Let’s Pay Tribute to the Fourth of July

On Monday, the South Fork’s only Fourth of July parade will take place in Southampton Village. It is a tradition-filled, small-town affair, with marching groups, veterans and elected officials riding in open cars, and spectators dressed in red, white, and blue waving flags. As lovely as the Southampton parade may be, it raises, at least for us, the question why none is organized in East Hampton Town. One should be.

Amid all the summer hubbub here, many might fail to reflect that the Fourth of July is much more than a chance to see fireworks — or a reminder to get the grocery shopping done before the weekend hordes wipe out the bread aisle. But the date really marks the official starting point of the American experiment: when the Continental Congress ratified the Declaration of Independence. By signing, on July 4, 1776, the delegates gave force to an idea that had been stirring the colonies for years — a break from Great Britain.

That break was something that the celebrated East Hamptoner Samuel Mulford, known as Fish Hooks Mulford, might have welcomed. He sailed to England in 1704 to demand relief from a tax on whale oil. During the Revolutionary War, East Hampton supplied two militia companies to the Eastern Regiment, as did Bridgehampton. After the disastrous Battle of Long Island in August 1776, local men continued to harass the occupying force, capturing an English ship in Napeague Bay and a skiff filed with coffee and tea in Accabonac Harbor. Some 115 soldiers and supporters of the cause are known to be buried here.

East Hampton’s role in the War of Independence and in the creation of the United States is something that should be commemorated each year. A July Fourth parade seems the right way to do that and to remind us, if only for a few minutes, of the historical ties that make us one nation.