Welcome to the American Story.

Stories about all the things that make America the country we know and love.

Some of our listeners may recognize this story. It was one of our first episodes.

As we were about to mark another blessed year of American independence,

it seemed fitting to return to the idea of independence itself, the idea of political

freedom that inspired the heroes of the revolution, as it inspires all free peoples everywhere and

always. This is Chris Flannery with the Claremont Institute, wishing you and yours a very happy

Fourth of July. I call this one, Independence Forever.

The last letter in Thomas Jefferson's handwriting, of which we have any record, is an

RSVP, dated June 24, 1826. It's a response to an invitation from the mayor of Washington, D.C., to attend a celebration of the 50th anniversary of American Independence.

Jefferson was too ill to attend. In fact, he would die, as if American destiny had decreed it, on the day for which the celebration was scheduled, July 4, 1826, 50 years to the day

after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress, officially commencing

the independence of the United States of America. In his letter sent for Monticello,

Jefferson reflected on the meaning of the Declaration of Independence,

of which he was the famous author, and he showed that his revolutionary spirit had not dimmed.

He called the Declaration, an instrument pregnant with our own and the fate of the world.

May it be to the world, he wrote,

what I believe it will be,

to some parts sooner,

to others later,

but finally to all.

The signal of arousing men

...