4th of July Stake

John Adams thought we'd be celebrating the second.

The Continental Congress voted for independence on July 2nd, 1776. Adams sat down that evening and wrote to Abigail that the second of July would be the great anniversary festival, kept from one end of the continent to the other with pomp and parade, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, forever more.

He was two days off. What Congress approved on the fourth was the wording — Jefferson's text, edited hard on the floor. That is the date that went on the top of the page, and the page is what we remembered. Most of the men did not even sign it until the second of August.

So the country celebrates the paperwork rather than the decision. There is something fitting in that.

The strangest part of the story came fifty years later. On July 4th, 1826 — the anniversary to the day — Adams and Jefferson both died, a few hours apart, one in Massachusetts and one in Virginia. They had been rivals, then correspondents, then old men writing letters back and forth about what they had done. Adams was reported to have said near the end that Jefferson still survived. He was wrong about that too, by about five hours.

We had this one cut in the shape of the country and hung it from a branch, lettered the old way.

Set it where the flag goes — the tree by the drive, the porch post, the front of the garage. Put it up the last week of June and leave it through the summer if you like.

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