The day John Adams predicted
The United States is a divided mess as Democrats have encouraged tribalism in their efforts to gain power, splitting us apart. Patriotism is at a low point. Fox reported most voters think America’s best days are a thing of the past.
Rubbish. When America turned four score and seven, Americans were slaughtering one another at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. America became great again by the time its centennial arrived.
The deterioration and abandonment of Manhattan in the late 1960s and early 1970s gave way to the tall ships arriving in New York Harbor to celebrate the bicentennial.
The nation was 130 when George M. Cohan wrote You’re A Grand Old Flag.
You're a grand old flag,
You're a high flying flag
And forever in peace may you wave.
You're the emblem of
The land I love.
The home of the free and the brave.
Ev'ry heart beats true
'neath the Red, White and Blue,
Where there's never a boast or brag.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
Keep your eye on the grand old flag.
The secret is that deep inside, Americans love their country because of the God-given rights it respects and the opportunities that respect provides.
Looking back and considering the odds that the American Revolution would deliver on the Declaration of Independence, people should ask, who could have predicted this? Who could have had the prescience and the foresight to say that in 247 years, the day of the declaration would bring Americans together, no matter how much they disagreed with and even hated one another?
John Adams.
America’s second president and the father of its sixth envisioned the celebrations we hold today. OK, he got the date wrong. He thought it would be July 2, the day Congress ratified the declaration and not two days later when the declaration was read to the people. I’ll tell you what, YOU make a prediction for 2270 and get the exact date right. That’s 247 years from now. I’ll get back to you when I am 316 years old.
Adams made the prediction in a letter to his wife, Abigail, in a letter on July 3, 1776, about the declaration his friend Thomas Jefferson wrote (as Ben Franklin said, if you want something done, get a Virginian to do it) and Congress finally adopted.
Adams wrote, “Had a Declaration of Independency been made seven Months ago, it would have been attended with many great and glorious Events . . . . We might before this Hour, have formed Alliances with foreign States.”
Seven months earlier, the rebels launched the Battle of Quebec on December 31, 1775. It was an embarrassing loss for the Americans as General Richard Montgomery underestimated British strength and his plan was disorganized. Communication with General Benedict Arnold, who led American forces north of Quebec, was poor and tipped the British off.
A British shot caught Arnold in the leg and he was forced to retreat. General Daniel Morgan assumed command, led the men into Quebec but they were lost in the streets and easily captured.
In his letter to his wife seven months later, Adams wrote, “the Delay of this Declaration to this Time, has many great Advantages attending it. The Hopes of Reconciliation, which were fondly entertained by Multitudes of honest and well meaning tho weak and mistaken People, have been gradually and at last totally extinguished.
“Time has been given for the whole People, maturely to consider the great Question of Independence and to ripen their judgments, dissipate their Fears, and allure their Hopes, by discussing it in News Papers and Pamphlets, by debating it, in Assemblies, Conventions, Committees of Safety and Inspection, in Town and County Meetings, as well as in private Conversations, so that the whole People in every Colony of the 13, have now adopted it, as their own Act.
“This will cement the Union, and avoid those Heats and perhaps Convulsions which might have been occasioned, by such a Declaration Six Months ago.
“But the Day is past. The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America.”
As I said, he got the date wrong but his observation about timing was accurate. The defeat at Quebec would have undercut enthusiasm for the revolution.
Americans conveniently forget that the revolution did not unite the country. Americans were divided into three camps: those who wanted independence, those loyal to the crown, and those who just wanted to be left alone to farm and run their shops.
Loyalty made sense because the rebels were up against the greatest military force in the world at that time. As the village idiot of Washington recently said, if you take on the government you are going to need F-16s and maybe some nukes.
And the smallpox epidemic had only just begun.
But Adams had faith in God and country. He knew Americans would prevail and enduring those hardships would keep us together.
Adams concluded, “I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty.
“It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.
“You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States.
“Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will triumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.”
His hope and his optimism were inspirational and well placed. And forgive his spelling. They did not have spellcheck back then. They only had men with great minds.
Cohan’s song ended:
I'm no cranky hanky panky
I'm a dead square, honest Yankee
And I'm mighty proud of that old flag that flies for Uncle Sam
Though I don't believe in raving
Ev'ry time I see it waving,
There's a chill runs up my back that makes me glad I'm what I am
Here's a land with a million soldiers
That's if we should need 'em
We'll fight for freedom!
Hurrah! Hurrah! For ev'ry Yankee Tar
And old G.A.R., ev'ry stripe, ev'ry star
Red, White and Blue, hats off to you!
Honest, you're a grand old flag!
She is grand, isn’t she?
Such great men like John Adams. Such great leaders. Now we are left with Village Idiots and Cackle Hens. Somewhere along the hard fought road the gene pool got very shallow.
Always a pleasure to read your column/post.
Happy Independence Day!
The nation, poisoned by bad ideas and worse government, is not dead. This is a good day to remember that the United States of America belongs to its citizens, not the arrogant, corrupt few running the Government, not the corporations or their media shills, not Wall Street, not the CCP or the WEF or the Mexican cartels.
I don’t know what it will take for the nation to recover the determination and moral clarity of its founders. I pray that we can do it. We must expunge powerful evil forces behind the apathy and social decay that insidiously works to turn us into high tech indentured wage slaves and to rob us, our children and future generations of their freedom. We need to toss all these bums out. And the sooner the better.
“That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”