A daughter, now a mom, visits Gettsyburg, an essay all who’ve been to the town and battlefield will enjoy.
At 7, Danny knows the basics of the Civil War. He is mightily impressed with Abraham Lincoln, and anyplace with cannons and something called Devil’s Den has a lot going for it from a kid’s standpoint.
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on this date in 1826, 50 years to the day after the Declaration of Independence was adopted. Jefferson was the primary author of the Declaration; Adams, with Benjamin Franklin, was also key in its development.
Adams and Jefferson were colleagues during the Revolution, but fell apart over political differences during their terms as president (Adams 1797-1801, Jefferson 1801-1809). After Jefferson left office they resumed a remarkable correspondence that lasted until their deaths.
Also, on that same day in 1826, Stephen Foster, the first great American songwriter, was born. “His melodies are so much a part of American history and culture that most people think they’re folk tunes. All in all he composed some 200 songs, including ‘Oh! Susanna’ ‘Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair,’ and ‘Camptown Races.’” [American Experience]
And “Old Folks at Home (Swanee River),” “My Old Kentucky Home” and “Beautiful Dreamer.”
Image of first page of Jefferson’s draft of the Declaration of Independence with edits.
It was Franklin who changed Jefferson’s original “We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable” to “We hold these truths to be self-evident.” You can see Franklin’s cross-outs on the draft.
Jefferson thought the much more extensive changes made to his draft by the Continental Congress on July 3rd and 4th were “mutilations.”
Although the section of the Lee Resolution dealing with independence was not adopted until July 2, Congress appointed on June 10 a committee of five to draft a statement of independence for the colonies. The committee included Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman, with the actual writing delegated to Jefferson.
Jefferson drafted the statement between June 11 and 28, submitted drafts to Adams and Franklin who made some changes, and then presented the draft to the Congress following the July 2nd adoption of the independence section of the Lee Resolution. The congressional revision process took all of July 3rd and most of July 4th. Finally, in the afternoon of July 4th, the Declaration was adopted.
Under the supervision of the Jefferson committee, the approved Declaration was printed on July 5th and a copy was attached to the “rough journal of the Continental Congress for July 4th.” These printed copies, bearing only the names of John Hancock, President, and Charles Thomson, secretary, were distributed to state assemblies, conventions, committees of safety, and commanding officers of the Continental troops.
On July 19th, Congress ordered that the Declaration be engrossed on parchment with a new title, “the unanimous declaration of the thirteen united states of America,” and “that the same, when engrossed, be signed by every member of Congress.” Engrossing is the process of copying an official document in a large hand. The engrosser of the Declaration was probably Timothy Matlock, an assistant to Charles Thomson, secretary to the Congress.
On August 2nd John Hancock, the President of the Congress, signed the engrossed copy with a bold signature. The other delegates, following custom, signed beginning at the right with the signatures arranged by states from northernmost New Hampshire to southernmost Georgia. Although all delegates were not present on August 2nd, 56 delegates eventually signed the document. Late signers were Elbridge Gerry, Oliver Wolcott, Lewis Morris, Thomas McKean, and Matthew Thornton, who was unable to place his signature with the other New Hampshire delegates due to a lack of space. Some delegates, including Robert R. Livingston of New York, a member of the drafting committee, never signed the Declaration.
If you saw the film National Treasure then you are, of course, curious about the treasure map on the back of the Declaration of Independence. Here, from the National Archives, is an image of the back of Our National Treasure.
National Treasure is not a bad film for its genre. The most unbelievable thing was Harvey Keitel as an FBI agent. Well, that and an archvist who looks like Diane Kruger.
According to the National Archives, “A reproduction of the Declaration of Independence was used in filming the movie.”
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