Writing and Reading The Letter

ABAGAIL ADAMS had long lost patience with English imperial rule. she was a well educated, brilliant woman, and the fact that her husband was a public leader enhanced her interest in keeping abreast of current events and the general political situation in the colonies. Like All colonial Americans, she had grown up being indoctrinated with patriotism towards her London overlords; Abagail Adams, like George Washington, like her husband John, like young Thomas Jefferson, like old Benjamin Franklin, like all good Americans, was a loyal and content British subject. That lasted until about the early seventeen sixties, when, at the end of the great was between Britain and France, the second they had fought within a generation, the government in London realized it needed to find ways to pay for it. The American colonies were an easy target, or so they thought, and, as they say, the rest is history. The sudden increases in weird taxes, the simmering resentment, an finally, the outbreak of violence in 1775. By then, Abagail was ready, totally ready, to commit treason and split the scene. In June of 1776 she wrote a letter to husband, who was in Philadelphia at the second continental congress, in which she passionately implored "I long to get word from you that you have declared independency", as they called "independence" in those days. Her letters written over decades, at a national treasure. She, rather than her husband, should have been president. Thus egged on, John Adams was good to go with rebellion, like most of the folks gathered in Philly to discuss the matter. they decided to go for broke, to either hang together or hang separately, as Franklin put it, and selected a five man committee to write the letter to the King informing him of their sudden departure. Adams was on the committee, as were franklin and Jefferson, and Adams and Franklin both knew immediately that Jefferson, the youngest and smartest among them, needed to do the writing. They had to brow beat the kid into doing it, but they did what they had to do, then did some editing when Jefferson presented his draft. Franklin's major change was in replacing Jefferson's term "sacred and undeniable" with the words "self evident", to make it sound more scientific, less religious. Our founders tended to love science and have mixed emotions about religions, much of it negative. The declaration of Independence is a very logical, scientific sounding composition, and the flowery language embellishes the content. this is as good a day as any to read it.