Our second and third presidents lived long lives for their time and were instrumental in epochal events in world history. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson not only helped build their new country and serve it as chief executives, but maintained a long but sometimes strained friendship from the 1770s until their deaths on, incredibly, the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. This volume contains the complete correspondence between the two as well as between Jefferson and Abigail Adams.
Adams and Jefferson were ambassadors to Britain and France, respectively, in the 1780s, and their correspondence during those years dealt with issues involved in helping their new country get its footing in the world--they discussed treaties, trade and commerce, national credit, threats of war, and the proper size and strength of our military. Letters during this time touch on differences between the characters of England and France and between those of England and America. Some of the letters exchanged during their diplomatic posts were even written in code.
After the two returned to the United States, there was a hiatus in the correspondence since the two were working in government and could talk to each other face-to-face. After the epic election of 1800 in which Jefferson unseated Adams, the friendship cooled for many years. Abigail Adams made an effort at reconciliation in 1804, but the letters exchanged in that year reveal partisan strife that was still too strong in that moment, and the wounds from 1800 had not yet healed.
Adams had been out of office for eleven years and Jefferson for three in early 1812 when the two finally reconciled. They then focused on larger philosophical issues--the long list of topics broached in their later years included science, religion, the improvements of the eighteenth century, philosophy, marriage, aristocracy, education, the future of America, banks, books, free speech and thought, the afterlife, language, dealing with slander, and even whether life was worthwhile. The two did not totally neglect politics in their retirement correspondence, though, reflecting back on the Revolution and other political issues, including political science, and noting that they were two of the last of the Revolutionary generation to survive. In their very last years, they frequently discussed aging, life in retirement, and health issues.
When reading these letters, the ways in which life was different then are brought home, including slow travel and communication and customs no longer observed. However, the letters also show the commonalities about life in any century, including big historical happenings, and it is fascinating to read Jefferson and Adams react to Shays' Rebellion, the Constitutional Convention, the War of 1812, the Napoleonic Wars, the Panic of 1819, and the election of John Quincy Adams to the presidency as those events happened. Readers will find that sayings such as "irons in the fire," "in the dumps," and "the cat is out of the bag" were already in use two centuries ago.
These letters show that Jefferson and Adams had differences in personality and temperament, but both were supremely consequential statesmen and political philosophers, and the country is fortunate that this correspondence was preserved for future generations of Americans to read. This volume has a good preface and introduction, and history buffs who tackle this long correspondence will likely be glad that they did so.
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