John Adams
tarted reading Alexander Hamilton after finishing the 10/10 biography of John Adams. And through reading alone, I can not keep up with the energy of Hamilton. At 19, he thought he was late and wanted to finish college in 2 years, but Princeton didn't accede to his demands, so he had to apply to king's college, and he soon proved himself a prodigious writer, publishing an article a week while pursuing his studies. When he first engaged in the revolutionary war, he made an impression on military generals by his encyclopedic knowledge of military history and tactics, and he even instinctually predicted how the continental army will win through repeated skirmishes as opposed to facing them in the open.
Currently( page 83), he is realizing that, while books were useful, real life and heading an army to victory is trickier and there are so many real life dimensions he has to account for... But why was John Adams crucial to the independence?
John Adams was probably the wisest of all the founders.
Exhibit A: In first voyage overseas, he gets sent to France in hopes of signing a treaty with the French and, unlike Jefferson and Franklin who was living in France at the time as king and a darling of the french, he didn't feel that kind of fealty to the French and couldn't bring himself to be the yes man to all their demands. Instead, he realizes, that if we rely in our independence on the goodwill of the French alone, it is not really independence, so he engages his high agency gears and forges on to Holland without congress's directions ( a decision that proved crucial in later years) and spend time there to get loans from Holland where the spirit of liberty was alive.
Exhibit B: John Adams is back home, and the presidency is afoot, Jefferson and Hamilton are tête-a-tête. Jefferson is the apostle of republicanism: we don't want a monarchy, states shoukd retain their power, government should not have full discretion; Hamilton is head8ng the federalists and preaching the need of a powerful government. Meanwhile, John Adams picks no side, eventhough he is first choice for presidency against Jefferson.
Exhibit C. The wife of John Adams, Abigail, is probably the reason behind his successes and wisdom: she has this timeless wisdom as evidenced by the content of correspondence between them while he was away with John Quincy, which totaled 10 yrs. But even then, when she for example, wants him multiple times against Hamilton( " beware of that second Bonaparte") or by trying to reveal the enmity Jefferson has against him, he doesnt take her seriosuly, and chooses to maintain his composure.
Exhibit D. At the end of their lives, after having a lot of acrimony between them, a third party intervene between them and tell John Adams I saw in a dream that Jefferson and Adams has resumed their correspondance and posterity deemed it the event of the millennium. He immediately thank him and starts writing letters to Jefferson which made the final period of the two men's lives the most intimate where they talked about everything from science, religion, art, literature, and Shakespeare... etc. In one letter Jefferson says: I am so glad I got a friend whom I can talk with about different subjects and he doesnt think I just landed from the moon.
And then they both died within hours on the 50th anniversary? Incroyable