This isn't really a book....it is a re-enactor....I sponsored a table for the Colonial Dames Luncheon today. I will update this post tomorrow....but I was afraid that I would forget some of the points that I want to think about...one is that John Adams was a Federalist while Thomas Jefferson who followed him was a Democrat/Republican.....Federalists wanted strong central govt....while the other party wanted state's rights....the re-enactor explained that while George Washington was the president there were not really parties....he was kind of a unanimous choice....but during the time that John Adams was in power, political parties began to take shape. I liked his thoughts about some of the other famous men: Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson for whom John Adams took some credit for having made him a part of the committee writing the Declaration of Independence. The reenacter said that Thomas Jefferson was VERY quiet but that John Adams knew him to be an excellent writer! My first hit via google looking this up says:
In 1776 Jefferson, then a member of the committee to draft a declaration of independence, was chosen by the committee to write the draft. This he did, with some minor corrections from John Adams and an embellishment from Franklin, the document was offered to the Congress on the first day of July.
I liked the idea of how much these men sacrificed of their private lives to bring forth the new nation.
I want to add some of the thoughts about the fact that it was John Adams who appointed Marshall as supreme court justice....and that it was because John Adams had the dream of the three separate government bodies that kept each other in check that Marshall helped to bring about the importance of the supreme court. I have done a very poor job of resaying what our re-enactor was trying to say....but as I reread it in Nov 2016, I think that the meaning can be understood well enough that I won't try to improve my words.
My good buddy, Sandra Ferguson, just posted (by serendipity) on the Old Chester County mail list the following:
This is Abigail's complete letter...... She was quite a woman. I read , years ago, a compilation of their letters to each other and it was wonderful. If memory serves it was
"Don't Forgot the Ladies" .....
http://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/abigail-adams-letter-to-john-adams-november-12-1775.html
I will say more about Abigail Adams in my post on Thomas Jefferson:
http://serendipityreading.blogspot.com/2016/11/thomas-jefferson.html
