[For this year’s
July
4th series, I’ll be AmericanStudying cultural representations of
the Revolution and its era. Leading up to a special post on Hamilton!]
On the myths,
and the realities, revealed about the Revolution and its leaders in the Adams
letters.
Writing to his wife Abigail on July 3rd, 1776 (she was back at home in Braintree managing the family
farm and raising their children), the day after the Continental Congress had drafted the Declaration of
Independence, John Adams argued that
“the Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epoch, 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.”
On one level,
the letter reveals just how much myth-making is inherent in any national celebration—we
celebrate independence on July 4th because the Declaration was
signed, dated, and sent out to the American public for the first time on that
day; but Adams’ emphasis makes clear that the date was and is an arbitrary one,
and of course that Revolutionary acts, like all historical moments, develop
over time. On another level, however, Adams’ letter reveals quite impressively
how aware the Congress was of the significance of what was happening: not only
in his quite thorough prediction of the celebrations that would come to
commemorate the event; but also in his recognition of all that would follow the
Declaration. “You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not,” he
wrote. “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.”
Reading the Adams’ correspondence offers even more Revolutionary realities than those. For one thing, it
deeply humanizes the second President (and by extension all the framers); I
defy anyone to read John’s heartfelt July 20th, 1776 letter of concern for both his ailing family and his own separation
from them and not feel differently about the man and moment. For another, the
letters provide a visceral and compelling argument for the Revolutionary era’s
hugely impressive community of American women—Abigail was not as publicly
minded as peers such as Judith Sargent Murray and Annis Boudinot Stockton, but she makes a thoroughly convincing case for what Murray called the
equality of the sexes: in her overt arguments for such equality, but just as much in her intelligence, her eloquence,
and her strength in supporting both the family and its business and her husband
and the nation’s. Many of my posts in this space have sought to complicate our
idealizing national myths, but the Adams letters remind us that some of our
realities have been just as ideal.
Next
Revolutionary representation tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Other Revolutionary representations you’d highlight?
