Tomorrow is Independence Day, a time to remember the Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776, but other significant events happened on July 4th in American history that are worth noting as well. On the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, two of the most significant figures in having brought it to fruition both died, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.
Those two Founding Fathers had been political foes for most of their lives, but in retirement they renewed their long-lost friendship and engaged in lively literary correspondence up until their deaths. John Adams’ last words were reported to have been “And Jefferson survives,” not aware that Jefferson had died hours earlier, given the sparse level of communication that existed in the early 19th century.
Five years later, on July 4, 1831, the last of the Founding Fathers, James Monroe, died in New York. Initially, he was buried in the Gouverneur family crypt in the New York City Marble Cemetery, which had opened in the year of his death. In 1858, in commemoration of the centenary of his birth, his remains were moved to Richmond to be interred in the President’s Circle of Hollywood Cemetery, over which was erected the greatest Gothic Revival funereal monument in the United States.
Calvin Coolidge was the only president to date to have been born on July 4th. His 1872 birthplace is in the village of Plymouth Notch, Vermont, where his father served as justice of the peace. In 1923, when President Warren G. Harding died in San Francisco, Vice President Calvin Coolidge was vacationing at home in Plymouth Notch. His father administered the oath of office as president to his son in a room illuminated by oil lamps. Coolidge is the only president to have been sworn into office by his father.
When the two B.E.s were small we stopped to see Plymouth Notch on a trip through New England. The village is preserved to look as it did during Coolidge’s lifetime, including the operating cheese factory that his father had established in 1890.
A docent at the birthplace told us that the president’s son, John, then 91, might be driving an old yellow station wagon around town, and that we should be careful to stay out of his way. Her words proved to be sage advice, for moments later we encountered John Coolidge on the street, as he was returning home having gotten his mail at the post office. He was welcoming and enjoyed chatting with us for a few moments, then careened off in his station wagon. Plymouth Notch is a time capsule of American history, one that centers on July 4, 1872, and August 2, 1923, when Coolidge took the oath of office.
Many other important events have taken place on July 4th, in that the admission of new states into the union, always takes effect on the July 4th following passage by Congress of their admission, the last two having been Alaska in 1959 and Hawaii in 1960. In addition, often federal courts schedule naturalization ceremonies for July 4th, at times even at historic sites rather than in federal courthouses, to emphasize to the new citizens their continuity with the fabric of American history.
In 1876, on the occasion of the American Centennial, as the nation was celebrating in Philadelphia, Washington, and elsewhere across the country, word reached Washington that General George Armstrong Custer and his troops had been killed in the Battle of the Little Big Horn in Montana. Contemporary accounts described the pallor that the news cast on the festivities.
Fifty years ago, for the bicentennial the country undertook an extensive celebration that lasted until the anniversary of the end of the War for Independence with Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown in 1781. May the forthcoming commemorations bring America hope and prosperity. Happy 249th America! “Ad multos annos!”
