JFK LAYS WREATH AT INDEPENDENCE MONUMENT IN MEXICO CITY
Mexico City (JFK+50) Sixty years ago, June 30, 1962, President John F. Kennedy participated in a wreath laying ceremony at Independence Monument* located here in Mexico City.
President Kennedy said...
"The people who wrote the Declaration of Independence...recognized...they were not merely advancing a theory of government for the people of the United States, but for the people around the world."
*Independence Monument, a.k.a. Angel Monument, is a victory column on a roundabout in downtown Mexico City. It was built in 1910 for the centenary of Mexican independence.
JFK+50 NOTE
Some might wonder why JFK said "the people who wrote" the D of I rather than Thomas Jefferson who most recognize as the author.
President Kennedy was a student of history so he would have known that a Committee of Five was assigned by the Continental Congress on June 11, 1776 to write the Declaration. In addition to Jefferson, other committee members were Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman & Robert Livingston.
Since Jefferson was recognized as the best writer on the committee, he was chosen to write the first draft. Benjamin Franklin made minimal changes but "the draft was more thoroughly changed" by the Congress.
The Library of Congress says that Jefferson "retained his prominent role in writing the (Declaration)," & doing so it "was the defining event" of his life. Mr. Jefferson must have agreed because he chose it as one of three accomplishments to be engraved on his tombstone at Monticello.
SOURCES
"Benjamin Franklin and the Declaration of Independence," by Doug Day, The Current, The Franklin Institute, www.fi.edu/
"Thomas Jefferson," Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/
