. The Declaration of American Independence 

During the sweltering summer of 1776, the Second Continental Congress assembled at Liberty Hall in Philadelphia to officially declare American independence from Great Britain. The colonies had already been at war with Britain for more than a year, and it was clear that compromise was impossible. On July 2, the Congress voted unanimously (with the New York delegation abstaining) in favor of a resolution by Richard Henry Lee “that these united colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states.”

John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail: “The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America.—I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by Solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be Solemnized with Pomp and Parade with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”

Adams was correct about everything except the date; instead of a vote in favor of independence, the annual July 4 celebration commemorates the day that the text of the Declaration of Independence—drafted by Thomas Jefferson and heavily amended by his colleagues—was approved.

For more information, the Grateful American Book Prize recommends Pauline Maier’s American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence.

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The Assassination of President James A. Garfield

At 9:20 on the morning of July 2, 1881—four months after his inauguration as America’s 20^th president—James A. Garfield—arrived at Washington’s Sixth Street train station. A Republican from Ohio, who had been a senior officer in the Union army, a congressman, and a dedicated abolitionist, he had often been impatient with what he perceived as the plodding caution of President Abraham Lincoln. But when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Garfield expressed amazement at the “strange phenomenon in the world’s history, when a second-rate Illinois lawyer is the instrument to utter words which shall form an epoch memorable in all future ages.”

As he waited for the train that would take him to his summer holidays on the New Jersey shore, a deranged office seeker named Charles Guiteau approached Garfield and shot him. The president lingered in Washington and New Jersey, suffering from his wounds and the relatively primitive medical treatment available at the time. Garfield died on September 19, was succeeded by Vice President Chester A. Arthur; the assassin, Charles J. Guiteau, was executed the following year.

For more information, the Grateful American Book Prize recommends Candance Millard’s Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President.

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Michael F. Bishop, a writer and historian, is the former executive director of the International Churchill Society and the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.

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History Matters is a feature courtesy of the Grateful American Book Prize, an annual award for high quality, 7th to 9th grade-level books dealing with important moments in American history.