Civics In A Year
What do you really know about American government, the Constitution, and your rights as a citizen?
Civics in a Year is a fast-paced podcast series that delivers essential civic knowledge in just 10 minutes per episode. Over the course of a year, we’ll explore 250 key questions—from the founding documents and branches of government to civil liberties, elections, and public participation.
Rooted in the Civic Literacy Curriculum from the Center for American Civics at Arizona State University, this series is a collaborative project supported by the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership. Each episode is designed to spark curiosity, strengthen constitutional understanding, and encourage active citizenship.
Whether you're a student, educator, or lifelong learner, Civics in a Year will guide you through the building blocks of American democracy—one question at a time.
Civics In A Year
Beyond Fireworks: The Declaration That Defined a Nation
Check out the Civic Literacy Curriculum lesson for this episode!
Dr. Sean Beienberg clarifies the distinction between America's actual vote for independence on July 2, 1776, and the adoption of Jefferson's Declaration of Independence on July 4. John Adams initially believed that July 2nd would be celebrated "forevermore" with nationwide festivities, but history chose the philosophical document over the actual vote for independence.
• Two separate declarations existed: Richard Henry Lee's simple paragraph declaring independence (voted on July 2nd) and Jefferson's comprehensive explanation (approved July 4th)
• Jefferson's declaration wasn't just his work alone but drew from existing philosophical traditions, including Locke, Montesquieu, and George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights
• The Declaration gained particular importance before the Civil War as Americans sought to define their national identity
• The July 4th document matters more historically because it explains the "why" of independence, not just the "what."
• Dr. Beienberg suggests the celebration's meaning matters more than the specific date, though Richard Henry Lee deserves recognition
Check Out the Civic Literacy Curriculum!
School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership
Hi, my name is Taryn, from Arizona and I'm in fifth grade. My question is when was the Declaration adopted and what do we celebrate?
Dr. Sean Beienburg:on July 4th. That was a really good question. So today's expert is Dr Sean Beienburg. If you listen to the Arizona Civics Podcast, you definitely know who Dr is. So, Dr Beienburg, will you introduce yourself and then kind of start answering our question when was the Declaration adopted and why do we celebrate July 4th? Right, we have picnics, we have fireworks, we have hot dogs it's this big party. But why July 4th?
Dr. Sean Beienburg:Hi, I'm Sean Beienburg. I'm an associate professor in the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership. I'm a constitutional historian with a particular focus on federalism, a lot of interest in separation of powers as well as, as you alluded to, Arizona, constitutional history, Arizona constitutional development. So those are my focuses primarily. So when you ask why are we celebrating or what's the declaration, in some sense, to be a little impish, there are two declarations of independence that one can think about, so there's a kind of fun letter that John Adams sends to his wife, abigail, when he is saying that Independence Day will be the most memorable epoch, like time, basically, in the history of America.
Dr. Sean Beienburg:He says it will be celebrated by 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, made special with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of the continent to the other, from this time forevermore. And he mails that letter on July 3rd 1776. And he says that that's how we would remember July 2nd 1776. Because for John Adams he thought that the day that would be the most important was when the Second Continental Congress actually voted to declare independence. So the Virginian Richard Henry Lee had written a short declaration it's just a paragraph, so I'll flag it to you here 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. And then they go on to basically say that they should put together a plan to work together to secure this. So it's effectively just a literal declaration of independence.
Dr. Sean Beienburg:But the Congress, the Continental Congress, had been anticipating this vote, and so they had already been thinking about Lee's proposal for a month. And so they had arranged to have not just this sort of literally we're declaring independence, but in some sense a list of why, an explanation of why, not just the what. And so they had commissioned a committee of John Adams, benjamin Franklin, thomas Jefferson, roger Sherman who I think is one of the real underappreciated founders and Robert Livingston to draft this much more comprehensive justification. And so they've been kicking around what Jefferson had been doing. Jefferson ended up being the primary draftsman, for complicated reasons, with a little help from Franklin and Adams. The other two didn't have too much to do with it. So Congress looks over the draft and they tweak it. I'm sure we'll talk in subsequent podcasts about what some of those tweaks were.
Dr. Sean Beienburg:But then they approve the sort of like explanation or justification and, as the Declaration says, declaring independence is a big deal, and so they don't want to do it lightly or sort of for transient causes.
Dr. Sean Beienburg:And so they thought we have to really explain what we're doing and why, and particularly to show why this was a revolution that was justified in the sense that they had been trying to do things the right way.
Dr. Sean Beienburg:They'd been trying to do things with petitions, through protests, asking the British government to basically follow British law, and so they said and the British government is failing to respond. We have no actual normal political way to do this, and so, therefore, we need to wield the right of revolution which we'll talk more about, I think, in subsequent podcasts and so that ended up being, ironically, despite John Adams's expectation, what was celebrated was not the actual, in a sense, declaration of independence, when they were saying we're quitting, but this word of explanation from it. So there's a historian that I really like, pauline Mayer, who said what we celebrate is not Independence Day. In a sense, independence Day is July 2nd 1776. But, as she said, we're celebrating Declaration of Independence Day when they go through and explain and offer the justifications and both the really rich philosophical discussion as well as the sort of list of indictments of the rights, the structures that the Americans thought were important, that they thought had been violated.
Dr. Sean Beienburg:Why do you think that more Americans know about? Like the Declaration of Independence this July 4th as Thomas Jefferson, as opposed to the July 2nd? Like smaller one from Richard Henry?
Liz Evans:So Richard Henry Lee's document is in some sense again very much. It's very bare bones, like there's a sense in which it's very clean and quick but it basically just says we're independent. It doesn't explain why it doesn't really. It's not that I don't want to say it's not thoughtful of a document.
Dr. Sean Beienburg:It has a specific goal which is we are independent.
Liz Evans:But it's an assertion, I guess is what I would say. The Declaration of Independence is an explanation and it comes to encapsulate both the sorts of core philosophical beliefs of the American political project as well as, I think, as we'll talk about in subsequent podcasts the institutional understandings that the Americans have, like what a proper government ought to look like and how the British government had failed to implement that. So the Declaration of Independence there are some historians who've argued that it sort of fell away for a while in importance. They go back and forth on this and that's not a debate that I've really gotten super well versed in. But particularly in the years before and up to the Civil War, Americans are sort of trying to figure out like what are we actually about? What do we believe? Lincoln picks this up quite probably perhaps most famously.
Liz Evans:The Seneca Fall of Declaration is very explicitly modeled on the Declaration of Independence as well. So the Declaration of Independence by Jefferson really is a nice encapsulation of most of the basic principles of the American political project, explanation of sort of what the American project is about in a way that Richard Henry Lee's is just simply, almost as the kids, I guess, would say like peace out Britain, like we're not doing this anymore. So the Declaration of Independence from Jefferson really is a thoughtful and pretty thorough One of the things that I'll definitely be talking about in one of the other podcasts I want to do is how it's built on earlier assertions. In some sense, the Declaration of Independence is sort of a second draft of this set of critiques and complaints, so it's not just like dashed out lightly.
Liz Evans:Jefferson, you know, says at one point in one of his letters later in life that he wasn't really innovating anything. He was collecting the ideas that were percolating in the American people at the time, picking up things from we'll talk about, like Locke and Montesquieu, the Virginia Declaration of Rights written by George Mason. So it's really a nice encapsulation of what the American founding generation believed and what in many ways, I think, hopefully, americans continue to believe.
Dr. Sean Beienburg:So what I'm hearing you say is we should celebrate July 2nd and July 4th.
Liz Evans:I mean, I don't, yeah, or I think it's at least worth acknowledging. I think the celebration is probably more important than the particular date. As you know, Adam says this is something that we should take seriously and not just treat as a barbecue. So, as he says, some of it's going to be a little more flippant Games, sports, guns, bells and bonfires and some of it might be a little more serious, solemnized by acts of devotion to God Almighty or thinking through looking at these documents instead of just treating it as a day off. So the content, as with most things, is more important, I think, than which calendar date it is, because they're complementary. So I don't think it would be a bad thing if we did the second instead, but I do think we should at least acknowledge poor Richard Henry Lee, who was the one pushing for this for a while, who's been largely forgotten.
Dr. Sean Beienburg:Yes, so both and both and both and. Yes, both, and thank you so much, dr Weinberg.
