Adams and Jefferson
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
One hundred and eighty six years ago both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams passed away on this day, exactly fifty years after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. It’s hard to ignore the coincidence of this timing. A couple summers back I bought an old book containing a eulogy given by Daniel Webster in August of 1826—I think this sums it up nicely: No two men now live, fellow-citizens, perhaps it may be doubted whether any two men have ever lived in one age, who, more than those we now commemorate, have impressed on mankind their own sentiments in regard to politics and government, infused their own opinions more deeply into the opinions of others, or given a more lasting direction to the current of human thought.