On July 4, 1826, former presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson passed away in Massachusetts and Virginia respectively. The two men died on the 50th anniversary of their greatest achievement — the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Serving in the Second Continental Congress in 1776, Adams and Jefferson, along with Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut and Robert Livingston of New York, had been appointed to the Committee of the Five. The committee had been charged with writing a declaration that stated the reasons and justifications for the American colonies' separation from England.

The main job of writing fell to Jefferson, who, though the youngest member of the committee, was considered the best writer. Franklin and Adams contributed most of the ideas and worked closely with Jefferson as the document was prepared. Though the congress approved the declaration on July 2, it was not formally ratified and announced to the public until July 4.

Adams and Jefferson went on to play key roles in the American Revolution and after. Adams journeyed to Europe and, working with Franklin, conducted diplomacy in Paris. Eventually, Adams was key in negotiating French and Dutch loans to help finance the United States' war effort. After Great Britain had recognized American independence in 1783, Adams served as the American ambassador to London.

Jefferson served in Virginia state politics, eventually serving as governor for two one-year terms. After the revolution, he served again in Congress where he was involved in many early political questions, and drafted the Northwest Ordinance, and was eventually made a law in 1787. It set the groundwork for admitting new states to the Union, rather than simply expanding existing states westward. In 1784, he was appointed ambassador to France.

During this period Adams and Jefferson were close, two Americans living in Europe. Jefferson's wife, Martha, had died in 1782, and the widower enjoyed visiting Adams and his wife, Abigail, in England, or hosting the two when they visited France.

Their personal friendship was soon strained by their politics. The adoption of the Constitution in 1787 saw them taking different sides on key political issues of the day. Returning to America, Adams was soon elected vice president under George Washington, who appointed Jefferson his secretary of state. Both Washington and Adams tended to gravitate politically toward the Federalist Party, led by Alexander Hamilton, the secretary of the treasury.

Jefferson opposed Hamilton's favoring of Britain over France for trade and diplomacy, his desire to build American unity upon the foundation of shared debt, and his insistence that capitalism and industry were America's future, rather than small agricultural enterprises. To this end, Jefferson formed the Democratic Republican Party.

Though Adams was not formally a Federalist, he enjoyed Hamilton's backing during his 1796 presidential bid. Adams won the election with 71 electoral votes to Jefferson's 68. In line with the Constitution of the day, the candidate who received the second most votes was elected to the vice presidency. Though Adams and Jefferson's politics were radically different, the two men would serve as president and vice president.

Jefferson opposed most of Adams policies. Being pro-French, Jefferson was horrified when relations between Washington, D.C., and Paris began to break down and war loomed on the horizon. Adams, however, had no desire to fight a war with France, and soon worked out an agreement. Jefferson also took issue with the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts, which Adams supported, largely to crack down on French nationals in the U.S.

The two men soon stopped talking, and their former friendship turned to bitter resentment. When Jefferson bested Adams in the 1800 presidential election, the New Englander refused to attend the younger man's inauguration, and left the White House in a carriage bound for his home in Quincy, Massachusetts.

The two didn't communicate for years.

In 1811, their mutual friend, Dr. Benjamin Rush, himself a signer of the Declaration of Independence, encouraged Adams to reach out to his old friend. On Jan. 1, 1812, Adams wrote a letter to Jefferson at his home in Monticello, Virginia, which was received warmly. In the book, “John Adams,” biographer David McCullough wrote:

“Within months, a half dozen letters had traveled the roads between Quincy and Monticello, and one of the most extraordinary correspondences in American history — indeed, in the English language — was under way. In two years' time, 50 letters went back and forth, and this was but the beginning. They wrote of old friends and their own friendship, of great causes past, common memories, books, politics, education, philosophy, religion, the French, the British, the French Revolution, American Indians, the American navy, their families, their health, slavery — eventually — and their considered views on life, society, and always, repeatedly, the American Revolution.”

The two men communicated in earnest through the post, though they would never see each other again. In fact, the collection of letters between Adams and Jefferson represents the largest such collection extant between two former presidents. Both men lived long enough to see Adams' son, John Quincy, elected president in 1825.

By the summer of 1826 both men, advanced in age — Adams was 90; Jefferson was 83 — had fallen ill, and each man's friends and family knew that the end was near. Jefferson fell into a coma on the night of July 3. When surrounded by his family and doctor, he awoke long enough to ask, “Is it the fourth?” He regained consciousness sometime later to ask his slave, Burwell, to adjust his pillow. The great man expired at 1 o'clock in the afternoon on July 4.

To the north, Jefferson's old friend and rival lay on his deathbed as well. McCullough wrote:

“Adams lay peacefully, his mind clear, by all signs. Then late in the afternoon, according to several who were present in the room, he stirred and whispered clearly enough to be understood, 'Thomas Jefferson survives.’”

Sometime later, he called for help from a granddaughter, then he too breathed his last. The time was around 6:30 p.m. With the exception of Charles Carroll of Maryland, all of the signers of the Declaration of Independence no longer walked the Earth. In the book, “American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson,” biographer Joseph J. Ellis wrote:

“Although (Jefferson's) fear of living too long proved justified, his providential demise on July 4, 1826, spared him the ultimate tragedy of watching all his worldly possessions ... sold to the highest bidder. All America was still talking about the simultaneous death of Adams and Jefferson, on the 50th anniversary to the day of their great collaboration of 1776, though in Virginia there was some expressions of resentment that Adams had edged his way into the dramatic departure scene with the great Virginian, even claims that reports of the date of Adams's death must be 'a d---'d Yankee trick.’”

For many Americans, the death of these two giants of the American Revolution signaled the end of an era. The country's great generation that had fought a war for independence and then founded the republic was dying off. Many attitudes of the time no doubt reflect the current awareness of the loss of our own “greatest generation,” the men and women who weathered the Great Depression and defeated the Axis powers in World War II.

Cody K. Carlson holds a master's in history from the University of Utah and teaches at Salt Lake Community College. An avid player of board games, he blogs at thediscriminatinggamer.com. Email: ckcarlson76@gmail.com