Here is some history you do not hear about. You have heard that Jefferson and Adams both died on July 4, 1826. In fact, the only ex-president who had died before that date was George Washington over a quarter of a century earlier. July 4, 1926 was the fiftieth anniversay of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

The critical point is that it was NOT a concidence that both men died on that day.

In fact, if you THINK about it, a forgotten art to historians, the date of the death of Jefferson and Adams provides an important insight into human nature. Before modern medicine, it was normal for very old people to decide WHEN they would die. My grandfather reached ninety during a recurrence of a scalp tumor, so he lived until his birthday in August of 1966 and promptly died.

My 86-year-old uncle by marriage lived alone in Florida, drove his own car, and had outlved two wives. Then a widow of 75 years he was courting told him she could not marry him because, in those days, her Social Sercurity from her dead husband would be reduced if she remarried.

He promptly died.

He HATED being alone, so no one was surprised at his death. Back then, it was taken for granted when a man that age gave up the will the live, he died. Today the idea that a very old person can decide on the exact date they will die seems like a superstition.

AND, back then, no one would have felt OBLIGATED to talk him OUT of it. It was his right.

“We’ll MISS you,” would have been an argument. “God demands that you live every last second you can, no matter how miserable you are,” would have been considered blasphemy, and no one even THOUGHT of it.

He died, excuse the expression, with dignity. He did NOT die being wheeled into an emergency room with an intern sitting on his chest pounding away.

AND the possibility that he and a 75-year-old woman might live in sin together never even came up. Modern Thought, both EXTREME Pro-Life and modern liberal, would have condemned the two choices we took for granted. His right to die was assumed and no one even suggested they “live together.”

Again, EXTREME pro-life and liberalism are on the same side in opposing REAL traditional values.

So most modern historians consider it to be a myth that Adams’s last words were, “Jefferson still lives.” If you understand the way people REALLY thought then, it would be exactly what he would have said. He and Jefferson both PURPOSELY stayed alive until that date, and both knew the other was doing just that. Jefferson had actually died a few hours earlier.

James Monroe was the next ex-president to die, in 1834. He ALSO died on July 4th! Now THAT you DON’T hear about. It says too much about REAL traditional values.