HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY

I trust everyone is enjoying this Independence Day today. Grills are either just starting up or a fine meal has already been had and cold watermelon is just being sliced with that tell-tale wet crack and crunch sound. We had a late lunch, so we'll be eating a bit later.

Every Independence Day - I don't refer to it as the 4th of July.. everyone has a 4th of July but only we have an Independence Day today - I take the time to read the Declaration of Independence. Here is a link to the text of the document in case you have a few minutes. I strongly urge you to read it. Very few things have been written in American English with such superb style, much less having such serious dire consequence. As beautiful as Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is, it's delivery and publication did not literally put a price on his head as it did for those individuals who signed the Declaration.

Which brings me to John Adams.



Today is the 177th anniversary of the death of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Both died fifty years to the day after July 4, 1776 and within hours of each other. Much has been made of this most amazing and peculiar of American coincidences, so I will not pile on.

I will also not go on forever about John Adams, but will outline a few of the reasons why I believe he's been given short shrift in the American consciousness.
- He was the most forceful voice for independence of the American states. While many other delegates from the other colonies were wary of robust language in the declaration demanding full independence, Adams fought hardest for full autonomy for the new country. If he wasn't there, Canada's southernmost City on the Pacific Coast might have been San Diego.
-He selected Thomas Jefferson and sponsored him as the author of the Declaration of Independence.
-His ideas and theories of federal government, particularly checks and balances, form the basis of the Constitution, which in turn is largely based on the Massachussetts Constitution which he authored personally.
-His presence in France leading up to the Treaty of Paris forced a strongly skeptical view of France to be permanently etched into our foreign policy.
-He was the first U.S. diplomat to The Netherlands, securing many loans to help finance George Washington's military.
-He was the first U.S. diplomat to Great Britain and his foresight allowed him to begin to mend our relationship with the then most powerful country on the planet before, during and after his presidency.
-All his life he was one of the lone, forceful voices against the dangers of slavery for the new republic. He was among one of the few who never owned slaves and in fact treated former slaves with the dignity they deserved.

I suppose that's enough. I strongly recommend John Adams by David McCullough for a wonderful view of his life and his often forgotten contributions to our independence. Washington and Jefferson's higher-profile fame have cast a shadow for far too long.