Thinking about a musical and a well-traveled email on this Fourth of July

We just finished watching 1776 in our house -- a 4th of July tradition for us.

It's a musical, not a monograph, and there are some liberties taken in the story of how the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence -- no, John Adams did not really arrange for Thomas Jefferson's wife to visit Philadelphia so that Jefferson would stop mooning and get busy writing the Declaration -- but there's a lot that's accurately portrayed as well.

And there's stuff that should be accurate (even if it's not): In the movie, after Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence, further requiring that no man be permitted to sit in Congress without affixing his name to the document, John Dickinson withdraws, saying he could not in good conscience sign the Declaration because he would never give up hope for the eventual reconciliation between America and Britain. However, he said, because, in his own way, he loves America no less than John Adams (with whom he's been sparring throughout the picture), he would enlist in the Army and fight to defend his country, even though he believed the cause to be hopeless. As he walks from the room, John Adams leaps to his feet calls out, "Gentlemen of the Congress, I say ye, John Dickinson." He bowed to his recent antagonist as the other members rose, pounding their tables in applause and assent.

The scene is a magnificent illustration of how political opponents can (and should be) respectful of each other.

Of course, as the linked Wikipedia biography shows, the musical invents most of the scene. Dickinson either stayed away from the meetings at which the decisive votes were taken or abstained. But he did withdraw from Congress after the Declaration was adopted and enlisted in the Pennsylvania militia. And when Dickinson died, in 1808, Thomas Jefferson, by then President of the United States, wrote, "A more estimable man, or truer patriot, could not have left us. Among the first of the advocates for the rights of his country when assailed by Great Britain, he continued to the last the orthodox advocate of the true principles of our new government and his name will be consecrated in history as one of the great worthies of the revolution."

Every year, when I watch 1776, I am reminded of the email that just about everyone gets around this time of year, about the 'price paid' by the 56 Signers. I've liked to an Internet version of that well-traveled email; it's a sobering read.

I've often wondered just how accurate the email was; this year, I resolved to find out.

It turns out that, despite the name of the site I linked to (whatreallyhappened.com), the Signers' fates email is a mixture of true and false information. So says Internet debunker Snopes.com. Life was not all beer and skittles for the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, but the price they paid was not quite so high as the email claims.

Unfortunately, although understandably, the Snopes.com article focuses more on the inaccuracies in the circular and not on the accurate parts. But USHistory.org, a website maintained by the Independence Hall Association in Philadelphia, provides short biographies of all 56 Signers, indexed on a single page of the website. The truth may not be quite as dramatic as the 'price paid' email, but the truth is more than sufficiently inspirational.

Have a Glorious Fourth.