More than just the birth of the United States with the Declaration of Independence, July 4 can also be remembered as an ending. On July 4, 1826, two of the Founding Fathers died, 578 miles and 5 hours apart. Fifty years after the Continental Congress voted to adopt the Declaration of Independence, two of the five members of the Committee of Five remained, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. 

The Continental Congress appointed the Committee of Five to write up the sentiments of the colonists who were seeking independence from England and its king. Also on the committee were Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman. The men chose Jefferson to write up a draft, and they would provide feedback. The Library of Congress houses a copy of the original document with some of the changes suggested by Adams and Franklin. On July 1, 1776, the Congress met to discuss the Declaration. It was not until some alterations had been discussed and made that the Congress finally voted on July 4, 1776, to officially endorse the document.

Jefferson and Adams had been friendly, though they often disagreed on political matters. Things took a turn for the worse in their relationship in 1800 when the men campaigned against each other for the presidency for a second time. Previously, when Adams served as the United States’ second president, Jefferson won the position of vice president. This was before platforms ran together; the second place winner would simply be VP. Imagine all of the conflict between two leaders of two different political parties running the country! Jefferson undermined Adams throughout those four years, and the second election, filled with slanderous personal attacks by both sides, finally split the men apart after Jefferson’s victory. 

The men might have never spoken again if life circumstances –and others around them– had not intervened. In 1804 Jefferson’s daughter Polly died and Abigail Adams, John’s wife, sympathized with her old friend. She and Jefferson also had a relationship fractured by the ruthless campaign and its subsequent loss to Adams. Abigail wrote a letter expressing her sympathies and expected nothing further, signing it, “of her who once took pleasure in subscribing herself your friend.” Jefferson, for his part, could not simply accept the condolences with his return letter. He made jabs at Adams regarding things he had done in office before Jefferson’s inauguration. Abigail and Jefferson would trade a few more letters back and forth before, in 1811, their mutual friend Benjamin Rush encouraged a reconciliation between Adams and Jefferson. At the beginning of the next year, Adams wrote to Jefferson for the first time in over a decade. This olive branch served to spark a renewed correspondence and friendship for the two men which would last the rest of their lives.

Jefferson, age 83, passed away just after noon on July 4, 1826, in his home Monticello, in Virginia. Adams, also on his deathbed at age 90, reportedly told those around him, “Thomas Jefferson still survives,” when he died later the same day at his home at Peace field in Quincy, Massachusetts.

Above, Peace field, the Adams’ home for four generations

Last month I had the pleasure of visiting Quincy (read more here). I walked in the small house where my favorite Founding Father was born, stood in the nearby home where he contributed much to the early days of our country, and viewed the room where he spent his last hours. I visited the crypt under the church where he is entombed along with his wife, son, and daughter-in-law. Seeing the real places where things I’d only read about taking place made them come alive in a new way. Another special part of that visit was a John Adams reenactor who spoke to us from the time before the Declaration of Independence had even been conceived.  I am grateful for those who choose to preserve historical places and help them to come alive for visitors like me.

Thanks to Monticello.org, archives.gov, history.com, Library of Congress blog, and battlefields.org for refreshing my mind with the specifics for this post.