[FEDCOM] Have a wonderful Fourth of July

[Arthur-Bryan E. Phelps]

Who knows where it started-this spark, this freedom-that makes us Americans.

By April 1775, the spark had set off wildfires. As the King's troops
advanced to Concord, Paul Revere would sound the alarm. Shortly thereafter,
the "shot heard 'round the world" was fired and the colonies were at war.

In June of 1776, at the Second Continental Congress, a committee was formed
to draft a formal Declaration of Independence. Has there been a committee
like that since? Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Phillip
Livingston, Roger Sherman were just some of the power houses involved.

Late in the afternoon of July 4, nine of the thirteen colonies voted in
favor of the Declaration, two voted against. One colony remained undecided
and one abstained.

By July 8, the spark that became a wildfire was a conflagration. The
Declaration was read to cheering crowds. Church bells pealed.

Nearly 50 years later, the fire yet burned brightly. In his last letter,
June 24, 1826, Thomas Jef-ferson wrote,

May it be to the world, what I believe it will be . . . the signal of
arousing men to burst the chains . . . and to assume the blessings and
security of self-government.  That form, which we have substituted, restores
the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion.
AH eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. . . . For ourselves,
let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these
rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.

This you may not know. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died July 4th,
1826. Jefferson had been in a coma and on the evening of July 3rd, he awoke
briefly. His last words were, "Is it the fourth?" He died the next day at
12:20 pm. At almost that exact moment, Adams fell ill and died at 6:00 pm.
His last words were:  ''Thomas Jefferson survives."

It's as if Jefferson and Adams came here to secure our freedom. To make sure
we kept it, they must have been told, "You must guard it carefully for 50
years and make sure. "

With their job done extremely well, they left us the same day, 50 years to
the day after the Decla-ration was passed.

Yes, Jefferson survives, and Adams, Franklin, Washington, and the others who
signed this pledge. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm
reliance on the protection of  Divine Providence, we mutually "pledge to
each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."

Every day that we walk freely, talk freely, practice our faith, change jobs,
cross state lines with-out a thought of barriers and borders, we are in
their debt.

No words, save their own, really suffice.
(Written for WACHOVIA Customer Service and Fedcom colleagues)