Script
for the Re-dedication Ceremony Monuments, Tablets, and Medallions Placed by the
SCDAR at the SC State House
South
Carolina State House Grounds
June
13, 2018
Written
by Penny Renwick
DIANNE:
As part of the Bicentennial project
of State Regent Louise Burgdorf, the SCDAR placed mammoth replicas in the State
House of the South Carolina Bicentennial medallion both the obverse and arm of
the medallion.
PENNY:
The Bicentennial Commission recognized
that commemorative objects could serve a worthwhile purpose in stimulating
interest in the American Revolution and in the part which South Carolina
played. On June 28, 1974, the 198th
anniversary of the Battle of Sullivan’s Island, the Commission released South
Carolina’s official Bicentennial medallion.
James L. Haynsworth of Columbia, South Carolina, designed the
medallion’s obverse, which commemorates
Sergeant William Jasper’s heroic rescue of the state flag at the Battle
of Sullivan’s Island. The arms (or
reverse) side of the State Bicentennial medallion is the same as the reverse of
the original Great Seal of South Carolina, chosen in 1776.
The Seal of the State of South
Carolina was designed by William Drayton after the British were defeated and
driven away by the fort on Sullivan’s Island, in Charleston Harbor, on the 28th
of June, 1776, which event suggested some of the devices. On this, the palmetto tree on one of the
shields represents the fort, which was constructed of palmetto logs. On the other may be seen a woman walking on
the seashore holding in her had a branch of laurel. She looks with hope to the sun rising in
splendor over the sea. This individual
represents the State of South Carolina anticipating a glorious future when she
has gained her independence from Great Britain.
The supporters of these shields are
a soldier in Continental uniform, on one side; while on the other stands the
Goddess of Liberty, who hold aloft in her left had a pole, surmounted by a
liberty cap. In her right she extends a
wreath of laurel to the soldier, whom she apparently intends to crown with this
garland of victory.
Bicentennial Medallion
showing each side of the Seal of South Carolina were placed during State
Conference March 4, 1975.
DIANNE:
The SCDAR rededicates the
replicas of the obverse and arm of the Bicentennial medallion commemorating the 200th
birthday of the United States of America.
As the nation’s birthday approaches in less than a month, may we always
be mindful of how our nation was born, the sacrifices made to form a new
nation, and may we be filled with patriotic fervor each day and not just on our
nation’s birthday.
PLACE FLORAL ARRANGEMENT.
Pause.
If you have never seen the musical or the movie (which is also a musical) 1776, I encourage you to make this a part of your Fourth of July tradition. It is a fun way to learn about how the Declaration of Independence came about with poetic license. With humor, songs that get stuck in your head, and some powerful scenes, one begins to get a sense of how our colonies united to form a new nation.
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| image from the movie "1776" from the song "Sit down, John!" |
Why do I even talk about this? Let's think about it. Memorial Day is really celebrated as a holiday that is the first day of summer with all of the sales to go along with it instead of a day that pays tribute to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice. The Fourth of July is a holiday from work with cookouts, with fireworks, and with lots of red/white/and blue.
If asked about why we celebrate this day, we will say it is the birthday of our nation. But do we really understand what that means. Probably not. Most people could not tell you that this day is a result of the passing of the Declaration of Independence. They couldn't tell you about the struggle involved in uniting the colonies as one nation in fighting and separating from a formidable foe. Have they even read the Declaration of Independence? Have you ?
As our nation's birthday approaches, may we truly and honestly reflect on the meaning of this day. I am pasting the text of the Declaration of Independence below for you to read. After reading it, I want you to focus on the last sentence "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.'' Then, I want you to search yourself, to truly examine yourself, and ask yourself these questions, "Would I have signed the Declaration of Independence if I had been one of the delegates? Would I have been ready to give up everything? If that had happened today, would I be ready to do what my ancestors did?" Be totally honest when answering these questions. Now read the Declaration of Independence and when the Fourth of July comes, may you celebrate the day with a new sense of understanding and appreciation for our Founding Fathers and the patriots who fought and contributed in other ways to bring about a new nation.
In Congress, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
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.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
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