by Martin Green

This July 4th, we will, of course, be celebrating the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of our Declaration of Independence. If you were alive in 1976, it’s hard to believe that our nation’s Bicentennial is now already fifty years in the rear view mirror. But do you know what extraordinary event occurred exactly two hundred years ago on America’s fiftieth Independence Day, July 4,1826?

For those who believe that coincidences are simply random events which “just happen” to occur at exactly the same moment in time, then what we will describe here will take on no special significance. However, if we continue to follow the same storyline of our previous Supercentennial Segments— that it is God who called our republic into existence; that it is He who intentionally and uniquely designed and miraculously superintended its foundations and its purpose—we must then also acknowledge that the signal supernatural events of that day have to be far more than just a coincidence. To relegate what happened to the insignificance of a mere haphazard concurrence of dates and destinies is to strip it of its dramatic importance. If God uses punctuation in His writing of the story of America, then most assuredly what happened on July 4, 1826—that “Glorious Fourth”—is His exclamation point penned with the grandest flourish at the end of the first fifty-year chapter. 

When we think of the founders of our American republic, whose names do we immediately call to mind: George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Henry Knox, Patrick Henry? The fact that personages of such exceptional brilliance, faith, vision, dignity, and courage were all alive at the same time and place in history is astonishing enough. But then to consider that they fought and worked together to establish this “American Experiment,” is absolutely astounding. Yet the consensus to which they aspired and the concord they would achieve in founding “these United States,” was not without its own fierce and sometimes bitter and divisive internal struggles.  

For example, the same ardent impulse of independence which so powerfully animated both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson—and which galvanized them along with their fellow patriots to work together to break free from the tyrannical influence of Great Britain—also worked negatively to destroy the close friendship these two men had enjoyed, creating an adversarial rift between them lasting for twelve years. The occasion of their estrangement was the differing opinions each held in regard to the French Revolution, intense political opposition, and acrimonious personal attacks against each other during the election campaign of 1800.

However, in 1809, Benjamin Rush had a providential dream in which he saw the two men reconciling with one another. Of course, this had not yet occurred, nor did it appear likely that it ever would, but its impression was so vivid and powerful that he felt compelled to share the dream, first with Adams and then with Jefferson. Each man magnanimously received the description of Rush’s dream and the reconciliation it portended as certain. A rekindling of their friendship began, and a genuine conciliatory warmth ensued, expressed in the next several years through their benevolent correspondence with one another. 

And this leads us up to July 4, 1826. On this day, within three hours of one another, both Adams and Jefferson—each man indispensable in both the founding of America and shepherding it through its tumultuous infancy—breathed his last breath. The astronomical improbability of this supernatural “coincidence” ought to remind us that just as God orchestrated both the joining and then His divine intervention in the reuniting of these two of our greatest statesmen in life, He also saw fit to do so in their passing.

John Quincy Adams reflected that the passing of his father and of Jefferson on the same day could not have been mere coincidence, but were, he declared, “the visible and palpable marks of Divine Favor, for which I would humble myself in grateful and silent adoration before the Ruler of the universe.”

Daniel Webster proclaimed, “On our fiftieth anniversary, the great day of national Jubilee, in the very hour of public rejoicing, in the midst of echoing and reechoing voices of thanksgiving, while their own names were on all tongues, they took their flight together to the world of spirits…On the day which had fast linked forever their own fame with their country’s glory, the heavens should open to receive them both at once. As their lives themselves were the gifts of Providence, who is not willing to recognize in their happy termination, as well as in their long continuance, proofs that our country and its benefactor are objects of His care?”

The United States has an undeniably Christian origin story. God’s providential and miraculous involvement at every step along the path to its founding and in its establishment are signs and proof of His assistance and favor. But this historical fact must never be conflated with tyrannical regimes and brutally oppressive theocracies in other countries which have no tolerance for those they consider dissenters or infidels. In fact, just the opposite is true of our constitutional republic which was intended to be self-governed by “a moral and religious people” who understand that our inherent rights derive not from human governments, but from God. Biblical values have unabashedly informed our governing principles in ways so fundamental that perhaps we may be scarcely conscious of how integrally they are woven into the moral, civic, and cultural fabric of our republic. Our Bill of Rights champions religious liberty and freedom of conscience for all, even those who do not believe the Bible nor agree with Christianity’s tenets. 

And just as none of us wants to be forever defined by his or her sins, errors, and failures when our humble and  earnest repentance, forgiveness, and reformation has been sought and secured, so, too, we must not perpetually define the United States of America by her sins, errors, and failures. Egregious and tragic as they have been, our national identity does not consist in them.

This is why it is crucial that we never forget the extraordinary sacrifices and accomplishments of our founders and the courage of those who have resolutely sought to lead America by appealing to heaven for God’s wisdom and guidance. It is He who has “shed His grace on thee” since the Pilgrims first set foot on this magnificent land and for these last two hundred and fifty years. 

As we celebrate this remarkable Supercentennial milestone, let us remember with profound awe, gratitude, and unwavering hope the words John Adams prophetically declared before the Continental Congress on July 2, 1776, two days before America’s very first Independence Day:

“I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of this continent to another, from this time forward forevermore. You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure it will cost us to maintain this Declaration and to support and defend these states. Yet through all the gloom, I can see rays of ravishing light and glory.”