Posted on 03/19/2008 6:01:31 AM PDT by rellimpank
Thanks to the marketing power of HBO, John Adams is no longer the forgotten American revolutionary — at least for a week.
Adams feared his role would be neglected. Thomas Jefferson got all the credit for writing the Declaration of Independence, even though Adams was on that committee and had suggested that Jefferson draft it, since he was a better writer and a Virginian. (Adams wanted some geographic diversity to bind the southern colonies with New England in a common cause.)
For the same geopolitical reason, Adams proposed that George Washington of Virginia command the Continental Army. Adams also worked with Benjamin Franklin, the best-known American of the day. Little wonder that Adams predicted that future histories of the Revolution would recount that "Dr. Franklin's electrical rod smote the earth and out sprung General Washington. That Franklin electrified him with his rod and thence forward these two conducted all the policy, negotiation, legislation, and war."
Over the years, John Adams was also upstaged by his wife, Abigail. On March 31, 1776, as the Continental Congress discussed independence, she wrote to him that "in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. . . . We are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation."
(Excerpt) Read more at denverpost.com ...
bump for later
hehehe....It 's sad that some series go downhill like that. The producers start trying to milk it for money, so they get cheaper writers, thereby proving that you get what you pay for. Some series avoid that trap. Smallville is one that I think has managed to keep the writing sharp (not that there haven't been some sub-standard episodes), and Jericho was a big surprise to me. It started out great, then seemed to kind of drag down, but then it suddenly picked up again, and the outcry when it was cancelled was enough to bring it back, and with good writing intact. It reminded me a little of the outcry when Star Trek was cancelled back in the late 60's. Unfortunately, Roddenberry didn't get good writers for the third season, and we got such stinkers as "Spock's Brain". Jericho looks to have avoided that. I hope they don't jump any sharks with either series...
I was in the New Orleans area (Metarie, LA)a couple of years ago, the February after Katrina, when things were still pretty torn up. Got to spend some time with Dr. SteveJ (remember him?) who was a fantastic host, and gave me the grand tour of Baton Rouge. If you have the time, you would enjoy meeting him, and fellowshipping with him. I gar-on-tee!
Blessings Bro!
The producers of 24 actually said that their problem was Bush’s decline in popularity, proving only that they remain clueless.
Certainly do remember DrSteve. But we’ll be staying pretty close in the New Orleans area. Only there for a week, and just due to the situation, have to stick pretty close to together.
I enjoyed it.
Sorry to disapoint you with my writing style. Didn’t realize we were writing for a journal. Anyway, I guess you have to attack something. It is much better to discuss the facts and issues.
The problem with your statement is that Adams didn’t have very many followers. He kept the cabinet from Washington and they sabotaged him. When you say he played the game, are you referring to when he went against his own party to pursue peace with France or was it when he went against Jefferson’s party to prepare for war. Was it when he refused to be controlled by Hamilton or was it when he spent 7 months away from the capitol at home.
I don’t have a bubble to burst. I know that politics was a dirty business and that Adams participated but to say that he gave in to politics is to deny the facts. He did too many things that were detrimental to his own political future as President. He definitly wasn’t playing at politics when he sent the notice of peace from France to Jefferson to read on Senate floor. He gave his opponents what they wanted.
Anyway, just a discussion I am sad that you saw fit to cast insults instead of good discussion about politics and history when there is definitly a place for a discussion on this issue.
Unlike Reagan, who hated government but genuinely enjoyed governING, Adams loved government, but hated governING.
Cry me a river. You cast the first stone:
Have you read the book or any history.
No; I just normally sound off about things about which I know nothing.
See Marbury v. Madison.
Quite the sensitive one aren’t one. The original question was really what it was meant to be a simple question of whether you had read the book. It could have been answered with a yes and this is why I think that Adams was political.
Marbury v. Madison seems to me to be a different issue. It does highlight Adams going away from his principles at the end of his Presidency and appointing friends and family to federal offices. It is notable because he had argued against it earlier and his doing it at this time was I think an aberration. I have always wondered why he did it at that time when if he had done something similar at the beginning of his presidency he would have had a better chance at re-election. Then again Adams really had a knack for being unlikable. However, I do not believe that making those appointments at the end of his Presidency made him political.
From what I’ve read Adams merely signed that law but was not the man behind it.
I’ve also read that Adams was NOT a political animal (as another poster stated earlier) and that was one of his difficulties in dealing with others. I believe he also inherited a cabinet and was not ready for the political games that were played and he had no initial objection to the composition of that cabinet.
He was great in Sideways too.
But I disagree with your take on his accent/delivery as in Cinderella Man. Though his ‘british’ accent comes and goes, I think all the actors have that issue (or have been coached to not sound TOO British, as they were colonials) I definitely don’t hear Gould in his voice. He maintains the affectation pretty well.
Unless I totally misremember Cinderella Man, I don’t think his character had anything approaching an Englishman’s accent.
Oh come on.
Hamilton had personal issues of his own, one of them being his temper. More importantly, Hamilton strikes me as the REAL Proto-liberal, or perhaps ‘National greatness conservative’ at best. I don’t think much of his ultimate vision for the national government.
Jefferson may have been mistaken in his support for the French radicals but I can overlook that because he actually ATTEMPTED to get abolitionist legislation passed, was reserved in terms of public speaking (so not so much on the public preening you see from politicians) and was an immensely talented and brilliant individual.
I, probably unlike many here, appreciate his take on Christianity and religion itself and tend to agree with him. Was he a hypocrite on slavery? Certainly, but so was Washington.
I also admire a man who burns his correspondence with his wife after her death to preserve the couple’s intimacy. How many politicians would really do that today (other than for legal reasons lol) ??
Not a one of the Founders was perfect and I like Madison too. But I cannot ignore one of the individuals who still stands as one of the greatest Americans and WITHOUT the reputation-enhancement of oratory skill that has so assisted other figures.
Of course it does, because it proves you wrong. If last-minute patronage appointments to the Federal bench to stick it to your political opponent doesn't qualify as playing political games, then nothing does.
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