Greetings member and readers,
Yes, July the 4th is the day, so appropriately, that Thomas Jefferson died. In fact, that same day John Adams also died. They died in different places, both at home in Virginia and Massachusetts respectively, within hours of each another, some 50 years after the signing the Declaration of Independence.
If you do not know of the lives of these two men, their legacy will give you a new respect for our freedoms and a reality jolt!
They were both among the original founders, Rebels and Presidents of our Democratic Republic, before and after.
They were both 2 of 3 continental Envoys living in France to shore up efforts to encourage France to join the Continental Army to subdue and cast out the British. That joining did finally culminate the beginning of the end of British Rule on most of the North American continent at Yorktown.
Cornwallis found himself and his army trapped between Washington’s army and the sea as the French showed in a large naval force to prevent the British escape by water. There was a great sea battle off the shores of Yorktown and finally, the British were cast out.
Both gentlemen, Jefferson and Adams, were alternately, friend and antagonist in their life times, shared in the writing of the constitution and signed the Declaration of Independence, (a traitorous act at the time), one was a slave owner and the other, not. Both were elected President, after Washington.
Adams was a farmer near Boston and a lawyer, Jefferson was a Virginia planter, a very capable writer, and a high brow, self educated, aristocratic southerner. Jefferson was a grand landowner when land was THE measure of wealth, especially in Virginia.
Jefferson groomed Lewis and Clark for their journey to seek the source of the Mississippi River and a northwest passage by water or land to the northwest coast of our continent. He presided over the Louisiana Purchase and made that happen. The land purchase from France doubled the size of our country with the signing of one contract.
John Adams wrote contributions and/or all of many state constitutions, solicited successful loans from the Dutch to finance the war and was the first United States representative to meet with the King of England, King George the 3rd, after the continentals won the war. His meeting was to make reprisals, settle debt and law suits for the new USA, to re-establish a relationship and to encourage trade between the two countries. Tough meeting! But King George really had few choices, so both countries began to mend for a necessary and more palatable relationship.
John and Thomas semi-retired and semi-terminated their friendship for many years and later, with age and wisdom, renewed their friendship through letter writing. These letters are some of the most interesting available remnant evidence of their lives, their contributions to our country and illuminates the saga of forming a new country while taking down the most powerful country in the world at that time.
With many others, they had literally risked their necks, their families and their treasure to achieve the beginnings of the most powerful country in the world. The saying among these men at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, was that they would surely hang together by signing such a document or hang separately by not signing.
These two men were integral contributors to the successful victory over England and learned the trials of governing a free and independent nation — the hard way.
Read the book, John Adams and the book, Undaunted Courage. These two books will give you a clear understanding of these two men and their critical involvement in the formation of our country.
As July the 4th is considered the birth date of our country, please know that July 4th is the date that we lost two of our most capable actors in our country’s formation.
Rather than write about the superfluous forms of our celebration, I thought I would highlight these two men who had so many differences, yet still joined together to help formulate our country with decorum and a respect for each other.
John was conservative, frugal, owned no slaves and believed in sobriety, work, solvency, individualism, family, law and God.
Thomas was a liberal, not so frugal. lost his wife early, lived in a grand manner always chased by debt, owned slaves and thousand of acres of land who was considered among the best of horseman in Virginia. He was a very thoughtful man that found many ways to enhance our country with land purchases enabling expansion, establishing museums of history, art, astronomy and thus new calculations used for surveying land, and libraries. Adams, the farmer/lawyer died with a net worth of $300,000. Jefferson died owing $300,000.00 and his land and home were sold off to serve the debt and later preserved with private funds.
They, the opposite of one another, represent the epitome of our country today and yet, they lived their lives holding their individual differences firmly, while doing so with decorum, offering respect while preserving self respect, with few exceptions.
We could learn something from the contribution that they have made to our lives and how they did that, offering all others respect and civility, while building a written formula designed to offer all an opportunity as individuals.
The silliness that we are experiencing in our country today does nothing but undermine the many freedoms that these men have laid in our laps. It seems that our emotional maturity and our expectations of our government are very different, now and then.
They formulated at great risk an environment for all to benefit from individual freedoms over time and we are striving with all our might to become subjugated by a selfish government that will dictate to us THEIR idea of life as a COLLECTIVE. That means that we do the work and become the source of their collections.
Be Aware: It is incredible that after so many dangers, trials, differences, ocean voyages, deadly illnesses, risks and challenges living their lives as traitors for a time, that they both died in their beds at home on the same day and date. July the 4th, 1826. Jefferson was 83 and Adams was 90. Life expectancy at that time was around 60.
Some 200 years later, we again ask that God will bless their souls and our nation. May we never lose the freedoms granted us to know self government by these men and God, no matter the silliness seen in our pathetic land today.
I wonder how they would react to our “emotional flailing about” today and that going on presently, that divides rather than preserves?
I, for one, am unabashedly embarrassed for the disrespect shown to them, to ourselves and our constitution by our leaders.
Beware: We must contrive a reset in this nation where silly attempts to destroy what these men built are seen to be as they are. They are really one cooperative attempt of many to kill this nation by a thousand cuts.
We knowingly elect leaders that can not see the trees for the forest. Some can not even walk up or down steps. They laugh their way to a $200 luncheon to discuss pizza oven pollution in New York and our president discusses building a bridge across the pacific ocean on national TV/ and our children are forced to consider cultural morose and sexual manipulation rather than learning how to read, do mathematics or revel in our U.S. History.
As discerned in recent years, our government and much of our population is foaming at the mouth about climate change and are destroying our country trying to reduce carbon but they were all, nationwide, huddle together in thousands of parks watching gigantic fireworks displays in days past. I wonder how many metric tons of carbon was rocketed into the atmosphere this day igniting billions of dollars worth of government sponsored fireworks purchased from China into the sky to appease the unrest felt by the sheeple for just one more day. The selfish inconsistencies and priorities are glaring.
I am not only embarrassed, I am frightened by the inconsistencies in government policies and the contradictions of the same, experienced in this country daily.
Our adversaries must surely be quaking in their boots when VP Winkin, Secretary Blinkin and President Nod show up for a world summit.
On a more serious note, I wonder even more, as to how they feel knowing that President Nod has his finger very near the big red nuclear button. Maybe, our adversaries really are quaking in their boots in that regard.
TPP
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