October 19-20 - 2017 Clarksboro, New Jersey

Warning: This post will be boring, if you are not interested in history and politics.

Thursday and Friday, we went to Philadelphia. There is so much history here, that your head is about to explode after two days of information and impressions being thrown at you continuously.
We picked up where we left off in Boston. The revolutionary war (uafhængigshedskrigen).

 

This is how the houses in Philadelphia looked around the time
that the USA was founded. This is how people lived.
(Notice the posts for tying horses outside the houses!)




(Well - they probably didn't have blue plastic garbage cans!)

As the war was going on the states/colonies met in Philadelphia to decide how to move forward in relation to the King and parliament in London. It ended up with the Declaration of independence (uafhængighedserklæringen) signed on July 4^th, 1776. These were very brave men. This was treason in the highest degree (landsforræderi) and they all risked to die by hanging.

Here are the graves of some of the brave men,
who risked their lives for their cause.

  

This one was only a boy (15) when the war started.
Notice the flag. It is the first flag of the USA,
with 13 stars and 13 stripes, representing the original 13 colonies.

Looking back, you tend to have a glorified/romanticized picture of this part of history, but this was very, very complicated, and in so many places one thing or the other could have wrecked the whole thing.
France and Spain saw a chance to see the British get beaten and therefore supported the uprising. What if they hadn’t? What if the British had won overwhelmingly in Lexington and Concord?  What if only some of the colonies had been interested in independence? What if……..?

We took a tour of Independence Hall where the colonies met and where the declaration was signed.
It’s a special experience to be at the very place where it actually happened.

The beginning words from the Declaration of Independence

During the war the colonies agreed on the first US ”constitution” (grundlov): The Articles of Confederation. A set of rules for how 13 individual countries could work as a union without giving up
their right to decide for themselves. It didn’t work. In 1787 (four years after the war ended) the colonies
met once more in Philadelphia to give the Articles an overhaul.



This is the National Constitution Center,
a museum with lots of information about the constitution and government

They decided instead to write a whole new constitution. A constitution that, different to the Articles of Confederation, tied the states together much more and not least with a federal government (central regering).
The US constitution is a masterpiece and often referred to as “The miracle in Philadelphia”.
The separation of powers (magtens tredeling) is very strong and creates the checks and balances
that is not seen in many other constitutions, if any.
The constitution was signed on September 17th , 1787 in the same building in Philadelphia as was the Declaration of Independence.

Here is what it might have looked like, the day they met
to sign the constitution. The exhibition is called "the signers".



The signer, who is seated, is the 81 year old Benjamin Franklin

The greatest leader of the time was without doubt George Washington.
He was a great man.

I see so many parallels to the current situation in Europe.
Individual countries wanting to be part of a Union but at the same time not willing to give up the right to decide for themselves.

The EU has to make some import decisions.
Either a Union with a strong federal power that deals with the big issues like currency, defense, boarders and leave the countries alone when it comes to local issues. In that case a copy of the US Constitution might be of big help.
Or a cooperation between 27-28 countries about trade and nothing else as it was originally.
Like the Articles of Confederation didn’t work in the US, neither will the current situation in EU.
Somebody has to think it over one more time.

The big difference is that today we don’t have politicians of the same caliber as Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Franklin, Adams etc. etc. People who were willing to work for a greater cause and make the necessary compromises. These guys were not perfect, by far, but they had the integrity it took to work seriously for the greater cause.

 
We had great weather, again, during our 2 days in Philadelphia. 73 degrees Fahrenheit / ca. 23 Celcius.
Sunshine, no wind, no rain.
Philly Steak Sandwiches for lunch 😊

Written by JJ

P.S.
Thomas Jefferson wanted a capital (hovedstad) for the new nation and eventually won a majority for it.
There was a piece of land between the north and the south that nobody really wanted.
Part of it in Virginia, part of it in Maryland. Land that nobody wanted?
One guide called it wetland, another called it a swamp.
So in order to build the new capital, Washington DC, they first had to drain the swamp 😊
Have we heard that before? 😊
It took 10 years to build the new capital and in the meantime, Philadelphia was the capital.