Our Sacred Honor: Reflections on the Fourth of July

ROUND TOP, TX - JULY 04: Kaitlyn Tarnoswki, 14, carries an American flag while riding a horse during the 168th annual Round Top Fourth of July Parade on July 4, 2018 in Round Top, Texas. The Round Top community's Fourth of July celebration started in 1851 and is known as the longest running Fourth of July celebration west of the Mississippi. Photo by Tamir Kalifa/Getty Images

The place: Philadelphia. The time: June 1776.

The Continental Congress appoints a Committee of Five—Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Robert Livingston of New York, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, and chairman John Adams of Massachusetts—to draw up a declaration of independence from Britain. Though John Adams seems the natural choice to write the initial draft of this document, he defers to the Virginian for several reasons, telling Jefferson by his own account, “You can write ten times better than I can.”