In 1826, Thomas Jefferson was invited by the mayor of Washington, D.C., to celebrate the 50th anniversary of American independence. Although Jefferson’s failing health prevented him from attending, the author of the Declaration replied with his last letter—he died just weeks later on July 4—offering a beautiful reflection on America’s founding and a message of hope for the nation’s future.
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https://freedom.hillsdale.edu
MONTICELLO, June 24, 1826.
Respected Sir —The
kind invitation I received from you on the part of the citizens of the city of
Washington, to be present with them at their celebration of the Fiftieth
Anniversary of American Independence, as one of the surviving signers of an
instrument pregnant with our own, and the fate of the world, is most flattering
to myself, and heightened by the honorable accompaniment proposed for the
comfort of such a journey. It adds sensibly to the sufferings of sickness, to
be deprived by it of a personal participation in the rejoicings of that day,
but acquiescence is a duty, under circumstances not placed among those we are
permitted to control. I should, indeed, with peculiar delight, have met and
exchanged there congratulations personally, with the small band, the remnant of
that host of worthies, who joined with us, on that day, in the bold and
doubtful election we were to make for our country, between submission and the
sword; and to have enjoyed with them the consolatory fact that our fellow
citizens, after half a century of experience and prosperity, continue to
approve the choice we made. May it be to the world, what I believe it will be,
(to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the signal of
arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition
had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security
of self-government. The form which we have substituted restores the free right
to the unbounded exercise of reason, and freedom of opinion. All eyes are
opened or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the lights of
science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth that the mass of
mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted
and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. These are
grounds of hope for others—for ourselves let the annual return of this day
forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion
to them.
I will ask permission here to express the pleasure with which I
should have met my ancient neighbors of the city of Washington and its
vicinities, with whom I passed so many years of a pleasing social intercourse;
an intercourse which so much relieved the anxieties of the public cares, and
left impressions so deeply engraved in my affections, as never to be forgotten.
With my regret that ill health forbids me the gratification of an acceptance,
be pleased to receive for yourself, and those for whom you write, the assurance
of my highest respect and friendly attachment.
TH: JEFFERSON.
