"Let us dare to read, think, speak and write."
John Adams, 1765
"Humanity obliges us to be affected with the distresses and Miserys of our fellow creatures. Friendship is a band yet Stronger, which causes us to feel with greater tenderness the afflictions of our Friends."
-- Abigail Smith, August 11, 1763
"The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival...It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more."
-- John Adams, July 3, 1776
"It's the human side of all of these subjects that interests me. I have no interest as a writer or historian to do an analytical appraisal of The Progressive Era. That just isn't what I do. I'm interested in the people, what happened to them and why. When I have a subject that has left a full and revealing record through personal correspondence, then I can get inside those lives, I can get below the surface and that's the job of a writer, it seems to me, to get below the surface.
This was true of Truman, who wrote such fantastic letters, particularly in the years when he had no idea he was going to be a protagonist in history; and the letters between John Adams and his wife are some of the greatest we have from any Americans over a thousand letters between John and Abigail Adams. They're all wonderfully written and long, and they tell you more than anybody else of that era about their personal lives and feelings. That's what's so remarkable about the Adams papers."
-- David McCullough, "Connecting with David McCullough," Dave Weich, Powells.com
1 comments:
At this time choas in our world, indeed as such grief between people has existed for many years preceeding 2008, I find that statements like this one from Mr. John Adams teaches us how we can promote solutions to our troubled world; by his words - dare to read..., civilized persons should take note that our U.S. Constitution was written by those men who pondered the effect ofthese very words. Thus, I suggest that such a testimony to the value of civilized debate, discourse, can be a device by which we could, if we choose to do so, solve our may problems and ensure peace and tanquility in the United States - if not the world. The ability to do so has been given to us by almighty God - whom I am sure guided the thinking of Mr. John Adams and the assembled men who sought such peace and tranquility in 1776.
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