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.” The committee agrees with Adams, and Jefferson takes up his pen. On July 2, Congress votes to declare America’s independence from Great Britain, a date that Adams believes will be forever remembered. In a letter written to his wife Abigail on July 3, Adams asserts: “The second day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe …