Independence Day

Thomas Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, the 50^th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  A few hours later, on the same day, John Adams died.

Gone, two of our founding fathers and our 2^nd and 3^rd presidents.

Adams and Jefferson entertained one of the most unlikely friendships of all time.  During and after the forming of this great nation, these two men clashed politically, but came together as friends.

Thomas Jefferson, the primary author of the Declaration of Independence, advocated a weak central government and strong rights to the individual states.   John Adams put his faith in a strong centralized government.

Jefferson served as vice president under Adams.  He left that post embittered, seeing some of Adam’s governing as gross overreach.  Later, in a bitter political campaign, Thomas Jefferson won the presidency from Adams to become our 3^rd president.

Theirs was an epic clash of ideas and political will.

Though these two men could have parted ways bitter until the end, they eventually came together as friends in later life.   On the subject of friends, Jefferson once said that he “never considered a difference in politics, in religion, or in philosophy, as a cause from withdrawing from a friend.”

--Mitchell Hegman