The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1931-07-03
BY ELMO SCOTT WATSON


- I WAS the Fourth of July,
Mm 1926. In Quincy, Mass, an
NH cestral home of the Adams
Uu family, John Adams, second
M President of the United
Ala States, lay dying. From
Washington, D. c., John
Quincy Adams, sixth President of the
United States was hurrying-if that
word can be applied to the laborious
progress of stage coach over the in
adequate highways of that day-to
his fathers bedside. About noon the
dying man opened his eyes at the
sound Of ringing bells and booming
cannon which drifted into the open
window. Mrs. Clark. his daughter-in-
law, bent over him and in answer to
the unspOken inquiry in his eyes re-
minded him that it was the Fourth of
July, the fiftieth anniversary of Amer
lean independence. at is a great day"
he said, "it is a good day."
About one o'clock in the afternoon
he spoke again. Thomas Jefferson
survives he said, but the last word
was indistinctly and imperfectly ut
tered. After that he spoke no more.
He could not know that at the very
moment when he was saying Thomas
Jefferson survives" the sage of Month
cello was breathing his last in far off
Virginia, For it is one of the most
Interesting condolences in American
history that on the fiftieth anniver-
sary of the Declaration of indie
pendence its last surviving drafters
and Signers passed from the scene of
their labors in behalf of the republic
forever-together!
The death of these two men on the
day which they helped make famous
also ended a most unusual friendship
and famous correspondence. This
friendship and this correspondence is
also one of the unique and most hu-
man bits of American history. In
those stirring days Of 1776 they, as
members of the Continental Congress.
were associated closely in one of the
greatest adventures of history-that of
producing a document which would
either result in the establishment of
a new nation or, in case military force
failed to make good that document. in
their becoming unsuccessful rebels
and perhaps ending their careers on
the gallows. The choice of drafting
that document lay between them, and
Adams. in his autobiography, gives the
following reasons why jefferson was
chosen for that work.
"Mr. Jefferson had been now about
q year a member of congress, but had
attended his duty in the house a very
small part of the time, and when
there had never spoken in public. Dur
ing the whole time l sat with him in
congress, I never heard him utter
three sentences together.
TT will naturally be inquired how if
happened that he was appointed on
a committee Of such Importance.
There were more reasons than one.
Mr.. Jefferson had the reputation of a
mastery pen; he had been chosen a
delegate in Virginia in consequence
of very handsome public paper which
he had written for the House of Bur
gesses, which had given him the char
acter Of very fine writer. Another
reason was, that Mr.. Richard Henry
Lee was not beloved by the most of
his colleagues from Virginia, and Mr..
Jefferson was sent up to rival and
supplant him. This could be done only
by the pen, for Mr.. Jefferson could
stand no competition with him, or
anyone else, in elocution and public
debate
1.-The committee had several meet
ings, in which were proposed the ar
ticles of which the Declaratior q