Three American presidents died on the Fourth of July. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both let go on the same day in 1826; James Monroe followed in 1831. We tell that story as a star-spangled coincidence — proof the date itself is somehow charged. But the two men who taught us the hardest lesson about the Fourth did not die on that day. “Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men … [and] the