Adams Family Papers

I had planned to get this up in time for Independence Day, but I just ran out of time. This is a great online resource. Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive contains a wealth of info. You can view facsimiles of the original letters of John and Abigail Adams, as well as word-for-word duplications.

Most interesting for this time of the year, is the letter dated July 3, 1776, written by John Adams to his wife Abigail.

For instance, the future second president wrote:

The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America.

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.

Well, he got the celebration part right. As he would lament at a later date, the day of July 2, 1776, would be forgotten entirely and its memory completely neglected. And it has. Not even historians - those who claim to know, study and understand historical events - know of, or talk about that date.

I must hand it to the Massachusetts Historical Society, they have done a great service to the current generation for making these archives available for all to read, studty, observe and learn from a great man and a great woman.

Swampfox