Writing the Declaration - for us

Franklin, Adams, Jefferson together in a room with history peeking in the window

It happened. At some point, way back on a hot July in 1776, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson found themselves in a Philadelphia room somewhere, holding the rough draft of The Declaration of Independence, the ink from Jefferson’s pen just barely dry. They sat and talked about it, the first people in the world to read Jefferson’s extraordinary words.

Historian David McCullough recreated that moment and that was, for me, one of the most compelling scenes in the HBO “John Adams” series, an adaptation of McCullough’s award-winning biography of our second president which came out on HBO in 2008 produced with McCullough’s expert help.

Or as history may well record it, long before the orange ca-ca hit the proverbial political fan and turned what we used to think of as the world’s most remarkably enduring democratic government into what we have now, which fans of The Orange One might admit is considerably less than what it was intended to be. And perhaps, getting worse every day like our economy, headed straight down the tubes.

“There might be a slight disturbance,” The Orange One said the other day. Well, history will certainly not record his presence that way.

This is why, at least in my case, spending time re-viewing the HBO “John Adams” series was essential to keeping my own personal sanity/optimism/belief in democracy still alive. Adams was the perfect choice for the lead, played by Paul Giamatti, because he was in the middle of everything that happened in Boston, the Constitutional Convention, dealing with Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, Franklin and even King George III (Adams was our first ambassador to England, the country we’d just beaten and he had to bow before the king. How fun was that?)

Ben Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson writing the Declaration

I originally considered writing this entire post with the title “How To Survive The Next Four Years,” offering my personal recommendations for optimum sanity and proper digestion; a least an hour of “West Wing” re-runs several times a week, then later in the evening, (after the missus drops off to sleep) watching the permutations of messrs. Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, Abigail Adams and Prince in that HBO series, but I thought that, perhaps, too demanding.

(Just kidding. Prince isn’t in there.)

At a time when our political “leaders” — one hates to use such a misleading and inaccurate term — have such apparent little grasp on our own history, somebody ought to know the real thing. The Adams series takes me back to when this country was started, the genuine struggles and setbacks and frustrations and finally, the courage and optimism that fueled our fledgling government. All these brilliant, idealistic leaders (they deserved that term) were able to concoct a government from scratch. Not a one of them ever dreamed that someday, the government they created would be led by a narcissistic, lawsuit-happy, revenge-driven egomaniac billionaire who has tilted the Supreme Court so much his way that now, he can break any law he wants as President and he can’t be arrested for it. What kind of crap is that? How insulted would George Washington be if someone told him he could do that?

In attempting to do what they did, Adams, Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson and Franklin were well aware of history and their likely place in it. By contrast, The Orange One shows such a frightening lack of knowledge of what has happened in America since 1775, it’s embarrassing our own President knows little and cares less. And what about the teachers he had on the way up and at the Wharton School? Did they skip all that stuff?

Remember when Trump recalled George Washington’s Continental Army “manning the airports” (which would, of course, precluded him crossing the Delaware in a rowboat, which should have been a tip off.) Or noting that African-American spokesman Frederick Douglass was “doing a great job,” apparently at being dead, which he’d been since 1895. Or his wildly inaccurate impression of Confederate Commander In Chief Robert E. Lee’s advice to his troops, making it sound as if Lee hailed from Dublin, Ireland instead of Virginia: “‘Never fight up hill, me boys. Never fight up hill.”

The eloquence, the quiet dignity and respect captured in that HBO Philadelphia scene is so far removed from our current political world it seems like fiction, not a re-creation of what likely actually happened. True, we didn’t have video cameras in those days, we only have letters and recollections to capture what was said and done, but we do have Jefferson’s legacy, the glorious Declaration of Independence, which, according to the show, Adams induced him to write, ahead of all others.

About an hour into Episode Two, Jefferson, played by Stephen Dillane, asks Adams, why him? Now whether these were their actual words, we don’t know for certain. But the feel is so authentic — and so far removed the tone of our politics these days.

Jefferson: “What can possibly be your reasons?”

Adams: “First, you are a Virginian and a Virginian should be at the head of this business as it’s the most powerful state. Second, I am obnoxious, suspected and unpopular. And you are very much otherwise. Third, and perhaps more important, I have read your summary review of the rights of British America, and I have a great opinion of the elegance of your pen.”

Later, when Adams and Franklin proofread what Jefferson had written, they were stunned.

Adams: “Well, this is something altogether unexpected. Not only a declaration of our independence but of the rights of all men. This is, this is, this is well said, sir. Very, very well said…”

After Franklin suggests Jefferson’s original phrase : “Sacred and undeniable. Smacks of the pulpit,” he recommends an alternative.

Franklin: “These truths are self-evident, are they not?”

Jefferson: "Perhaps.”

And as we know, “self-evident” it becomes.

As he and Adams are the first to re-read the Declaration of Independence again, before the world had an inkling what appeared on that historic parchment, Franklin can’t help do what just about every person who read it or heard it ever since has done — gush.

Franklin: “This is a marvelous invention, Mr. Jefferson.”

Jefferson: “Well, it’s what I believe.”

We are so far from those days now, seem to have completely lost sight and feel of what our government was intended to do and why it was created in the first place. HBO’s “John Adams” series brilliantly reminds us of what they did — for us. And why.