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07-04-2017, 10:45 AM
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Friends; enemies; friends again!
After dealing most of the night with loud parties and drunk drivers and yahoos shooting fireworks at livestock and each other, I was at the office doing paperwork this July 4th morning and engaged in a conversation with several of my younger co-workers about the meaning of the 4th of July celebration. I asked them if they were aware that two of America's greatest Revolutionary patriots both died on the same day, July 4th 1826. They had never heard this so I shared the story with them;
On this day, July 4th in 1826, former Presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, who were once fellow Patriots and then adversaries, die on the same day within five hours of each other. They were the last surviving members of the original American revolutionaries who had stood up to the British empire and forged a new political system in the former colonies. However, while they both believed in democracy and life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, their opinions on how to achieve these ideals diverged over time.
Their differing ideals turned into bitter disagreements of political philosophy. The hot-tempered Adams was a firm believer in a strong centralized government, while the gentile Jefferson believed federal government should take a more hands-off approach and defer to individual states’ rights. Eventually, both parties engaged in slanderous attacks on each other in print and the close friends became bitter political rivals and estranged from one another.
After more than a dozen years of not speaking or corresponding with one another, Jefferson and Adams each expressed to third parties their respect for the other and their desire to renew their friendship. With Adams breaking the ice first, the former revolutionaries went on to resume their friendship over 14 years of correspondence during their golden years.
On July 4, 1826, at the age of 90, Adams lay on his deathbed while the country celebrated Independence Day. His last words were "Thomas Jefferson still survives". He was mistaken: Jefferson had died five hours earlier at Monticello at the age of 82.
Not a one of my co-workers, college graduates all, had ever heard this. What a shame. I pulled out a $2 dollar bill I always keep on my wallet and showed them the scene of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on one side . . . most of them had never seen a $2 bill either. I thought to myself at that point, it's unfortunate that the scene on the $2 dollar bill is not on the more often used $1 dollar bill so that young people would get a least a little exposure to American history.
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Last edited by Faulkner; 07-04-2017 at 02:34 PM.
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07-04-2017, 11:37 AM
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It is a wonderful thing, this nation we live in!
Ivan
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07-04-2017, 11:48 AM
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Our society
Faulkner:
Your outlook on our society's method, of celebrating our once great country's independence, and their knowledge of what they had been celebrating, just about sums up my opinion of our society today, both young, and old. God Help Them! "We" desperately need it. The younger ones have never had any responsibilities, or their actions questioned. We, the older ones, caused this Horrible situation, trying to spare our children from doing the every day things, that we had to do as children. The old saying, "you reap What You sow", is all too true, and the harvest that we are all going to reap, scares the "Be jaybirds" out of me!
Chubbo
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07-04-2017, 12:03 PM
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God bless all here and those who have worked, suffered and died on behalf of this nation.
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07-04-2017, 12:03 PM
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Thanks for the story, Faulkner. I had never heard that either.
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07-04-2017, 12:05 PM
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Those who are handed the keys to the kingdom never respect it or appreciate it as much as those who built the kingdom.
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07-04-2017, 12:16 PM
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I was not familiar with Adams' dieing remark about Jefferson but the rest of the story is. I'll share your post with my two (college educated) young 'uns. Thanks for your reminder.
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07-04-2017, 02:00 PM
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For today's generation to see that scene they'd have to it on a debit card. They don't carry cash.
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07-04-2017, 03:46 PM
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Great Post!
I am in my mid-70s now and have time to indulge my interest in history. Your summary of Adams and Jefferson is good. I find the more I learn of the founders I realize they also were flawed, but gifted, human beings who helped create the only country on the globe born of a revolution which then wrote a Constitution that has survived(with amendments) since it was written. Most countries have gone through various eruptions of violence and constitutional rewrites and scrapping.
I worry that our young are not being taught any of this.
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07-04-2017, 04:18 PM
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Absent Comrade
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I wonder if those last surviving signers were confident of independence and peace with Britain before they died. Seemed that the Treaty of Paris was barely a time-out, and the British had torched Washington during the War of 1812. Even the Treaty of Ghent which ended that war, didn't include abolishing the impressment of American seamen.
An 1815 letter from Jefferson to the US Ambassador negotiating in Ghent expressed concern that the signed peace was "but an armistice" that "may become" peace.
"P.S. Feb. 26. On the day of the date of this letter the news of peace reached Washington, and this place two days after. I am glad of it, altho’ no provision being made against the impressment of our seamen, it is in fact but an Armistice, to be terminated by the first act of impressment committed on an American citizen." ..... "If England is now wise or just enough to settle peaceably the question of impressment, the late treaty may become one of peace, and of long peace."
Last edited by bigwheelzip; 07-04-2017 at 04:19 PM.
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07-04-2017, 04:26 PM
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I have to cast stones on the 4th but we can lay this ignorance of history and civics directly on the socialist NEA. This is the most oppressive left wing /communist "teachers" union in our Country who goal is to dumb down public school students on our history and replace it with their version of Political Correctness. They have had remarkable success as evidenced by the dumb snowflakes who infest our universities primarily in the social studies humanities area. This travesty is one of the primary reasons for the expansion of private schools. If we do nothing and allow this to continue in a couple of generation the last vestiges of the U S A as a free country will be gone.
Jim
Last edited by italiansport; 07-04-2017 at 04:27 PM.
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07-04-2017, 04:26 PM
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Faulkner, I saw that documentary on the History Channel a while back.
I knew I should've recorded it.
You summarized it well.
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07-04-2017, 04:34 PM
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I had not been aware of that either. Thank you for posting it. And I agree that it should be viewable on a lot more than the obscure two dollar bill.
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07-04-2017, 04:57 PM
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I love the $2 bill and use it with great effect. It always brings a comment whenever I use it. More often than not it brings a smile.
The tellers at my bank like it when I come in because they don't have a spot in their drawer for them. I usually take them all and that makes it easier for the teller to close out the drawer.
Most of the cashiers I give them to like them because they're so uncommon. They usually buy them for themselves to keep or use as gifts.
They make great stocking stuffers.
They're good for tips.
Now I have a good story to go with them as I hand them out. Thanks for that Faulkner.
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