How John Adams Believed America Should Celebrate Independence Day

John Adams believed America's birthday should properly be set at July 2. He had a point, as that was the day Congress voted for independence. Instead, America's birthday will forever be associated with July 4, the day Congress approved Thomas Jefferson's eloquent masterpiece (albeit with some "mutilations" as Jefferson described it). Putting all that aside, however, it is worth noting on this Fourth of July how John Adams said we should celebrate Independence Day.

In a now famous letter to his wife, Abigail, the future second President of the United States wrote of Independence Day...

"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 by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more."