PETERBOROUGH — Wherever King George was this July 4th, his ears must have been burning.

At the Peterborough Historical Society on Wednesday morning, a gathering observing Independence Day escaped the hot summer sun and entered the air-conditioned Bass Hall for a historical Fourth of July program.

John Franklin, a Navy veteran, began the program by reading excerpts from the Declaration of Independence, focusing on the grievances that justified the document.

Many of those deeds seem as dastardly today as in 1776, Franklin said.

From refusing to approve laws necessary for the public good, to taxation without representation, to plundering our seas, ravaging our coasts, burning our towns and destroying the lives of our people, King George's offenses have not been forgotten in Peterborough. Nor were they forgotten in Hancock on Tuesday or Jaffrey on Wednesday.

In Peterborough, Franklin concluded by asking the crowd to remember our country's military veterans.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men — and women, I might add — were created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That statement sums up very succinctly the attitudes of the separatists then and the vast majority of Americans now. Let us on this day celebrate our nation's independence and not forget that many men and women have lost and died to defend those unalienable rights.”

Franklin was followed by keynote speaker Robert Koch of Peterborough, who is known for portraying Uncle Sam during the town's Memorial Day parades.

Koch presented a retrospective of Col. Charles Scott, a Civil War veteran from Peterborough whose wife, Mary Sophia, was killed when the steamer West Point sank in the Potomac River in 1862. She had made the journey south to care for her husband, who had fallen ill during the war. She is listed as a casualty of the war on the town's Civil War monument.

Scott was a prominent Peterborough resident. After the Civil War, he served as town moderator, justice of the municipal court, high sheriff of Hillsborough County, state representative and state senator. He was also instrumental in the establishment of Miller State Park, which is named after Gen. Miller, a local Revolutionary War hero Scott admired.

The Monadnock Squadron Sea Cadet color guard started the town's Fourth of July observance with the raising of the flag at the Peterborough Historical Society.

Sea Cadet Steven Harling of Temple then sang the national anthem.

The Greater Peterborough Chamber of Commerce annual Independence Day Fireworks Celebration is planned for Saturday from 6 to 10 p.m. at ConVal High School on Route 202.

mpierce@newstote.com