Rays of Ravishing Light and Glory

Today is the 242nd commemoration of the ratification of the United States Declaration of Indepedence, which took place on July 4th, 1776. Had it been left up to John Adams, however, a signatory of the Declaration, an agitator for independence and, subsequently, our first vice president and 2nd president under the U.S. Constitution, we would have had a three-day weekend this week.

Adams declared in a letter to his wife, Abigail, that July 2nd, the day the 2nd Continental Congress passed a resol...