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Published on: July 3rd, 2020

15 Great Speeches to Remind America what Independence Day is About

This year we will celebrate the 244 th anniversary of American independence. This day does not only represent the creation of a new nation, but the creation of a new civilization, one founded on the principles of freedom, self-government, and equality. Here are 15 speeches to inspire new vigor for our founding principles. Looking at who and what we were will help us remember who and what we ought to be.

1. Patrick Henry, “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” 1775

Patrick Henry gave this speech in 1775 at the Virginia Convention. It took place only a few months after the assembly of the first Continental Congress had sent King George III a petition for the redress of grievances. Boston Harbor was also blockaded by the British in retaliation for the Boston Tea Party. Tensions were high, revolution seemed inevitable, but still many political leaders in Virginia held out hope that the relationship with Great Britain could be restored. Patrick Henry sought to dispel them of that notion.

Patrick Henry was a lawyer and had a reputation as one of the greatest opponents of British taxation. In this speech he argues passionately for independence. He made his case clear in the opening of his speech stating, “For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery…” He chides the assembly for indulging in “illusions of hope” for passively waiting “to be betrayed with a kiss” and for falling prey to the siren songs of the British.

He reminds the assembly of the lengths the colonists have gone to in order to plead their case to the British, “We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament.” He then states how the British have received such outreach, “Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne.”

Next is Henry’s powerful call to action, a call that would galvanize the colonies into declaring independence from Great Britain:

In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us! … Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations; and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave… There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come. It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

Read Patrick’s entire speech . Watch Patrick’s speech on YouTube .

2. Samuel Adams, “On American Independence” 1776

Samuel Adams was a delegate to the First Continental Congress in 1774, was a Signer of the Declaration of Independence, helped get the Constitution ratified in the Massachusetts Convention, and became Governor of Massachusetts in 1794.

In this speech Adams recognizes that this was not simply a battle that would determine the fate of two nations, but the fate of the world at large. He declared, “Courage, then, my countrymen; our contest is not only whether we ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to mankind an asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty.”

Adams notes the ability of men to “deliberately and voluntarily” form for themselves a political society. He cites John Hampden, John Locke, and Algernon Sidney whose ideas and actions paved the way for such a feat. Of this new founding he states:

Other nations have received their laws from conquerors; some are indebted for a constitution to the suffering of their ancestors through revolving centuries. The people of this country, alone, have formally and deliberately chosen a government for themselves, and with open and uninfluenced consent bound themselves into a social compact. Here no man proclaims his birth or wealth as a title to honorable distinction, or to sanctify ignorance and vice with the name of hereditary authority. He who has most zeal and ability to promote public felicity, let him be the servant of the public. This is the only line of distinction drawn by nature. Leave the bird of night to the obscurity for which nature intended him, and expect only from the eagle to brush the clouds with his wings and look boldly in the face of the sun.

He like Patrick Henry then gives a call to action:

We have no other alternative than independence, or the most ignominious and galling servitude. The legions of our enemies thicken on our plains; desolation and death mark their bloody career, while the mangled corpses of our countrymen seem to cry out to us as a voice from heaven.

Lastly, Adams ends his address declaring the people of America the guardians of their own liberty. Then with an ode to the ancient Roman republic he ends stating, “Nothing that we propose can pass into a law without your consent. Be yourselves, O Americans, the authors of those laws on which your happiness depends.”

You can read Samuel Adams' full speech .

3. John Quincy Adams, “An Address Celebrating the Declaration of Independence” 1821

Adams begins the speech recounting the first settlers of the Plymouth colony and how they entered into a written covenant with one another on the eve of their landing. Of this event he states,

Thus was a social compact formed upon the elementary principles of civil society, in which conquest and servitude had no part. The slough of brutal force was entirely cast off; all was voluntary; all was unbiased consent; all was the agreement of soul with soul.

Adams continues to trace America’s historical and political development throughout the speech. He recalls how the British mistreated the colonists from the beginning, citing how Britain went against its own ideas and principles in denying the colonists representation and consent. He states, “For the independence of North America, there were ample and sufficient causes in the laws of moral and physical nature.”

Adams’ ode to the Declaration of Independence is most worth reading:

It was the first solemn declaration by a nation of the only legitimate foundation of civil government. It was the corner stone of a new fabric, destined to cover the surface of the globe. It demolished at a stroke the lawfulness of all governments founded upon conquest. It swept away all the rubbish of accumulated centuries of servitude. It announced in practical form to the world the transcendent truth of the unalienable sovereignty of the people. It proved that the social compact was no figment of the imagination; but a real, solid, and sacred bond of the social union. From the day of this declaration, the people of North America were no longer the fragment of a distant empire, imploring justice and mercy from an inexorable master in another hemisphere. They were no longer children appealing in vain to the sympathies of a heartless mother; no longer subjects leaning upon the shattered columns of royal promises, and invoking the faith of parchment to secure their rights. They were a nation, asserting as of right, and maintaining by war, its own existence. A nation was born in a day. […] [T]hat a new civilization had come, a new spirit had arisen on this side of the Atlantic more advanced and more developed in its regard for the rights of the individual than that which characterized the Old World. Life in a new and open country had aspirations which could not be realized in any subordinate position. A separate establishment was ultimately inevitable. It had been decreed by the very laws of human nature. Man everywhere has an unconquerable desire to be the master of his own destiny.

Adams goes on to pronounce that the Declaration was more than the “mere secession of territory” and the “establishment of a nation.” No, these things have occurred before, but the Declaration of Independence not only liberated America but ennobled all of humanity, he stated. 

You can read John Quincy Adams' entire speech here .

  4. Daniel Webster “Speech at the laying of the cornerstone of the capitol,” July 4, 1851.

Daniel Webster was one of the most prominent lawyers in the 19 th century, arguing over 200 cases before the Supreme Court. He also represented New Hampshire and Massachusetts in Congress and was Secretary of State under three presidents. Webster is also known for his speech in Congress, called the Second Reply to Hayne, which derided the theory of nullification espoused by John C. Calhoun.

Webster’s speech on the occasion of laying the Capital building’s cornerstone had a patriotic tone, He begins with the celebratory declaration, “This is America! This is Washington! And this the Capitol of the United States!”

Of the Founding generation Webster stated,

The Muse inspiring our Fathers was the Genius of Liberty, all on fire with a sense of oppression, and a resolution to throw it off; the whole world was the stage and higher characters than princes trod it… how well the characters were cast, and how well each acted his part…

He went on to speak about the tremendous sacrifice the men who signed the Declaration paid. “It was sealed in blood,” he stated. Of the liberty that the Founding generation bestowed upon successive generations Webster said,

Every man’s heart swells within him; every man’s port and bearing becomes somewhat more proud and lofty, as he remembers that seventy-five years have rolled away, and that the great inheritance of liberty is still his; his undiminished and unimpaired; his in all its original glory’ his to enjoy’ his to protect; and his to transmit to future generations.

Finally, Webster made clear that American liberty is unique among nations,

I have said, gentlemen, that our inheritance is an inheritance of American liberty. That liberty is characteristic, peculiar, and altogether our own. Nothing like it existed in former times, nor was known in the most enlightened States of antiquity; while with us its principles have become interwoven into the minds of individual men… […] And, finally another most important part of the great fabric of American liberty is, that there shall be written constitutions, founded on the immediate authority of the people themselves, and regulating and restraining all the powers conferred upon Government, whether legislative, executive, or judicial.

You can read Daniel Webster's entire speech here .

5. Frederick Douglass, “What to the slave is the 4 th of July?”  July 5, 1852

He spoke about the Founding Fathers as men of courage who “preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage.” Of the “fathers of this republic” he said, “They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory.”

Drawing a contrast between the Founders and the men of his generation advocating the positive good of slavery Douglass stated,

They believed in order; but not in the order of tyranny. With them, nothing was “settled” that was not right. With them, justice, liberty and humanity were “final;” not slavery and oppression. You may well cherish the memory of such men. They were great in their day and generation. Their solid manhood stands out the more as we contrast it with these degenerate times.

Douglass encouraged Americans to celebrate the Declaration as the ring-bolt to the chains of the United Sates’ destiny. “The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost,” he stated.

Douglass then rightly points out that America was not living up to its own ideals as laid out in the Declaration when it came to the millions of black men and women still enslaved. He stated,

Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?

Of Slavery’s effects on the American union he declared, “It fetters your progress; it is the enemy of improvement, the deadly foe of education; it fosters pride; it breeds insolence; it promotes vice; it shelters crime; it is a curse to the earth that supports it…”

He goes on to explain that this anniversary does not yet include black men and women. He stated, “The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me.” Yet Douglass was optimistic that this would soon change. He called the Constitution a “GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT.” He exhorted the assembly to consider the Constitution’s preamble and ask themselves if slavery was listed as one of its purposes.

He finished his momentous speech by saying, 

Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. “The arm of the Lord is not shortened,” and the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from the Declaration of Independence, the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age.

You can read Frederick Douglass' entire speech here .

6. Abraham Lincoln, Electric Cord Speech, 1858

In this speech often titled, “Speech at Chicago, Illinois” Abraham Lincoln replies to Senator Stephen Douglas’ conception of popular sovereignty. This was a theory that argued that each new territory should be able to decide whether or not to have slavery within their borders instead of allowing the federal government to decide. Lincoln saw this as a repeal of the Missouri Compromise which kept slavery relegated to the South.

To make his case against popular sovereignty and the expansion of slavery Lincoln argues that the adopters of the Constitution decreed that slavery should not go into the new territory and that the slave trade should be cut off within twenty years by an act of Congress. “What were [these provisions] but a clear indication that the framers of the Constitution intended and expected the ultimate extinction of that institution,” Lincoln asked the crowd.

After expounding upon the evils of slavery and recent actions to preserve the institution Lincoln turns to the Declaration of Independence for support. He stated,

We hold this annual celebration to remind ourselves of all the good done in this process of time of how it was done and who did it, and how we are historically connected with it; and we go from these meetings in better humor with ourselves—we feel more attached the one to the other and more firmly bound to the country we inhabit. In every way we are better men in the age, and race, and country in which we live for these celebrations. But after we have done all this we have not yet reached the whole. There is something else connected with it. We have besides these men—descended by blood from our ancestors—among us perhaps half our people who are not descendants at all of these men, they are men who have come from Europe—German, Irish, French and Scandinavian—men that have come from Europe themselves, or whose ancestors have come hither and settled here, finding themselves our equals in all things. If they look back through this history to trace their connection with those days by blood, they find they have none, they cannot carry themselves back into that glorious epoch and make themselves feel that they are part of us, but when they look through that old Declaration of Independence they find that those old men say that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,” and then they feel that that moral sentiment taught in that day evidences their relation to those men, that it is the father of all moral principle in them, and that they have a right to claim it as though they were blood of the blood, and flesh of the flesh of the men who wrote that Declaration, (loud and long continued applause) and so they are. That is the electric cord in that Declaration that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together, that will link those patriotic hearts as long as the love of freedom exists in the minds of men throughout the world.

You can read the entire Electric Cord speech here .

7. Abraham Lincoln, Address in Independence Hall, February 22, 1861

On Abraham Lincoln's inaugural journey to Washington as president-elect, he stopped in Philadelphia at the site where the Declaration of Independence had been signed. There he said,

I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence. I have often pondered over the dangers which were incurred by the men who assembled here, and framed and adopted that Declaration of Independence. I have pondered over the toils that were endured by the officers and soldiers of the army who achieved that Independence. I have often inquired of myself, what great principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long together. It was not the mere matter of the separation of the Colonies from the motherland; but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but, I hope, to the world, for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weight would be lifted from the shoulders of all men. This is a sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence.

You can read the entire address in Independence Hall here .

8. Abraham Lincoln, Fragments on the Constitution and Union, January 1, 1861

This short selection is not part of Lincoln’s tome of public speeches. One theory is that Lincoln wrote it while composing his first inaugural address. It is noteworthy because of Lincoln’s argument that what is most important about America are the principles and ideals it was founded upon. That principle, he states, is “Liberty to all.”

The  expression  of that principle, in our Declaration of Independence, was most happy, and fortunate.  Without  this, as well as  with  it, we could have declared our independence of Great Britain; but  without  it, we could not, I think, have secured our free government, and consequent prosperity. No oppressed, people will  fight,  and  endure,  as our fathers did, without the promise of something better, than a mere change of masters. The assertion of that principle, at that time, was the word, “fitly spoken” which has proved an “apple of gold” to us. The Union, and the Constitution, are the picture of silver, subsequently framed around it. The picture was made, not to conceal, or destroy the apple; but to adorn, and preserve it. The picture was made for the apple–not the apple for the picture.

Read the entire Fragments on the Constitution and Union selection here .

9. Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863

Aside from our original founding documents the Gettysburg address is perhaps the most important American creed ever written. It signifies America’s second founding or the moment our first founding more fully aligned with its own ideals. Since its decree America has begun to live in what Lincoln called “a new birth of freedom.” Here are selections from the address:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. […] It is rather for us, the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us that, from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here, gave the last full measure of devotion that we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

You can read the full Gettysburg Address here .

10. Winston Churchill, “The Third Great Title-Deed of Anglo-American Liberties” July 4, 1918

A great harmony exists between the spirit and language of the Declaration of Independence and all we are fighting for now. A similar harmony exists between the principles of that Declaration and all that the British people have wished to stand for, and have in fact achieved at last both here at home and in the self-governing Dominions of the Crown. The Declaration of Independence is not only an American document. It follows on Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights as the third great title-deed on which the liberties of the English-speaking people are founded.

Read Churchill's entire speech here .

11. Calvin Coolidge, “Speech on the 150 th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 5 1926

 Calvin Coolidge, the 30 th president of the United States, was sworn in after President Harding’s unexpected death. Harding’s administration was steeped in scandal. Coolidge is known for restoring integrity to the executive branch by rooting out corruption and being a model of integrity.

Coolidge gave his Fourth of July Speech in Philadelphia, the birthplace of our nation. There he pointed to the Liberty Bell as a great American symbol,

It is little wonder that people at home and abroad consider Independence Hall as hallowed ground and revere the Liberty Bell as a sacred relic. That pile of bricks and mortar, that mass of metal, might appear to the uninstructed as only the outgrown meeting place and the shattered bell of a former time, useless now because of more modern conveniences, but to those who know they have become consecrated by the use which men have made of them. They have long been identified with a great cause. They are the framework of a spiritual event.

Of the Declaration Coolidge stated,

It was not because it was proposed to establish a new nation, but because it was proposed to establish a nation on new principles, that July 4, 1776, has come to be regarded as one of the greatest days in history. Great ideas do not burst upon the world unannounced. They are reached by a gradual development over a length of time usually proportionate to their importance. This is especially true of the principles laid down in the Declaration of Independence. Three very definite propositions were set out in its preamble regarding the nature of mankind and therefore of government. These were the doctrine that all men are created equal, that they are endowed with certain inalienable rights, and that therefore the source of the just powers of government must be derived from the consent of the governed.

Of his trust in our Founding documents he said,

It is not so much, then, for the purpose of undertaking to proclaim new theories and principles that this annual celebration is maintained, but rather to reaffirm and reestablish those old theories and principles which time and the unerring logic of events have demonstrated to be sound. Amid all the clash of conflicting interests, amid all the welter of partisan politics, every American can turn for solace and consolation to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States with the assurance and confidence that those two great charters of freedom and justice remain firm and unshaken. Whatever perils appear, whatever dangers threaten, the Nation remains secure in the knowledge that the ultimate application of the law of the land will provide an adequate defense and protection.

Read Coolidge's full speech here .

12. John F. Kennedy, “Some Elements of the American Character” July 4, 1946

John F. Kennedy gave this speech as a candidate for Congress. In it he offers a robust defense of America’s founding. He lauds America’s religious character and derides the theory that America’s founders were concerned purely with economic interests. He explicitly states,

In recent years, the existence of this element in the American character has been challenged by those who seek to give an economic interpretation to American history. They seek to destroy our faith in our past so that they may guide our future. These cynics are wrong…

 Kennedy instead argues,

In Revolutionary times, the cry "No taxation without representation" was not an economic complaint. Rather, it was directly traceable to the eminently fair and just principle that no sovereign power has the right to govern without the consent of the governed. Anything short of that was tyranny. It was against this tyranny that the colonists "fired the shot heard 'round the world."

Kennedy then espouses a political theory of the American founding that relies on natural rights, 

The American Constitution has set down for all men to see the essentially Christian and American principle that there are certain rights held by every man which no government and no majority, however powerful, can deny. Conceived in Grecian thought, strengthened by Christian morality, and stamped indelibly into American political philosophy, the right of the individual against the State is the keystone of our Constitution. Each man is free.

You can read John F. Kennedy's full speech here .

13. Martin Luther King Jr., “I Have a Dream” 1963

Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream Speech” is another great cry from another great man declaring that America was not living up to its founding principles.

King begins his speech by harkening back to Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. He states, “This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice.” Yet, he argues, 100 years later black men and women are still not free. To right this wrong, he points to the Declaration,

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

King refused to believe that there was no hope. He said,

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

King’s dream inspired a nation to live up to its ideals. His beautiful words have become iconic,

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

 You can read and listen to "I Have a Dream" in full here .

14. Martin Luther King Jr. “The American Dream” Sermon Delivered at Ebenezar Baptist Church” July 4, 1965

In this sermon delivered on July 4, 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. locates the substance of the American dream within the Declaration of Independence. About the statement, “All men are created equal,” King states, “The first saying we notice in this dream is an amazing universalism. It doesn’t say “some men,” it says “all men.”

King goes on to explain to the congregation what separates the United States from other nations around the world.

 Then that dream goes on to say another thing that ultimately distinguishes our nation and our form of government from any totalitarian system in the world. It says that each of us has certain basic rights that are neither derived from or conferred by the state.

As the source of these inalienable rights King points to the fact that they are God-given. “Never before in the history of the world has a sociopolitical document expressed in such profound, eloquent, and unequivocal language the dignity and the worth of human personality,” he said.

King goes on to point out that America has not lived up to this dream. He describes America as being “divided against herself.” He argues that America cannot afford an “anemic democracy.”

He however professed hope that this dream will challenge America to remember her “noble capacity for justice and love and brotherhood.” He further challenged America to respect the “dignity and worth of all human personality” and to live up to the ideal that “all men are created equal.”

King clarifies that equality does not mean that every musician is a Mozart or every philosopher an Aristotle, but that all men are “equal in intrinsic worth.” He points to the Biblical concept of imago dei . He states, “[T]are no gradations in the image of God. Every man from a treble white to a bass black is significant on God’s keyboard, precisely because every man is made in the image of God. He ends his sermon with these powerful words,

We have a dream. It started way back in 1776, and God grant that America will be true to her dream. I still have a dream this morning that truth will reign supreme and all of God’s children will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. And when this day comes the morning stars will sing together and the sons of God will shout for joy.

Read Martin Luther King Jr.'s full sermon here .

15. Ronald Reagan, “Address to the Nation on Independence Day” July 4, 1986

In this speech Reagan recalls the moment of the signing of the Declaration,

Fifty-six men came forward to sign the parchment. It was noted at the time that they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honors. And that was more than rhetoric; each of those men knew the penalty for high treason to the Crown. ``We must all hang together,'' Benjamin Franklin said, ``or, assuredly, we will all hang separately.'' And John Hancock, it is said, wrote his signature in large script so King George could see it without his spectacles. They were brave. They stayed brave through all the bloodshed of the coming years. Their courage created a nation built on a universal claim to human dignity, on the proposition that every man, woman, and child had a right to a future of freedom.

Reagan also talked about the beautiful friendship between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. He noted how they died on the same day, July 4 th , exactly 50 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It was their first gift to us, Reagan said.

My fellow Americans, it falls to us to keep faith with them and all the great Americans of our past. Believe me, if there's one impression I carry with me after the privilege of holding for 5 ½ years the office held by Adams and Jefferson and Lincoln, it is this: that the things that unite us -- America's past of which we're so proud, our hopes and aspirations for the future of the world and this much-loved country -- these things far outweigh what little divides us. And so tonight we reaffirm that Jew and gentile, we are one nation under God; that black and white, we are one nation indivisible; that Republican and Democrat, we are all Americans. Tonight, with heart and hand, through whatever trial and travail, we pledge ourselves to each other and to the cause of human freedom, the cause that has given light to this land and hope to the world.

You can watch Ronald Reagan's speech here or read Reagan's speech here .

About Hillsdale in D.C.

Hillsdale in D.C. is an extension of the teaching mission of Hillsdale College to Washington, D.C. Its purpose is to teach the Constitution and the principles that give it meaning. Through the study of original source documents from American history—and of older books that formed the education of America’s founders—it seeks to inspire students, teachers, citizens, and policymakers to return the America’s principles to their central place in the political life of the nation.

About Hillsdale College

Hillsdale College is an independent liberal arts college located in southern Michigan. Founded in 1844, the College has built a national reputation through its classical liberal arts core curriculum and its principled refusal to accept federal or state taxpayer subsidies, even indirectly in the form of student grants or loans. It also conducts an outreach effort promoting civil and religious liberty, including a free monthly speech digest, Imprimis , with a circulation of more than 5.7 million. For more information, visit hillsdale.edu .

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The True Story Behind Bill Pullman's Famous Speech in 'Independence Day'

Bill Pullman drew inspiration from Bobby Kennedy for his recitation of the speech

Actor Bill Pullman reprised his role as American President Thomas J. Whitmore in 2016's Independence Day: Resurgence, the sequel to the 1996 film Independence Day .

This is great because Pullman made for a pretty decent president. The speech Whitmore orated in the original film before flying off for the final battle against the invading aliens has become a pop culture fixture , joining similar scenes from Braveheart and Hoosiers in the pantheon of cinematic inspirational speeches.

Here's the text, in case you forgot.

"Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind."

"'Mankind.' That word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps it's fate that today is the Fourth of July , and you will once again be fighting for our freedom … Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution … but from annihilation. We are fighting for our right to live. To exist."

"And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day the world declared in one voice: 'We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive!' Today we celebrate our Independence Day!"

Good stuff, right? Filming the scene was also weirdly synchronistic: It was shot in front of the hanger that once housed the Enola Gay, one of the bombers that dropped the atomic bombs on Japan on Aug. 6, 1945. The scene was filmed exactly 50 years later.

A more prosaic bit of trivia about the speech: It ended with the film's title because, up until then, the movie was called ID4 ; Warner Bros. owned the rights to the title Independence Day . According to The Atlantic , screenwriters (and directors/producers) Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin added the line to the end of the speech , hoping it would convince the studio backing their film, 20th Century Fox, to fight for Independence Day , their preferred title. (Fox had been lobbying for Doomsday .) Devlin and Emmerich's efforts worked.

Complex has a fantastic oral history of the speech , in which Devlin revealed that he told Emmerich during the writing process they should give Whitmore "a kind of a St. Crispin's Day speech," referencing a similarly famous speech in Shakespeare's Henry V .

Devlin, by his own account, wrote the speech in "literally five minutes" as a placeholder, with the thought that it could always be changed later.

Pullman told Complex that he researched various acclaimed speeches from the 20th century to inform his recitation, drawing particular inspiration from a speech Robert Kennedy made shortly after finding out Martin Luther King, Jr., had been shot. He "just knocked this one out of the park," Devlin said. "None of us were prepared for it until his first rehearsal, and then we were just staring in awe and wonder."

Talking to Complex , Michael Waldman, President of the Brennan Center for Justice and Director of Speechwriting for President Bill Clinton from 1995-99, said, "I wrote a book that was a collection of great presidential speeches, and if in fact the world had been invaded by aliens, this speech would have made the collection, so that's high praise."

That said, the speech does contain a mangling of an even more famous line. Whitmore's declaration, "We will not go quietly into the night," seemed to be a reference to Dylan Thomas' classic poem "Do not go gentle into that good night," though Devlin and Emmerich haven't ever mentioned it. Interestingly, the poem is recited in full in Interstellar , the 2014 movie about humans trekking to other planets rather than the other way around.

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‘Independence Day’ gave us the greatest presidential address in recent history

By James Clark

Posted on Jul 4, 2021 10:20 AM EDT

4 minute read

Welcome to That One Scene , a semi-regular series in which Marine veteran and pop culture omnivore James Clark waxes nostalgic about “that one scene” from a beloved movie. (Editor’s note: This article was originally published on July 3, 2018.)

Decades ago, director Roland Emmerich and writer Dean Devlin gave American audiences one of the greatest summer blockbusters of the 1990s. Independence Day helped cement Will Smith’s tenure as a top action star of the decade, gave us another excuse to listen to Jeff Goldblum quip and stutter between raised eyebrows, and delivered a perfect mix of camp and gratuitous destruction at a time when we weren’t so queasy about seeing national monuments laid to waste on screen.

Part doomsday sci-fi romp, part patriotic escapist fantasy, Independence Day had all the trappings of an instant summer classic — and that has a lot to do with one scene in the final act of the film. You know which one I’m talking about:

The scene takes place at Area 51, where the survivors of the brutal alien invasion gather to mount a last-ditch offensive to deliver mankind from the threat of annihilation. When President Thomas J. Whitmore (Bill Pullman), grabs the mic and addresses the beleaguered troops, he delivers the speech we’ve always wanted to hear from an actual president. In fact, if we were ever attacked by a war fleet of extraterrestrials, that scene would probably be required viewing for White House staff, according to former President Bill Clinton’s speechwriting director Michael Waldman.

“I wrote a book that was a collection of great presidential speeches, and if in fact the world had been invaded by aliens, this speech would have made the collection,” he told Complex in a June 23, 2016 roundtable discussion . “So that’s high praise.”

Surprisingly, the iconic scene — and it is iconic, so much so that people have actually delivered it during weddings — was written in just five minutes and was never meant to make it into the final cut as is, screenwriter Dean Devlin told Complex . But it’s a good thing it did, since the scene ends with Whitmore plugging the movie title when he concludes: “Today we celebrate our independence day!” And it turns out, that was deliberate.

“The main reason we did that is ’cause the studio at the time was threatening to change the title to Doomsday ,” Devlin told Complex. “So we thought, let’s get it into the speech.”

Not only did President Whitmore rally earth’s defenders for one final push against the alien menace, he also helped secure the film’s title, which is great, because… Doomsday? Are you fucking kidding me?

So, we know it’s good, but why is it so goddamn motivating? Well, partly because President Whitmore is the fictional leader we all wish was real. An actual presidential address under these circumstances would amount to a clipped statement followed by an all but-meaningless executive order given that the world is in flames, the military is in disarray, and we just nuked Houston . Sorry, but no carefully crafted statement delivered from a substitute Resolute Desk will cut it.

Instead, we get Whitmore as commander-in-chief in the very literal sense of the constitutional office. An ex-Air Force fighter pilot and Gulf War veteran, he’s more comfortable in a flightsuit and the cockpit of an F-16 (or an F-18 later in the film) than he is wearing a tie and sitting in a boardroom — something he’s criticized for by cable news hosts early on in the movie. But before personally taking to the sky to kick alien ass for America, and all mankind, he’s gotta rally his troops.

Related: ‘Independence Day’ Fails Prove The Aliens Should’ve Won »

“Perhaps it’s fate that today is the 4th of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom, not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution — but from annihilation,” Whitmore says before pivoting to a more unifying message that pays homage to both the St. Crispin’s Day Speech from William Shakespeare’s Henry V, when the titular king rallies his men before leading them into battle, and to the poem, Do not go gentle into that good night , by Dylan Thomas:

“Should we win the day, the 4th of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice: We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We’re going to live on! We’re going to survive!”

If your response to the final lines of that speech was anything but “FUCK YEAH!” and a curious sensation of patriotic arousal, then you’re dead inside. (WARNING: If a moto-boner lasts more than four hours, call your local recruiter — that’ll take care of it immediately.)

And with that, Happy 4th of July. Let’s hope no alien invaders drop by, but if they do, then political leaders the world over should brush up on the finest presidential address in movie history.

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Address to the Nation on Independence Day

July 4, 1986

My fellow Americans:

In a few moments the celebration will begin here in New York Harbor. It's going to be quite a show. I was just looking over the preparations and thinking about a saying that we had back in Hollywood about never doing a scene with kids or animals because they'd steal the scene every time. So, you can rest assured I wouldn't even think about trying to compete with a fireworks display, especially on the Fourth of July.

My remarks tonight will be brief, but it's worth remembering that all the celebration of this day is rooted in history. It's recorded that shortly after the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia celebrations took place throughout the land, and many of the former Colonists -- they were just starting to call themselves Americans -- set off cannons and marched in fife and drum parades.

What a contrast with the sober scene that had taken place a short time earlier in Independence Hall. Fifty-six men came forward to sign the parchment. It was noted at the time that they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honors. And that was more than rhetoric; each of those men knew the penalty for high treason to the Crown. ``We must all hang together,'' Benjamin Franklin said, ``or, assuredly, we will all hang separately.'' And John Hancock, it is said, wrote his signature in large script so King George could see it without his spectacles. They were brave. They stayed brave through all the bloodshed of the coming years. Their courage created a nation built on a universal claim to human dignity, on the proposition that every man, woman, and child had a right to a future of freedom.

For just a moment, let us listen to the words again: ``We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.'' Last night when we rededicated Miss Liberty and relit her torch, we reflected on all the millions who came here in search of the dream of freedom inaugurated in Independence Hall. We reflected, too, on their courage in coming great distances and settling in a foreign land and then passing on to their children and their children's children the hope symbolized in this statue here just behind us: the hope that is America. It is a hope that someday every people and every nation of the world will know the blessings of liberty.

And it's the hope of millions all around the world. In the last few years, I've spoken at Westminster to the mother of Parliaments; at Versailles, where French kings and world leaders have made war and peace. I've been to the Vatican in Rome, the Imperial Palace in Japan, and the ancient city of Beijing. I've seen the beaches of Normandy and stood again with those boys of Pointe du Hoc, who long ago scaled the heights, and with, at that time, Lisa Zanatta Henn, who was at Omaha Beach for the father she loved, the father who had once dreamed of seeing again the place where he and so many brave others had landed on D-day. But he had died before he could make that trip, and she made it for him. ``And, Dad,'' she had said, ``I'll always be proud.''

And I've seen the successors to these brave men, the young Americans in uniform all over the world, young Americans like you here tonight who man the mighty U.S.S. Kennedy and the Iowa and other ships of the line. I can assure you, you out there who are listening, that these young are like their fathers and their grandfathers, just as willing, just as brave. And we can be just as proud. But our prayer tonight is that the call for their courage will never come. And that it's important for us, too, to be brave; not so much the bravery of the battlefield, I mean the bravery of brotherhood.

All through our history, our Presidents and leaders have spoken of national unity and warned us that the real obstacle to moving forward the boundaries of freedom, the only permanent danger to the hope that is America, comes from within. It's easy enough to dismiss this as a kind of familiar exhortation. Yet the truth is that even two of our greatest Founding Fathers, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, once learned this lesson late in life. They'd worked so closely together in Philadelphia for independence. But once that was gained and a government was formed, something called partisan politics began to get in the way. After a bitter and divisive campaign, Jefferson defeated Adams for the Presidency in 1800. And the night before Jefferson's inauguration, Adams slipped away to Boston, disappointed, brokenhearted, and bitter.

For years their estrangement lasted. But then when both had retired, Jefferson at 68 to Monticello and Adams at 76 to Quincy, they began through their letters to speak again to each other. Letters that discussed almost every conceivable subject: gardening, horseback riding, even sneezing as a cure for hiccups; but other subjects as well: the loss of loved ones, the mystery of grief and sorrow, the importance of religion, and of course the last thoughts, the final hopes of two old men, two great patriarchs, for the country that they had helped to found and loved so deeply. ``It carries me back,'' Jefferson wrote about correspondence with his cosigner of the Declaration of Independence, ``to the times when, beset with difficulties and dangers, we were fellow laborers in the same cause, struggling for what is most valuable to man, his right to self-government. Laboring always at the same oar, with some wave ever ahead threatening to overwhelm us and yet passing harmless . . . we rowed through the storm with heart and hand . . . .'' It was their last gift to us, this lesson in brotherhood, in tolerance for each other, this insight into America's strength as a nation. And when both died on the same day within hours of each other, that date was July 4th, 50 years exactly after that first gift to us, the Declaration of Independence.

My fellow Americans, it falls to us to keep faith with them and all the great Americans of our past. Believe me, if there's one impression I carry with me after the privilege of holding for 5\1/2\ years the office held by Adams and Jefferson and Lincoln, it is this: that the things that unite us -- America's past of which we're so proud, our hopes and aspirations for the future of the world and this much-loved country -- these things far outweigh what little divides us. And so tonight we reaffirm that Jew and gentile, we are one nation under God; that black and white, we are one nation indivisible; that Republican and Democrat, we are all Americans. Tonight, with heart and hand, through whatever trial and travail, we pledge ourselves to each other and to the cause of human freedom, the cause that has given light to this land and hope to the world.

My fellow Americans, we're known around the world as a confident and a happy people. Tonight there's much to celebrate and many blessings to be grateful for. So while it's good to talk about serious things, it's just as important and just as American to have some fun. Now, let's have some fun -- let the celebration begin!

Note: The President spoke at 9:50 p.m. from the U.S.S. ``John F. Kennedy'' in New York Harbor. Earlier, on board the ship, he attended a USO show and a reenlistment and promotion ceremony for members of the crew. Following the fireworks display, the President went to the Rockefeller estate in Pocantico Hills, NY, where he stayed overnight.

The July 4 speeches that helped define what America is — or what it should be

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Generations ago, America’s leading political figures delivered many of their most eloquent orations not in the chambers of the Capitol but from local gazebos and bandstands on Independence Day. Before large crowds on town greens or in front of fire halls, they would harken back to the lessons of the nation’s Founders, often holding their audiences spellbound for an hour, perhaps even more.

American presidents still deliver pro-forma July Fourth messages; last year President Trump, in a remarkable personal version of history and the capabilities of George Washington’s Revolutionary War forces, said that “our Army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports. ”

But the grand tradition of the Independence Day oration has largely disappeared. Today’s audiences are unaccustomed to the patriotic rhetoric that once commanded attention. Indeed, the standard themes of July Fourths past — paeans to the wisdom of Washington, suggestions that his Revolutionary comrades were soldiers in God’s own cause — now possess an antiquarian, almost alien air.

“A politician’s Fourth of July speech may seem anodyne and clichéd,” said Rutgers historian David Greenberg. “But it also contributes in some way to understanding and perhaps subtly redefining, in that moment and from that political perspective, what Americanism is or should be.”

And there are lessons in these orations of a long-ago age. They are period pieces, and yet they underline in the 21st century how the 18th century Enlightenment values embedded in the Declaration of Independence have not been redeemed or realized.

“If democracy is America’s civic religion, then its sacred text is the Declaration of Independence ,” said Martin Kaplan, a USC expert on media and society. “What better occasion for a secular sermon about our founding values than the anniversary of our birth certificate? The first time many Americans heard their unalienable rights proclaimed was with their own ears, listening to its text. In a way, every Fourth of July speech since then has been a reenactment of that first declaration, renewed and recommitted in the terms of its changing times.”

So as the 244th celebration of American Independence draws near, let us pause and draw inspiration, and perhaps wisdom, from this holiday sampler of Fourth of July addresses of the past:

Daniel Webster, July 4, 1800

“It becomes us, on whom the defence of our country will ere long devolve, this day, most seriously to reflect on the duties incumbent upon us. Our ancestors bravely snatched expiring liberty from the grasp of Britain, whose touch is poison... Shall we, their descendants, now basely disgrace our lineage, and pusillanimously disclaim the legacy bequeathed to us? Shall we pronounce the sad valediction to freedom, and immolate liberty on the altars our fathers have raised to her?”

Of all the remarkable elements of Webster’s life, what might be most remarkable was that the citizens of Hanover, N.H., invited him as a Dartmouth junior to deliver a speech at the tiny college town’s Independence Day commemoration. At age 18, Webster consciously looked to the past (by invoking the greatness of Washington, who had died earlier that year) and eerily foreshadowed the future (by providing a direct antecedent to the message John F. Kennedy would offer when he bid Americans to “ask what you can do for your country”).

These words also remind us that these moral principles are at the heart of the American creed, a theme that John Quincy Adams would return to on July 4, 1821, when he spoke of how the American Revolution “swept away all the rubbish of accumulated centuries of servitude” and “proved that the social compact was no figment of the imagination, but a real, solid, and sacred bond of the social union.”

Charles Sumner, July 4, 1845

“Nothing resembles God more than that man among us who has arrived at the highest degree of justice. The true greatness of nations is in those qualities which constitute the greatness of the individual. It is not to be found in extent of territory, nor in vastness of population, nor in wealth; not in fortifications, or armies, or navies; not in the phosphorescent glare of fields of battle; not in Golgothas, though covered by monuments that kiss the clouds; for all these are the creatures and representatives of those qualities of our nature, which are unlike any thing in God’s nature.”

These remarks by Sumner, who would become known as one of the Senate’s most ardent opponents of slavery, are part of a larger speech delivered six months before Texas joined the Union. In summoning an image of Golgotha, the Jerusalem hillside where Christ was crucified, and in decrying the prospect of war with Mexico, Sumner offered a vivid celebration of the concept of justice. This is a meditation on eternal truths that we might embrace in our own time, when the killings of men in Minneapolis and Atlanta remind us that we have not yet arrived at “the highest degree of justice.”

Frederick Douglass, July 5, 1852

“The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn...”

Speaking in Rochester, N.Y ., the Black abolitionist and statesman opened by asserting that he was “not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic.” Douglass, perhaps the greatest orator in our history, escaped slavery and in in his freedom spoke across the country, assuring that Americans could not escape the moral questions inherent in human bondage nor the hypocrisy of Americans’ rhetoric about human freedom.

In this speech he went on to ask the preeminent question of the age, and of ours: “Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?”

Douglass’ speech came on July 5, not the Fourth, because he refused to celebrate American independence on the usual day until the enslaved were free. July 5 was not without meaning; on that date in 1827 , 4,000 Blacks people had marched through New York to mark the end of slavery in that state.

Edward Everett, July 4, 1861

“We contend for the great inheritance of constitutional freedom transmitted from our revolutionary fathers. We engage in the struggle forced upon us, with sorrow, as by our misguided brethren, but with high heart and faith….”

Few Americans ever assembled a resume quite like that of Everett, who served as governor of Massachusetts, member of both the U.S. House and Senate, secretary of State — and president of Harvard University. But he is remembered most for a speech he delivered whose content, ironically, is not remembered at all — a two-hour stemwinder with allusions to classical antiquity, references to the War of the Roses and quotes from the philosopher David Hume that turned out to be merely the warm-up act to the two minutes of what is now known as Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

Everett possessed a voice that was, in the words of his protege, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “most mellow and beautiful, and correct of all the instruments of the time.” In the speech excerpted above, delivered in the early months of the Civil War, he spoke of the primacy of freedom in the Constitution and, by employing the powerful verb “contend,” he underlined the enduring struggle that has animated all of our history — and our own time: the debate over the nature, and the extent, of freedom in the nation.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, July 4, 1863

“It is easy to understand the bitterness which is often shown toward reformers. They are never general favorites. They are apt to interfere with vested rights and time honored interests. They often wear an unlovely, and forbidding, aspect.”

Physician and poet, Holmes was both one of the leading literary figures of a period with a surfeit of cultural giants and the father of the famous Supreme Court justice (1902-1932) who bore his name.

These remarks came as Union troops were surging to victory at Gettysburg in Pennsylvania and Vicksburg in Mississippi, and they anticipated a period when the country, rent by the Civil War, would need to be reconstituted on a new, reformed basis — in essence the “new birth of freedom” that Lincoln spoke of in his Gettysburg Address and that we seek in this hard year of contention and conflict.

Susan B. Anthony, July 4, 1876

“Our faith is firm and unwavering in the broad principles of human rights proclaimed in 1776, not only as abstract truths, but as the corner stones of a republic. Yet we cannot forget, even in this glad hour, that while all men of every race, and clime, and condition, have been invested with the full rights of citizenship under our hospitable flag, all women still suffer the degradation of disfranchisement.”

The official celebration of the centenary of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia included no remarks by women. But a group of determined feminists distributed a Declaration of Rights for Women to the crowd assembled outside Independence Hall and then, at a stand erected for a group of musicians, Anthony read that document aloud.

“It is with sorrow we strike the one discordant note’’ at the anniversary commemoration, she said, but went on to assert, “The history of our country the past hundred years has been a series of assumptions and usurpations of power of woman, in direct opposition to the principles of just government...’’

With Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Anthony founded the National American Woman Suffrage Assn. It took 44 more years for the passage of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing all women the right to vote — a measure known as the “Susan B. Anthony Amendment” — and a century and a half later there remains a pay gap between men and women in the workplace and a representation gap in Congress. Anthony, an important ally of Douglass in the abolitionist movement, became the first woman portrayed on an American coin.

Charles Francis Adams, July 4, 1876

“Let us labor continually to keep the advance in civilization as it becomes us to do after the struggles of the past, so that the rights to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness, which we have honorably secured, may be firmly entailed upon the ever enlarging generations of mankind.”

The son and grandson of presidents, Adams was a state senator, a congressman, twice an unsuccessful vice presidential candidate, and the American ambassador to London. In this excerpt, delivered pointedly on the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, he speaks of the fragility of liberty and the threat that it might not be extended to all in the future. This sentence is a vow that any contemporary American political figure could, and perhaps should, quote in a speech this Independence Day.

John F. Kennedy, July 4, 1946

“Our idealism, [a fundamental] element of the American character, is being severely tested. Now, only time will tell whether this element of the American character will be true to its historic tradition.”

In an evocative setting where Daniel Webster thundered about the Union and Frederick Douglass lectured about the evils of slavery, a first-time congressional candidate delivered a thoughtful analysis of what it means to be an American. In Boston’s Faneuil Hall, the meeting place for colonial rebels built by a slave trader and slave owner, Kennedy examined several elements of the American creed.

“JFK’s speech couldn’t be more timely,” said Robert Dallek, a prominent historian and Kennedy biographer. “With a current president, whose character defects cast a shadow across the presidency and the nation’s reputation for human decency, Kennedy’s speech reminds us that the country is better than what Donald Trump represents.”

Yet the Kennedy speech is more than an answer to the Trump presidency. As president he would weaponize the rhetoric of idealism, but as a recent war veteran and fledgling politician he set forth the ultimate American challenge, as fresh on the Fourth of July in 1946 as it would be three-quarters of a century later: for the United States to be true to its historic traditions.

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The Oral History of the President’s Speech in ‘Independence Day’

As ‘Independence Day Resurgence’ continues filming in the desert, re-live the most patriotic and motivational speech in cinematic history.

Image via 20th Century Fox

The Fourth of July is a simple holiday with a few beloved traditions. From coast to coast, the day calls for enjoying some beer, eating a few hot dogs, and trying not to lose a hand while blowing up miniature bombs. However, for 220 years we Americans celebrated the creation of our independent political state without even realizing that things could get even better. Then, in 1996, Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin put out a film that would redefine summer blockbusters, launch the career of Will Smith , and give America even more to cheer for on the Fourth.

Independence Day  had it all. The explosions, aliens, and global destruction set a new standard (in a pre-9/11 world when you could blow up fake world monuments with little hesitation), earning the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. The world fell in love with Will Smith, who, combined with his role in  Bad Boys , became the leading action star of the decade. The film made over $800 million and became synonymous with the holiday that anchored its theme and story, joining the ranks of Halloween , Groundhog Day , and the marathon of Christmas movies that flood secondary cable channels every year.

Amongst all that, there is one scene in the epic that has persevered through two decades, and has stood above the CGI orgy that thrashes box offices each summer. To kick off the third act, President Thomas J. Whitmore, played by Bill Pullman, only has a few minutes before joining a ragtag team of volunteers who are about to launch a last-ditch effort against an all-powerful alien force. The military hero never got used to the neckties and bureaucratic compromise of politics, but in a short monologue, Whitmore delivers a rousing speech that immediately unites the surviving dregs of the desert who have gathered at Area-51 in the common desire to once again win back mankind's independence. 

Yes, an element of camp and nostalgia have increased the enduring love of this speech among the patriotic hordes that recite it every Fourth of July, but the truth behind this timeless scene only adds further to the greatest cinematic moment in the summer of '96. Not every 90-second sermon remains more engrained in the collective conscious than footage of the White House exploding, so we spoke to the people who made the scene happen (and also Bill Clinton's former speechwriter) to find out why. As Independence Day: Resurgence continues filming in the New Mexico desert and motors to a summer 2016 release, here is the full story on how one of the greatest speeches in cinematic history came to be, and how it very well may have influenced a future, real life president.

Dean Devlin : Not to get spiritual, but it felt like the whole experience in making this movie was somehow channeled. Roland and I wrote the original draft in about three weeks, and we didn’t do a whole lot of rewriting after that. I mean things like that just never happen. The day we filmed the speech was especially magical.

Michael Waldman : The ‘90s were this golden period between the end of the Cold War and the beginning of the War on Terrorism where, at the time, Americans often wondered if we were going soft. Having a fighter pilot president killing aliens was a good escapist alternative history. Also, the White House got blown up over and over again every time I saw the preview; it was very exciting for those of us who worked there.

Roland Emmerich : We made the movie under quite a lot of time pressure because we wanted to beat the Warner movie [ Mars Attacks ] from Tim Burton that we knew about. We wrote the script really fast, optioned it, and then shot the movie in record time.

Devlin : The real trick to these movies and making the big action sequences work—and I’ve forgotten this sometimes and screwed it up—the characters really have to be humanized. Because you can have the greatest special effects in the world, but if you don’t care about the people in those effects, there’s no impact. So Roland and I took a lot of care in this third act to really give each character a big moment before we went into nonstop action so that you were really invested in them.

Vivica A. Fox : The significance of that scene was just generating huge momentum for the big attack, and the speech had to pull together in unity all the survivors. I loved how in that scene, you saw people from all different walks of life standing together and deciding we would not be defeated; that we would stand up and we would declare our Independence Day and fight back.

Devlin : I said to Roland, “It would be great if we could do a kind of a St. Crispin’s Day speech.” You know, where the king basically rallies the troops.

{ "id": 133151630 } “I went into the other room and literally in five minutes I whipped the speech out, put it into the script—we didn’t even read it. It was just a placeholder.” —Dean Devlin

Waldman : The speech is obviously very derivative of Shakespeare’s  Henry V  and his St. Crispin’s Day speech before the Battle of Agincourt, where King Henry leads his outnumbered men into battle. In the  Independence Day  speech the president says, “July Fourth will no longer be known as an American holiday…” Henry the Fifth says, “This day is called the Feast of St. Crispian, he that outlives this day and comes safe home will stand a-tip-toe when this day is named.” Basically, they took that and rewrote it. Shakespeare wasn’t gonna sue.

Devlin : Roland turned to me and said, “Oh great. We only have to write a speech as great as the St. Crispin’s Day speech. How are we going to do that?”

Waldman : The vast majority of presidential speeches are not to rally the troops before attacking aliens, but some statement about policy, about education grants or something like that. The key thing in writing a presidential speech is understanding the policies, the president’s policy approach, and their agenda. Usually we would talk with President Clinton about a week before a speech on what his policy and strategic goals were. Very frequently there was close work with the policy advisors, and then typically it would go to the president. Right before he would give it, there would be a meeting in the Oval Office or wherever where he would go over and grill everybody about what this word means and why this, why that, and in his case, he would add quite a bit.

Devlin : I said, “Let me kind of just vomit out something really fast now and then we’ll spend a lot of time on it later and really rewrite it and make it perfect.” So I went into the other room and literally in five minutes I whipped the speech out, put it into the script—we didn’t even read it. It was just a placeholder.

Emmerich : Dean said, “We can always change it.”

Image via Fox

Waldman : Hollywood over the decades has had this very interesting relationship with presidents, and Hollywood’s often portrayed the presidents it wish it had.

Emmerich : Bill is such a moderate man, and he totally knew in a weird way what he had to play. When we talked at the very beginning of the film, he said, “I am gonna play this a little bit like a John Wayne figure. Maybe a little bit unsure of himself, but at the end he’s very sure of what he has to do.”

Devlin : Earlier in the film, the president’s people are talking about the criticism in the press about how he always has to compromise and everything is kind of a half measure. So for him, this is a chance to go all the way. And not have to play politics.

Waldman : Liberal Hollywood, which liked Bill Clinton and liked his policies, usually felt uncomfortable in some way with him personally. A lot of liberals in Hollywood thought Bill Clinton was a compromiser, and so Bill Pullman got up there and told it like it is and said what he really thought, which everyone dreamed the real president would do.

{ "id": 133151631 } “there’s not a lot of phony baloney or posturing in those circumstances. That comes from some place deep down inside that is looking to calm that collective heart racing.” —bill pullman

Devlin : We always want our leaders to be great leaders. And just this idea that this guy wasn’t just a politician—he went in there. He saw the kids being nervous and he thought, “I’ve gotta rally them.” And really, all that was in my head as we started to work on that scene was, “How can he motivate them? How can he get them on their feet and get ready to fly?”

Bill Pullman : When I first read this scene, I remember thinking that I’d need to think about speeches, and about motivation. I started doing research and had a collection of great speeches from the 20th century. One of them was an amazing speech that Robert Kennedy gave about two minutes after he had been informed that Martin Luther King had been shot.

The recording of the speech just captured the incredible energy in the place. He says, “I regret to inform you that Martin Luther King has been shot.” You hear this horrific gasp from the people in the crowd. And you get the sense that everyone’s collective heart is just beating like a rabbit’s. Then, his ability to frame his thoughts and cite references to Greeks, and of course get over the connection to the fact that he knows something about this—he can speak to the pain because his own brother had been shot.

That was one of those things that always reminded me that there’s not a lot of phony baloney or posturing in those circumstances. That comes from some place deep down inside that is looking to calm that collective heart racing.

Devlin : I remember on the day that we went to shoot it, I had a panic attack. I was like “Oh my god. We never got to rewrite the speech.”

Pullman : Dean reminded me of that just yesterday, and I had forgotten about that part. I don’t think he ever mentioned to me that he planned on editing it. I knew it was really important to him.

Devlin : I came running on the set in a panic thinking, “We had screwed up.” This is a scene we were supposed to spend weeks on and we just never got around to it. And when I got there they were already rehearsing the speech. I was so nervous about it, but when he got to the end of the speech—all of the extras went crazy, applauding and screaming. I looked at Roland and he looked at me and we’re like, “I guess this speech is pretty darn good.”

Pullman : I don’t think we were given a lot of direction. We were shooting nights, and so everyone’s a little bit woozy, but somehow everyone involved in that scene was on the money.

Emmerich : That wasn’t the only thing we shot that day. We shot from the evening until the morning, because we were under so much pressure. I always call it the tragic hour, because there’s a lot of yelling, screaming, and crying because we have such a short amount of time.

Pullman : You’re just trying to do your work, and focus on what you’re concentrating on. There wasn’t a lot of discussion about “Give me more,” or “Do it less.” Really, kind of at the core of Roland, I think at a certain point, he believes that you’re gonna work at it and keep the lines fresh all the way through. Roland was focused on the close-ups and the lighting and the sound. I don’t think anyone was really paying attention to, you know, “Is this great?”

Devlin : Bill Pullman just knocked this one out of the park. None of us were prepared for it until his first rehearsal and then we were just staring in awe and wonder and going, “Man he just owned this thing.”

{ "id": 133151636 } “They just let it stay. Sometimes that’s how moments happen. If Bill Pullman delivers, why take that moment away from him and from the film?” —Vivica A. Fox

Emmerich : We had a good feeling when we shot it. It felt like Bill hit a home run with it, but when we saw it in a cut with the music and everything, we all said, “Oh my God.”

Pullman : The next night, it practically seemed like Dean came into my trailer, we were shooting nights, and we were still on the White House set, and he brought in this VHS and said, “Take a look at this.” It was a quick edit of the speech, and it didn’t change much from that first edit.

Emmerich : It was actually never really re-cut. The only thing which was later added was that one shot I did of Randy Quaid and his kids.

Fox : They just let it stay. Sometimes that’s how moments happen; they can just be so organic in the film. If Bill Pullman delivers, why take that moment away from him and from the film?

Pullman : When I saw it for the first time, I remember feeling like the real genius of it is the cutaways to the people in the crowd, the pilots, the soldiers. It had a Capraesque quality, a Capra kind of engagement with humanity. They were all really honest faces that weren’t straining for anything, but were incredibly present. That’s what was going to make the whole speech work.

Fox : I got chills when he delivered it. And then watching it with an audience; I’ll never forget being at the premiere of what, 20 years ago in Westwood Village, and just when that scene, when he did it it was like you could hear a pin drop; everybody was hanging on every single word that he said, and was proud; when he finished it, it was like “Yes! Let’s go kick some alien butt!”

Waldman : I would say that a lot of times when presidents are given words to speak on the screen, both then and now I would wince, because they are always so off. This was not off; this was pretty good.

Devlin : Have you ever gone on YouTube and searched the speech? People do it at weddings. They break into it at bars. It’s hilarious.

Pullman : We didn’t ever imagine that the speech was gonna explode into something that would be a little set piece within the whole story.

Waldman : I wrote a book that was a collection of great presidential speeches , and if in fact the world had been invaded by aliens, this speech would have made the collection, so that’s high praise, I guess.

Devlin : The only thing we changed was we added at the last minute the line, “Today we celebrate our Independence Day.” And the main reason we did that is ‘cause the studio at the time was threatening to change the title to “Doomsday.” So we thought, let’s get it into the speech.

Pullman : I remember that there suddenly came some interest in pushing up the date in the schedule on when we would shoot the speech, because Fox was considering pushing the title “Doomsday.” That would’ve been a horrible title, and I’ve gone through a couple movies that got stuck with bad titles. So it was urgent to get it in and to have the words, “Today we celebrate our Independence Day” to prove why that had to be the title. I felt the urgency to get it right.

{ "id": 133151635 } “Fox was considering pushing the title ‘Doomsday.’ That would’ve been a horrible title.” —bill pullman

Devlin : There was a concern because we wanted to make sure that this was the moment where it wasn’t about America saving the world. It was about mankind around the world coming together for a common good. And it’s interesting because when the film came out, there was a lot of confusion about that when Roland and I toured the world promoting the movie. People kept thinking, “Well isn’t this just saying that America has to be the world’s policeman?” We would always point back to that speech and say, “No. The whole purpose of that speech is to say, ‘Today we speak with one voice.’”

Waldman : Looking at the scene again, what comes to mind a little bit is George W. Bush’s most memorable moments from his presidency. The staging and iconography of his “Mission Accomplished” moment looks like they borrowed a lot from that movie. I mean, Bush wearing his fake fighter pilot outfit on the deck of the Abraham Lincoln [aircraft carrier] looks so much like this scene. And one of the high points of his presidency was when he jumped up on the fire truck at Ground Zero and spoke into a megaphone to the firefighters and the first responders and said, “I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you.” It is so similar to this scene.

Emmerich : After the speech, when Rob Loggia said to him, “What are you doing?” And he says, “I’m getting in the air. That’s where I belong.” And actually, I always think that George W. Bush stole that, when he was on his aircraft carrier. When I saw that during the Iraq War, I laughed really hard.

Emmerich : This speech was very different from what you’d normally hear from a president.

Waldman : Actually, there was one point that summer when scientists believed they had found some evidence of bacterial life on a meteorite that had come from Mars. It was pretty tenuous, if I recall, but anyway that’s what they thought, and so we wrote a speech for President Clinton and he went out and announced contact with life on Mars. It kind of was quickly forgotten, which is probably a good thing.

Fox : They did a screening at the White House for Bill Clinton, and he loved it. He loved it.  I was working and I couldn’t make it and I was bummed about that, but then later at an event in Washington D.C. I got to introduce myself to Bill Clinton and he was like “I loved you in Independence Day , Vivica!”

Emmerich : When we screened Independence Day in the White House for President Clinton and Hillary Clinton, afterwards Hillary said, “Well, it looks like Bill has to get his pilot license!”

Pullman : There’s a lot that goes into making a speech, and some of it is just the right character at the right time, and you know, I’m fortunate to have been in that position in a movie that has become such a classic.

Devlin : The popularity of this speech blows my mind. It absolutely blows my mind. It’s the thing that I look back in my career and have the most pride about. AFI did a thing recently of the top 10 speeches of all time in movies. And they listed ours at number two behind Patton’s speech.

{ "id": 133151642 } “I finally realized how big this speech was during the making of Independence Day Resurgence. Everyone’s asking, ‘Is there a speech?’” —Roland Emmerich

Pullman : I don’t know it by heart. I think of it as a circumstantial thing, you know, being there at that time, and having the words pour through you. That’s just so much more interesting.

Emmerich : I finally realized how big this speech was during the making of  Independence Day Resurgence . Everyone’s asking, “Is there a speech?”

Pullman : It’d be boring in a sequel to have a big speech to the troops or something again. That was never an option, really. You wouldn’t want to set yourself up for that kind of failure.

Emmerich : These things happen once in a lifetime. You can’t repeat stuff like that. There’s a lot of great emotional moments in  IDR , but there’s no place where a speech like this could fit, so we’re staying away from it. There are some speech-like moments, but I think having a president’s speech would just be like playing with fire.

Devlin : I like to make popcorn movies. It’s my passion. I love the genre. And traditionally, these kinds of movies aren’t celebrated as anything other than movies that make money and are populist. And to have this speech recognized almost separately from the film, it’s a very humbling thing.

Emmerich : Independence Day was so successful and is maybe holding up so well because it has all these very simple human stories. Dean and I met with Steven Spielberg after the film, because he wanted to be involved with the ride, which never happened, but he said to us, “You guys changed something, there’s something different now. Everybody has to see a summer movie differently.” And I knew exactly what he meant, which was combining very big images with very humanized stories. And he meant it; at that time he was shooting Lost World , and he said, “We’re changing the script now.”

Devlin : Spielberg said to Roland and I not long after the movie came out—it was the first time that different genres were combined to try and create a new genre. And that started to become the fashion: taking genres and gene-splicing them together.

Emmerich : In a way we unknowingly invented a new thing, with no plan. I see the influence of Independence Day everywhere: in all the Marvel movies, and all the superheroes of the DC Universe, there’s always an alien invasion, there’s always like a disaster element, but they always try to humanize the characters.

Devlin : The experience of making this movie was unlike anything that ever happened to me before or since. And it was just this odd thing where everything just kept going right every single day. We had no egos from any of the actors. They were all on board and all terrific. There are so many things that go wrong when you make a movie and so many problems and fights with the studio. It’s like every day we kept looking at each other going, “When’s the other shoe gonna drop? When is something gonna go wrong?” And it was kind of just this blessed process of making this film. It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen or experienced.

Emmerich : It’s amazing how this speech took off. But hey, it’s out of your control, and I’m very proud that we did it, and we had no idea what impact this would have. We didn’t have any idea how successful the movie would be. Nobody was expecting this.

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‘What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?’: The History of Frederick Douglass’ Searing Independence Day Oration

A merica has been working to fully live up to the ideals laid out in the Declaration of Independence ever since the document was printed on July 4, 1776. So while the U.S. tends to go all out celebrating freedom on the Fourth of July, alternate independence commemorations held a day later often draw attention to a different side of that story, with readings of the Frederick Douglass speech best known today as “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”

The speech was originally delivered at a moment when the country was fiercely locked in debate over the question of slavery, but there’s a reason why it has remained famous more than 150 years after emancipation, says David Blight, author of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize winning biography Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom.

To some, celebrations of American independence on July 4 are a reminder of the country’s hypocrisy on the matter of freedom, as slavery played a key role in the nation’s history; even today, America’s history of racism is still being written , while other forms of modern-day slavery persist in the U.S. and around the world . For those who feel that way, July 5 may be an easier day to celebrate: on that day in 1827, 4,000 African Americans paraded down Broadway in New York City to celebrate the end of slavery in their state.

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One person who felt that way was Douglass, the famous abolitionist, who was himself born into slavery. When the Ladies Anti-Slavery Society of Rochester, N.Y., invited Douglass to give a July 4 speech in 1852, Douglass opted to speak on July 5 instead.

Addressing an audience of about 600 at the newly constructed Corinthian Hall, he started out by acknowledging that the signers of the Declaration of Independence were “brave” and “great” men, and that the way they wanted the Republic to look was in the right spirit. But, he said, speaking more than a decade before slavery was ended nationally, a lot of work still needed to be done so that all citizens can enjoy “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Above “your national, tumultuous joy” — the July 4th celebrations of white Americans — were the “mournful wails of millions” whose heavy chains “are, today, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them.”

In the oration’s most famous passages, Douglass discussed what it felt like to see such festivities and to know independence was not a given for people like him:

What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?… I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn… What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.

Douglass’ speech also foreshadowed the bloody reckoning to come: Civil War. “For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder,” he said. “We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.”

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At the time Douglass spoke, Blight says, the opportunity was ripe for a lecture on the moral crisis.

“ Uncle Tom’s Cabin had just been published that spring and was taking the country by storm. The country was in the midst of crises over fugitive slave rescues in the wake of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The political party system was beginning to tear itself asunder over the expansion of slavery,” he says. “It’s also an election year; the 1852 presidential election was heating up that summer. The Nativist party is rising. It’s an extraordinary political moment.”

It was a turbulent time for Douglass personally, too. In the late 1840s and into the 1850s, his finances were tight, and he was struggling to sustain the newspaper he founded, The North Star . He’d had a breakdown in the early 1850s, and was having trouble supporting his family. His friend Julia Griffith, the treasurer of the Rochester group that invited him to give the 1852 speech, was one of the people helping him fund-raise to keep the paper alive.

The message wasn’t new — Douglass promoted those ideas year-round — but Blight says he knew the Fourth of July was a good hook, and expected the speech to be a hit. He had it printed immediately after delivering it and then went out on the road and sold it for 50 cents a copy or $6 for a hundred. “He does some of his greatest writing in early 1850s during this terrible personal crisis,” Blight says, “and right there in the middle of it comes the greatest speech he’s ever delivered, of the hundreds of speeches he delivered in his life.”

“It’s the birth of American Independence, the birth of a nation, and what the speech is saying is you must destroy first what you created and remake it, or it will be destroyed — and you with it,” says Blight.

Douglass continued to add to the speech in the years that followed. On July 4, 1862 — with the war underway — he addressed an audience of about 2,000 in Himrods Corner, N.Y.; Blight argues that his shift then from addressing simply “you” to discussing the Revolution as something undertaken by “your fathers, and my fathers” indicates he believed emancipation will happen more than he did a decade earlier.

President Lincoln did issue the Emancipation Proclamation six months later — but even after the war’s end, Douglass continued to use the Fifth of July to draw attention to the nation’s track record on the idea celebrated on the Fourth. On July 5, 1875, as Reconstruction brought its own fears, like violence from the Ku Klux Klan, Douglass shifted his speech for the day, asking, “If war among the whites brought peace and liberty to the blacks, what will peace among the whites bring?” But the 1852 “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” speech remains the best known of his addresses on the occasion, especially as it became even more widely read in the late-20th century, with events like the public readings sponsored by the Vermont Humanities Council and a powerful reading by James Earl Jones in 2004.

Douglass’ message — about America struggling to live up to the lofty goals it set for itself at the founding — continues to be relevant, says Blight.

“He would use the Fourth of July for its irony over and over and over, just like the Declaration of Independence is used to remind the country of its potential and promise, and to him, race was always the measure of that,” he says. “America, by its nature, is never quite fulfilling all of those promises.”

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Write to Olivia B. Waxman at [email protected]

An Address…Celebrating the Declaration of Independence

• July 04, 1821

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Introduction

When John Quincy Adams was Secretary of State, he was invited to give a speech to celebrate the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 1821. The speech is most famous for the words “Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been unfurled, there will [America’s] heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy.” Yet these words were preceded by a less famous but more important exposition of the causes and meaning of the Declaration of Independence. In this detailed exposition, excerpted below, Adams argues that the United States was the first legitimate government in the history of mankind, an achievement, as he says, that “must forever stand alone.” In addition to expressing what is now called American exceptionalism, Adams’ speech epitomizes the moral and political view of the Protestant establishment that dominated the United States until late into the nineteenth century. In this view, the Declaration was made possible by the Reformation. Adams argues that the Reformation restored reason to its rightful place in religion, making its restoration in politics only a matter of time. That time came with the Declaration. Among other things, this understanding of the connection between the Reformation and the Declaration helps explain the longstanding animus of the Protestant establishment to Catholics. Not accepting the work of the Reformation, how could Catholics be citizens of a country essentially shaped by its spirit?

Fellow Citizens,

Until within a few days before that which we have again assembled to commemorate, our fathers, the people of this Union, had constituted a portion of the British nation; a nation, renowned in arts and arms, who, from a small Island in the Atlantic ocean, had extended their dominion over considerable parts of every quarter of the globe. Governed themselves by a race of kings, whose title to sovereignty had originally been founded on conquest, spell-bound, for a succession of ages, under that portentous system of despotism and of superstition which, in the name of the meek and humble Jesus, had been spread over the Christian world, the history of this nation had, for a period of seven hundred years, from the days of the conquest till our own, exhibited a conflict almost continued, between the oppressions of power and the claims of right. In the theories of the crown and the mitre, man had no rights. Neither the body nor the soul of the individual was his own….

The religious reformation was an improvement in the science of mind; an improvement in the intercourse of man with his Creator, and in his acquaintance with himself. It was an advance in the knowledge of his duties and his rights. It was a step in the progress of man, in comparison with which the magnet and gunpowder, the wonders of either India, nay the printing press itself, were but as the paces of a pigmy to the stride of a giant….

The corruptions and usurpations of the church were the immediate objects of these reformers; but at the foundation of all their exertions there was a single plain and almost self-evident principle—that man has a right to the exercise of his own reason. It was this principle which the sophistry and rapacity of the church had obscured and obliterated, and which the intestine divisions of that same church itself first restored. The triumph of reason was the result of inquiry and discussion. Centuries of desolating wars have succeeded and oceans of human blood have flowed, for the final establishment of this principle; but it was from the darkness of the cloister that the first spark was emitted, and from the arches of a university that it first kindled into day. From the discussion of religious rights and duties, the transition to that of the political and civil relations of men with one another was natural and unavoidable; in both, the reformers were met by the weapons of temporal power. At the same glance of reason, the tiara would have fallen from the brow of priesthood, and the despotic scepter would have departed from the hand of royalty, but for the sword, by which they were protected; that sword which, like the flaming sword of the Cherubims, turned every way to debar access to the tree of life. [1]

The double contest against the oppressors of church and state was too appalling for the vigor, or too comprehensive for the faculties of the reformers of the European continent. In Britain alone was it undertaken, and in Britain but partially succeeded.

It was in the midst of that fermentation of the human intellect, which brought right and power in direct and deadly conflict with each other, that the rival crowns of the two portions of the British Island were united on the same head. It was then, that, released from the fetters of ecclesiastical domination, the minds of men began to investigate the foundations of civil government. But the mass of the nation surveyed the fabric of their Institutions as it existed in fact. It had been founded in conquest; it had been cemented in servitude; and so broken and molded had been the minds of this brave and intelligent people to their actual conditions, that instead of solving civil society into its first elements in search of their rights, they looked back only to conquest as the origin of their liberties, and claimed their rights but as donations from their kings. This faltering assertion of freedom is not chargeable indeed upon the whole nation. There were spirits capable of tracing civil government to its first foundation in the moral and physical nature of man: but conquest and servitude were so mingled up in every particle of the social existence of the nation, that they had become vitally necessary to them, as a portion of the fluid, itself destructive of life, is indispensably blended with the atmosphere in which we live.

Fellow citizens, it was in the heat of this war of moral elements, which brought one Stuart to the block and hurled another from his throne, that our forefathers sought refuge from its fury, in the then wilderness of this Western World. They were willing exiles from a country dearer to them than life. But they were the exiles of liberty and of conscience: dearer to them even than their country. They came too, with charters from their kings; for even in removing to another hemisphere, they “cast longing, lingering looks behind,” [2] and were anxiously desirous of retaining ties of connection with their country, which, in the solemn compact of a charter, they hoped by the corresponding links of allegiance and protection to preserve. But to their sense of right, the charter was only the ligament between them, their country, and their king. Transported to a new world, they had relations with one another, and relations with the aboriginal inhabitants of the country to which they came; for which no royal charter could provide. The first settlers of the Plymouth colony, at the eve of landing from their ship, therefore, bound themselves together by a written covenant; and immediately after landing, purchased from the Indian natives the right of settlement upon the soil.

Thus was a social compact formed upon the elementary principles of civil society, in which conquest and servitude had no part. The slough of brutal force was entirely cast off; all was voluntary; all was unbiased consent; all was the agreement of soul with soul.

Other colonies were successively founded, and other charters granted, until in the compass of a century and a half, thirteen distinct British provinces peopled the Atlantic shores of the North American continent with two millions of freemen; possessing by their charters the rights of British subjects, and nurtured by their position and education, in the more comprehensive and original doctrines of human rights. From their infancy they had been treated by the parent state with neglect, harshness and injustice. Their charters had often been disregarded and violated; their commerce restricted and shackled; their interest wantonly or spitefully sacrificed; so that the hand of the parent had been scarcely ever felt, but in the alternate application of whips and scorpions.

When in spite of all these persecutions, by the natural vigor of their constitution, they were just attaining the maturity of political manhood, a British parliament, in contempt of the clearest maxims of natural equity, in defiance of the fundamental principle upon which British freedom itself had been cemented with British blood; on the naked, unblushing allegation of absolute and uncontrollable power, undertook by their act to levy, without representation and without consent, taxes upon the people of America for the benefit of the people of Britain. This enormous project of public robbery was no sooner made known, than it excited, throughout the colonies, one general burst of indignant resistance. It was abandoned, reasserted and resumed, until fleets and armies were transported, to record in the characters of fire, famine, and desolation, the transatlantic wisdom of British legislation, and the tender mercies of British consanguinity….

For the independence of North America, there were ample and sufficient causes in the laws of moral and physical nature. The tie of colonial subjection is compatible with the essential purposes of civil government, only when the condition of the subordinate state is from its weakness incompetent to its own protection. Is the greatest moral purpose of civil government, the administration of justice? And if justice has been truly defined, the constant and perpetual will of securing to every one his right, how absurd and impracticable is that form of polity, in which the dispenser of justice is in one quarter of the globe, and he to whom justice is to be dispensed is in another…. Are the essential purposes of civil government, to administer to the wants, and to fortify the infirmities of solitary man? To unite the sinews of numberless arms, and combine the councils of multitudes of minds, for the promotion of the well-being of all? The first moral element then of this composition is sympathy between the members of which it consists; the second is sympathy between the giver and the receiver of the law. The sympathies of men begin with the relations of domestic life. They are rooted in the natural relations of domestic life. They are rooted in the natural relations of husband and wife, of parent and child, of brother and sister; thence they spread through the social and moral propinquities of neighbor and friend, to the broader and more complicated relations of countryman and fellow-citizens; terminating only with the circumference of the globe which we inhabit, in the co-extensive charities incident to the common nature of man. To each of these relations, different degrees of sympathy are allotted by the ordinances of nature. The sympathies of domestic life are not more sacred and obligatory, but closer and more powerful, than those of neighborhood and friendship. The tie which binds us to our country is not more holy in the sight of God, but it is more deeply seated in our nature, more tender and endearing, than that common link which merely connects us with our fellow-mortal, man. It is a common government that constitutes our country. But in that association, all the sympathies of domestic life and kindred blood, all the moral ligatures of friendship and of neighborhood, are combined with that instinctive and mysterious connection between man and physical nature, which binds the first perceptions of childhood in a chain of sympathy with the last gasp of expiring age, to the spot of our nativity, and the natural objects by which it is surrounded. These sympathies belong and are indispensable to the relations ordained by nature between the individual and his country. They dwell in the memory and are indelible in the hearts of the first settlers of a distant colony. These are the feelings under which the children of Israel “sat down by the rivers of Babylon, and wept when they remembered Zion.” These are the sympathies under which they “hung their harps upon the willow,” and instead of songs of mirth, exclaimed, “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.” [3] But these sympathies can never exist for a country, which we have never seen. They are transferred in the hearts of succeeding generations, from the country of human institution, to the country of their birth; from the land of which they have only heard, to the land where their eyes first opened to the day. The ties of neighborhood are broken up, those of friendship can never be formed, with an intervening ocean; and the natural ties of domestic life, the all-subduing sympathies of love, the indissoluble bonds of marriage, the heart-riveted kindliness of consanguinity, gradually wither and perish in the lapse of a few generations. All the elements, which form the basis of that sympathy between the individual and his country, are dissolved.

Long before the Declaration of Independence, the great mass of the people of America and of the people of Britain had become total strangers to each other…. The sympathies therefore most essential to the communion of country were, between the British and American people, extinct. Those most indispensable to the just relation between sovereign and subject, had never existed and could not exist between the British government and the American people. The connection was unnatural; and it was in the moral order no less than in the positive decrees of Providence, that it should be dissolved.

Yet, fellow-citizens, these are not the causes of the separation assigned in the paper which I am about to read. The connection between different portions of the same people and between a people and their government, is a connection of duties as well as rights. In the long conflict of twelve years which had preceded and led to the Declaration of Independence, our fathers had been not less faithful to their duties, than tenacious of their rights. Their resistance had not been rebellion. It was not a restive and ungovernable spirit of ambition, bursting from the bonds of colonial subjection; it was the deep and wounded sense of successive wrongs, upon which complaint had been only answered by aggravation, and petition repelled with contumely, which had driven them to their last stand upon the adamantine rock of human rights.

It was then fifteen months after the blood of Lexington and Bunker’s hill, after Charlestown and Falmouth, fired by British hands, were but heaps of ashes, after the ear of the adder had been turned to two successive supplications to the throne; after two successive appeals to the people of Britain, as friends, countrymen, and brethren, to which no responsive voice of sympathetic tenderness had been returned…. Then it was that the thirteen United Colonies of North America, by their delegates in Congress assembled, exercising the first act of sovereignty by a right ever inherent in the people, but never to be resorted to, save at the awful crisis when civil society is solved into its first elements, declared themselves free and independent states; and two days afterwards, in justification of that act, issued this [Declaration].

[Adams here read the Declaration of Independence]

…The interest, which in this paper has survived the occasion upon which it was issued; the interest which is of every age and every clime; the interest which quickens with the lapse of years, spreads as it grows old, and brightens as it recedes, is in the principles which it proclaims. It was the first solemn declaration by a nation of the only legitimate foundation of civil government. It was the corner stone of a new fabric, destined to cover the surface of the globe. It demolished at a stroke the lawfulness of all governments founded upon conquest. It swept away all the rubbish of accumulated centuries of servitude. It announced in practical form to the world the transcendent truth of the unalienable sovereignty of the people. It proved that the social compact was no figment of the imagination; but a real, solid, and sacred bond of the social union. From the day of this declaration, the people of North America were no longer the fragment of a distant empire, imploring justice and mercy from an inexorable master in another hemisphere. They were no longer children appealing in vain to the sympathies of a heartless mother; no longer subjects leaning upon the shattered columns of royal promises, and invoking the faith of parchment to secure their rights. They were a nation, asserting as of right, and maintaining by war, its own existence. A nation was born in a day.

How many ages hence

Shall this their lofty scene be acted o’er

In states unborn, and accents yet unknown? [4]

It will be acted o’er, fellow-citizens, but it can never be repeated. It stands, and must forever stand alone, a beacon on the summit of the mountain, to which all the inhabitants of the earth may turn their eyes for a genial and saving light, till time shall be lost in eternity, and this globe itself dissolve, nor leave a wreck behind. [5] It stands forever, a light of admonition to the rulers of men; a light of salvation and redemption to the oppressed. So long as this planet shall be inhabited by human beings, so long as man shall be of social nature, so long as government shall be necessary to the great moral purposes of society, and so long as it shall be abused to the purposes of oppression, so long shall this declaration hold out to the sovereign and to the subject the extent and the boundaries of their respective rights and duties; founded in the laws of nature and of nature’s God. Five and forty years have passed away since this Declaration was issued by our fathers; and here are we, fellow-citizens, assembled in the full enjoyment of its fruits, to bless the Author of our being for the bounties of his providence, in casting our lot in this favored land; to remember with effusions of gratitude the sages who put forth, and the heroes who bled for the establishment of this Declaration; and, by the communion of soul in the re-perusal and hearing of this instrument, to renew the genuine Holy Alliance [6] of its principles, to recognize them as eternal truths, and to pledge ourselves and bind our posterity to a faithful and undeviating adherence to them….

• 1. Genesis 3:24
• 2. An allusion to Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard.”
• 3. Psalm 137.
• 4. Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 3, Scene 1, l. 112–114.
• 5. Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act 4, Scene 1, I. 170-173.
• 6. Adams here contrasts the Holy Alliance of the American people based on the principles of the Declaration with the so-called Holy Alliance of Russia, Prussia and Austria formed in 1815 against the spread of republicanism.

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“you can’t actually blow up the white house”: an oral history of ‘independence day’.

As the beloved film turns 25, director Roland Emmerich, writer Dean Devlin and stars Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Vivica A. Fox, Randy Quaid and more look back at the battle to cast Will Smith, concerns over that famous Super Bowl ad, and a last-minute reshoot to save the ending.

By Aaron Couch

Aaron Couch

Film Editor

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“Today, we celebrate our Independence Day.” Twenty-five years ago, those words electrified audiences, who braved long lines and sold-out crowds to see the most anticipated movie of 1996.

Independence Day , which opened over the July Fourth weekend , turned Will Smith into a global star, birthed one of the most famous speeches in cinema history, and changed movie marketing with an explosive Super Bowl ad remembered decades later.

It also established filmmaker Roland Emmerich as a master of destruction who would go on to helm films such as The Day After Tomorrow,   2012 and the upcoming Moonfall (the German filmmaker’s latest disaster pic, due out in February 2022.).

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Before ID4 , Emmerich and writer Dean Devlin were best known for Stargate (1994). In 1995, the duo emerged from a Mexican screenwriting binge with storyboards and an alien invasion script that sparked a bidding war among every studio in Hollywood.

That was only the beginning of their journey. The two went to battle with 20th Century Fox to cast Smith, whom the studio feared couldn’t sell the movie overseas. They had to reshoot the ending with just weeks to spare. And they fought to blow up the White House in a TV ad, something that was controversial, to say the least.

Independence Day went on to earn a massive $817.4 million globally, making it the second-highest-grossing film ever at that time. Here, the key players — including Bill Pullman , Jeff Goldblum , Vivica A. Fox, Randy Quaid and Margaret Colin recount how it all happened.

“PACK YOUR STUFF. WE ARE WRITING.” Emmerich and Devlin recall the origins of Independence Day slightly differently.

ROLAND EMMERICH, director I went for a meeting at Warner Bros. They wanted to make a movie about a prison escape starring Harrison Ford. They said the budget was about $70 million. When I came out of the meeting I said, “Oh my God. A prison escape movie, $70 million? I could finally do the alien invasion movie I’ve always wanted for that.” I went into Book Soup and bought War of the Worlds . I read it, and I felt it was dated. I went to Dean and said, “I think I know our next movie.”  

DEAN DEVLIN, writer-producer We were doing a [ Stargate ] press junket and a reporter asked, “Do you really believe that aliens built the pyramids?” We said no, and Roland interrupted me and said, “Yeah, but wouldn’t it be the most exciting day ever if we woke up and there were 14-mile-wide spaceships covering the sky?” He leaned over to me and said, “I think I have our next movie.”

EMMERICH  I heard through the grapevine that Tim Burton was shooting a movie ( Mars Attacks ) very close to what I wanted to do. I called up Lorenzo [Di Bonaventura, then an executive at Warner Bros.]. I said, “When is that movie coming out?” He said, “Well, it’s slated for August [1996].” So I immediately looked at my calendar and I said, “Dean, pack your stuff. We are writing.”

DEVLIN We rented a house in Mexico. We would talk about all the scenes and would do these 3×5 cards for every scene.

EMMERICH We watched all these ’70s disaster movies. We pretty much wrote a disaster movie.

DEVLIN I would go off in one room to write it on my little laptop and Roland would storyboard the scene in the other room. By the time we finished the script, we literally had the entire movie storyboarded.

EMMERICH We wrote that script in three and a half weeks. It was never changed. Not one word.  We sent it to our agent, Michael Wimer, who immediately said, “Let’s auction it.” Our budget was $69.5 million.

DEVLIN Back in those days there were nine studios. All of them were bidding on the script.

EMMERICH Universal and 20th Century Fox fought over it. [Fox eventually won.] I had final cut.

“WE DON’T LIKE WILL SMITH” Emmerich and Devlin negotiate a deal that grants them enormous creative control on the film — except when it comes to casting.

DEVLIN We had in our deal that we would agree to continue to work on the script, but in the event of a disagreement, the existing script would stand.

EMMERICH I told the studio, “There is this Tim Burton movie. It is a comedy. The comedy cannot come out first. So we have to tie in Independence Day.” At one point Bill Mechanic, who took over the studio, came to me and said, “We tested the title. It’s not working really well. We want to open this movie on Memorial Day.” I said, “Tough luck. It stays Independence Day . It will be released on Independence Day.”

DEVLIN The one character we had in our mind from day one was Jeff Goldblum. As we were working on the script, I would do my Jeff Goldblum imitation. Then we were basing his father [Judd Hirsch’s Julius] off of my grandfather, who was also named Julius.

EMMERICH Ethan Hawke was on our list too, but I thought at that time he was too young. It was pretty clear it had to be Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum. That was the combo we thought. The studio said, “No, we don’t like Will Smith. He’s unproven. He doesn’t work in international [markets].”

DEVLIN They said, “You cast a Black guy in this part, you’re going to kill foreign [box office].” Our argument was, “Well, the movie is about space aliens. It’s going to do fine foreign.” It was a big war, and Roland really stood up for [Smith] — and we ultimately won that war.

EMMERICH It was pretty shortly before the shoot and we still hadn’t locked in Will and Jeff. I put my foot down. “Universal people are calling every day, so give me these two actors or I move over there.” I don’t think it would have been a possibility [to actually move studios], but it was a great threat.

VIVICA A. FOX, Jasmine Dubrow I was working on Young and the Restless . Around town, all the African American actresses were auditioning for Will Smith’s Independence Day . I called my agent and said, “Hey, how come I didn’t get to audition?” I had done an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as Jazzy Jeff’s sister. We had great chemistry. She was like, “Honey, you are just on a soap opera right now. You don’t have a big enough name.” Two weeks later I got a call from my agent. “Guess who called looking for you? The folks from Independence Day .”

DEVLIN I knew Kevin [Spacey] since high school. We had just seen The Usual Suspects , an early cut. The original idea was to portray the president as a villain, and it was going to be a twist that he’s heroic when he gets in the plane [at the end of the movie]. That’s why we were pushing for Kevin Spacey. At one point we said, “We can get Kevin for $200K right now. In a year from now he’s going to win an Oscar and he’s going to [cost] $2 million.” The studio executive said, “Kevin Spacey will never win an Oscar in my lifetime.”  

BILL PULLMAN, President Thomas Whitmore I’d heard it was a science-fiction movie. There were some rumblings about the part of the president. I remember thinking, “That sounds like the heavy lifting.” I had no idea whether the movie would come together or what kind of response it would get.

DEVLIN Once the decision came to go with Bill Pullman, it changed the whole character. I like it much better — making [the president] a guy who is trying to do well but [also] trying to compromise.

LISA JAKUB, Alicia Casse (daughter of Randy Quaid’s Russell Casse) I remember being in my dining room and auditioning for an alien movie and having my mom play a boy asking me if I wanted to die a virgin, and thinking I had an incredibly strange job.

FOX I had to audition six times to get the part. I go into the audition with this tight, white patent leather jumpsuit on with heels and makeup to show them I had a good little body. When we finished, [the casting director] said, “The character is a stripper. I see you’ve got a nice little body here in that white jumpsuit, but that’s [just] what she does for a living. She’s a mom.” She said, “I want you to go and watch Speed and look at the way Sandra Bullock is dressed, and how she carries herself.” I watched Speed . I went and got a cute little dress with ruffles, some combat boots and some ankle socks. As soon as I walked in, she goes, “You did your homework. Good girl.”

“ALL OF THEM WERE OUT THERE, IN THE BURNING HEAT.” The production films in Utah, The Howard Hughes Spruce Goose Dome in Long Beach and in New York.

EMMERICH On the border of Utah and Nevada — the salt flats — there is a little town called Wendover. They have a couple of casinos there, which in summer nobody goes to because it’s too hot. Cheap hotel rooms. So we stayed there for three weeks.

FOX Me and Margaret [Colin] spent a lot of time in Wendover. We used to be in the jacuzzi hanging out, having margaritas when we weren’t working.

RANDY QUAID, Russell Casse I won a lot of money at the casino in Utah where we shot a lot of the film.

DEVILN The first thing we shot was the ending scene. We were out on the salt flats of Utah in 123-degree heat. They had a tent set up off-camera for everybody to gather in the shade. Roland does the first rehearsal and he sends everybody to the tent and the stand-ins come out. All of a sudden, Will Smith walks back out and excuses the stand-in. The other actors see him doing that and one by one, they came out of the tent. All of them were there, in the burning heat. It was a silent statement about the way this project was going to go. Will started it. This is not going to be a show of egos.

MARGARET COLIN, press secretary Constance Spano There was no endlessly waiting around for the fanciest person to come [to set]. You got to rehearse and be with each other and have relationships and get to know each other through the roles.

PULLMAN We were in base camp waiting for a shot when they announced the verdict to the O.J. Simpson trial on the radio. It was right then they knocked on the door. “Let’s go to set.” People were walking in small groups and no one was talking. Everyone is processing quietly and we got on the set. And it’s still quiet. We are waiting for Roland. And then Will said, “Woah, standing out here with a lot of angry white folks!” ( Laughs. ) Everybody burst into laughter. He just totally took the tension right out of the room.

JEFF GOLDBLUM, David Levinson We did the scene where we had cigars, and I’m not such a cigar smoker; it makes me a little groggy. So after many takes of that, we had a very nice assistant director who would be standing by. A couple of minutes before the take, he would get that thing going. Even getting it going is enough smoke that it would make me dizzy. He would put in his mouth, get it going, and before we called action, he’d give it to me and I’d start smoking it.

DEVLIN Whenever they would improv, I would sometimes come in and suggest a word to throw in. We already had so many Easter eggs. So I just ran in and said, “We’ll probably cut it later, but you got to give me the ‘must go faster’ line from Jurassic Park .”

GOLDBLUM I was loath to appropriate from some other character [Goldblum’s Dr. Ian Malcolm], and I hoped Mr. Spielberg wouldn’t be unhappy that we’d used it. I think it all worked out.

EMMERICH At one point Will says to me, “How do I know how to steer this UFO?” So we made a sticker. “Forward, backward, sideways.” He then immediately said, “Oh, I know what I do.” He does forward, but it’s the backward, so he bangs into something. And then Jeff Goldblum’s reaction is priceless. He turns the sticker around and goes forward. He says, “You go that way.”

GOLDBLUM I remember improvising the fat lady singing. “The fat lady. You’re obsessed with the fat lady.” Something like that. We improvised, we were fooling around, having a good time.

DAVID BRENNER, editor I just felt free to put in stuff I thought was fun and cool. Even if it sometimes was going to make a scene longer, you want to get this stuff in because you are not sure at the end how much comedy plays.

DEVLIN “I could’ve been at a barbeque” wasn’t scripted. I actually shot some of that on second unit. I said to Will, “Don’t even look at the text. Let’s just do a bunch of takes, and whatever comes to your mind, just do it.” We did like nine takes, and each one he did a different line. Roland picked the best lines from three or four takes and combined them. The one line that was written was, “That’s what I call a close encounter.” But all the lines leading up to it, that was Will.

COLIN It was hard work. It was long hours. I was scared. I didn’t want to blow it. Mae [Whitman, who played President Whitmore’s young daughter] used to tease me a lot. She would huddle up next to me, scene after scene. I’d say, “Look I’m not the nanny! I’m the press secretary!” And she goes, “Well, you’re my nanny.” So she just made me laugh all throughout.

GOLDBLUM I love Brent Spiner [Dr. Brakish Okun]. He’s released an album of songs, and the two of us would sing to relax ourselves with jazz standards before a scene. Harry Connick Jr. [Captain Jimmy Wilder] was fantastic. We became pals, which I was thrilled about. He came over to my house one day and we played piano together.

JAKUB I would fly in for a few days of shooting and then I’d go home and then a few weeks later I would fly in again for a few more days, and then I’d go home. So it was more challenging to get that chance to bond with my co-workers the way I had on other shoots. But I did get to bond with Andrew Keegan, who was the, “You don’t want to die a virgin” guy. He and I had worked together a few other times, so let’s just say Independence Day was not the first time we had made out. It was fun to actually get paid for something we were going to do anyway.

FOX The dog [owned by Fox’s character, Jasmine] was a humper. They would yell cut, and I guess me in those pants and everything, he would just jump on me. OK. Good thing I like dogs. Then I remember Ross [Bagley, Fox’s onscreen son] — it was hot. We were in the desert filming, driving in the truck and a couple times, he was tired. When he got tired, he would start crying. I remember one time, I was like, “Kid, can you please just cry when they yell cut?” We didn’t want to show him crying when you are having your heroic moment.

COLIN The White House set was stunning. It was intimidating. You could be in awe of the set. You could also look at the detail. Then Bill would come in with all of his authority as President.

FOX This was my first big film. I didn’t know what “checking the gate” was. 25 years ago, Roland had a strong German accent. I thought he was saying, “chicken in the gate.” Finally, I worked up the courage to go, “You guys, what does ‘chicken in the gate’ mean?” “No, he’s saying ‘checking the gate.’ That means we’re moving on, you did good.”

DEVLIN There was one moment with Robert Loggia [General William Grey]. When we did the scene on the airplane with Area 51, and they didn’t understand the scene. They were having a lot of problems. Roland asked me to talk to the actors. I realized they didn’t understand this was a comedy scene. I said, “Oh, play this for comedy.” I walked off and Robert went into a panic. He ran over to Roland and said, “Am I in the wrong movie? Am I Leslie Nielsen? Is this whole thing a comedy?” Then Roland is mad at me because whatever I said freaked out the actors.

PULLMAN  I have a brother who is two years older than I am. Somewhere along the line, we decided the only actor who was worth talking about was Robert Loggia. And then I was on the set, and there is Robert Loggia! Wow. I said, “I never have done this, but if I can get the phone over here, could we call my brother?” I really hate that stuff. Every part of me cringes when I get asked to do that, people I don’t know and they are on the phone. I just don’t know what came out of me. He was so graceful and I never asked anybody ever again to do anything like it.

“OH MY GOD! I NEVER REWROTE THE SPEECH!” Bill Pullman delivers one of movie history’s most iconic speeches, but the man who wrote it didn’t think it’d work.

DEAN DEVLIN The president’s speech — Roland said, “Just write something for now. It’ll be a temp, and we’ll work on that later.” I vomited out a speech. I don’t know if Roland even read it. I never reread it.

PULLMAN We shot it really late in the night. Maybe 2 a.m. I remember how good it felt to have a certain fatigue in it. The extras were tired. The ADs are tired. That fatigue can spread. And then I just thought, “This is good. It really feels like we need to get everybody roused up a little bit, and get ready for the fight.”

DEVLIN I was in the production office and they told me that they were about to start shooting the president’s speech. I literally panicked. “Oh my God! I never rewrote the speech!”

PULLMAN I had a collection of CDs called 100 Great Speeches . The one that really shook me was Robert Kennedy’s speech, which he gave after he found out Martin Luther King was dead. It was extemporaneous. I think he had heard just minutes before. What composure.

DEVLIN I come running down to the set to work on the speech. As I got there, Bill Pullman was rehearsing and all the extras freaked out when he did the speech. It was like, “Oh my God, this is great.”

PULLMAN There was a little hitch in the beginning of [Robert F. Kennedy’s] speech. Something like, “Can you lower those signs.” Some little moment he was dealing with, just trying to get people’s attention. I told Dean and Roland, “We should have trouble with the mic working.” Something like that. A little feedback, just trying those things that happen that you have to forbear before you start.

DEVLIN We were in the middle of a war with the studio over the title, because the studio wanted to name the film Doomsday . So I ran in and said, “Change the last line to, “Today, we celebrate our Independence Day.” That’s the only change to the speech that happened.

BRENNER I put that together and Dean and Roland were like, “This isn’t changing.” Some scenes you want to use temp music to help you communicate the emotion, and that was one of them. It was a piece from Apollo 13. It started with this trumpet and it was echoey. It had this military drum and it just rose. It was kind of our idea for how the music should be at the end.

PULLMAN A day or two later, Dean came to the trailer with a VHS and he played me the speech. “I want you to see it because we’re going to take this to Fox,” because we are trying to make a case for the title of the film.

“HOW ARE WE EVER GOING TO DO THIS?” As Emmerich commands the live-action shoot, the director has multiple teams working in tandem to film miniatures and other effects. It’s a grueling, nine-month schedule for those teams.

VOLKER ENGEL, visual effects supervisor There was a little Italian restaurant we went to have lunch sometime, close to the Howard Hughes hangar where we shot all the studio work. Our discussions would sound something like this: “So, wait a minute. Are we blowing up the Capitol next week? Or is it the White House next week?” Finally, you realize how the heads turn from the other tables around you.

BRENNER There was no pre-vis [animation that shows how visual effects will look] at the time. We were putting in cards from the script. That’s what we were using to tell the story. That and sound. I showed Roland the first cut and we came across the destruction sequence where the aliens attack. After we showed the whole thing, Roland collapsed. He fell onto the ground and was like, “Oh my God. How are we ever going to do this?” Because he was seeing these visual effects shots that just didn’t exist.

ENGEL The Statue of Liberty was one of these very analog gags that we did. We had the idea of just backing up our lighting truck with all of our lighting equipment so it would then block out the sun for the Statue of Liberty, which was a miniature that was five feet tall.

GOLDBLUM Roland was so full of enthusiasm and confidence. I remember one day on a soundstage and him talking to somebody who was part of a unit shooting model shots, and I remember being impressed by, “Wow, he’s got to be a big field general to manage this whole thing.”

ENGEL We knew early on we would have to build a miniature of the White House. It was 15 feet wide and five feet high. We had to build it this big because to make a pyro gag look good, it had to be to a certain scale. We were lucky to have the late Joe Viskocil, who had already blown up the Death Star and worked on Terminator 1 and 2 doing all the pyrotechnical work. I realized how important the shot was when they put up rafters for journalists, a big press event to blow up the White House.

“YOU CAN’T ACTUALLY BLOW UP THE WHITE HOUSE.” A key marketing decision sets the fate of the movie.

DEVLIN One of the things we had very early on was the idea of blowing up the White House in a TV ad.  

EMMERICH It was very controversial. I had this idea that the ad is: the second of July, you see the shadows; third of July, you have the fire coming through; Fourth of July, the White House explodes. It was such a simple concept, and Fox hated it.

DEVLIN “You can’t actually blow up the White House in a TV spot.” Roland said, “Why?” And [Fox] said, “Well, because what happened in Oklahoma [City, where on April 19, 1995, anti-government extremists detonated a bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing over 150]. It could be seen as insensitive.” And I said, “Yeah, but that wasn’t done by space aliens.”

EMMERICH I said, “We’ll test it: once with the White House, and once without.” [Fox exec] liked it so much when they saw the test result, they decided — in a very smart and clever move — that they would put this as the first commercial on the Super Bowl.

GOLDBLUM  I’m a Steelers fan. I think I was watching it at a party at Jon Lovitz’s house. It was a raucous party. I remember thinking, “That’s my movie. I’m in that. Wow, how about that!” I don’t think I was privy to anything they were thinking of or were going to do. That was kind of thrilling.

EMMERICH We were an unknown film up to that point. From that moment, everybody talked about us.

  “FOX FREAKED OUT” With the release date approaching, Emmerich and his team learn from test screenings that the final battle has a big problem.

EMMERICH Peter Chernin was still the head of the studio, and they were not happy with the length of the movie. And so I was sitting one day with him in the editing room and I’m saying, “Peter. You tell me what to cut.” He had no idea how to cut anything out of this movie. We went through the whole movie. I said, “What about this?” [He said], “No. It’s good, it’s good. We need it.”

BRENNER We went on a plane with the Fox execs to this little theater in Arizona to show it to a secret audience. The projection was so bad that in the first shot, which starts on the plaque [on the Moon] and tilts up to the spaceship, you couldn’t see the spaceship. It was so dark. There was so much they couldn’t see, but the audience still loved the movie because of the story.

EMMERICH When we tested it, it tested through the roof. People said, “The only thing we don’t like was this crazy guy [Quaid’s Russell Casse] flies in his crop duster with a bomb roped to his plane. That’s unrealistic.”

DEVLIN In the original version, Randy Quaid shows up in his biplane, and he’s taped a bomb to the wing. And we meant it to be a Dr. Strangelove moment, where he flies into [the spaceship] with his biplane and the missile and he saves the day. We were watching it with the audience, and when he showed up with that plane, there was a big laugh. Roland turned to me and said, “That’s not a good laugh.”

EMMERICH In our original script, [Casse] was in an F-16. It was actually a guy who was the model for the Brent Spiner character, Brackish Okun, a guy called Jeff Okun [visual effects supervisor on Stargate ] — he read the script and said, “Randy Quaid should use his crop duster, fly up there.” We said, “Good idea!” and changed it.

DEVLIN We wanted to reshoot it. The studio couldn’t understand why we would want to reshoot it. We were testing in the low 90s. We said, “We know it’s not the right laugh.” And so it was a one-day reshoot. We talked them into spending the money. And we ended up with a 98.

EMMERICH At the end we just had to pull out our old script. It was two or three scenes we had to do, and 16 shots we had to exchange. It was two weeks in front of the release. Fox freaked out.

BRENNER We added a story to him where he ends up being recruited as a pilot so he comes back, and they also upped his story about the alcoholic father who is searching for redemption.

QUAID I sat in my trailer for six hours waiting to get into the cockpit to say a bunch of nonsensical lines to a piece of tape.

JAKUB We all came back to Utah after we wrapped. I had already gone on to do another show. I was playing Joan of Arc. So they had cut all of my hair. We were all rushing around to try to find a wig for me. I just remember hoping that this new ending was impactful and dramatic enough that nobody was going to notice I was wearing a really terrible wig.

ENGEL When Randy Quaid flies his jet fighter into the big city destroyer, there was an Easter egg in there, when the tip of his plane he touches this laser cannon that came out of the alien city destroyer. We were looking for a good-looking pyro element and we actually used our Empire State Building, which we had blown up from top to bottom in another shot before, so we turned that on its head and layered that over this canon and reused it. This time, from bottom to top.

DEVLIN The last test screening we did was in Las Vegas and the audience didn’t know what movie they were coming to see. Roland and I are sitting in the back of the theater and the film starts. As soon as the audience sees Independence Day , they went insane. The movie hadn’t started yet, and the audience is freaking out, like we are in a rock concert.

BRENNER The camera pans up. We see the spaceship. And then something is wrong. The roar is coming in the wrong place. And then the white flash happens and it’s out of sync. Roland looks at me, and then the whole movie goes schooooo . And something broke. They had to turn on the lights.

DEVLIN And the lights come up and it takes us 10 minutes to fix the film, and the cheering never stopped throughout the entire 10-minute break. When the film started up again I turned to Roland and said, “We’ve got lightning in a bottle.”

EMMERICH We finished and shipped the movie [to theaters] four or five days before it got released, which at that time was a real risk. Because you had to send it all [in the] mail.

“FOX SENT HIM HOME.” Select members of the team are sent on a lengthy press tour around the globe to promote the movie.

COLIN When I realized how massive it was going to be, it was a little overwhelming. I realized I had to hire a publicist and get in the game because all of the boys had a publicist.

DEVLIN In those days you didn’t do day-and-date. You opened in whatever country on whatever day was the best day. So for three months we were touring the world, opening it in France and Germany and Mexico. Will came with us to every territory, and he did every local news show, every local radio show, every single company. That man worked so hard, and by the end of that, he was an international star.

EMMERICH [Randy Quaid] was a pleasure to work with. [Quaid’s wife] was not on the set, so she only called him. So he was super great to work with when we were shooting, but when it came to ADR and all these things, you always had to deal first with [Quaid’s wife] to get to Randy. That was the only way to do it. Then when it came to travel, she behaved so badly that Fox sent him home.

DEVLIN That whole thing I find sad. I don’t know what was going on. She was causing a lot of problems and he loved her very much and the studio said, “We can’t have this.” It’s heartbreaking because I loved working with Randy Quaid. It was a great experience. He was so nice to me and so nice to the production. That whole thing is just kind of tragic.

[Editor’s note: In an email, Quaid denies these accounts and incorrectly writes that there was no press tour.]

QUAID There was no press tour.  Independence Day didn’t need a press tour. Didn’t happen, but nice try.    

[ Editor’s note: After this story was published, Quaid further denied that his wife interfered in any way with his personal or professional obligations and denied that Fox sent him home from the press tour. Quaid said his agent at the time handled his work on Independence Day and his wife was not involved. Quaid also stated he was filming a Warner Bros. project in Las Vegas during the time the Independence Day press tour would have occurred and was never involved with one. ]

“THE PRESIDENT WOULD LIKE TO SCREEN THE MOVIE.” Emmerich, Devlin and Pullman receive a surprising invitation.

DEVLIN We were in the middle of doing a press junket in New York for the movie. The phone is ringing in my room. I pick it up and they said, “Could you hold for the White House.” I said, “What?” And they said, “The president would like to screen the movie tonight.”

EMMERICH All of a sudden we are standing in the middle of the White House, and Bill Clinton is chatting us up. They have the worst screening room there ever. It’s a former bowling alley, a little postmark of a screen.

DEVLIN In the front row is Hillary and Bill. And Bill has the largest tub of popcorn I’ve ever seen.

PULLMAN All three of us were in the back row, standing up, because we were too nervous to even take a seat.

DEVLIN Clinton waves to Roland to come sit down next to him.

PULLMAN Roland was so decisive. “I am German, I can’t go.” I thought, “That’s weak! You are the director.” And Dean, he wrote the speech! He said, “No, no, I’m too nervous.” By default, I said, “OK, I’ll serve the cause.”

EMMERICH Bill had to sit next to the president, right in front between [the Clintons]. Sandwiched in.

PULLMAN It was a little nerve-racking.

DEVLIN Remember in Amadeus at the end of the opera, it’s silent until the king claps his hands and then everybody claps? It was like that for every joke of the movie. No one wanted to laugh at a joke until they heard Bill laugh.

EMMERICH The first big destruction scene starts with blowing up the White House. In test screenings, a lot of people left right after, and then they immediately came running back. They didn’t pee earlier because they were so into the movie.

DEVLIN When we got to the moment the White House blows up, Roland and I are looking at each other going, “We’re in the White House watching it blow up.” It was bizarre.

EMMERICH Then, who runs out? Bill Clinton! One minute later, he comes back shaking his hands dry. Dean and I looked at each other and nearly started laughing.

PULLMAN At the very end, Hillary leaned over and say, “You really were great, and if we ever need to step away for a weekend we know who to call.” Bill wanted to give me a tour. So we ducked out after the movie. It was just me and him walking around, talking about, “This is the desk from 1812 where they signed such and such.” I thought, “I’m glad it was me that went to watch the movie in front.”

“THE LINE IS FIVE BLOCKS LONG.” The film opens on July 2, 1996, for Tuesday previews, where it earns a staggering $11 million that night alone, on its way to $817.4 million globally.

FOX We are at the premiere, and afterward we are sitting at a restaurant eating and it’s great. Everybody loves the movie. And Roland leans over the table and he goes, “Did you know your first day of filming that if you weren’t good, we were going to fire you?” and I go, “What!?” He goes, “Yeah, the main reason we found out about you was [producer] Bill Fay’s wife, who was at home watching soap operas.” And I came up on The Young and the Restless .

QUAID I kept driving around the block and every time I turned a corner there would be more people. Then I turned another corner and there were still more people. People everywhere. Double lines. It was exhilarating to make something everybody wanted to see.

DEVLIN I think the record for a Tuesday preview was $5 million. [Fox exec] Tom Sherak would always do this thing in his office where he would bring everybody in who worked on the movie. And they would wait to hear how much money was coming in. All of a sudden Tom goes, “Quiet, quiet, quiet!” We all get quiet. He picks up the phone and he goes, “Uh-huh, uh-huh,” and he goes, ( sounding dejected ), “Oh, oh, oh. OK.” And he puts the phone down and looks at me and goes, “4.5.” We’re all disappointed because we all wanted to hit the five. And then he goes, “In the East Coast alone!” And then we just lost it. We were going to shatter the record. About 20 minutes later, Rupert Murdoch and his then-wife come into this room. He’s in a tuxedo and she’s in a ball gown, and they’ve walked out of some charity event to come to the room because they’ve heard about the numbers and Murdoch says, “Who produced this movie?” I nervously raised my hand. He came over and he kissed me. And then he walked away.

EMMERICH I do this in every movie, if I can. I always go far, far away from America. I rented a house in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico — the old part of town, on the coast. I was totally alone there. I got these calls. It was amazing. It was really amazing.

DEVLIN I’ll never forget that in Westwood, our movie was opening on the same day as a film across the street, a Jon Turteltaub movie [ Phenomenon ]. I look at the line, and the line is five blocks long. You had to have been in this line a long time. I look at the front of the line and the fourth or fifth person in line is Jon Turteltaub.

FOX I was in Toronto filming Booty Call at that time. [My co-stars and I] tried to go. Jamie [Foxx], Tommy Davidson, Tamela [Jones] and I tried to see it, and the movie was sold out around the clock in Toronto.

COLIN I remember seeing Jack Nicholson in Times Square watching it. He sat two rows ahead of me and he had a lot of the row to himself. Of course, I’m staring at him. It’s freakin’ Jack Nicholson! The lines that stuck out as being hokey he enjoyed, and the other stuff, it was head thrown back laughing and smacking his legs. He was fully committed to the adventure.

DEVLIN Shortly after the movie came out, Spielberg called us on the phone just to say how much he liked the movie and how he was so interested in how we combined genres. And he goes “I loved all of your references, especially to all of my movies.” He also said, “I Just want you to be prepared. Right now, everybody is celebrating your movie. But a year from now they are only going to focus on how much money it made. And they are going to somehow think the movie was not as good because it made so much money. But just know you made a great movie.” I used to always throw a giant party every year at [the Sundance FIlm Festival], and the very next year we threw our annual party and people were looking at us like we’re the Man, we’re the enemy — we did a commercial movie! ( Laughs. )

EMMERICH Spielberg invited us to the Jurassic Park 2 set, and the first line he says to Dean and me is, “You guys reinvented the blockbuster. After this movie, nobody can do a normal blockbuster anymore.”

Sept. 3, 5:23 p.m. A previous version of this story misstated that Randy Quaid’s wife was his girlfriend at the time of Independence Day . This story has also been updated to reflect further denials from Quaid regarding the press tour for the film.

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"Some Elements of the American Character" Independence Day Oration by John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Candidate for Congress from the 11th Congressional District, July 4, 1946

Mr. Mayor; Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.

We stand today in the shadow of history.

We gather here in the very Cradle of Liberty.

It is an honor and a pleasure to be the speaker of the day – an honor because of the long and distinguished list of noted orators who have preceded me on this platform, a pleasure because one of that honored list who stood here fifty years ago, and who is with us here today, is my grandfather.

It has been the custom for the speaker of the day to link his thoughts across the years to certain classic ideals of the early American tradition. I shall do the same. I propose today to discuss certain elements of the American character which have made this nation great. It is well for us to recall them today, for this is a day of recollection and a day of hope.

A nation's character, like that of an individual, is elusive. It is produced partly by things we have done and partly by what has been done to us. It is the result of physical factors, intellectual factors, spiritual factors.

It is well for us to consider our American character, for in peace, as in war, we will survive or fail according to its measure.

Religious Element

Our deep religious sense is the first element of the American character which I would discuss this morning.

The informing spirit of the American character has always been a deep religious sense.

Throughout the years, down to the present, a devotion to fundamental religious principles has characterized American thought and action.

Our government was founded on the essential religious idea of integrity of the individual. It was this religious sense which inspired the authors of the Declaration of Independence:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights."

Our earliest legislation was inspired by this deep religious sense:

"Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion."

Our first leader, Washington, was inspired by this deep religious sense:

"Of all of the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports."

Lincoln was inspired by this deep religious sense:

"That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth."

Our late, lamented President was inspired by this deep religious sense:

"We shall win this war, and in victory we shall seek not vengeance, but the establishment of an international order in which the spirit of Christ shall rule the hearts of men and nations."

Thus we see that this nation has ever been inspired by essential religious ideas. The doctrine of slavery which challenged these ideas within our own country was destroyed.

Recently, the philosophy of racism, which threatened to overwhelm them by attacks from abroad, was also met and destroyed.

Today these basic religious ideas are challenged by atheism and materialism: at home in the cynical philosophy of many of our intellectuals, abroad in the doctrine of collectivism, which sets up the twin pillars of atheism and materialism as the official philosophical establishment of the State.

Inspired by a deeply religious sense, this country, which has ever been devoted to the dignity of man, which has ever fostered the growth of the human spirit, has always met and hurled back the challenge of those deathly philosophies of hate and despair. We have defeated them in the past; we will always defeat them.

How well, then, has de Tocqueville said: "You may talk of the people and their majesty, but where there is no respect for God can there be much for man? You may talk of the supremacy of the ballot, respect for order, denounce riot, secession – unless religion is the first link, all is vain."

Idealistic Element

Another element in the American character that I would bring to your attention this morning is the idealism of our native people – stemming from the strong religious beliefs of the first colonists, developed as they worked the land.

This idealism, this fixed regard for principle, has been an element of the American character from the birth of this nation to the present day.

In recent years, the existence of this element in the American character has been challenged by those who seek to give an economic interpretation to American history. They seek to destroy our faith in our past so that they may guide our future. These cynics are wrong, for, while there may be some truth in their interpretation, it does remain a fact, and a most important one, that the motivating force of the American people has been their belief that they have always stood at the barricades by the side of God.

In Revolutionary times, the cry "No taxation without representation" was not an economic complaint. Rather, it was directly traceable to the eminently fair and just principle that no sovereign power has the right to govern without the consent of the governed. Anything short of that was tyranny. It was against this tyranny that the colonists "fired the shot heard 'round the world."

This belief in principle was expressed most impressively by George Washington at the Constitutional Convention in 1783. "It is probable that no plan we propose will be adopted. Perhaps another dreadful conflict is to be sustained. If, to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterwards defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair, the event is in the hands of God."

This idealism, this conviction that our eyes had seen the glory of the Lord – that right was right and wrong was wrong – finally led to the ultimate clash at Bull Run and the long red years of the war between the States.

Again, the cynics may apply the economic interpretation to this conflict: the industrial North against the agricultural South; the struggle of the two economies. Say what they will, it is an undeniable fact that the Northern Army of Virginia and the Army of the Potomac were inspired by devotion to principle: on the one hand, the right of secession; on the other, the belief that the "Union must be preserved."

In 1917, this element of the American character was stimulated by the slogans "War to End War" and "A War to Save Democracy," and again the American people had as their leader a man, Woodrow Wilson, whose idealism was the traditional idealism of America. To such a degree was this true that he was able to say, "Some people call me an idealist. Well, that is the way I know I am an American. America is the only idealistic nation in the world."

It is perhaps true that the American intervention in 1917 might have been more effective if the case for American intervention had been represented on less moralistic terms. As it was, the American people eventually came to look upon themselves as giving food and guns to a general cause in which all other people had material ends and in which they alone had moral ends.

The idealism with which we had entered the battle made the subsequent disillusionment all the more bitter and revealed a dangerous facet to this element of the American character, for this bitterness, a direct result of our inflated hopes, brought a radical change in our foreign policy and a resulting withdrawal from Europe. We failed to make the adjustment between what we had hoped to win and what we actually could win. Our idealism was too strong. We would not compromise.

And thus we brought to our shoulders much of the burden of the responsibility for World War II – a burden which we would not then acknowledge but for which we have paid full price in recent years on distant shores, on faraway fields and valleys and hills, on pieces of foreign soil which will be forever ours.

It was perhaps because of this failure that the second world war never did become a crusade as did the first.

Our idealism had become tarnished, but extraordinary efforts were made to evoke it, and it is indubitably true that the great majority of Americans had strong convictions as to which side spoke for the right before our entry into the war.

It is now in the postwar world that this idealism – this devotion to principle--this belief in the natural law – this deep religious conviction that this is truly God's country and we are truly God's people – will meet its greatest trial.

Our American idealism finds itself faced by the old-world doctrine of power politics. It is meeting with successive rebuffs, and all this may result in a new and even more bitter disillusionment, in another ignominious retreat from our world destiny.

But, if we remain faithful to the American tradition, our idealism will be a steadfast thing, a constant flame, a torch held aloft for the guidance of other nations.

It will take great faith.

Our idealism, the second element of the American character, is being severely tested. Now, only time will tell whether this element of the American character will be true to its historic tradition.

Patriotic Element

The third element of the American character that I would bring to your attention this morning is the great patriotic instinct of our people.

From our pioneer days, perhaps because we were a people who developed from a beachhead on a tremendous continent, this American patriotism has always had as its core a strange and almost mystical love of the land.

Early in our history we acquired, as James Truslow Adams has pointed out, "a sense of unlimited energy face to face with unlimited resources."

Land, land, land, stretching with incredible richness across half a world. Its sheer vastness has made it a challenge to the American spirit. The endless land stretching to, the western sun caught the imagination of men who founded this nation and awakened the patriotic spirit that has become a characteristic of the American people.

In the words of America's poet, Walt Whitman, we note this deep sense of the land:

"Land of the pastoral plains, the grass-field of the world, land of those sweet-air'd interminable plateaus! Land of the herd, the garden, the healthy house of adobe! Land where the northwest Columbia winds, and where the southwest Colorado winds! Land of the eastern Chesapeake! Land of the Delaware! Land of Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan! Land of the Old Thirteen! Massachusetts land! Land of Vermont and Connecticut! Land of the ocean shores! Land of sierras and peaks! Land of boatmen and sailors! Fishermen's land!"

This preoccupation with the land records itself in the catalogue of the colonists' grievances against George III. It has always been reflected in the highest moments of our patriotism, for, throughout the years, in the early days here at home and in recent years abroad, Americans have been ever ready to defend this native land.

From the birth of the nation to the present day, from the Heights of Dorchester to the broad meadows of Virginia, from Bunker Hill to the batteries of Saratoga, from Bergen's Neck, where Wayne and Maylan's troops achieved such martial wonders, to Yorktown, where Britain's troops surrendered, Americans have heroically embraced the soldier's alternative of victory or the grave. American patriotism was shown at the Halls of Montezuma. It was shown with Meade at Gettysburg, with Sheridan at Winchester, with Phil Carney at Fair Oaks, with Longstreet in the Wilderness, and it was shown by the flower of the Virginia Army when Pickett charged at Gettysburg. It was shown by Captain Rowan, who plunged into the jungles of Cuba and delivered the famous message to Garcia, symbol now of tenacity and determination. It was shown by the Fifth and Sixth Marines at Belleau Wood, by the Yankee Division at Verdun, by Captain Leahy, whose last order as he lay dying was "The command is forward." And in recent years it was shown by those who stood at Bataan with Wainwright, by those who fought at Wake Island with Devereaux, who flew in the air with Don Gentile. It was shown by those who jumped with Gavin, by those who stormed the bloody beaches at Salerno with Commando Kelly; it was shown by the First Division at Omaha Beach, by the Second Ranger Battalion as it crossed the Purple Heart Valley, by the 101st as it stood at Bastogne; it was shown at the Bulge, at the Rhine, and at victory.

Wherever freedom has been in danger, Americans with a deep sense of patriotism have ever been willing to stand at Armageddon and strike a blow for liberty and the Lord.

Individualistic Element

The American character has been not only religious, idealistic, and patriotic, but because of these it has been essentially individual.

The right of the individual against the State has ever been one of our most cherished political principles.

The American Constitution has set down for all men to see the essentially Christian and American principle that there are certain rights held by every man which no government and no majority, however powerful, can deny.

Conceived in Grecian thought, strengthened by Christian morality, and stamped indelibly into American political philosophy, the right of the individual against the State is the keystone of our Constitution. Each man is free.

He is free in thought.

He is free in expression.

He is free in worship.

To us, who have been reared in the American tradition, these rights have become part of our very being. They have become so much a part of our being that most of us are prone to feel that they are rights universally recognized and universally exercised. But the sad fact is that this is not true. They were dearly won for us only a few short centuries ago and they were dearly preserved for us in the days just past. And there are large sections of the world today where these rights are denied as a matter of philosophy and as a matter of government.

We cannot assume that the struggle is ended. It is never-ending.

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. It was the price yesterday. It is the price today, and it will ever be the price.

The characteristics of the American people have ever been a deep sense of religion, a deep sense of idealism, a deep sense of patriotism, and a deep sense of individualism.

Let us not blink the fact that the days which lie ahead of us are bitter ones.

May God grant that, at some distant date, on this day, and on this platform, the orator may be able to say that these are still the great qualities of the American character and that they have prevailed.

Source : David F. Powers Personal Papers , Box 28, "Faneuil Hall, Boston, MA, 4 July 1946." John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.

32 Patriotic Independence Day Quotes

Words to Make Every American Proud on the 4th of July

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It was a historic moment when Thomas Jefferson, along with other members of the Continental Congress , drafted the Declaration of Independence. The Continental Congress declared the people of America independent from the British colonies. It was the moment of truth all Americans had waited for. If the effort of severing ties from the British succeeded, the leaders of the movement would be hailed as true American heroes. However, if the effort failed, the leaders would be guilty of treason and face death.

Clever Wording, Smart Strategies

It was the clever wording of the Declaration of Independence , followed by some smart strategies employed by the leaders that sparked the Independence movement. What followed was a relentless power struggle to gain absolute independence from the British monarchy.

July 4, 1776, was the historic day when the Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence. Every year, Americans rejoice and celebrate Independence Day, or the 4th of July, with great fanfare. Amidst colorful parades, flag hoisting ceremonies, and barbecue parties, Americans remember the suffering their forefathers endured to win them precious freedom.

Patriotic Quotes From the Famous

Over the decades and centuries, famous figures have spoken eloquently about patriotism. Following are some of their best quotes.

Love of Country

Erma Bombeck: "You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism."

Daniel Webster: "May the sun in his course visit no land more free, more happy, more lovely, than this our own country!"

Hamilton Fish: "If our country is worth dying for in time of war let us resolve that it is truly worth living for in time of peace ."

Benjamin Franklin: "Where liberty dwells, there is my country."

John F. Kennedy : "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man."

Freedom and Liberty

Elmer Davis: "This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave."

Joseph Addison: "Let freedom never perish in your hands."

Dwight D. Eisenhower: "Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed - else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die."

George Bernard Shaw: "Liberty is the breath of life to nations."

Ralph Waldo Emerson : "For what avail the plough or sail, or land or life, if freedom fail?"

Thomas Paine: "Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."

Thomas Paine: "In a chariot of light from the region of the day, / The Goddess of Liberty came / She brought in her hand as a pledge of her love, / The plant she named Liberty Tree." / "He that would make his own liberty ​secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty / he establishes a precedent that will reach himself."

Harry Emerson Fosdick: "Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have."

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. : "So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. / Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. / Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! / Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! / Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California! / But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! / Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! / Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. / From every mountainside, let freedom ring."

Franklin D. Roosevelt : "The winds that blow through the wide sky in these mounts, the winds that sweep from Canada to Mexico, from the Pacific to the Atlantic - have always blown on free men."

John F. Kennedy: "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty."

Abraham Lincoln, The  Gettysburg Address , 1863: "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."

Lee Greenwood: "And I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free. And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me."

United and Wise

Oliver Wendell Holmes: "One flag, one land, one heart, one hand, One Nation evermore!"

Gerald Stanley Lee: "America is a tune. It must be sung together."

John Dickinson: "Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all! / By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall."

Hubert H. Humphrey: "We need an America with the wisdom of experience. But we must not let America grow old in spirit."

Musings on Patriotism

James G. Blaine: "The United States is the only country with a known birthday."

George Santayana: "A man's feet must be planted in his country, but his eyes should survey the world."

Bill Vaughan: "A real patriot is the fellow who gets a parking ticket and rejoices that the system works."

Adlai Stevenson: "America is much more than a geographical fact. It is a political and moral fact—the first community in which men set out in principle to institutionalize freedom, responsible government, and human equality."

John Quincy Adams: "All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse."

Paul Sweeney: "How often we fail to realize our good fortune in living in a country where happiness is more than a lack of tragedy."

Aurora Raigne: "America, for me, has been the pursuit and catching of happiness."

Woodrow Wilson: "The American Revolution was a beginning, not a consummation."

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Independence Day Speech

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Speaker 1: ( 00:01 ) Major, I’ll borrow that.

Speaker 2: ( 00:04 ) Sir.

Speaker 1: ( 00:06 ) Good morning. Good morning.

Speaker 1: ( 00:13 ) In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world, and you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind. Mankind, that word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can’t be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interest. Perhaps it’s fate that today is the 4th of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom. Not from tyranny, oppression or persecution, but from annihilation. We’re fighting for our right to live, to exist. And should we win the day, the 4th of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice, we will not go quietly into the night. We will not vanish without a fight. We’re going to live on. We’re going to survive. Today, we celebrate our independence day.

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Is the ‘Independence Day’ Speech the Best Movie Speech Ever?

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Bill Pullman competes on 10 Questions With Kyle Brandt . The actor explains why he thinks there isn’t a better movie hype speech than his speech in Independence Day , memories from starring in Spaceballs , and much more.

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Independence Day Speech

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An Independence Day speech is a formal address delivered during celebrations marking a nation’s independence from colonial rule or oppressive governance. This speech is typically given by prominent figures such as political leaders, educators, or community representatives. The purpose of an Independence Day speech is to commemorate the historical significance of the nation’s independence, honor the struggles and sacrifices of those who fought for freedom, and inspire patriotism and unity among the citizens.

What is Independence Day Speech?

Independence Day Speech Bundle Download

Independence Day Speech Format

1. introduction.

Greeting : Start with a warm welcome to the audience. Significance : Mention the importance of Independence Day. Theme : Introduce the main themes of your speech.

2. Historical Context

Brief History : Summarize the events leading to independence. Key Figures : Highlight important leaders and freedom fighters.

Recognition : Honor the sacrifices and contributions of those who fought for freedom. Gratitude : Express gratitude for their efforts.

4. Patriotism

Achievements : Celebrate the nation’s achievements since independence. Values : Emphasize the national values and ideals.

5. Reflection

Progress : Reflect on the progress made. Challenges : Acknowledge ongoing challenges and areas for improvement.

6. Conclusion

Summary : Recap the key points of your speech. Closing : End with a motivating and patriotic statement.

Independence Day Speech Example

Introduction Good morning everyone! Today, we gather to celebrate the most significant day in our nation’s history—Independence Day. This day marks our freedom and the birth of our nation as a sovereign state. I am honored to share a few words with you on this special occasion. Historical Context On this day, [specific date], our forefathers declared our independence from colonial rule. The struggle for freedom was long and arduous, marked by immense bravery and sacrifice. Leaders like [Key Figure 1], [Key Figure 2], and many others led the way, inspiring the masses to stand up for their rights and fight for a better future. Tribute We pay tribute to the heroes who fought tirelessly for our freedom. Their sacrifices laid the foundation for the country we cherish today. We owe our liberty and opportunities to their relentless efforts and unwavering spirit. Let us remember and honor their legacy by upholding the values they fought for. Patriotism Since gaining independence, our nation has made remarkable progress in various fields. We have built a society based on the principles of liberty, equality, and justice. Our achievements in science, technology, education, and the arts are a testament to our collective hard work and determination. As we celebrate our successes, let us also reflect on the values that define us as a nation—unity, diversity, and resilience. Reflection While we have achieved much, we must also recognize the challenges that lie ahead. Issues such as poverty, inequality, and climate change require our attention and action. It is our duty to continue working towards a brighter future for all citizens, ensuring that the benefits of independence are shared by everyone, regardless of their background or circumstances. Call to Action Let us take pride in our nation and commit ourselves to its continued growth and prosperity. Each of us has a role to play in building a better future. Whether through community service, innovation, or simply by being kind to one another, we can all contribute to making our nation stronger and more united. Conclusion As we celebrate this Independence Day, let us remember the importance of unity, freedom, and patriotism. Let us honor the sacrifices of those who came before us and strive to create a legacy that future generations will be proud of. Happy Independence Day to all! Thank you for listening.

Short Independence Day Speech Example

Introduction Good morning everyone! Today, we gather to celebrate our nation’s most significant day—Independence Day. This day marks our freedom and the birth of our nation as a sovereign state. Historical Context On this day, [specific date], our forefathers declared our independence from colonial rule. Their struggle and sacrifices paved the way for the freedom we enjoy today. Tribute We honor the heroes who fought tirelessly for our freedom. Their bravery and dedication laid the foundation for the country we cherish. Patriotism Since gaining independence, our nation has made remarkable progress. We have built a society based on liberty, equality, and justice. Let us celebrate our achievements and the values that define us—unity, diversity, and resilience. Reflection While we have achieved much, challenges such as poverty and inequality remain. It is our duty to work towards a brighter future for all citizens. Call to Action Let us take pride in our nation and commit to its continued growth. Each of us can contribute to making our nation stronger and more united. Conclusion As we celebrate this Independence Day, let us remember the importance of unity, freedom, and patriotism. Happy Independence Day to all! Thank you for listening.

• Independence Day Speech for Kids

• Independence Day Speech for Students

• Independence Day Speech for School

More Independence Day Speech Topics

• US Independence Day Speech
• Indian Independence Day Speech
• Independence Day Speech for Teachers
• Independence Day Speech for Class 1
• Independence Day Speech for Class 2
• Independence Day Speech for Class 3
• The Significance of Independence Day
• Tribute to Freedom Fighters
• The Journey to Independence
• Independence Day Celebrations Across the Nation
• The Role of Youth in Shaping the Nation
• Unity in Diversity
• Patriotism and National Pride
• Challenges Faced During the Fight for Independence
• Lessons Learned from the Independence Movement
• Cultural Traditions and Celebrations of Independence Day
• The Role of Women in the Independence Struggle
• Honoring Unsung Heroes of the Independence Movement

How to Write Independence Day Speech

Greeting : Begin with a warm welcome to the audience.

Significance : Mention the importance of Independence Day.

Example : “Good morning everyone! Today, we gather to celebrate our nation’s most significant day—Independence Day.”

Brief History : Summarize the events leading to independence.

Example : “On this day, [specific date], our forefathers declared our independence from colonial rule. Their struggle and sacrifices paved the way for the freedom we enjoy today.”

Recognition : Honor the sacrifices and contributions of those who fought for freedom.

Example : “We honor the heroes who fought tirelessly for our freedom. Their bravery and dedication laid the foundation for the country we cherish.”

Achievements : Celebrate the nation’s achievements since independence.

Example : “Since gaining independence, our nation has made remarkable progress. We have built a society based on liberty, equality, and justice.”

5. Call to Action

Inspiration : Encourage the audience to take pride in their nation and contribute positively.

Example : “Let us take pride in our nation and commit to its continued growth. Each of us can contribute to making our nation stronger and more united.”

Summary : Recap the key points.

Closing : End with a motivating and patriotic statement.

Example : “As we celebrate this Independence Day, let us remember the importance of unity, freedom, and patriotism. Happy Independence Day to all! Thank you for listening.”

Tips for Independence Day Speech

• Know Your Audience : Tailor your content to resonate with the values and patriotism of your audience.
• Start with a Strong Opening : Use a powerful quote, historical fact, or anecdote to grab attention.
• Be Relatable : Share personal stories or historical events that the audience can connect with.
• Use Patriotic Elements : Incorporate references to national symbols, heroes, and milestones.
• Keep it Engaging : Use dynamic delivery, expressive body language, and a varying tone to maintain interest.
• Include Transitions : Smoothly move from one point to another to maintain a natural flow.
• Be Inspiring : Use uplifting language, motivational quotes, and vivid descriptions to inspire pride and unity.
• End on a High Note : Conclude with a memorable quote, a heartfelt message, or a call to action.
• Practice : Rehearse your speech multiple times to become comfortable and confident in your delivery.

Uses of Independence Day Speech

• Commemorating Historical Events : Independence Day speeches highlight the historical events that led to a nation’s independence. They provide a narrative of the struggle for freedom, paying tribute to the leaders and heroes who played pivotal roles in achieving independence.
• Promoting National Unity : These speeches emphasize the importance of national unity and solidarity. By reflecting on the collective efforts that secured independence, they inspire citizens to work together for the common good, fostering a sense of belonging and community.
• Honoring National Heroes : Independence Day speeches honor the sacrifices and contributions of national heroes and freedom fighters. They acknowledge the individuals who fought for freedom, ensuring their legacy is remembered and respected.
• Inspiring Patriotism : Speeches delivered on Independence Day aim to evoke a sense of patriotism and national pride among citizens. They highlight the country’s achievements and strengths, encouraging citizens to contribute positively to their nation’s development.
• Addressing Current Issues : Leaders use Independence Day speeches to address current national issues and challenges. By discussing these topics, they can rally support, propose solutions, and inspire collective action to overcome difficulties.
• Setting Future Goals : These speeches often outline the nation’s future goals and aspirations. Leaders use the occasion to present their vision for the country, motivating citizens to strive for progress and prosperity.
• Educational Purpose : Independence Day speeches educate the younger generation about the significance of independence and the values of freedom, democracy, and justice. They serve as a reminder of the importance of preserving and upholding these values.
• Strengthening Cultural Identity : These speeches celebrate the nation’s cultural heritage and identity. They recognize the diverse traditions and customs that contribute to the nation’s uniqueness, promoting cultural pride and inclusivity.
• Encouraging Civic Responsibility : Independence Day speeches emphasize the role of citizens in maintaining and strengthening democracy. They encourage civic responsibility, active participation in governance, and adherence to national laws and principles.
• Fostering International Relations : Leaders may use Independence Day speeches to address the international community, highlighting the country’s diplomatic achievements and its role in global affairs. This fosters goodwill and strengthens international relations.

How do I start an Independence Day speech?

Begin with a powerful quote, historical reference, or patriotic greeting to capture attention.

What should I include in an Independence Day speech?

Include historical facts, achievements, national heroes, and messages of unity and progress.

How long should an Independence Day speech be?

Aim for 5 to 10 minutes to keep the audience engaged without overwhelming them.

Who typically delivers Independence Day speeches?

National leaders, politicians, educators, and community leaders commonly deliver these speeches.

How can I make my Independence Day speech engaging?

Use anecdotes, vivid imagery, and a passionate tone to engage your audience.

What themes are common in Independence Day speeches?

Common themes include freedom, unity, patriotism, national progress, and honoring past sacrifices.

How do I conclude an Independence Day speech?

End with a call to action, a hopeful message for the future, or a patriotic quote.

What tone should I use for an Independence Day speech?

Use a respectful, inspiring, and optimistic tone to evoke pride and unity.

How can I incorporate historical facts effectively?

Weave historical facts into the speech by connecting them to present-day achievements and future goals.

Why is it important to mention national heroes in the speech?

Mentioning national heroes honors their sacrifices and inspires current and future generations.

Text prompt

• Instructive
• Professional

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This Day In History : July 5

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Frederick Douglass delivers his “What to the slave is the Fourth of July?” speech

During an Independence Day celebration in Rochester, New York on July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass delivers what would become his most celebrated speech , “What to the slave is the Fourth of July?” Tensions over slavery in the early 1850s are high, and the famed abolitionist’s oration serves as a searing reminder that at the time, only a fraction of the U.S. population enjoyed the freedom celebrated by the nation.

Delivering his address to an audience of about 600 at the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society at the newly built Corinthian Hall, Douglass, who escaped slavery at the age of 20, acknowledged the signers of the Declaration of Independence as “truly great men.” But he scathingly pointed out “the hypocrisy of the nation” where “the rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me.”

Douglass’s powerful speech came more than a decade before the 13th Amendment to the Constitution , which would abolish slavery in the U.S. During its apex, the great orator declared, “What to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham…your national greatness, swelling vanity…your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.”

Douglass, originally named Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, was born into slavery in 1818 in Talbot County, Maryland. Disguised as a free Black sailor, he escaped to freedom in New York City before eventually making his way to New Bedford, Massachusetts and changing his name to conceal his identity. Douglass would become the most prominent Black man in 19th-century America, known both for his work in the anti-slavery movement and for his advocacy of broader human rights, including the right of women to vote. He published three bestselling autobiographies , including The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (published in 1845), which immortalized his years in bondage. Douglass also edited and published an influential Black newspaper and became a respected advisor to President Lincoln .

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Independence Day Speech in English for Students

Independence day speech in english.

Independence Day Speech – We celebrate Independence Day as the national festival of India. The Day marks the anniversary of national independence from the British Empire on 15th august 1947.

Furthermore, it is the most auspicious day for the people of India because India becomes independent after lots of hardships and sacrifices of the brave Indian freedom fighters.

From that day onwards 15th August become a very important day in Indian history and in the hearts of every Indian. Also, the entire nation celebrates this day with the full spirit of patriotism.

After the independence, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was chosen as the first Prime Minister of India. Moreover, he unfurled our tricolor flag at the Red Fort in the national capital, New Delhi for the first time.

From there onwards, every year we celebrate Independence Day at Red Fort New Delhi. In addition, the army performs many tasks that also include a march past cultural programs by school students.

In addition, we celebrate Independence Day to remember the lives that we sacrificed to gain this freedom. As they are the ones who struggled for our country. Furthermore, on his day we forget our differences and unites as one true nation should.

Importance of Independence Day Celebration

We celebrate Independence Day on a vast scale in our country. Also, every government building is decorated with tricolor lights that orange, white, and green just like the national flag.

Furthermore, every official and office staff whether private or government has to be present in the office for the flag hoisting ceremony and singing our National Anthem. Besides, there is a lot of other reasons to celebrate our independence day.

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Honor the Memory of our Freedom Fighters

Freedom fighters struggled to make our country free from the Britishers. In addition, they were the ones who sacrificed their lives for the country. On this day every citizen of our country pays tribute to them.

Furthermore, the schools and colleges organize various functions to celebrate our independence and to pay tribute to these freedom fighters. Also, students perform in these programs that depict the struggle of our freedom fighters.

In schools and colleges, students give solo and duet performances of patriotic songs. These songs fill our hearts with a feeling of patriotism and love for our country. Usually, in offices, it is a non-working day but all the staff and officials gather to express their patriotism for the country.

In addition, at various offices, employees deliver speeches to enlighten people about the freedom struggle. Also, about the efforts of our freedom fighters to make this country an independent nation.

To spark the spirit of patriotism in youth

The youth of our country has the power to change the nation. By means, someone rightly said that the future hinge on to the young generation. Hence it becomes our duty to serve the nation and make every possible effort to make our county better.

One of the main motives for celebrating Independence Day is to make the young generation aware of the sacrifices we have made to make this country a better place for them.

Most noteworthy, it tells them how our country got independence from the grasps of the Britishers. And about the sacrifices, our freedom fighter has made for the country. Also, we do it to make our children aware of the history of our country.

Furthermore, it makes them aware of the development that took place in the past years. Consequently, to make them serious about our future and careers which they put forth to make our country better.

To sum it up, gaining independence from Britishers was not easy. And it’s because of the struggle and hardship of our freedom fighter that we now live in a free country. On Independence Day we remember the long battle that our freedom fighters fought and sacrifices that they have made.

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Speech by Hanke Bruins Slot at the US embassy’s Independence Day reception

Speech | 26-06-2024

Speech by Minister of Foreign Affairs Hanke Bruins Slot at the United States embassy’s Independence Day reception, 26 June 2024. The spoken word applies.

Your Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen, My dear friend Shefali,

It’s a true pleasure to be here.

Today’s theme is ‘California Dreaming’ … a beautiful song that reminds me of a powerful quote: ‘A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work,’ as Colin Powell once said.

Those words certainly apply to you, Shefali. We can see the proof of that here today. I would like to thank you, and your fantastic team, for hosting this festive event! You've even managed to arrange some good weather, which is quite a feat in our rainy country!

The close ties between the people of our countries are reflected in all kinds of wonderful ways… Today, I’d like to share one in particular that moves me deeply.

As darkness falls over a bridge on the river De Waal in Nijmegen, a pair of street lights are illuminated, one on each side of the road. A few seconds later, another pair lights up. Then another – slowly but steadily. After twelve minutes, every pair is shining brightly. 48 in total. Every night.

And every night, rain or shine, a Dutch veteran, accompanied by anyone who wishes to join them, walks across that bridge, matching their pace to that of the street lights. Some are lost in thought. Some speak with others… Yet they always walk with quiet determination. Every night.

This recurring event tells a story, not of countries, but of people. The story of young Americans who crossed the water near that bridge in canvas boats, on September 20th, 1944. Soldiers who gave their lives for the freedom we still enjoy to this day. Forty-eight of them in total.

But it also tells the story of those people who ensure that this sacrifice is remembered every day. Like ‘Oma Trees’, aged 96, who walked the bridge last year, supported by her walker. Or Hein Calis, a terminally ill patient whose final wish was to take part in the Sunset March. Or Dirk-Jan van Zuidam, one of the initiators of the march, who has walked this route thousands of times, and is present here today.

Their efforts are invaluable. Because the values of democracy, freedom and independence – the values that those men fought for in Nijmegen, the values that so many men and women continue to fight for – are our values. They shape our lives. Our work. Our way of life. Our future.

It inspires me to see how ordinary people are taking responsibility and standing up for those values. And how, over the years, our countries have always stood side by side to protect them. Right now, on the edge of Europe, in Ukraine. But also in the Middle East. And with that in mind, let me commend President Biden for his Gaza peace plan initiative, and his efforts to make it a reality, however difficult that may be.  

Next week, there will be a new government in the Netherlands. And in a few months' time, there will be elections in the US. Yet, while leaders come and go, I know that our values will endure. And that whatever the future may bring, we will remain united in our belief in democracy and freedom.

A belief shared not just by our leaders, but by our people too. From those who march across the bridge in Nijmegen to everyone present here today, celebrating freedom and independence. Indeed: people are the common thread.

And Shefali: I want to thank you – as well as your husband and children – for your dedication to fostering human connection. One moment, you're setting up a stall on King's Day, and the next, you're visiting a Dutch pancake restaurant… It’s hard to keep up with all your activities!

And while your love of pancakes is commendable, of course… what I truly admire is your dedication to getting to know the people of our country. In doing so, you acknowledge and celebrate the identity of our society … I believe that contributes to a better world. That it helps us better understand each other's perspectives.

At the same time, you are also sending a compelling message: That a true democracy must be an inclusive one. That we need everyone on board to make it work – now, and in the future.

It’s a message you’re sending in all kinds of ways… By reaching out to the Dutch LGBTIQ+ community… By reflecting on our role in the history of slavery… By promoting diverse women in leadership…

And simply by telling the young girls you encounter: ‘Your dreams can become reality. You can be anything you want – it just takes sweat, determination, and hard work.’ Just like Colin Powell said.

Indeed, true connection is not just about listening. It’s also about sharing. And showing vulnerability… such an undervalued quality in today’s world. Yet such a valuable one, as I saw at the signing of the Ljubljana-The Hague Convention, where I was deeply impressed by your moving, personal story.

All these efforts strengthen the bond we share, not just the bond between our countries, but the bond between our people too. A bond that’s timeless and inspiring, carried forward, along with our values, by the people of our countries, with each step we take, and with each moment we spend together. 

Just as you did when you yourself walked the bridge in Nijmegen, together with Dutch veterans and members of the public. Just as many people do at Fort Liberty in the US, where – inspired by the Nijmegen Sunset March – they march every night to honour their veterans. Just as so many people here do every day, by building and deepening our transatlantic ties through culture, trade and everything else that we share. And just as we’re doing right now, by spending time together on this lovely afternoon.

Ladies and gentlemen,

It’s time for me to conclude. Let’s enjoy this moment together… Let’s enjoy some California dreaming. And I’m glad we can finally say: on such a summer’s day. Thank you.

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Racial justice, free speech groups join fight against potential TikTok ban

Haleluya Hadero

Associated Press

A dozen social and racial justice groups said Thursday that the federal effort to require a sale or ban of TikTok would suppress speech from minority communities by disrupting a critical tool many use to establish connections online and advocate for causes.

The legal brief, submitted to a federal court in Washington, comes as TikTok and its Beijing-based parent, ByteDance, are waging a consequential legal battle against the law, which would disrupt the platform’s U.S. operation to address bipartisan concerns about the popular app .

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Thursday is the deadline for third-party groups to file documents supporting the social video platform and eight TikTok creators who sued the U.S. government last month. The two cases have since been consolidated.

The legal filing submitted Thursday came from a diverse set of organizations, including the New York-based Asian American Federation, a Washington-based nonprofit called the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, a Virginia-based transgender advocacy organization named the Calos Coalition and the Muslim Public Affairs Council.

In the brief, the groups wrote that TikTok has been instrumental to advocacy around various issues, such as reproductive rights and opposition to anti-LGBTQ+ legislation around the country.

They say the platform has empowered diverse communities in online conversations and placed “marginalized views squarely before new audiences,” enabling them “to break down stereotypes that persist in America and globally.” The brief claims this happens because the platform gives communities increased reach and the ability to bypass “entrenched hierarchies” found on other social media platforms.

TikTok has also received support from other organizations, which have echoed arguments the company has made in its lawsuit against the government.

On Wednesday evening, seven other free speech-oriented advocacy groups submitted a brief to the court, arguing the law would infringe on the First Amendment and make it impossible for users to associate on the app. Some digital rights groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation have previously expressed support for the company or sided with it in a similar lawsuit against Montana last year.

The libertarian public interest firm Institute For Justice and Reason Foundation also filed a brief Thursday supporting TikTok’s free speech claims. Both groups have received donations from the Susquehanna Foundation, a sister organization to the trading firm co-founded by prominent ByteDance investor and Republican megadonor Jeff Yass.

The federal law, which President Joe Biden signed as part of a larger foreign aid package in April, is the U.S. government’s attempt to deal with long-running national security concerns about TikTok's presence and reach in the U.S.

Lawmakers from both parties and some administration officials have said TikTok’s current ownership structure poses a threat since ByteDance operates under the laws of the Chinese government. They say Chinese authorities could force ByteDance to hand over U.S. user data or sway public opinion towards Beijing’s interests by tinkering with the algorithm that populates users’ feeds. However, the government hasn't provided public evidence to support either claim.

The racial and social justice groups argue in their filing that anti-Asian sentiments clouded discussions around the law. Many TikTok creators have also opposed the measure, which marks the first time the U.S. has singled out a social media company for a potential ban. It gives ByteDance nine months to sell TikTok, and a possible three-month extension if a sale is in progress.

However, both companies have argued they would have to shut down TikTok’s U.S. operation by Jan. 19 because continuing to operate in the U.S. wouldn’t be commercially, technologically or legally possible if forced to divest.

Last week, TikTok filed another legal brief giving its account of negotiations it held with the Biden administration since 2021. The company said it presented a draft agreement in August 2022 but claimed the administration “ceased any substantive negotiations” with its attorneys after that.

The Justice Department said in a statement last week that it’s looking forward to defending the recently enacted legislation, which addresses “critical national security concerns in a manner that is consistent with the First Amendment and other constitutional limitations.”

The Cato Institute, a Washington-based libertarian think tank, is also expected to file a legal brief supporting TikTok. Yass currently serves as Cato's vice chair.

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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American Speech-Language-Hearing Association

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Fireworks Can Cause Permanent Hearing Loss, But Simple Steps Can Prevent Harm This July 4th

It’s easy and inexpensive to protect your hearing, says asha, five safety tips for children and adults.

June 24, 2024

(Rockville, MD) As people across the country prepare for their July 4th celebrations, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) is raising awareness about a commonly overlooked Independence Day health hazard: hearing loss.

Fireworks and firecrackers can register 150 decibels at 3 feet away—well beyond the safe listening volume of 75–80 decibels. Noise at this level can cause permanent damage in less than 1 second, something for families to understand as they make their holiday plans.

“Noise-induced hearing loss is irreversible, but fortunately, it’s also preventable,” said Tena McNamara, AuD, CCC-A/SLP, 2024 ASHA President. “Awareness of the risks that fireworks and other loud noises pose to our hearing, and taking a few very easy steps, are key to protecting ourselves and our loved ones.”

ASHA shares these tips to prevent permanent hearing damage:

• Wear hearing protection. Foam ear plugs available online or in a drugstore are highly effective at dampening noise to a safe level for most adults and teens. Younger kids should wear well-fitting, child-sized ear muffs. “Basic earplugs can cost pennies per pair, but the reward they provide in the form of protecting our hearing is priceless,” McNamara says.
• Maintain a safe distance. Stand at least 500 feet away from noise sources such as a fireworks launch site or a speaker. “The farther away you are, the safer your ears will be,” according to McNamara.
• Heed noise warnings. Many smartphones and smartwatches will automatically alert you when you are in a location loud enough to cause hearing damage. If not, you can download a free sound-level meter app to your phone.
• Take listening breaks. If you are in a noisy place for a long period of time, step out regularly (at least once per hour) to give your ears a rest. “Even a few minutes can give your ears an opportunity to recover,” says McNamara.
• Listen to your body. If you are experiencing any pain, ringing in your ears, or changes in your hearing, leave the area immediately. If symptoms persist into the next day, visit an audiologist for a hearing evaluation.

“We want people to have fun this July 4th, but to do so with their hearing in mind,” said McNamara. “If you want to continue to experience the many life pleasures that your hearing affords you—from the music you enjoy to the voices of those you love—make the effort to protect it.”

For more information and tips, visit www.asha.org/public/ .

About the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) ASHA is the national professional, scientific, and credentialing association for 234,000 members, certificate holders, and affiliates who are audiologists; speech-language pathologists; speech, language, and hearing scientists; audiology and speech-language pathology assistants; and students. Audiologists specialize in preventing and assessing hearing and balance disorders as well as providing audiologic treatment, including hearing aids. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) identify, assess, and treat speech, language, and swallowing disorders.

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Election latest: Farage on defensive after supporters caught on camera making racist, murderous and homophobic remarks

Rishi Sunak has spoken out after a Reform UK supporter was filmed making racist comments about him - with party leader Nigel Farage forced on to the defensive. Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer has distanced himself from a Labour colleague's previous criticism of Donald Trump.

Friday 28 June 2024 23:12, UK

• General Election 2024

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• Sunak: Farage supporter using racial slur 'makes me angry'
• Farage on defensive after supporters filmed making racist, murderous and homophobic comments
• Police 'urgently assessing' comments to see if 'criminal offences' committed
• Reform UK racism and homophobia scandal: What do we know?
• Analysis : Sunak's tetchiness over betting scandal speaks volumes
• Rylan would 'love' to get into politics
• Politics at Jack and Sam's : The last weekend
• Live reporting by Ben Bloch

Election essentials

• Manifesto pledges: Conservatives | Greens | Labour | Lib Dems | Plaid | Reform | SNP
• Trackers:  Who's leading polls? | Is PM keeping promises?
• Campaign Heritage:  Memorable moments from elections gone by
• Follow Sky's politics podcasts:  Electoral Dysfunction | Politics At Jack And Sam's
• Read more:  Who is standing down? | Key seats to watch | What counts as voter ID? | Check if your constituency is changing | Guide to election lingo
• How to watch election on Sky News

Thank you for joining us in the Politics Hub for live coverage of today's events in the general election campaign.

Polls open in 5 days and 8 hours - and the politicians will be spending every last moment fighting for your vote.

Scroll down for all of today's developments - and join us from 6am for live coverage of the last weekend of the campaign.

By Faye Brown , political reporter

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has joked about needing a new job next week as she faces being one of the Tories' most high-profile election casualties.

The cabinet minister is projected to lose her Chichester seat in West Sussex to the Lib Dems, who are aiming to smash the so-called "blue wall" in southern England.

During a visit to a school in her constituency, Ms Keegan was asked by pupils what job she would do if she was not an MP.

"I might have to answer that question next Friday", she said.

Ms Keegan later told the PA news agency that the polls were "all over the place" and "I have never taken anything in my whole life for granted".

But her initial answer reflects the defeatist mood of some Tories as multiple polls suggest Britain's political landscape is about to be fundamentally re-drawn, with Labour  on course for a historic majority.

Ms Keegan is one of more than a dozen senior figures at risk of having a so-called "Portillo moment" - a reference to Michael Portillo, the Conservative minister who was famously unseated as Tony Blair swept to power in 1997.

Read more here:

We've got six days to go until the election - and today has been slightly quieter than some of the other days on the campaign trail.

Here's everything you need to know this evening:

• Rishi Sunak has said the reported use of the slur "P***" by a Reform UK campaigner to describe him "hurts" and makes him "angry";
• Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer described the comments as "racist" - but did not apply that label to Nigel Farage ;
• Although the Reform UK leader described the comments as "very prejudiced, very wrong", he claimed that the undercover reporting by Channel 4 was a "stitch up" - something the broadcaster completely rejects;
• The campaigner who made the comment, Andrew Parker, called himself a "total fool" and said he has learned his lesson;
• However, Essex Police said they are "urgently assessing" whether any offences were committed by Mr Parker and another canvasser who made homophobic comments.
• A new MRP poll  predicted the Tories will crash to just 85 seats - with Labour winning a whopping 470 seats and becoming the largest party in Scotland for the first time in over a decade;
• Data from the Electoral Commission  showed that the unions finally opened their chequebooks to Labour, giving nearly £2m in week three of the campaign (£3.3m in total) - while the Tories raised just £275,000;
• Junior doctors in Wales  have accepted a pay offer from the Welsh administration there;
• Rylan Clark revealed the changes he would make to the political system;
• Education Secretary Gillian Keegan admitted no poll was showing a good outcome for the Conservatives;
• And Conservative candidate and former defence secretary Sir Liam Fox  refused to rule out putting himself forward as caretaker Tory leader after the election if the Tories lose and Rishi Sunak resigns.

Follow along for the very latest from the campaign trail with less than a week until polling day.

Parliament "always has the opportunity" to re-examine the rules on betting for politicians, Rishi Sunak has said, following calls for a ban similar to that for footballers.

The prime minister said gambling on elections was "not something I would do" as he argued the immediate priority was to establish any wrongdoing.

He also repeated his threat to "boot" people out of the Conservative Party found to have broken the rules.

Mr Sunak made his comments in response to the ongoing gambling scandal that has engulfed the Tory campaign and added to his election woes.

Five Conservatives have so far been caught up in the inquiry  by the Gambling Commission, although reports suggest the figure could be 15 parliamentary candidates and officials, although the watchdog has not confirmed the numbers involved.

At least seven Metropolitan Police officers are also being investigated.

A Reform UK canvasser who used a racial slur against Rishi Sunak has called himself a "total fool" and said he has learned his lesson.

Footage from an undercover Channel 4 reporter showed Reform campaigner Andrew Parker using a discriminatory term about the prime minister, as well as saying the army should "just shoot" migrants crossing the Channel.

Police are now assessing the comments to establish if an offence has been committed, while Mr Sunak said the insult directed at him "hurts and it makes me angry".

Mr Parker, who was canvassing in Clacton, where Reform leader Nigel Farage is standing, told Sky News the sting operation had "proper taught me a lesson".

He said: "There's lots of old people like me who are sick to death of this woke agenda… but on that particular day, I was set up and set up good and proper.

"It's proper taught me a lesson - I was a total fool."

Nigel Farage was challenged on BBC Question Time on why he has not suspended candidates who are widely reported to have made racist or other offensive comments.

The Reform UK leader blamed a vetting company, but host Fiona Bruce stopped him and said the comments are in the public domain, in newspapers and on the internet.

He replied that he "inherited a start-up party" and that "most" candidates reported to have made offensive comments "have been disowned".

Asked why some of those accused ended up as candidates in the first place, he replied that he has "no idea" - to laughter from the audience.

He repeated that he inherited the party, meaning he was not the leader when many of these candidates were selected.

He was then asked by an audience member if he will take responsibility, "stop making excuses", and apologise.

"I'm not going to apologise," Mr Farage replied, to a smattering of applause, and repeated that the racist comments reported to have been made by an activist in his office was a "set up".

Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, is facing questions on a BBC Question Time leaders' special this evening, and he was asked firstly: "What is it about you and your party that attracts racists and extremists, whether you say you want them or not?"

The question got a loud round of applause and cheers from the audience.

Mr Farage replied that he has "done more to drive the far-right out of the British politics than anyone else alive" - to a few scoffs in the audience.

He said he "took on the BNP" and has never allowed extremists to join his parties.

Addressing the Channel 4 report that showed Reform activists in his own office making racist remarks about PM and homophobic remarks, Mr Farage said: "What happened over that last weekend was truly astonishing.

"A tirade of invective abuse directed at the prime minister - I mean, the whole thing was unbelievable."

But Mr Farage went on to say that it "didn't ring true", and claimed that the activist filmed in his office calling Rishi Sunak a "P***" was a plant of some kind.

"Let me tell you, from the minute he turned up in that office in Clacton and I saw him, he was acting from the very start."

Mr Farage continued to double-down when pushed, claiming that this was a "political set up of astonishing proportions".

"I want nothing to do with people like him and he has nothing to do with us. He's somebody who turned up. We didn't know who he was."

A spokesperson for Channel 4 News said: "We strongly stand by our rigorous and duly impartial journalism which speaks for itself.

"We met Mr Parker for the first time at Reform UK party headquarters, where he was a Reform party canvasser.

"We did not pay the Reform UK canvasser or anyone else in this report. Mr Parker was not known to Channel 4 News and was filmed covertly via the undercover operation."

One of the Green Party co-leaders is facing questions on a BBC Question Time leaders' special this evening, and he was asked about his party's migration policy.

Specifically, an audience member asked Adrian Ramsay how his party will have such an expansive and open migration policy, with immigrants being able to bring dependents, while ensuring that public services work properly.

Mr Ramsay said that it is "absolutely right and humane" that people coming to work in the UK be able to bring their spouse.

"I think we need to have a calm discussion in this country about how we approach the issue of migration, because we have always benefitted from people coming to the UK," he added, getting applause from the audience.

"We only have to listen to the horrific comments that were exposed on Channel 4 last night of people immediately around Nigel Farage to remind ourselves of what a stark future we could be heading in if people back him and Reform in this election," he said of the racist and homophobic comments made by party activists.

The Green Party website talks about "a world without borders", and Mr Ramsay is asked exactly what that would mean and look like.

But he dodged the question, saying it is a "long-term vision" and is there to talk about the manifesto for this election.

"It's not something we think is realistic in this next five years," he said, and would not get a timeframe when asked.

By Gurpreet Narwan , political correspondent

Britain could soon have its most diverse parliament ever but how will voters from ethnically diverse communities behave at the ballot box?

The voting trends of such groups are incredibly complex and varied. There is no single narrative but several themes stick out from YouGov's exclusive polling for Sky News.

Most notably, the handling of the conflict in the Middle East has damaged the two major parties in the eyes of British Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities. This is something the Labour Party, in particular, is very sensitive too.

Labour have historically fared well with these voters and 53% of ethnic minority voters we polled said they would vote for the party - that's a greater lead than polls we've done with the general population.

However, the Tories fare worse among ethnic minority voters on the whole - in this poll they are neck and neck with the Green Party at 14%.

But, if we drill into the detail, 32% of British Indians said they would vote Conservative - 12% higher than the general population. This is a good reminder that there is a huge variation in voting trends among communities.

Reform UK polled much worse with ethnically diverse communities than the population at large - they're on 7% - but they're still one point above the Lib Dems.

Read Gurpreet's full piece here:

That concludes tonight's edition of Politics Hub With Ali Fortescue - scroll down to read through tonight's interviews and analysis.

Our next guest on Politics Hub With Ali Fortescue  is Claire Ainsley, Director of the Project on Center-Left Renewal at the Progressive Policy Institute, and former adviser to Sir Keir Starmer.

We discuss what the US-UK relationship could look like under a potential Labour government and a possible Trump presidency.

She replies that the shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, has been "at pains" to build relationships across the Atlantic, and "all of the shadow foreign affairs team have really been out and present, not just in obviously a North America, but around the world".

He says: "I think there's definitely a readiness, on the part of other governments, to be able to have somewhat of a reset [with] the UK.

"So I think in the end, the US-UK relationship is going to be extremely important. And actually it's about common interests and the primarily that will be in the first instance about backing for NATO and obviously for Ukraine."

We bring in our panel, and former Labour cabinet minister Ben Bradshaw says: "I don't think it's any secret that probably most Labour people - actually most members of the current government -  would rather work with a Democrat president than with a Trump [presidency].

"But you deal with whoever the American people deliver as president."

Should Sir Keir Starmer win the election, he will have a steep learning curve, with multiple international summits scheduled for immediately after polling day.

But Ms Ainsley says he is "ready".

"You can just see in Keir Starmer that he is ready to be prime minister if that's what the voters decide next week.

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