Ever since two of our greatest Founding Fathers, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both passed away on our nation’s 50th birthday, July 4, 1826, Americans have seen great significance in our milestone anniversaries. The event calls, at a minimum, for a great celebration, a chance to tell the story of America’s founding, progress, and triumph. But real life – and politics – often find a way to intrude.
Even in 1826, while the country celebrated progress, the “progress” was mixed. The movement to expand voting rights for all white men was expanding, but slavery was more entrenched and brutal than at the founding. The mechanical loom and the cotton gin exploded growth of cotton and slavery, which many thought was a dying institution at the end of the 18th Century, was more profitable than ever 30 years later. The 1808 ban on the transatlantic slave trade1808 did not weaken slavery, but intensified it. A vast internal slave trade tore families apart as enslaved people were sold further South to fuel cotton’s explosive growth.
1876 Centennial. The Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia was America’s first world’s fair and the biggest show ever seen yet in this country. Emerging from Civil War, completing its conquest of the continent, and unleashing industrial power and technological progress never seen before, the United States took the opportunity to flex its muscles to the world. Spread out over 400+ acres of Fairmount Park, the fair showed our industrial might as well as agricultural, mineral, and scenic wonders. The telephone and the typewriter made their débuts at this world’s fair as did another world-conquering American institution: Heinz ketchup.
Yet in 1876, the United States was poised to take some gigantic steps backward. News of the massacre of George Armstrong Custer’s cavalry force reminded people that the west wasn’t as civilized as we might have thought – and ignited the final drive to extinguish the remaining life of the Plains Indians and corral them onto reservations. America was in the grip of a racist counter-revolution. The brief outburst of civil rights for freedmen – enforced by the U.S. Army – was coming to an end as Redemption forces in the South violently resisted federal authority. Later that year, the most corrupt presidential election in our history sealed the end of Reconstruction and paved the way for Jim Crow. The “anthropology” exhibits, while nowhere near as overtly racist and eugenic as later ones at the 1893 and 1904 world’s fairs, nevertheless portrayed native tribes and other cultures as exotic and inferior.
1926 Sesquicentennial. Like the 1926 Sesquicentennial International Exposition held in Philadelphia, the overall sesquicentennial event was a smaller imitation of its 1876 counterpart. In 1926, the nation was in an ugly place. The postwar “Red Scares” were a recent memory and there was a massive xenophobic, antisemitic, and racist backlash to immigration, labor organizing, and agitation for expanded rights. White supremacist organizations wielded real political power. Racial violence and intimidation was widespread. Antisemitic conspiracy theories flourished. Anti-Catholic campaigns targeted Irish, Italian and eastern European immigrants. The most restrictive immigration legislation in our history had recently been enacted.
The Klan was newly ascendant, its strength built on anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish, and anti-immigrant hate. On September 13, 1926, the Klan held a massive, unmasked march in Washington, DC. Tens of thousands of robed Klansmen processed down Pennsylvania Avenue, demonstrating the group’s political influence.
1976 Bicentennial. In 1976, the Bicentennial arrived in the midst of desegregation. The country’s mood was reflective. We were struggling with the after-effects of Vietnam and Watergate. Trust in government was at an all-time low. But, somehow, the Bicentennial Commission put together a celebration that seemed inclusive. Patriotic without jingoism. The country heaved a sigh of relief – and enjoyed the celebration.
2026. Whose Semiquincentennial? With this mixed record, the nation approaches its 250th. For the first time, there are two distinct celebrations. Congress created a bipartisan “America250” initiative to coordinate a national celebration. But President Trump has created his own “Freedom 250” that seems to be a vehicle for more grift, Trump self-glorification, and gawdy events like a UFC fight and an auto race in the streets of Washington, DC.
These mainly seem to be opportunities for corporate solicitations that promise access to the President. Plans for a 250 foot triumphal arch that will tower over the Lincoln Memorial, the Trump coins, and the pervasive Trump imagery also seem questionable.
Other privately-funded, oversight-proof “Freedom250” events include traveling “Freedom trucks” that “tell America’s story” as interpreted by ultra-conservative Prager University and Hillsdale College and a 1st amendment busting “National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise, and Thanksgiving” that gave participants a chance to give “thanks and praise to God for 250 years of His Providence for the United States … and in solemnly rededicating our country as One Nation under God.”
Public Citizen’s Lisa Gilbert said, “Donald Trump and his henchmen have sabotaged what should be a unifying moment and appear intent on instead creating a highly divisive, corporate-funded, ideologically extremist exercise. Once again, nothing is sacred in the Trump administration, not even the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Everything is for sale to corporate and potentially foreign interests.”
It has been such a thrill for me as an American to see all of the excitement building for our country’s 250th birthday, and I have been reading and trying to learn more. Therefore, I was glad to see the title of this piece, as it appeared to be a way for me to gain some knowledge about the nation’s past anniversaries.
Such a disappointment to see instead a bitter catalogue of America’s past sins. No reference was made to the way that the USA has risen time and again to correct its faults.
This country is not perfect, but its citizens are willing to examine our collective behavior and correct injustice where necessary, unlike many nations of the world. For example, those who wish to continue to chastise us for the evils of slavery, which was formally ended by the 13th Amendment 161 years ago, make no mention of the modern-day slavery that continues in other countries.
America is such an evil country that millions make their way here, both legally and illegally and often in dangerous conditions, just to be a part of this nation. This malicious commentary chooses to highlight some wrongdoing, while ignoring so much greatness. The United States, even with its faults, has brought more good to the world than any other nation on earth.
Wow! This is why our kids don’t learn history — history teachers and history departments have been bullied out of it by “only tell my children the nice parts” advocates. And even a typically Trumpy “what about:” hey, what-about the slavery in other countries?
If you have been reading this series, which has been running weekly since February and will continue to run weekly until November, you might have noticed that I have hardly been “ignoring so much greatness.”
Indeed, thanks for reading the Connection, but if you had read my 250th column that appeared in the other paper just this morning, you might have noticed that the last paragraph was “In 1776, Jefferson’s lofty words applied to almost nobody. … Indeed, it could be argued that the basic story of America is the gradual expansion of Jefferson’s words to apply to more and more people.” So, please, don’t lecture me about “rising time and time again to correct our faults.”
I have nothing but the profoundest respect for the people developing and conducting locally based ceremonies under the “America 250” banner, whether in Camden, SC or Gettysburg or York or Hannastown, PA. But if you think there is anything even slightly patriotic about “celebrating the 250th” with a garish martial arts festival on the White House lawn that enriched the president by millions of dollars, a blatant political rally on the Mall (just last night), holding a fundamentalist “prayer service/political rally” on the Mall that excludes 80% of Americans and would have made the Founders scream, you have a very warped view of history. And if you think it’s reasonable to discuss just the telephone and all that machinery and ignore the blatant racism equally on display at the Centennial Exposition, you are the one with a problem “examining our past behavior.”
The perfect metaphor for the vulgar, garish, and anti-patriotic “Freedom 250” celebration that is literally defiling our 250th anniversary: the organizers placed a bogus North Carolina state flag including a Confederate battle flag, which NEVER was part of the NC state flag, in the state’s “Great American State Fair”exhibit. This event was planned for years by the Smithsonian, which has been putting on the American Folklife Festival for decades, as a genuine celebration of America. But the grifters and film-flam men took over and we get a tacky, cheap monstrosity that cheapens the Mall and everyone who attends.
Fitting: the North Carolina governor protesting against his own state’s supposed display. And a pickle producer,, with a stronger sense of ethics than the organizers, withdrew its ssponsorship.
Trump’s America: a cheap, tawdry, grifting, pro-Confederate “State Fair.”
Interesting. Even a very basic course in logics teaches about the pitfalls of making ad hominem arguments. And such an obsession with Trump seems rather unhealthy.