John Adams
Widely regarded as the "president after Washington", John Adams has recently begun to shine in the minds of recent historians. Some little known facts such as how he turned down the opportunity to write the Declaration of Independence (he felt he was more valuable on the floor of Congress), was the only one of our founding father not to own slaves during his entire life, and probably saved the democracy by avoiding a war with France are finally taking light and granting him his rightful place in history.
Correspondence with Jefferson
Generally regarded as the most intellectually impressive correspondence between American statesmen in all of American history, the dialogue between Adams and Jefferson touched on a host of timely and timeless subjects: the role of religion in history, the aging process, the emergence of an American language, the French Revolution, and the party battles of the 1790s. Adams put it most poignantly to Jefferson: “You and I ought not to die, before We have explained ourselves to each other.”
More than the elegiac tone of the letters, the correspondence dramatized the contradictory impulses generated by the American Revolution and symbolized by the two aging patriarchs. Adams was the realist, the skeptic, the principled pessimist. Jefferson was the idealist, the romantic, the pragmatic optimist. As if according to a script written by providence, the “Sage of Quincy” and the “Sage of Monticello” died within hours of each other on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary to the day of the Declaration of Independence.
Recommended Readings
David McCullough
John Adams
Overshadowed by the lustrous presidents Washington and Jefferson, who bracketed his tenure in office, Adams emerges from McCullough's brilliant biography as a truly heroic figure--not only for his significant role in the American Revolution but also for maintaining his personal integrity in its strife-filled aftermath. McCullough spends much of his narrative examining the troubled friendship between Adams and Jefferson, who had in common a love for books and ideas but differed on almost every other imaginable point. Reading his pages, it is easy to imagine the two as alter egos. (Strangely, both died on the same day, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.) But McCullough also considers Adams in his own light, and the portrait that emerges is altogether fascinating.
John Ferling
John Adams: A Life
If you are interested in learning more about our John Adams, this is one of the best works ever written on him. John Ferling did an extraordinary biography using facts, not fiction in altering our original conception of our second president. Historians of late seem to be elevating Adams' importance to beyond that of Jefferson and this book along with several others make a strong case for it.
Joseph Ellis
Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams
The felicitously written book has done a great deal to raise John Adams' reputation among the general public. Ellis concentrates on Adams' retirement years with chapters on his political writings, his correspondence with Jefferson, his other friendships, and his family life. While Ellis' goal is to explore Adams' character, this book necessarily covers Adams' remarkable achievements and explains clearly Adams' contributions as a political thinker. Adams was a complex figure; warm-hearted, sometimes vituperative, an unsystematic thinker and writer and thinker with remarkable insights. Adams refusal to accept the somewhat facile conventions of Jeffersonian liberalism made him an anachronism but his skepticism about American exceptionalism proved prescient. Adams was also remarkably accurate in major policy decisions. Over and over again, he made the right choice, even when his choices were unpopular.
Sources
Encyclopedia Britannica
The American Revolution