John Adams reflects on the Declaration of Independence

In 1826, just a few weeks before he died, John Adams received an invitation to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of American independence in his hometown of Quincy, Massachusetts. This was his reply:

"The present feeble State of my health will not permit me to indulge the hope of participating, with more than by my best wishes in the joys & festivities and the Solemn Services of that day; on which will be completed the fiftieth year from its birth, the Independence of these United States. A Memorable epoch in the annals of the human race; destined, in future history, to form the brightest or the blackest page, according to the use or the abuse of those political institutions by which they shall, in time to come, be Shaped, by the human mind."

• John Adams, Letter to John Whitney, June 7, 1826.