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Is Delaware, Virginia, or New Hampshire the first US State?
Is Delaware, Virginia, or New Hampshire the first State? This is a five minute video examining the US founding historical record to determine: Which of the ...
You've got great info on your websites and videos, Stan. Congrats!
In this video you're presenting more excellent info. You do arrive at some
key conclusions which you may want to reconsider. In Lee's Resolution for
Independency of July 2nd, there is a clear pattern of geographic
north-to-south ordering. Does this mean that New Hampshire was actually
the first to vote for independence? It is quite possible that they were
listed at the top solely because they are at the top of the map. You and I
weren't there that day, but since Maryland is the one that breaks that
geographic pattern, what I'm inclined to conclude from that ordering is
that Maryland might have had "cold feet" and been slow to come around to
assenting to that vote. As to who was actually first, that fact is
actually very well documented:
It was Rhode Island.
And they weren't first by minutes. They were first by *months*. On May 4,
1776, Rhode Island took the extremely bold step of renouncing allegiance to
King George, replacing his authority with that of the Governor of Rhode
Island. That original document can be seen here:
//sos.ri.gov/library/history/renunciation/
Here is the key quote:
"... wherever the name and the authority of the said King is made use of,
the same shall be omitted, and in the room thereof the name and authority
of the Governor and Company of this Colony shall be substituted ..."
The Founders in Philadelphia were certainly well aware of this fact. And
it would be easy to conclude that it was Rhode Island's legislative break
that was the very catalyst for the July 2nd vote. If the Founders had
wanted the voting record to show primacy instead of geographical unity,
then I would expect to see RI at the top.
ANOTHER key point is that the actions of July 1776 did not create 13
Independent States. While 13 did sign their assent to the Declaration, not
all 13 were themselves independent. Only 12 were. The reason that
"Delaware" was continually referred to as the "Three Lower Counties" is
because Delaware was not a state, nor was it a chartered colony. It was a
region governed by Philadelphia, from Philadelphia. Those three counties
were *a part of* Pennsylvania. They had been granted some autonomy in
their government (General Assembly established in 1704), but they had not
been granted independence. Nor had Delaware asserted independence from
Pennsylvania. That action only happened months *after* July 1776. And who
can we look to so that we can confirm that Delaware was indeed the LAST of
the 13 to become a state? The state of Delaware openly tells us this
simple fact themselves:
"Delaware became a state in 1776, just two months after the signing of the
Declaration of Independence."
//delaware.gov/topics/facts/gov.shtml
So it is very clear that Rhode Island was first, and Delaware was last.
The full sequence, counting New York on July 9th, was this:
13 = 1 + 10 + 1 + 1 (May, July, July, September)
I don't expect anyone to change the date that fireworks are lit off. But
perhaps there will come a year when those Fourth of July celebrations will
be held with a full awareness that *none* of those 13 states had July 4th
as their day when they initially asserted their independence.
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Every Unicity Leader Has Seen This...
//TopEarnerEducation.com?t=YT_Unicity Greg McMahon 916-740-6430 If you want to build a successful Unicity Business and become a Top Earner with ...