"Pomp and parades" for 240 years

Monday was America’s big birthday bash.

But if Founding Father John Adams had won out, the fun in La Conner would’ve gotten under way on Saturday instead.

Adams, who would become the young nation’s second president, was a member of the committee led by Thomas Jefferson that drafted the Declaration of Independence, which was formally adopted July 4, 1776, in Philadelphia.

But, as Adams pointed out a day earlier in a famous letter to his wife, Abigail, July 2 was the day delegates to the Continental Congress approved Virginian Richard Henry Lee’s motion for independence from Great Britain.

It was July 2 that Adams envisioned becoming the day of America’s “great anniversary festival.”

Prize-winning author and historian David McCullough, who researched Adams extensively for two books, John Adams and 1776, offers as evidence the florid letter to Abigail, one that still resonates in a modern text message world.

“The second day of July 1776 will be the most memorable Epocha in the history of America,” wrote Adams. “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,” he added, “with pomp and parade, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other from this time forward forever more.”

Yet it was on July 4 – this past Monday – that Independence Day was again celebrated in such manner both here and around the country.

Why so?

McCullough offers that it’s because July 4 was the day the Declaration was officially adopted, though not signed, at Independence Hall.

Interestingly, the first Independence Day parade wasn’t held until four days later, on July 8, 1776, in Philadelphia. And, in that pre-cell phone era, George Washington and the Continental Army didn’t receive news of the Declaration until July 9.

King George III and Parliament didn’t learn America had declared independence for nearly another month.

McCullough says it’s doubtful there was a single signing ceremony inside Independence Hall as depicted by noted Revolutionary period artist John Trumbell.

“No such scene, with all the delegates present, ever occurred at Philadelphia,” he insists.

Historians are fairly certain most delegates signed the Declaration on Aug. 2, 1776, when a clean copy of the document was made available for signatures. John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress, signed first, smack dab in the middle – so that, according to legend, King George could read it without his spectacles.

Delegate Thomas McKean, of Delaware, likely didn’t sign until sometime in 1777.

Adams may not have prevailed on when Independence Day is celebrated, but he did on how the holiday is honored. In La Conner, and throughout America, there were fireworks, barbecues, games and parades on Monday.

Ironically, Adams would die July 4, 1826 – exactly 50 years to the day that the Declaration of Independence was adopted.

His final words were said to be: “Jefferson still survives.”

Little did Adams know that Jefferson, his longtime friend, Revolutionary colleague, and erstwhile political rival, had passed away five hours earlier, also on July 4.

For Adams it proved to be a date from which there was no escape.