John Adams to Abigail Adams, 236 Years Ago Tonight
This letter gives me chills every time I read it.
(Want real chills? Go look at the original letter written 236 years ago tonight, below the fold - his prediction is on page 3.).In 1776, John Adams pushed, prodded and greatly annoyed the members of the Second Continental Congress to break with England, hectoring them daily in the hot rooms of what we now call Independence Hall in Philadelphia until their resistance to independence was broken. He was a driven man, and later a second United States president of questionable quality. But in the months leading up to the writing of, and signing of the Declaration of Independence - which would never have been written or passed without his commitment - he saw what this country could be.
And in a series of intelligent, emotional and expressive letters home to Abigail - America's most extraordinary First Lady perhaps until Hillary - he told his well-educated wife everything, and gave us all his running commentary on America's beginning.
(Want real chills? Go look at the original letter written 236 years ago tonight, below the fold - his prediction is on page 3.).In 1776, John Adams pushed, prodded and greatly annoyed the members of the Second Continental Congress to break with England, hectoring them daily in the hot rooms of what we now call Independence Hall in Philadelphia until their resistance to independence was broken. He was a driven man, and later a second United States president of questionable quality. But in the months leading up to the writing of, and signing of the Declaration of Independence - which would never have been written or passed without his commitment - he saw what this country could be.
And in a series of intelligent, emotional and expressive letters home to Abigail - America's most extraordinary First Lady perhaps until Hillary - he told his well-educated wife everything, and gave us all his running commentary on America's beginning.