 Good day to you. My name is John Adams. I have been asked to say a few words about myself although as a New Englander that is no small task. Perhaps I should begin by saying that I am the Mr. Adams you do not mistake for being a master brewer. But in truth I am the fifth generation of New England Adams. We were farmers all, free holders as well, beholden to no one for our property but ourselves. My father desired that I should have a good education. I attended and graduated from Harvard. Education was so important to my father that he did one thing that was unheard of for a free holder. He sold a parcel of that valuable property to pay for my education. My father also desired that I should enter into the clergy. I myself desired that I should stay as a farmer. Instead I suppose we entered into a compromise. I became a school teacher and a very unsuccessful one as well and then I proceeded to enter into the law where I began an illustrious career by losing my first case because I improperly filed paperwork. But I did improve and eventually had a fair career despite some of my more questionable clients. But because of my efforts and my reputation the good people of Massachusetts determined to see me consent to my ruin by offering me a position in the Massachusetts legislature. And then for my efforts there I was further consented to ruin by representing Massachusetts in the first ever continental Congress. We gathered in Philadelphia in this Congress in response to the taxation and subjugation of the British Army in Parliament in Boston of course but as a colleague in the Congress stated the actions of the British Army in Parliament upon the Massachusetts Bay colony affect the entire continent of America. Our first gathering of the Congress in my opinion accomplished very little but we were able to create an address of our grievances as well as a humble petition to our King for reconciliation and we sent both to the King and to Parliament and to our respective colonies government and we awaited a response. Unfortunately we received the most terrible of responses on April of 1775 when the Massachusetts militia was attacked by the British Army as the militia was withdrawing to avoid a skirmish and the towns of Lexington and Concord saw the death of many militiamen at the hands of our so-called British brothers which made it clear that there was a need for a second continental Congress. The subject of independence came into greater contemplation for the following year due to actions such as George III's declaration of all 13 colonies not simply New England being in open rebellion against England. There were the treacherous naval attacks due to Parliament's passage of the American Prohibitory Act. There of course was the beneficial though perhaps poorly drawn out proposals of Thomas Paine's common sense well as some of the Tories called it common nonsense and in the most astonishing response to these actions and discussions of it Congress actually began to do things. They began to do such things as February 26th an embargo was enacted on our exports to Britain. On March 2nd Silas Dean was appointed a secret envoy to France to measure their potential support of our cause. On March 14th there was a resolution to disarm all Tories and on March 23rd a resolution to enable armed vessels to attack the enemies of the United Colonies. The beginnings of a navy of course the thoughts were continuing to move towards independence so much so that all colonies were recommended that they should create new government. The tide was turning toward independence when Richard Henry Lee brought forth the resolves from Virginia that these united colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states. Although I believe that Mr Lee laid that before you earlier. I personally recall three rather spirited days of debate. There were questions whether we as a continent were ready for independence. It was contemplated such by Mr Dickinson the not so humble farmer of Pennsylvania James Wilson and Edward Brutledge and others. Some of our delegates from the differing colonies were without instruction on the question of independence itself. Well this rather spirited discussion continued until cooler heads prevailed and it was determined that the question should be delayed until Monday July the 1st. In the meanwhile it was approved without objection I might add that a committee of five would be formed to create a declaration should this idea of independence take hold. Although I also believe that Mr Jefferson laid that before you earlier. But after two and a half long weeks Mr Jefferson had crafted a declaration. We had made minor suggestions to it. We laid it before the Congress and on that Monday the first day of July after Congress had finished the other matters of the day we were resolved into a committee of the whole. A president Hancock left his chair and Mr Harrison filled it so that the debates and the votes would not officially be recorded and so we began the greatest and most solemn debate on the question of independence. Although to be plain frequent discussions had been had concerning it at one time or another all of the arguments for it and against it had been exhausted and were become familiar. I personally expected no more would be said in public but that the question would be put and decided. But even as the swell of independence was rising Mr Dickinson however was determined to bear his testimony against it with more formality. He had prepared himself apparently with great labor and ardent zeal and in a speech of great length and with all his eloquence he combined together all that had been before written in pamphlets and newspapers and all that had been from time to time said in Congress by himself and by others. He conducted the debate not only with great ingenuity and eloquence but with equal politeness and candour and I dare say that I hoped it was answered in the same spirit because after waiting for some time in hopes that someone less obnoxious than myself would move no member rose to answer him and Mr Lee who proposed the the resolves had returned to Virginia. I had seconded the motion in June and I had to determine myself to speak. I began by saying that this was the first time in my life that I had ever wished for the talents and eloquence of the ancient orators of Greece and Rome for I was very sure that none of them had ever before him a question of more importance to his country and to the world. They would probably upon less occasions than this have begun by solemn invocations to their divinities for assistance but the question before me appeared so simple that I had confidence enough in the plain understanding and common sense that had been given me to believe that I could answer to the satisfaction of the house all of the arguments which had been produced notwithstanding the abilities which had been displayed and the eloquence with which they had been enforced. The remainder of what I spoke was I know not what the truth is that no one myself included deemed my words compelling enough to write them down. It was likely a number of hackneyed responses to Mr Dickinson's quotations both of which had been heard many a time before but something hadn't in that room something that moved my fellow delegates from their seats and it became clear that I had said what needed to be said but before the final question could be put the new delegates from New Jersey Mr Stockton Dr Witherspoon and Mr Hopkinson all very respectable characters entered into the chamber having missed the arguments and expressed a great desire to hear them. All was silence and no one would speak because all eyes were turned upon me. Well Mr Rutledge, Edward Rutledge, he came to me and he was laughing and he said nobody will speak but you upon this subject you already have all the topics so ready that you must satisfy the gentleman from New Jersey. I answered him laughing just as much that it had been so much the air of exhibiting like an actor or gladiator for the entertainment of the audience that I was ashamed to repeat what I had said 20 times before and I thought nothing new could be advanced by me. The New Jersey gentleman however were insistent upon hearing at least a recapitulation of the arguments and as before with no other gentleman being willing to speak I summed up the reasons objections and answers in concise a manner as I could till at length the New Jersey gentlemen said they were fully satisfied and ready for the question but of course the official question would not be put forward today. No that was to be held tomorrow Tuesday July the second. In the meanwhile an unofficial vote was taken and the tally was nine colonies to four in favor of independence but that still left Pennsylvania and South Carolina opposed Delaware divided and New York either dead or asleep when it came to politics. I feared that all 13 clocks would never strike at once and independence would forever elude us but then the clocks began to align South Carolina agreed to vote aye for the sake of unanimity. Pennsylvania's delegates were once blocked from voting for independence but that had been removed and some were choosing to vote for independence and Thomas McKean Thomas McKean rode through the night to bring an ailing Caesar Rodney pale as death itself back to Philadelphia to break the Delaware time and even with the New York delegates left without instruction or action the vote the next morning was 12 colonies in favor of independence there was strange hush which fell over the crowd and then of course well Congress got the task of dismantling Mr Jefferson's declaration but I thought the more important occasion had passed and I said so actually in a letter to my wife the following day if you would permit me this is a letter to my wife from July the 3rd 1776 had a declaration of independency been made months ago it would have been attended with many great and glorious effect we might before this hour have formed alliances with foreign states we should have mastered Quebec and been in possession of Canada but on the other hand the delay of this declaration to this time has many great advantages attending it the hopes of reconciliation which were fondly entertained by multitudes of honest and well-meaning though weak and mistaken people have been gradually and at last totally extinguished time has been given for the whole people in naturally to consider the great question of independence and to ripen their judgments dissipate their fears and allure their hopes by discussing it in newspapers and pamphlets by debating it in assemblies conventions committees of safety and inspection in town and county meetings as well as in private conversations so that the whole people in every colony of the 13 have now adopted it as their own act this will cement the union and avoid those heats and perhaps convulsions which might have been occasioned by such a declaration six months ago but the day is past the second day of july 1776 will be the most memorable epica in the history of america 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 with solemn acts of devotion to god almighty and ought may solemnize with pomp and parade with shows games sports guns bells bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other 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 that it will take 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 i can see that the end is more than worth all the means and that posterity will triumph in that day's transaction even though we should ruin which i trust in god we shall not and my prediction proved correct on everything except the date of course instead we began to celebrate two days later on the date emblazoned upon the declaration itself but in truth how many people pay that much attention to a declaration of congress it was certainly not expected to be as celebrated as the vote itself but what we truly celebrate is a lasting independence and for that i shall bear with my otherwise correct prediction now i dare say with the time that we have i have been asked to look at some questions that you may have so let me draw here from him ah here we are this is a question from a finnish quails of philadelphia very nice if you were so in favor of independence why did you not write the declaration of independence this is actually a very good question sir i was in favor of independence and it was because i was so in favor of independence that i thought it best i did not write the declaration the truth of the matter was that i had made my opinions and my voice very clear on the matter so much so that i dare say that it began to grate upon other people and if i had written a declaration it would be picked apart even worse than mr jefferson's was and it is very possible that the clocks might not have struck for independence at all but of course i knew that in this committee of five we had a fine author a tony copperheaded lawyer named of mr jefferson now of course mr jefferson desired to go home to virginia to work on a new constitution for virginia and to tend to his ailing wife and i wanted to do that as well i wanted to go to my ailing wife and massachusetts not to his wife and regardless i knew that i could not be the author even though he suggested that i should i told him that he must write the declaration he asked what could possibly be my reasons for this and i said reasons enough this did not seem to persuade him and so i told him that well that he was a virginian and as a virginian he should be at the head of the matter to help persuade the other southern colonies likewise he was also 10 times a better writer than i and i was suspected disliked and unpopular and he of course because he never seemed to speak more than three sentences together his entire time in congress was very much otherwise and i knew without hesitation he needed to write it and thanks be to providence he was persuaded and he wrote the declaration and i believe that well we are all better for it let me see here here is another one this comes from a caliph eldridge of king's town ah this is an interesting one did you help write the united states constitution well that is a very well this one word in this question is very helpful actually did you help write the united states constitution because if you were asked did i write the united states constitution i would simply have had to say no but did i help write the constitution well i was not in philadelphia in 1787 during the convention because well they had of their fair share of sages and prophets and demigods and they did not need the plane of mr adams but before the constitution before the declaration as i mentioned they had recommended that all colonies create new government and as many of my fellow congressmen knew that i had opinions and was very willing to share them on what i thought would be best government they asked me to share my thoughts and uh i was asked by first i believe it was mr george with of virginia and i wrote a letter scratching out some of my ideas and then uh fellow mr sergeant from new jersey asked for my thoughts as well and i i copied the letter as best i could and then i believe that mr hooper and mr penn from north carolina asked for my thoughts and so i wrote down what i could remember and by the time that i got to uh mr richard henry lee asking for a copy i simply found someone else's and handed it to him and they eventually put it into types and created a pamphlet out of it which was called um thoughts on government uh applicable to the present state of the american colonies in a letter from a friend or words to that effect and as such that pamphlet i was very pleased to discover uh continued to find its way into a number of state conventions uh such as the one for virginia's constitution uh new jersey's constitution uh north carolina's and of course when they asked me to help offer a new massachusetts constitution so my thoughts on government were included in several state constitutions and eventually i understand that they were uh brought up during the constitutional convention in philadelphia so did i write the constitution no did i influence the constitution well i shall leave it to you and posterity to judge for myself i was happy to serve to the best of my ability and i hope that it has done some good even if i bear my legacy in the shadows of the likes of washington and jefferson and franklin i have served my country to the best of my ability and i shall bear this lasting independence knowing that i have served that will conclude our time together i thank you for your attention your questions your interest and as i stated on the 50th anniversary of the declaration of independence independency forever