Dear clients and friends:
I am writing to you on the eve of the Fourth of July, 2023, and hope that this message finds you, your family, and all your friends, healthy, happy and ready to celebrate this amazing holiday which commemorates our Independence from Great Britain!
Two of our great nation’s Founding Fathers, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, were leaders in our American Revolution, and their memory lives strong in our Independence Day celebrations. Adams, a lifelong attorney, political activist and diplomat, served twice as vice-president to George Washington, and then as our second-ever president, from 1797–1801. Thomas Jefferson, also a lawyer, leading statesman and diplomat, served many roles in Government, including as our third-ever president from 1801–1809.
These two politicians held very different political beliefs and had a “complicated” relationship. While Adams was a Federalist and believed in a strong and centralized federal government, Jefferson was strongly anti-Federalist, and believed that we should have a weak central government, with most of the power entrusted to local authorities.
After Jefferson ran against Adams and lost the presidency in 1800, the two politicians quarreled and had a falling-out. They had no contact for over a decade, but finally reconciled in 1811, and began a letter correspondence that lasted for 15 years. Although they never met one another in person again, their letters to each other in old age were lighthearted and full of affection!
So why am I regaling you with the story of this political friendship? In what is surely a serendipitous twist of fate, Adams and Jefferson both died within hours of one another on Independence Day, July 4, 1826, the 50th Anniversary of the signing of our Declaration of Independence!
I believe there is an important lesson here which our modern-day politicians should take to heart. On this Independence Day holiday, I offer a prayer that in the years to come, rather than bitter rivalry, our politicians take as their example the friendship of Adams and Jefferson, and work together as colleagues in service to our great nation!
Thank you so much for your friendship and fellowship!
