The Revolutionary generation has never been surpassed in relevance and never will be.
What a country they have forged with pen, blood and sacrifice. Those 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence along with the untold number of patriots are indeed marked “special.”
Of all our famous founding parents, no two political leaders were more significant than Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. They were common-cause friends who became enemies, then friends again, thanks to their mutual friend and fellow Declaration of Independence signer Benjamin Rush. It was Rush who united the two after almost 11 years of intermittent incommunicado.
In that epic age of letter writing, Rush wrote to Adams reminding him that once while meeting with two of Jefferson’s neighbors, Adams told them, “I always loved Jefferson and I still love him.”
The brothers relayed Adams’ words to Jefferson who wrote to Rush, “I only needed this knowledge to revive towards him all the affections of the most cordial moments of our lives.”
Arbiter Rush threw the ball back to Adams. That incommunicado wall came crumbling down on New Year’s Day in 1812, when Adams affectionately wrote directly to Jefferson.
Their letters soon grew to 60, and then to hundreds spanning 14 years until their demise, coincidently, on the same day, July 4, 1826. Image if they had had e-mail or Twitter. Fortunately, we have those treasured letters, including the nearly 1,100 between Adams and his indomitable wife, Abigail.
Pulitzer Prize writer David McCullough, who wrote the best-seller “John Adams,” was quoted in a Brigham Young magazine, “I like John Adams because he meant what he said. I like him because he had terrific courage – moral and physical. I like him because he was the only Founding Father – the only Founding Father – who never owned a slave as a matter of principle.”
Adams once mused that. “How many gauntlets am I destined to run? How many Martyrdoms must I suffer?” Mr. President, despite not being on any of our currency and not having a national memorial, your incalculable contribution and sacrifice are forever recorded in history. In a “best presidents” poll, 846 historians rated you number nine. I rank you third behind Lincoln and Washington and directly behind you, our own Harry S. Truman. As a founding father, you are number one.
Proudly, on our 233rd birthday I echo Adams’ toast to all of us: Independence forever.
