On July 9, 1776, General George Washington, the commander of the Continental Army, ordered the troops to assemble promptly at 6 P.M. Once the troops had gathered, Washington read aloud the Declaration of Independence, passed by the Continental Congress one week earlier. The troops found the words so moving that they raced down Broadway and joined New York City residents to topple the looming statue of King George III.
Every year on July 4 since that fateful summer, presidents have celebrated the nation’s independence. Presidents carefully select their activities on the holiday to reflect the current moment or the values cherished by their contemporaries.
In the summer of 1798, as the United States prepared for the possibility of war with France, President John Adams welcomed Philadelphia residents into the President’s House and reviewed a military parade that marched down Market Street.
Once the government moved to Washington, D.C., Thomas Jefferson hosted the very first open house at the White House. An onlooker noted that a bareheaded President Jefferson, his “grey locks waving in the air,” stood on the top of the White House as crowds cheered the military parade, horse races and cockfights. At 12 P.M., the president welcomed guests into the newly finished executive residence, including local citizens, diplomats, military officers and five visiting Cherokee chiefs. The guests were served cakes, wine and punch, and the guest recorded, “Mr. Jefferson mingled promiscuously with the citizens.”
For the next several decades, presidents hosted occasional open houses or traveled to their homes to escape the oppressive D.C. heat. In 1861, the atmosphere in the capital was far less celebratory than past summers, as several southern states had already seceded and formed the Confederacy. On his first fourth of July as president, Abraham Lincoln reviewed regiments of the New York militia marching on the White House lawn. After the ceremony, he sent a message to Congress condemning the state of Virginia for permitting “this giant insurrection to make its nest within her borders,” and vowing to “go forward without fear.”
Forty years later, Theodore Roosevelt was free to enjoy the holiday without the threat of civil war. Few presidents enjoyed speaking to the American people more than TR, and few presidents were better at riling up a crowd.
In 1902, Roosevelt gathered before a crowd of 200,000 in Pittsburgh for his holiday address, starting a July 4 presidential speech-making tradition. These speeches naturally reflected the nation’s current challenges, offered encouragement for the future and reflected on the country’s history, especially the American Revolution.
In 1918, shortly after the U.S. had entered World War I, President Woodrow Wilson visited Mount Vernon, George Washington’s plantation, and mingled with the public and leaders from military envoys that had gathered from around the world. In his address at Mount Vernon, Wilson celebrated the memory of the founding generation: “They were consciously planning that men of every class should be free and America a place to which men out of every nation might resort who wished to share with them the rights and privileges of free men.”
During World War II, even modest celebrations at Mount Vernon were off limits. The Roosevelts restricted their meals based on national rations and blacked out their windows to prevent bombing raids, so traditional celebrations like feasts and fireworks were strictly prohibited.
In 1941, the Roosevelts spent the holiday in New York, and FDR delivered a radio address from his library at Hyde Park. “For 166 years this Fourth Day of July has been a symbol to the people of our country of the democratic freedom which our citizens claim as their precious birthright,” he said. “On this grim anniversary, its meaning has spread over the entire globe — focusing the attention of the world upon the modern freedoms for which all the United Nations are now engaged in deadly war.”
More recently, presidents have returned to visiting historic sites and hosting gatherings at the White House. In 1976, President Gerald Ford traveled to Pennsylvania to pay homage to the nation’s 200th birthday. He toured Valley Forge, paid respects at Independence Hall and reviewed an armada of historic ships in New York Harbor.
More recently, President George W. Bush hosted naturalization ceremonies for new citizens and President Barack Obama treated military families to a barbecue. President Biden is continuing this tradition and will welcome essential workers and military families to the White House this weekend.
These holiday celebrations reveal what issues dominated national attention. For example, as the U.S. fought for democracy across the Atlantic Ocean, Wilson helped organize parades of “24 different groups of foreign-born citizens.” The parade demonstrated that regardless of race, religion or ethnicity, people from across the globe could come together to celebrate and fight for democracy. Presidents since Wilson have shared a similar message through their July 4 celebrations.
Lindsay M. Chervinsky, Ph.D. is a presidential historian and scholar in residence at the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies at Iona College. She is also the author of “The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution.” Follow her on Twitter @lmchervinsky.