One date in July grabs my attention every year. That is the Fourth. Before it even arrives, I hear marching music and feel the beat of freedom's drum. When possible, I walk in Roseville's annual parade.
This year, my July Fourth anticipation started in Washington, D.C. In the nation's capital, with Thomas Jefferson's books on display at the Library of Congress, our flag fluttering from numerous staffs, it's not hard to envision those early years when our founders sought independence.
As a place name, Placer County didn't exist, but its pristine rolling hills and valleys were home to American Indians, just as Virginia was home to Jefferson.
John Adams lived in Massachusetts, and although each respected the other's intellect and dedication to liberty, Adams and Jefferson had a relationship that fluctuated like today's weather. But on fighting battles, the two founding fathers agreed – the pen was mightier than the sword.
In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson wrote many immortal words, including its conclusion: "… we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." Would any of us be as brave today?
Jefferson and Adams were members of the committee to draft the declaration. Jefferson suggested that Adams write it, but Adams, whose love of country came before vanity, knew that Jefferson was the better writer, and he made sure that Jefferson wrote the first draft.
It cannot have gone down well with Adams that his part in the declaration was seldom mentioned thereafter. Later, neither man hesitated to attack the other when politics became the goal, and the easy camaraderie of July Fourth fever faded. I show their relationship, estrangement and reconciliation, in my poem that follows.
THE MOMENTOUS YEARS: 1776 to 1826
1. Veritas (truth)
In the 1800 election, Jefferson and Adams excoriated one another in public, and no one called them friends. Between Braintree and Monticello, lines in political sands led from bombast to repartee, from rough-cut to soigné.
2. Ficta voluptatis causa sint proxima veris (fiction should bear the semblance of truth)
My dear Jefferson, I ask you, sir, what manner of wine you imbibe to so misunderstand the needs of our several states? I suggest you borrow Mr. Franklin's bifocal glasses and imitate Mr. Paine's rhetorical skills. On a personal note, Mrs. Adams sends her regards.
My dear Mr. Adams, a well-aged elixir can aid dyspepsia or unrepentant bile. I urge you partake nightly, but lightly along with your partridge, roast beef, and mutton and the mounds of potatoes of which you are so fond. Extend my regards, sir, to your most agreeable wife.
3. Veritas
During advanced age, the end looming like the Redcoats once had, the two Founding Fathers entered into a correspondence warm with memories and solicited opinions formerly eschewed. The term, "my dear sir," denoted genuine admiration. As America's half-century celebration loomed, the two men – Jefferson at Monticello, Adams at Braintree – both sick and dying, held on to life and their link to the past until July 4th boomed a nation's grateful thanks, a nation's grateful recognition.
As the poem shows, Jefferson and Adams resurrected their early friendship and exchanged numerous letters. In 1812, Adams held out the olive branch, and Jefferson answered, "… A letter from you calls up recollections very dear to my mind. It carries me back to the times when beset by difficulties and dangers we were fellow laborers in the same cause, struggling for what is most valuable to man, his self-government."
After gold shone as brightly in streams as the thought of liberty in the founders' breasts, California joined the union. From mining towns, Placer County went on to become railroad towns and farming communities and an integral part of this great country.
In "Thoughts on Government," an essay Adams wrote in April 1776, he said, "When, before the present epocha, had three millions of people full power and a fair opportunity to form and establish the wisest and happiest government that human wisdom can contrive?"
I'll use Jefferson's last words in his first reconciliation letter to Adams to illustrate Americans' love for the country and the framework they and the other founders gave us. He ended his letter with the words, "I now salute you with unchanged affections and respect."
Cleo Fellers Kocol published fiction and nonfiction before turning to poetry.
