NOTE: Smithsonian just published that Merriam-Webster’s 2023 Word of the Year Is ‘Authentic’ - As technology’s ability to manipulate reality improves, we’re all searching for the truth. (November 29, 2023)

We all want people, products, and services to be authentic. Of course. People appreciate authenticity, We want the qualities in our life to be real or true. And we particularly enjoy knowing the truth about our history; how our organizations were founded. Stories about the these events help sustain culture, innovation, and direction. 

But are our stories authentic?

I experimented with researching the story about the founding of one such organization - the United States.

All Americans celebrate that day when the Founding Fathers, the innovative leaders who created our country, gathered in a grand hall, pens in hand, united in purpose, and signed the sacred document that would birth a nation—the Declaration of Independence.

This powerful image has been ingrained in our national consciousness ever since.

But I could never figure out why would all the heads of the Revolutionary War gather in one room to do this?

With spies everywhere (we were still British citizens) wouldn’t THIS be the opportunity to squelch the rebellion? Surround the building and arrest all the leaders. King’s happy, and we go back to that nasty taxation without representation thing.

Autopsy

(debunking history)

Well, the King apparently couldn’t arrest the Founding Fathers because they weren’t in the room!

Well, not all of them. There were two.

. . .  maybe we should back up a second.

The story about all this is, well, not authentic.

What really happened? Instead of the unified leaders we see in all the paintings and movies about that famous day, there was a lot of disagreement. Many resisted becoming independent. The signing of the Declaration was more of a mundane affair littered with series of administrative procedures and delayed signatures as people staggered in and out for years.

Huh?

Just look at what happened just a month earlier in June of 1776. Richard Henry Lee, a delegate from Virginia, was the guy who introduced a resolution for independence to the Continental Congress.

A quick vote?

Big party?

Nah. the debate was delayed because not everybody wanted independence. The colonies were divided:

• 7 vote for postponement (let's parking lot this thing until it blows over).
• 5 opposed independence all together (not interested, stupid idea)
• New York, the most powerful influencer, abstained entirely (we're focused on taller buildings right now, anybody invent the elevator yet?)

No one depended on independence? That's inauthentic. How did THIS get covered up?

The following month, Congress reconvened and the discussions were more intense, the stakes were high! But at the end of the day, twelve out of thirteen colonies (with New York still holding out) finally agreed on independence. Therefore, contrary to popular belief:

The formal vote for independence was made on July 2!

WTF? So July 4 is inauthentic too?

Congress wordsmithed the text the next couple days but only approved the edits on July 4. 

 John Adams, a most vocal advocate for independence, knew that

the 2nd of July would be the date of celebration, not the 4th.

Wait. How do we know this?

John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, on July 3 about what happened the day before. That's why his letter said, 

"The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America." 

What!

Yes. July 4th was never an authentic event. It never happened.

Myth Busted

Apparently, when we wrote the history books, somebody forgot to check John Adams letters to his wife (eventually somebody did, see the publication "The Letters of John and Abigail Adams", edited by Frank Shuffelton).

OK, so how did we miss this?

Well Richard Shenkman, associate professor of history at George Mason University (Legends, Lies & Cherished Myths of American History, HarperCollins) found that Americans never let the facts get in the way of tradition.

Let me rephrase,

"Never let authenticity get in the way of a good story!"

Shenkman then discovered that a scholar in the nineteenth century found the John Adams' letter, and noticed the discrepancy.

Finally! So that scholar corrected the error so that our history would be authentic?  He revealed that we had the wrong date so that the story could finally be true?

No.

He simply altered the document to “correct” the record and have it read “July 5”.  That way Adams' prediction for the holiday would be the 4th of July, not the 2nd of July as originally written. 

...........    I know. Breath, Go take a walk. Pour a bourbon. It gets worse.

Shenkman further discovered that Congress itself didn’t celebrate independence on July 4, but  July 8!

The event proceeded with a public gala including the firing of guns and a parade of soldiers.

The rest of the country? Oh, they celebrated even later depending on when the news reached them. For example, Washington’s soldiers, camped in New York, didn’t hear about it until July 9. Savannah, Georgia, had to wait until August 10. Word didn’t reach London for another two weeks. France finally heard on August 30!

So let me get this straight. Announcing independence overshadowed the act of declaring it. It was voted for on July 2?

Yes.

But THEN that's when the Founding Fathers all got together and had that grand signing ceremony in that great hall we see in all the pictures and celebrate today!

Um, no.

[sounds of head slappings]

Apparently, a few years AFTER the Revolution, Jefferson and Franklin reported that the Declaration had been signed by almost all of the delegates on July 4. When someone challenged his memory in the early 1800’s, Jefferson stuck by his mistake. Shenkman published,

"It wasn’t until 1884 that the record was corrected when historian Mellon Chamberlain, researching the manuscript minutes of the journal of Congress, discovered that the declaration was signed by most delegates on August 2. A few didn’t affix their signatures until even later. One person didn’t sign until 1781."

OK, Don. You made all this up! This is so unbelievable. It couldn't have happened!

You're right. Maybe I did make it up. Ironically, however, the only thing in this blog post that's authentic is exposing inauthenticity. Yes. Read that again. 

But where's your documentation? Where's your proof?

Ok. You got me. I got all this, as Shenkman did, in an obscure repository: 

The U.S National Archives!

Go ahead. Check it out yourself. The true, authentic story is that only two people signed the Declaration on July 4th: John Hancock, the president of the Second Continental Congress, and Charles Thomson, its secretary.

And, I assume it was probably done in a small room with no fanfare.

OK. So only two signed it on July 4 but, eventually, by 1781, everyone finally signed it!

Ummm. No again.

[sounds of heads hitting desks]

A few delegates who voted for adoption of the Declaration never signed it!  Nonsigners included John Dickinson, who clung to the idea of reconciliation with Britain, and Robert R. Livingston, one of the Committee of Five, who thought the Declaration was premature.

Ok. Then it was over!

Well, not quite.

When 56 delegates did sign, some of the New Hampshire delegates found that the previous hogs filled up the space so much that they had no room left to sign it!

WHAT TO DO ?

Nothing.

As with many organizations, the founding of America is just another case of an inauthentic story being a little too good to pass up. History is seldom a neat set of significant moments nicely packaged. American Independence was, like many other organizational births, a messy, drawn out, boring, marathon of administrative delays, twists, turns, delays, and detours. 

Instead of letting the details ruin it, we always like to make organizational history more intriguing by inventing a myth.

But aren't these inauthentic stories a problem for organizations?

No. For the human species, myths can be valuable. 

For example, the 4th of July now has become a vibrant moment of national unity, the creation of a new nation, all wrapped up neatly on a significant date with all of our Founding Fathers participating. 

Even Ben Franklin was quoted as saying, "Let it me July 4! It will inspire a whole nation to always keep the American spirit alive . . . and a great excuse for hotdogs, beer, and fireworks."

No. He didn't say that. I was being inauthentic. 

Happy 4th!