Episode 125: Celebrating American Independence
Words & Numbers
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The Last Words of Thomas Jefferson
On July 3, 1826, Thomas Jefferson died. He dies 50 years to the hour after the Continental Congress ratified his Declaration of Independence. But unbeknownst to anyone in Virginia, up near Boston, Massachusetts, John Adams is on his deathbed. And he dies around 5 p.m. that day. So the Batman and the Robin, the dynamic duo of the Declaration of Independence, die on its 50th anniversary. In honor of the Fourth of July, I'd like to maybe suggest that in some ways, John Adams was right. Maybe even today, Jefferson does survive. The ideas of the American Revolution and all the American revolutionaries survive.
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