Diary of John Quincy Adams, volume 1
1785-07-04
Calm weather continually: and so warm that it is almost insupportable. We still esteem ourselves 50 leagues East of the Bermudas. I wish'd very much to arrive in America before this day, which is the greatest day in the year, for every true American. The anniversary of our Independance. May heaven preserve it: and may the world still see
JQA's quotation is from “Britannia,” lines 195–199, by James Thomson, a
particular favorite of AA, who committed some of his work to memory. In
Thomson's poem, the first line given above actually reads: “A state, alone, where Liberty
should live” (The Complete Poetical Works of James Thomson,
ed. J. Logie Robertson, London, 1908, p. 477;
Adams Family Correspondence
, 1:391).