In life and death, the lives of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson are linked to American independence and our Declaration of Independence. As many Americans know, both patriots died on the first great anniversary of independence, July 4, 1826.
It is difficult to discern the difference between the concerns of 1776 and the celebrations of 1826. In July 1776, the British King sent the largest military force ever to America to subdue the colonists. On July 2, 1776, the day Congress voted that “these Colonies should be free and independent States,” troops began landing in New York. There was no guarantee that the Americans would succeed. And yet he believed they would do it. As John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, on July 3, “I am well aware of the labor and blood and treasure, that maintaining this proclamation, and supporting and defending these States, will cost us. – Yet through all the gloom I can see rays of light and glory.” And, he said, should we succeed, Independence Day should become an annual festival that “should be celebrated as the day of liberation by solemn acts of devotion to Almighty God. It should be celebrated with pomp and parades, shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and lights from one end of this continent to the other from this time forever onwards.”
If we lost Jefferson, Adams and others who became our Founding Fathers would be hanged. Since it was illegal in British law for any British subject to renounce his allegiance to the king, the first and only evidence the British would need at trial was a copy of the declaration with his signature. It was John Hancock’s bravery in signing the proclamation in such large letters that the king could read it without his glasses. In short, signing the Declaration was no laughing matter, and pledging their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor was more than mere rhetoric. Even John Dickinson, the Proclamation’s leading opponent in July 1776, was in the same boat. And where did you go after the vote? New York, where he would lead troops in our fight against the British.
“Writing the Declaration of Independence, 1776” depicts Benjamin Franklin, left, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson meeting in Philadelphia to study a draft of the document. Painting by JLG Ferris. (Getty Images)
But the people of 1776 were not disappointed. There were some close calls for Adams and Jefferson. Adams almost died an icy death when his ship crashed on a dangerous crossing of the Atlantic while being pursued by the British in late 1779, when he was sent to serve as our chief diplomat, or when it was time to negotiate a treaty with Britain to gain independence. And the British had nearly captured Jefferson at Monticello in 1781, when he had just completed his term as governor of Virginia, when they invaded the state late in the war. And it was alarming to others in 1776, in and out of Congress. Perhaps with the help of providence, we won the war. Jefferson later described it as “the bold and doubtful choice to be made for our country between surrender or the sword.”
How different was the golden anniversary of independence in 1826. The nation was secure and prosperous. We had a government which secured the rights of men better than any government known in previous history. And we had defeated, or at least, fought the British, the greatest power on earth, in the War of 1812. Of course, there were problems, especially the problem of slavery. By then the North had abolished slavery, and slavery was excluded from the Northwest, but it persisted in the South. And the Cotton Revolution that began in the early 1790s gave new life to the institution and helped it spread throughout the South. But in general, Americans had a lot to be proud of as we celebrated our golden anniversary.
Left: Portrait of John Adams, circa 1793, by John Trumball. Right: Portrait of Thomas Jefferson, circa 1791 by Charles Wilson Peale. (Getty Images)
In the 1780s, John Adams reflected on the potential opportunity afforded Americans by the specific circumstances of their Revolution: “The people in America now have the best opportunity, and the greatest trust in their hands, which Providence had committed to so small a number since the first pair of infractions.” In his last public letter, celebrating 50th On the anniversary of Independence, Jefferson was confident that Americans were on their way: “The eyes of all have been opened, or are being opened, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already opened to every view the plain truth that the mass of mankind are not born with saddles on their backs, nor, by the grace of God, prepared to ride upon them by a few favorites booted and driven.” Both patriots were as responsible as anyone else for the success of the Republic.
Both Jefferson and Adams were invited to attend the celebration on July 4, 1826. Both of them had to refuse citing age and poor health. Americans did not know the full story that was about to unfold. The two men united in life in American independence were to be united in death. While Americans were celebrating, Adams and Jefferson were about to breathe their last.
July 12, 1826: A special edition of the Metropolitan newspaper is printed to mark the recent deaths of former US Presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. Both men died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. (Photo by MPI/Getty Images)
By then, they had become dear friends again. They were isolated amid the partisan rancor of the 1790s. By the early 1800s, the friends and partners of 1776 were no longer on speaking terms. But this will not work.
Their mutual friend and fellow 1776 man, Benjamin Rush, worked to reconcile them. On October 17, 1809, perhaps not coincidentally, the anniversary of the great American victory at the Battle of Saratoga, a turning point in the war for independence, Rush wrote to Adams about a dream he had. He dreamed that he saw a history book recording the events of 1809: “One of the most extraordinary events of this year was the renewal of friendship and relations between Mr. John Adams and Mr. Jefferson, two former Presidents of the United States. Their principles of liberty, their ardent attachment to their country, had strengthened their friendship in Philadelphia in 1776. And, he said again with remarkable prudence: “These gentlemen were at about the same time completely Had drowned in the grave. Over the years and enriched by the gratitude and appreciation of his country.”
In death as in life, he was bound to American freedom. As Daniel Webster said in his famous eulogy of the two patriots:
None of these great men, fellow-citizens, could die, at any time, without leaving a vast void in our American society. . . .But the incident of his death on the anniversary of independence has naturally aroused strong emotions. Both had been Presidents, both lived to great years, both were early patriots, and both were distinguished and honored by their immediate agency in the work of liberty. It seems wonderful and extraordinary, that both of them should live to see the fiftieth year from the date of that deed / That they should complete that year / And then, on the day when speedily their own fame was bound together forever with the glory of their country, the heavens should open to receive them both together. Since his life itself was a gift of God, who is not willing to consider his happy end, as well as his long continuance, as proof that our country and its benefactors are the objects of his care?
As we approach this 250th The anniversary of independence, it is appropriate that we celebrate it, as Adams said, with fireworks, games, bonfires, etc. We should not neglect acts of gratitude to God and the people of 1776. In short, we could do worse than spend some time remembering Adams, Jefferson, and the others of 1776, as we express our gratitude to God for their lives, their life’s work, and the country in which we, under God’s provision, are blessed to live. In.
Richard Samuelson is Associate Professor of Government at the Washington, DC, campus of Hillsdale College.
