"Posterity Will Triumph In That Day's Transaction"
Today we Americans should pause and thank God that we had men like John Adams at the right place in the right time to make this Independence Day possible.
Excerpt below from a July 3, 1776 letter from John Adams to wife Abigail after the motion put forward in the 2nd Continential Congress by delegate Richard Henry Lee of Virginia passed on July 2, 1776. "That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved."
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Adams is referring to July 2 here, as that is the date the vote was taken. The Declaration of Independence was formally appoved and dated July 4, however, hence today's holiday.
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That last, most revealing line in Adams' letter tells us a little bit about who these great and brave men were who literally put their lives on the line to commit treason against the most powerful nation on Earth in the name of a higher principle beyond mere personal gain. A very unique revolution indeed. In fact, history really has no precedent. It was a revolt led by the wealthiest, most established men in the colonies—men already enjoying one of the highest standards of living at that time, and with the most to lose—to benefit all free men (so far) no matter their stations. And they signed their declaration at the same time the largest expeditionary force in British history up to that time, some 400 British ships of the line and 32,000 professional King’s regulars and German mercenaries had dropped anchor off New York City in the first move of a campaign to crush Washington’s outclassed ragtag army end this impudence once and for all.
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Adams is basically saying that although this may not work out so great for us now as rebels—and several signers did suffer privations, even prison, for their treason, while the colonies suffered through 8 years of what was proportionally one of our bloodiest wars—those Americans who come after us will benefit from what we did here this day, that "poserity will triump from that day's transaction."
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The understanding our Founding Fathers had was that they were part of a continuum. That they not only had a responsibility for themselves but had a sacred responsibility, a covenant really, to better the lives of future generations as well. One wonders what Adams' et. al. would think about a governing body that saddles its grandchildren with a crippling future debt load to pay for its own largess and benefits in the here and now, but that's another subject.
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Anyway, Adams, a man who deserves his own monument to rival Lincoln, Jefferson and Washington in DC, captured the mood of the men who, as Franklin said, had just signed a paper that could very well be their "passport to the gallows." Sometimes I don't think we deserve the country these men gave us let alone such selfless Founding Fathers. Sometimes...
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"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.
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"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 tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not."