SALENA ZITO: Don’t Remove History’s Lessons.

Not all of America’s original Colonists supported independence when the document was adopted here; Pennsylvania’s own John Dickinson refused to sign. “I had rather forfeit popularity forever, than vote away the blood and happiness of my countrymen,” he declared.

Nonetheless, he soon joined the Continental Army to fight the British.

William Franklin, Benjamin’s son and New Jersey’s governor in 1776, remained a loyalist to the British crown; the tension of differing political views created a rift between father and son that never healed.

Support for the ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness shared by two of the signers — John Adams of Massachusetts, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia — in time led to deep division between the two men over how to achieve those ideals; it escalated to the point, as politics often does, of turning them into bitter adversaries.

When they challenged each other for the presidency, the campaign was vicious and personal and would make today’s politicians blush. Not until old age did they reconcile through correspondence.

On his deathbed on July 4, 1826, 50 years after he pushed Jefferson to draft the Declaration of Independence, Adams’ reported last words were: “Thomas Jefferson survives.”

He was wrong: The Virginian, 82, former president and patriot, died five hours earlier at his beloved Monticello.

We all have differences. Most of us have the capacity to forgive when those differences get heated.

Yet none of us should forget the history — all of it — that made us who we are in this country.

Indeed.