This Thursday, all of Perris will be out celebrating America’s Independence Day—the 4th of July national holiday that’s only slightly incorrect, numerically speaking. That detail is best preserved in a letter home written by John Adams, the Founding Father who followed George Washington as the second American president.
There was a terrific TV series a while back based on McCollough’s biography of John Adams. In case you missed it, Adams is rightly known as one of the most eloquent of the Founders—although Adams’ “eloquence” was apparently most evident in his writings, since he’s reported to have had a high, squeaky voice. The producers of the TV series wisely refrained from overemphasizing that detail.
The name of Perris’s Independence Day celebrations is wedded to the Declaration of Independence—the parchment proclamation we studied in school. It was adopted by a gathering of representatives from the 13 original colonies. The majority had become increasingly convinced that complete separation from the King of England’s Empire was the only way to deal with the growing civil unrest had already caused the Redcoats to storm Boston. With worse on the horizon and having repeatedly failed at petitioning for a peaceful resolution, they reluctantly authorized the creation of an army with Washington as its General. In that long hot summer in 1776, they had finally decided to formally declare war—but needed to put together a statement of high-minded principles. Without that, they would have been branded by the civilized world as self-serving criminals and anarchists.
The independence declared in the timeless phrases written by Thomas Jefferson and edited by Adams is the basis for Perris’s Fourth of July Independence Day celebrations. The formal document is dated July 4, 1776—which makes this Thursday the 243rd renewal of our Republic’s birthday. As Adams sagely predicted in his letter home to his resourceful wife, Abigail, the day independence was proclaimed “will be celebrated by succeeding Generations as the great anniversary Festival…solumnized with Pomp and Parade.” He was almost right. The time-consuming hassle of gathering everyone’s signature meant that the date on the actual proclamation document followed the vote by a couple of days—which explains the slight inaccuracy of Adam’s prediction to Abigail: “The Second Day of July will be the most memorable Epoch in the History of America.”
I hope everyone in Perris has a fantastic 2nd and 4th of July—and can assure that when you team with my team for all your real estate transactions, I’ll make certain that the docs are signed on time!
