Valor Friday

Copy of the Declaration of Independence.

This week’s article will be a little different. I’ll be linking to a great video from The History Guy on YouTube. If you aren’t already a viewer, he’s worth checking out. He’s not exclusively about military, or even American, history, but he always does a great job of making short clips on historical events.

In honor of Independence Day this week, his video explores the connected lives and deaths of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. The two Founding Fathers were friends, co-workers, and at times foes. Jefferson wrote the bulk of the Declaration of Independence, ratified by the Second Continental Congress on 4 July 1776. That date would be considered the birth date of these United States.

The careers of Adams and Jefferson, post-war, would be intertwined. Adams would be the first Vice President of the United States and the second President. Jefferson would be the first Secretary of State (under Washington), the second Vice President (serving under Adams), and the third President.

Both men left an enduring legacy on the Republic. Jefferson’s Declaration includes some of the best-known sentences in the English language. The Preamble’s leading line of “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” is timeless. The final line is equally memorable and poignant. “[W]e mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

As the lives and careers of the two men would be intertwined for decades, it is most interesting that they both died on the same day. They actually died within hours of each other. Most amazingly, they both died on 4 July 1826. Fifty years to the day that the Declaration the men wrote was ratified (they also both signed it in August of 1776). They lived long enough to see the half-centenary of the great country they helped found and then led.

It’s always been amazing to me that these men lived long enough to see their part in the great experiment that is the American Republic pay off. They died knowing their legacy was secure. Their sacrifices weren’t in vain as their country was flourishing. Jefferson’s children included a First Lady of Virginia, while Adams’s children included the sixth President of the United States, John Quincy Adams. The younger Adams had assumed office the year prior to his father’s death.

Category: America, Historical, We Remember