 Good morning. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. How are we feeling today? Happy thank you for joining us today, joining us at the National Archives. My name is Allison Seymour, and I'm so happy to be with you again this year. And again, thank you for joining us for a very special Fourth of July. The National Archives is, of course, the permanent home of the Declaration of Independence. For more than 40 years, the National Archives has hosted a ceremony on the Fourth of July to celebrate our independence. And this event is the kickoff for all of today's patriotic activities in our nation's capital. And if you're visiting, welcome to your nation's capital. After our ceremony, we urge you please stay right here and enjoy more live music followed by the National Independence Day Parade right here on Constitution Avenue. Or, man, it's hot. You can escape this heat and come inside your National Archives building to see the original Declaration of Independence and participate in our family activities. Now later this evening, the National Symphony Orchestra will present its annual concert, a Capitol Fourth right in front of the U.S. Capitol, and after the concert you can enjoy fireworks on our National Mall. Now you may have noticed our volunteers carrying big signs with today's hashtag and other social media information. The National Archives is on Twitter and on Instagram. And what it is is U.S. Nat Archives. Please share your Fourth of July using the hashtag archivesjuly4. Now after the ceremony, please don't miss our special Declaration of Independence signing booth. And following the ceremony will be set up inside the museum's Boeing Learning Center with other great family activities. So stick around, enjoy the day, and celebrate our independence. Most of you are already standing, but if you're not, please rise for the presentation of the colors by the United States Army Continental Color Guard followed by Ms. Crystal Moser singing the National Anthem. Oh say can you see, what so proudly, through the broad stripes and bright stars, the United States Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps. Now their uniforms are from the Roof Revolutionary War era, and so is their music. I am pleased to present specialist Nikolai Faduček to narrate their performance. Please join me in welcoming the Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. The United States Army Military District of Washington under the command of Brigadier General Omar Jones is proud to present the United States Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps. United States Infantry Regiment, the Old Guard, traces its lineage back to George Washington's original Continental Army and today serves as the Army's official escort to the President of the United States. In 1960, the Fife and Drum Corps was organized to participate in official ceremonies and to revive our country's musical heritage. From the days of the American Revolution through the 19th century, fives, drums, and bugles were vital to military order and discipline. Field musicians were used to issue commands during battle and to regulate the duty day, signaling when to rise, when to eat, and when the day ends. This morning's show paints a series of pictures from the life of a Continental Soldier musician. We open at the beginning of the duty day with a training scene. In the 18th century, signals like a tension and breakfast call would have sent the soldiers into action. Here, we begin with those signals and accompany their daily training with marching tunes including drums and guns and simple jasha. The soldiers of the United States Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps uniforms patterned after those of General Washington's Continental Army. In order to be easily identified, military musicians wore the reverse colors of the regiment to which they were assigned. At that time, American infantry soldiers wore blue coats with red facings. Thus, the musicians wore red coats with blue facings. Traditionally, the most skilled drummer was given the title of Drum Major and was chosen to lead the musicians. Today, the Drum Major who stands before you wears the light infantry cap and issues silent commands using the S-bond tune, an adapted 18th century weapon. At the end of the day, troops would often gather around the campfire to relax, and the musicians would provide entertainment. Picture yourselves in such a setting now as we feature the Fife and Bugle groups in a scene reminiscent of the soldier's respite following a challenging day. At a moment's notice, the soldier is summoned from camp, finding himself marching resolutely to the battlefield. As tensions mount, the musicians relay the commander's orders to the troops. Firing commences and the chaos builds to a fierce, percussive climax. We will now feature the United States Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps drum line in a battle feature. Bring the fallen soldiers lost in battle. We open our final scene with the mournful tune, Roslyn Castle. The moment is brief though as we transition to a celebration of life and close our show at the triumphal soldier's return during which the Corps will honor you with the stately and traditional troop step. On behalf of the Old Guard Commander, Colonel James J. Tewitt and the Fife and Drum Corps Commander, Chief Warrant Officer Five, Aaron Graf, it has been our pleasure performing for you today and we wish you all a happy Independence Day. Thank you Specialist Fiduczek and the Old Guard. Let's have another rousing round of applause. So this is the permanent home of the Declaration of Independence. That extraordinary piece of parchment is just one of billions of documents held in trust by the National Archives. The piece of paper, photographs, films in the holdings of the National Archives tell the story of democracy in these United States and the mission of the National Archives is to make these documents available to you, the American people. Now I'd like to introduce a very important person to whom our nation has entrusted the care of the Declaration of Independence. David Ferriero is the Archivist of the United States. David S. Ferriero was sworn in as the 10th Archivist of the United States in 2009. Previously, Mr. Ferriero served as the Andrew W. Mellon Director of New York Public Libraries. Before that, Mr. Ferriero served in top positions at two of the nation's major academic libraries, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Mr. Ferriero holds degrees from Northeastern University in Boston and the Simmons College of Library and Information Science also in Boston. He also served in the Navy as a hospital corpsman during the Vietnam War. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. David Ferriero, Archivist of the United States. Thank you, Allison, and thanks for joining us this year as MC of our July 4th activities. Good morning. It's great to see you here to help us celebrate the 243rd anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. And special greetings to those of you in our presidential libraries around the country who are watching this via live stream. The 4th of July starts here at the National Archives. Through that door behind us is the original Declaration of Independence that seminal documents signed by our founding fathers enshrined in the rotunda of this building. Although a typeset version of the Declaration was printed on July 4th, 1776, the official government record on parchment was created and signed weeks later on August 2nd. I'm a lucky man. Every day I get to visit the Declaration and marvel at its very existence. The fact that it has survived for 240 years, given its history, is truly remarkable. This parchment has traveled extensively. While the National Archives opened in 1935, the Declaration did not arrive here until 1952. During the Revolutionary War, it traveled with Continental Congress and moved to Philadelphia, Baltimore, Philadelphia again, Lancaster, Pennsylvania for only a day, and then on to Princeton, New Jersey. At the end of the war in 1783, Congress was meeting in Annapolis, Maryland, then moved to Trenton, New Jersey. For five years from 1785 to 1790, the Declaration's home was in New York City. In 1789, the Secretary of State was directed to take control of all records, books, and papers created by the national government, and the Declaration went back to Philadelphia until this new federal city, the city of Washington, was built in 1800. When the British were burning Washington during the War of 1812, the Secretary of State James Monroe directed State Department clerks to get the important documents out of town. One of these clerks, Stephen Pleasanton, is my hero. He wrapped the Declaration and other precious documents in bags of linen, commandeered a wagon, and in the dead of night headed for Virginia with the records of the country just in the nick of time. The next day, the White House was burning, and the Declaration was safely hidden in an unused grist mill near Chain Bridge in Virginia, then moved to a private home in Leesburg until the war was over. During the 1800s, the Declaration was on exhibit for long periods of time at several locations in Washington where it was exposed to sunlight, fluctuating temperatures, smoke, and humidity, all of which took their toll on the document. Finally, officials took note of these effects of aging and wrapped the Declaration and stored it flat at the State Department. We rejoined the Constitution until 1921 when President Harding signed an order transferring both of these documents to the Library of Congress. Just before Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entrance into World War II, the Library sent the Declaration and the Constitution to Fort Knox for safekeeping where they remained until September 1944 when they were returned to the Library of Congress. Finally, these documents came to their rightful home here at the National Archives. The transfer occurred on December 13, 1952 with great pomp and circumstance and security as the newly encased Declaration of Independence was carried up these very steps with a military procession into the Rotunda. And the Declaration of Independence was safe until 2004 when the good treasure hunter, Nicholas Cage, cleverly stole it during a party in this building to protect it from the evil treasure hunter. And our national treasure was miraculously and circuitously restored to its rightful place and now poses the most often asked question in the Rotunda, can we see the back of the map? Is there a map on the back? And I can tell you for certain that the only thing on the back of the Declaration of Independence are the words of the original Declaration of Independence stated for July 1776. That's it. After the ceremony, I invite you to come inside our cool air conditioned building and see the Declaration of Independence the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. You can participate in family activities and check out our new exhibit Rightfully Hers which commemorates the centennial of the 19th Amendment and tells the story of women's struggles for voting rights as a critical step toward equal citizenship. The exhibit explores how American women across the spectrum of race, ethnicity and class advanced the cause of suffrage and follows the struggle for voting rights beyond 1920. Come inside and learn more. And a few reminders, you can share your pictures and stories from your 4th of July experience at the National Archives that US National Archives on Twitter and Instagram use the hashtag Archives July 4. You can also add your own John Hancock to the Declaration of Independence at our special signing booth inside the Boeing Learning Center here inside. And although we don't allow photography in the museum, we've made a special exception for our selfie station where you can snap a selfie in front of a special backdrop featuring our founding documents. So thanks for coming out today. The National Archives is the home of the official Declaration of Independence so really July 4 starts here. And now I'm honored to introduce our keynote speaker, Koki Roberts. Koki is a political commentator for ABC News and NPR and in her more than 40 years in broadcasting she has won countless awards including three Emmys. She's been inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame and was cited by the American Women in Radio and Television as one of the 50 greatest women in the history of broadcasting. In addition to her reporting, Roberts has written six New York Times bestsellers most dealing with the roles of women in US history. Koki holds more than 25 honorary degrees and serves on the boards of several non-profit institutions. In 2008 the Library of Congress named her a living legend, one of the very few Americans to have attained that honor. Koki is also vice president of the National Archives Foundation Board and we are pleased she could join us today for our 4th of July celebration. Please welcome Koki Roberts. Happy 4th everybody. And it's wonderful to be here celebrating the 4th of July. Of course it was that glorious day in 1776 when the 13 colonies declared their independence as grand as it was it came a little late for one patriot. Let us separate. They are unworthy to be our brethren and let us pray to the almighty that to blast their councils and to bring not to all their devices. That was December of 1775 when Abigail Adams was ready to smite the British and she wanted to do it for a good reason. The Redcoats were attacking her and her children while John was off debating and dining in Philadelphia and at one point he wrote to her and said if it gets really dangerous take our children and fly to the woods. Thank you John. By March of 1776 Abigail had totally run out of patience. I long to hear that you've declared an independency. And what would that independency look like? She wondered. In the new code of laws which I suppose will be necessary for you to make I desire you would remember the ladies. Maybe the most famous words ever written by an American woman. What did she mean? She's not telling us today. Some historians thought she was kidding. I certainly don't. Abigail Adams knew she was being left out of much of the promise of the new nation. And she argued that her devotion to America despite her exclusion made her a better patriot than the men who stood to reap its benefits. Deprived of a voice in legislation obliged to submit to laws which are imposed upon us is this not sufficient to make us completely indifferent to the public welfare? Yet all history in every age there are instances of patriotic virtue in the female sex which considering our situation equals the most patriotic and heroic of yours. Indeed. So slowly the women of America took up the cause of having a voice in legislation through the vote. Two years after Abigail Adams died in 1818 Susan B. Anthony was born in Adams, Massachusetts. She went on to form her famous partnership with Elizabeth Katie Stanton who at Seneca Falls in 1848 wrote the Declaration of Sentiments a declaration based entirely on the one you will hear shortly today but with some basic alterations and those alterations some of them will be read appropriately by the next generation my daughter Rebecca Roberts. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men and women are created equal. As the colonists charged the British with their litany of abuses so did the women charge the men. He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise. He has compelled her to submit to laws in the formation of which she had no voice. He has withheld from her rights which are given to the most ignorant and degraded men, both natives and foreigners having deprived her of this first right of a citizen, the elective franchise thereby leaving her without representation in the halls of legislation he has oppressed her on all sides. He has made her if married in the eyes of the law civilly dead. He has taken from her all right in property even to the wages she earns. And on and on and on and finally concluding. And now in view of this entire disenfranchisement of one half of the people of this country their social and religious degradation in view of the unjust laws above mentioned and because women do feel themselves aggrieved, oppressed and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred rights we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of the United States. Huzzah! Sixty-eight women and thirty-two men signed the document including of course Elizabeth Katie Stanton Huzzah! Lucretia Mott and Frederick Douglass will be another seventy-plus years before the elected representatives of the people of women what was rightfully ours as citizens the right to vote. The story of that decades long struggle of women marching bravely in their white purple and gold that story is ably and amusingly told inside these halls in the rightfully hers exhibition in the Lawrence O'Brien Gallery. So please come in and see it as you enjoy this Independence Day in the knowledge that our Union while still not perfect continues to strive toward that end. And Abigail Adams I am rightfully honored. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. May we hear it once again for Koki Roberts. I'm happy to introduce to you a very distinguished group of people who will read the Declaration of Independence. Our first three readers are General George Washington Mr. John Hancock and Mrs. Abigail Adams. Next to read the grievances against King George III we will have three of the leaders of the Second Continental Congress Mr. Thomas Jefferson Mr. John Adams and Dr. Benjamin Franklin. These three gentlemen know the words of the Declaration better than anyone else. All three served on the committee to draft the Declaration and Mr. Jefferson was the primary author. And to read the names of the 56 signers of the Declaration we are proud to have Edward Ned Hector of the Third Pennsylvania Artillery Company Free Black Colonial Soldier Patriot and Hero. And finally we will have some audience participation just as our colonial forefathers would have done. And our special guests read the grievances as they do so against King George. Watch out for our town crier assisted by our volunteers. They're holding the signs. You can get a preview right there. Holding the signs to tell us when we should express our displeasure with a hearty boo ladies and gentlemen the Declaration of Independence. In Congress July 4th 1776 the unanimous declaration of the 13 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 and 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 and that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and to institute new government laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form that to them shall seem most likely to affect 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 have soon that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to write themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed but when a long train of abuses and usurpations pursuing invariably the same object in visions that designed to reduce them under absolute despotism it is their right it is their duty to throw off 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 direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states to prove this let facts be submitted to a candid world used his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good he has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate impressing importance unless suspended in their operations 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 down 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 repeatedly dissolved representative houses 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 meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without and confusions within he has endeavored to prevent the population of these states for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners refusing to pass 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 this may judge his dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their offices and the amount of payment of their salaries he has erected a multitude of new offices and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance he has kept among us in times of peace standing armies without the consent of our legislatures effected to render the military independent of and superior to the civil power out of my way 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 offenses for abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province establishing therein 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 legislatures and declaring themselves invested with the power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated government here by declaring us with his protection and waging war against us he has plundered our seas ravaged our coasts our towns and destroyed the lives of our people He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death and tyranny already begun with circumstances of cruelty and 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 to hold themselves by their hands He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us and has endeavored 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. Mr. Adams 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 our attentions to our British 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 their circumstances of 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 our correspondence They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity We must therefore acquiesce the necessity which denounces our separation and 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 the 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 Yes Yes 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 the divine providence we humbly pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred arm honor We'll now read the names of the colonies and the signers of the declaration Like the colonists rather we will show our approval by shouting Huzzah So once again watch for the town crier to assisted by our volunteers holding the signs to show when you should shout So after Private Hector reads all the names from each state let's Huzzah our approval But first let's practice with a hearty Huzzah on the count of three One, two, for Private Hector to read all of the names from each state and then we're going to shout our approval with a Huzzah and now the names of the signers of the declaration of independence Which one of you out here would be one that signed your own people were willing to sign their own death warrant Attend now as I read their names The Honorable President of the Continental Congress Hopkinson and this document is the Secretary of the Continental Congress telling the sign this document Let us give them We have the program finale I want to tell you about some of the activities that we have inside the National Archives building today The building closes at 7 p.m. Don't miss your chance to see the Declaration of Independence the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Magna Carta We also will have a special hands-on July 4 family activities in the Boeing Learning Center until 4 p.m. We're going to stop by the National Archives store tent for exclusive Independence Day products that support educational outreach and events just like this at the National Archives I'd also like to thank the people who helped make this year's 4th of July celebration possible The National Archives Foundation and to long time sponsors of this great event John Hancock Financial and Dykema along with the Hearst Foundations for their major support for the historical theater and our founding fathers Thomas Jefferson John Adams and Benjamin Franklin and our representative to the Continental Army Private Ned Hector our guest General George Washington John Hancock Abigail Adams John Dunlap our town crier the United States Army Continental Color Guard and Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps retired Master Sergeant Caleb Green and the Experience Band and Show and of course we wouldn't have this celebration without the hard work of the staff and volunteers of the National Archives and I also want to thank you all of you for being with us today to commemorate the 243rd anniversary of our Declaration of Independence It's been my pleasure to be with you today The National Independence Day Parade starts at 1145 right after this ceremony but before the parade starts the Experience Band and Show will join us on stage for more live music I wish you all a wonderful 4th of July and I hope you'll stay after our finale and take part in our activities this afternoon and share your 4th of July experience on social media with the hashtag Archives July 4 and now please remain seated as we welcome retired Master Sergeant Caleb Green who will close our program with America The Beautiful followed by a special surprise Happy 4th of July