Two of America's earliest Presidents with some interesting last words (along w/an explanation for them)....
(1) Thomas Jefferson still lives. - John Adams, after waking momentarily, 1826
(2) Is it the Fourth? - Thomas Jefferson, evening July 3; Jefferson died the next morning — 1826
The backstory here is interesting; both Adams and Jefferson were Revolutionary leaders during America's war for independence agst. the British and were the 2nd and 3rd Presidents of the United States. Unfortunately, the two of them very much opposites politically - Adams was a staunch Federalst and had helped craft the controversial Alien & Sedition Acts; Jefferson was a Democrat-Republican and wrote the Kentucky & Virginia Resolutions opposing them.
Indeed, the 1800 election resulted in a decade-long feud where they refused to speak to one another for about a decade but eventually they reconciled via. the assistance of fellow Revolutionary Benjamin Rush and remained friends through the remainder of their lives. Both of them, ironically, would pass away on July 4, 1826, marking both a poignant end to their respective lives but also an end to the Revolutionary Generation (most of their contemporaries having already died in years prior) and according to historians, Adams' last words were amazement over the fact that his once-rival and contemporary had supposedly outlived him, unaware that Jefferson had died several hours earlier (Jefferson died around 1pm; Adams around 6:30pm).
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