Independence Day, 1826

 

by Pa Rock 

American

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the second and third Presidents of the United States respectively, each died on this date, the Fourth of July, in 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  The two men, both signers of that historic document which Jefferson had written, had not always been the closest of friends.   Politically Adams was a "Federalist" who saw the power of the nation as resting with a strong central government, while Jefferson, a Republican, believed that the true power of the nation rested with the sovereignty of the individual states.  During their retirement years, however, the two once again became close as they exchanged a series of long and thoughtful letters.  

As they entered their declining days, both Adams and Jefferson no doubt summoned all of their inner-strengths to survive until the Fourth of July.  John Adams was ninety-years-old when he prepared to meet death that evening at his home in Quincy, Massachusetts.  His final words were reportedly, "Thomas Jefferson survives."    Adams, however, was wrong.   Eighty-three-year-old Thomas Jefferson had passed away at his home, Monticello, in Virgina five hours earlier.

The young nation, which at that time was being led by President John Quincy Adams, the son of John and Abigail Adams, mourned the loss of two of its founding fathers - men who not only died on the same day, but also passed on a day that was forever woven into the fabric that unfurled as the United States of America.

Freedom is a noble concept, but some of us have traditionally had a lot more of it than others of us have had.   May we be at the beginning of a new era, one in which poverty and racism and human cruelty begin to wane and the Golden Rule becomes the spirit of the land.  Freedom is a process that requires hard work and perseverance - so let's roll up our collective sleeves and get to it!

Let's take what we were given by patriots like John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, and make it better!

Happy Independence Day, 2021!