So does Adams.
Jul. 4th, 2008 01:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wolfpangsThe scene at the beginning of the clip in the last post is John Adams's pro-Declaration speech. The vote comes to 12 for, 1 (NY) abstaining. There is a great shot after the vote, where the camera sorta pans around the room as the realization of what they're doing really hits them.
The representatives from Delaware, who apparently fight hobos in their spare time:
Adams:
Edward Rutledge of South Carolina:
John Hancock:
Dr. Franklin has a thought that isn't bawdy. Well, only mildly bawdy:
Even my one true colonial love, Mr. Jefferson, looks mildly concerned:
And speaking of Mr. Jefferson, I don't know if it were intentional or not, but I noticed that in several shots, he is very noticeably in the background or looking over other people.
It reminds me of a comment lightaugust made at Consumerist a couple of months ago: "There's a reason his monument statue stares at the White House all day and all night. Someone knew what they were doing." Amen.
Fifty years after the first 4th, Jefferson and Adams both wrote statements for the occasion. Jefferson wrote, in part, "The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. These are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them." Adams, who had become resigned to the fact that he was not, like Jefferson et al, one of the rock stars of the revolution, said that the still nascent country was "destined in future history to form the brightest or the blackest page, according to the use or the abuse of those political institutions by which they shall in time to come be shaped by the human mind." As this was not the rah-rah "WOOOOOOOOOOOO!" sentiment they were looking for, Adams was asked a few days later if he had anything else to say. He replied, "I will give you independence forever." Uh, anything else? "Not one word."
On the day itself, July 4, 1826, at 12:50PM, Jefferson was gone. His last words, if any, are lost. A few hours later, Adams followed. Before dying, he said, "Thomas Jefferson" and then the rest of his sentence was unintelligible. The popular legend is that he said, "Thomas Jefferson survives." We'll never know for sure. But it's true.
The representatives from Delaware, who apparently fight hobos in their spare time:
Adams:
Edward Rutledge of South Carolina:
John Hancock:
Dr. Franklin has a thought that isn't bawdy. Well, only mildly bawdy:
Even my one true colonial love, Mr. Jefferson, looks mildly concerned:
And speaking of Mr. Jefferson, I don't know if it were intentional or not, but I noticed that in several shots, he is very noticeably in the background or looking over other people.
It reminds me of a comment lightaugust made at Consumerist a couple of months ago: "There's a reason his monument statue stares at the White House all day and all night. Someone knew what they were doing." Amen.
Fifty years after the first 4th, Jefferson and Adams both wrote statements for the occasion. Jefferson wrote, in part, "The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. These are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them." Adams, who had become resigned to the fact that he was not, like Jefferson et al, one of the rock stars of the revolution, said that the still nascent country was "destined in future history to form the brightest or the blackest page, according to the use or the abuse of those political institutions by which they shall in time to come be shaped by the human mind." As this was not the rah-rah "WOOOOOOOOOOOO!" sentiment they were looking for, Adams was asked a few days later if he had anything else to say. He replied, "I will give you independence forever." Uh, anything else? "Not one word."
On the day itself, July 4, 1826, at 12:50PM, Jefferson was gone. His last words, if any, are lost. A few hours later, Adams followed. Before dying, he said, "Thomas Jefferson" and then the rest of his sentence was unintelligible. The popular legend is that he said, "Thomas Jefferson survives." We'll never know for sure. But it's true.
