Engineering the Fourth of July
An old joke goes something like, “It sure was considerate of the founding fathers to sign the Declaration of Independence on a holiday.” And while that thought can still bring a smile, the fact is, it is not correct.
Yes, July 4th is Independence Day, a legal holiday in the United States and its territories. The holiday commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress in 1776. But while many otherwise patriotic citizens picture the signers gathered together in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 4th to make history, that is not what happened.
The official signing occurred on August 2, 1776, in Benjamin Franklin’s city, although no all of the leaders who helped draw up or voted for the declaration signed it then, or at all. Some notable patriots did not sign ever. And there were three signers after the August gathering. Further, as some historical sources point out, the July 4th document is “merely a fuller statement justifying the resolution of independence adopted by Congress on July 2, 1776.”
Oddly, neither declaration was signed by George Washington, the military leader of the rebellious Colonial forces in the War of Independence who also became the first president of the United States. However, the second and third presidents, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson respectively, were both active participants in creating the declaration, Jefferson doing the actual draft.
Although Adams and Jefferson held some fundamentally different political views, they corresponded frequently after their presidencies and both died on the same day – July 4, 1826, 50 years after the first Independence Day.
Sometime in the dark early hours of the day Jefferson died at Monticello, his home in Virginia. He asked, “Is it the Fourth?” Assured that it was, he murmured, “Ah,” and peacefully rested. He died at 12:50pm that afternoon.
Far away in Quincy, Massachusetts, John Adams died at 5:30pm. His last words are reported to have been “Thomas Jefferson still survives,” which, of course, was incorrect although no one at the time knew of the events in Virginia.
Here is a useful thought from Mr. Jefferson:
“I served with General Washington in the Legislature of Virginia, before the Revolution, and, during it, with Doctor Franklin in Congress. I never heard either of them speak 10 minutes at a time, not to any but the main point, which was to decide the question … They laid their shoulders to the great points, knowing that the little ones would follow of themselves.”
Also, interestingly, the final copy of the Declaration of Independence has two mistakes of omission in it. But instead of copying the entire document over, Thomas Jefferson, its author, inserted the missing letters with a caret. Thus American liberty was not held back waiting for “a perfect copy”.
