Every Fourth of July, Americans fire up the grill, watch the fireworks, and celebrate the birth of this country. We have been doing it for 250 years. But one of the men who helped create the nation flat-out refused to join in.
His name was John Adams, diplomat, patriot, and eventually the second President of the United States. And he believed, with complete conviction, that America was celebrating on the wrong day.
What Happened Two Days Before the Fourth
On July 2, 1776, fifty-six delegates crowded into the Assembly Room of the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia, the building we now call Independence Hall. They voted that day on a resolution for independence from Britain.
Two days later, on July 4, Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence was officially adopted by the Continental Congress. That is the date that stuck.
Adams never accepted it. In his mind, the vote on July 2 was the real moment. That was when the colonies chose freedom. The paperwork came after.
The Letter He Wrote to Abigail
He was so stirred up about July 2 that he wrote to his wife, Abigail, on July 3, 1776, the very next day. He spelled out exactly what he thought history would remember:
“The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America.”
He even predicted how it would be marked by future generations: with devotion, pomp, parades, games, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of the continent to the other, “from this Time forward forever more.”
He got the spirit exactly right. He just had the date wrong by 48 hours.
He Held His Ground for the Rest of His Life
Even as his fellow Founding Fathers celebrated July 4, Adams stood his ground. Historian Kenneth C. Davis told CBS News on America’s 240th birthday that Adams never observed the Fourth. Not once.
It is a funny wrinkle in the story of a day we think we know by heart. The man who practically glowed with excitement over American independence refused to raise a glass on the day the rest of the country chose to remember it.
In the next Fourth of July, as the fireworks go up, it is worth a quiet nod to the stubborn old patriot who thought we had it slightly backward and loved this country enough to say so.