776 #DeclarationofIndependence #July4th #RichardHenryLee

The post Thomas Jefferson Gets the Credit for the Declaration, but the ‘Independence’ Part Came from Richard Henry Lee on June 7, 1776 appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for July 4, 2023

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time) 

Today’s Links now below the script

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

Thomas Jefferson was an owner of enslaved people when he wrote this line in the Declaration of Independence:  “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed.”

Who could give that Consent by voting was debated by the landed White male gentry, framing what became the U.S. Constitution in 1787.  James Madison encapsulated this argument, writing:

“The right of suffrage is a fundamental Article in Republican Constitutions. The regulation of it is, at the same time, a task of peculiar delicacy. Allow the right [to vote] exclusively to property [owners], and the rights of persons may be oppressed… . Extend it equally to all, and the rights of property [owners] …may be overruled by a majority without property….”  

We know how that worked out.  By 1807 New York had abolished land requirements for White men, but kept them in place for free Black men. It wasn’t until the 15th Amendment in 1869 did all Black men theoretically get the right to vote, for which citizens of color have been fighting ever since. Women had to wait another 50 years for the 19th Amendment.

As you celebrate your freedoms this July 4th, remember that recent voter suppression, racial gerrymandering, and voting restrictions demonstrate that the freedom to vote for ALL Americans has still not been achieved – a wrong we must all fight to correct.  

Find more at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
National Archives – The Declaration of Independence

U.S. Library of Congress – The Founders and the Vote
Prof. Thomas Jewett – Jefferson, Education and The Franchise
U.S. History.org – The Expansion of the Vote: A White Man’s Democracy
National Archives – The Fifteenth Amendment
National Archives – The Nineteenth Amendment

Groups Taking Action:
NAACP Legal Defense Fund, League of Women Voters US, ACLU, Common Cause, Declaration for American Democracy

Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter and SHARE!  

Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

Want ADM sent to your email?  Sign up here!

#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #VotingRights #FreedomtoVote

The post Would the Founding Fathers Have Given You the Freedom to Vote? appeared first on American Democracy Minute.