July 2, 1776

[Gary Noel]

I’m not aware of any siderealists who use July 2, 1776 for a USA chart but that was the day Congress passed the Lee Resolution declaring the colonies free and independent states and all political ties between them and the mother country “totally dissolved.” Independence from Great Britain had been officially declared. John Adams was ecstatic and thought America would celebrate for all time July 2 as Independence Day. Historians agree with Adams and the following observation is from David McCullough’s Pulitzer Prize winning biography of Adams: “On July 2, 1776, in Philadelphia, the American colonies declared independence."

According to Thomas Jefferson, Congress, after nine consecutive hours of debate, passed the Lee Resolution unofficially late in the day on July 1 by a vote of 9 to 2 with Delaware divided and New York abstaining. Edward Rutledge of South Carolina, one of the dissenting colonies, asked for a revote for the sake of unanimity. Rutledge’s wish was granted and Jefferson, in a letter addressed to the editor of The Journal de Paris wrote that Congress officially passed Lee’s Resolution “in the morning of the 2d of July.” Although New York once again abstained, this time the vote was unanimous in the sense that no colony dissented.

The Congressional session of July 2 commenced at 9 a.m. and according to David McCullough, Congress officially passed Lee’s Resolution in the morning sometime after 10. Former President of ISAR Ray Merriman once used a time of 5:43 p.m. LMT, a time contrary to everything we know about this day. The Pennsylvania Post on the evening of July 2 announced the following: “This Day the Continental Congress declared the United Colonies Free and Independent States.” At 5:43 p.m. that newspaper was probably already in circulation. All arguments for and against Lee’s Resolution most likely had been exhausted by July 1. I doubt there was much left to debate on July 2. A few years ago, I expressed my concerns about the evening chart and today Ray uses 11:50 a.m. LMT. As far as I know, this is only July 2 chart to acknowledge that Congress adopted the Resolution of Independence in the morning.

[SteveS]

Noel, have you done any Sidereal Astrology research with the July 2 11:50 AM Chart? If so, I would be very interested in your opinions.

[Gary Noel]

Steve, I have not. Ray Merriman is the only person I know who uses that chart and he is a tropicalist, so I would probably find his arguments unconvincing. I brought the subject up because I think it's important to apply a USA chart that conforms to history. If there is another siderealist out there who uses a July 2 chart, I would also be interested. Right now I'm trying to find an article by Arthur Blackburn about the Constitution. Arthur used New York, March 4, 1789 at 12:00 a.m. LAT for his USA chart. That was the day, time and place the Constitution became law. In this case it's important that LAT be used instead of LMT because if 12:00 a.m. LMT is used, the chart will be off by 12 minutes. A March 4 chart of 12:12 a.m. LMT would be the same as the Blackwell chart. I tried to locate Bert Fannin because he has the article I'm looking for. Unfortunately, his website appears to be dysfunctional.

[SteveS]

I understand Noel. Also I can relate to your frustration trying to find old written material by individual astrologers. There is no telling how much truths which may be discovered by combing through old articles by astrologers, particularly Siderealists.

[Jim Eshelman]

I was intrigued with 7/2 early on, in the early '70s, mostly because it was a cool idea people might have missed. I was never impressed with results too much (although Ray is a solid astrologer especially as an economic advisor).

For me, since the Hazelrigg-George-Bradley chart is so solid, I haven't had any need to look at any other U.S. charts in the last few decades; and with Sidereal mundane astrology having matured so solidly (gigantically over the top of any national chart work), I have to go out of the way to remind myself to look at any national chart anyway.

[SteveS]

Jim wrote:

For me, since the Hazelrigg-George-Bradley chart is so solid, I haven't had any need to look at any other U.S. charts in the last few decades; and with Sidereal mundane astrology having matured so solidly (gigantically over the top of any national chart work), I have to go out of the way to remind myself to look at any national chart anyway.

I understand this change Jim from a 'gigantically' standpoint Jim.