The 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence: July 4th 2026

John Trumbull’s painting, Declaration of Independence (1819), depicts the five-member drafting committee presenting their work to Congress. It does not represent a real ceremony; the characters portrayed were never in the same room at the same time.

First published June 27, 2026

Historians and statisticians continue to discuss the probability that John Adams (aged 90) and Thomas Jefferson (aged 83) died on the same day, July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after they each signed the Declaration. Life expectancy in the early 1800’s, if one survived childhood, was about 60 years, so these founding fathers had exceptional longevity for that period.

July 4, 2026 was the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration, considered the 250th birthday of the United States, bringing this improbable coincidence of Adams’ and Jefferson’s virtually simultaneous death back into the limelight. Statisticians have regaled us with arcane assumptions and calculations about the probability of this coincidence. Contemporaries of the two, historians and other observers, have flirted with theories ranging from personal will to divine intervention. There are many factors to consider in assessing the probability of this event. Both were of advanced age and ill, but the coincidence was so striking that John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, and others, in their memorial remarks, invoked the hand of the Lord in this virtually simultaneous event.

The election of 1800 pitted Adams, running for reelection as president, against Jefferson, who was Adams’s vice-president, but who, in 1800, challenged Adams for the presidency. Adams and Jefferson, allies prior to American independence, had divergent views of the national direction, expressed through two opposing political parties. Adams, a Federalist, preferred a strong central government; Jefferson, a Democratic-Republican, preferred a stronger states' rights policy. Political parties were for the first time a key feature of presidential elections. In the election of 1800, incumbent President John Adams ran with Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina as his vice-presidential running mate. 

Official Presidential portrait of John Adams (by John Trumbull, circa 1792)

The Democratic-Republican ticket of Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr defeated the Federalist ticket, but the two running mates (Jefferson and Burr) were tied for the most electoral votes. Prior to ratification of the 12th Amendment in 1804, each elector was given two votes to be cast, each for a different person. The person with the highest total vote in the Electoral College was elected president, and the person with the second-highest total was elected vice president, regardless of the position for which they were running. Even though Jefferson ran as John Adams’ opponent for president in the general election, Jefferson and Burr were tied for votes for president in the Electoral College, both receiving 73 votes, which required the decision as to who would be elected president to be made by a vote in the House of Representatives. In took 36 ballots in the House to elect Jefferson. Burr, as the second-highest vote-getter, thus became vice president, as required by the Constitution as originally written. This election made evident the shortcomings of the Constitution’s design for presidential elections. The misadventures of the election of 1800 resulted in the ratification of the Twelfth Amendment in 1804, which altered the process to avoid confusion in the future.

Virulent negative campaigning, uncharacteristic in the first two elections that elected Washington and then Adams president, marked the election of 1800. Adams and Jefferson made personal attacks on the other. Adams claimed Jefferson was a Francophile at a time when France was still seeking payment for its assistance in the Revolutionary War, and Jefferson accused Adams of being a tyrant because of his favoring strong federal institutions. The presidential election of 1800 also had important positive features. It was the first peaceful transfer of power between rival political views in the United States and, perhaps, anywhere in the world before this time.  

  Their bitter feud in the election of 1800 fractured the friendship of Adams and Jefferson for over a decade. During that time, they had no contact despite their close working relationship in forging the nation and its Constitution. In 1812, a mutual friend, the physician, intellectual, and Founding Father, Benjamin Rush, helped bring Adams and Jefferson together again. They restored their relationship through an exuberant correspondence, which covered subjects of mutual interest. Despite letters having to travel from Quincy, Massachusetts to Charlottesville, Virginia, or the reverse, approximately 560 miles, Adams and Jefferson exchanged letters on widely divergent topics prior to their deaths 14 years later. By 1800, the Post Office Department had acquired stagecoaches to transport mail. Main roads, referred to as post roads, received more maintenance to facilitate their use by horse-drawn mail coaches. They had stations at which lodging and fresh horses could be provided for mail carriers. Depending on the weather, it could take as long as three weeks to complete the journey in one direction. Despite these challenges, the over 150 letters between Jefferson and Adams, most by the latter, found their destination.  

Thomas Jefferson (by Rembrandt Peale 1800)

The Massachusetts Historical Society, founded in 1791, holds the papers of John Adams and John Quincy Adams, and the largest collection of Thomas Jefferson’s private papers, in addition to other valuable presidential papers and artifacts from throughout United States history. It is a repository of letters written by every U.S. president from George Washington through George H. W. Bush. The extensive Adams Collection has been carefully cataloged and digitized.

The 18th century, referred to as the Age of Enlightenment, saw great thinkers turn away from the divine right of kings and focus on natural rights. These principles argued for governments based on consent of the governed, reason, and limits. Among these thinkers and philosophers was John Locke (1632–1704), whose ideas formed the foundation of democratic societies, positing that government should be formed to protect an individual’s life, liberty, and property. The Baron de Montesquieu (1689–1755) argued for the concept of the separation of powers to prevent a tyranny developing in government. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) conceived of the "social contract," emphasizing that political authority is made legitimate by the will and consent of the people. Thomas Jefferson used these principles from the Age of Enlightenment to espouse the principles of government desired by the British colonies in America as the principal author of the Declaration of Independence. 

The Founding Fathers, however, limited these rights to persons of European descent, but not those of African descent, the enslaved Americans. It took another 90 years and a Civil War to provide freedom for the enslaved Americans and another approximately 125 years to make what was de jure, de facto. The initial formal action was the Executive Order of Abraham Lincoln in 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation. In 1865, it was followed by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution that ended slavery and any involuntary servitude in the United States. 

In his original draft of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson blamed King George III for the transatlantic slave trade, calling it a "cruel war against human nature itself" and an "execrable commerce". Delegates from several southern states demanded the removal of those comments. Despite his words, Jefferson never freed his slaves nor indicated that they should be freed after his death. This omission was in contrast to some other southerners who offered manumission. For example, George Washington (1732-1799) stipulated in his will that all 123 of his slaves should be freed following the death of his wife, Martha. She freed them in 1801, before her death in 1802.

Franklin and Adams reviewing Jefferson’s draft of the Declaration of Independence

The high intellect of the founding fathers was a reflection of government and governing being a central focus for the great minds of the period. In a letter to his wife, Abigail, on 12 May 1780, John Adams wrote: “The Science of Government it is my Duty to study, more than all other Sciences: the Art of Legislation and Administration and Negotiation, ought to take Place, indeed to exclude in a manner all other Arts. I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematicks and Philosophy, Geography, natural history, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelin.”

Alas, with innumerable other tasks to attract the great minds of today: the arts, banking and finance, healthcare, medical research, construction, education, legal matters, manufacturing, the biological and physical sciences, space science, and innumerable others, the field of politics and government has been eroded in some cases by low intellect and character. Today’s equivalent of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson are needed not just for their intellect but for their concept of public service, personal modesty, fairness, a focus on the general welfare, and a fastidious adherence to the Constitution and the separation of powers. 

 n.b. In 2010, the Supreme Court led by John G. Roberts, Jr. with the support of four of his colleagues (5 to 4) resulted in a decision that provided the wealthy with inordinate political influence. The majority of the Court allowed the purchase of high office. In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Court deemed corporations equivalent to persons and dollars equivalent to speech. Thus, corporate billionaires can ensconce their vision of what is good for us by outspending those with contrary views. Furthermore, the Electoral College allows the election of a president not selected by a majority of voters, as occurred in 2016. Hillary Clinton had 2.9 million more votes than Donald Trump did, but lost in the Electoral College, decisively, 304 to 227. Winner-take-all electoral college votes in 48 of 50 States disenfranchises millions. A 50.5% vs 49.5% popular vote gives all that State’s Electoral College votes to the winner when he or she earned just barely more than half of them based on the popular vote.