Adams and Jefferson
Two of America’s Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, died on the same day. They were early allies, compatriots in developing the ideas that Jefferson brilliantly described in the Declaration of Independence. While they both were lawyers, they used their personal and regional differences: Adams a firebrand from Boston, Jefferson a scholarly man from Virginia; and joined the older Benjamin Franklin to shepherd the document through the Continental Congress.
Adams and Jefferson both went onto to serve in the Revolution, Adams in the Congress and Jefferson as Governor of Virginia, but came together again in France to negotiate the treaties to finally end the war and establish a new nation. Their “styles” clashed: Adams was a Boston “puritan” who looked with disdain at the excesses of the French royal court. Jefferson, like Franklin, was enamored with the intellectual breadth of the Age of Enlightenment, and with the luxuries Parisian social life provided.
Constitutional Government
And when a new government was instituted under the Constitution in 1787; both came back to serve President Washington and the Nation. Adams was Vice President, and Jefferson Secretary of State. They, along with the next generation of leaders like Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and others; clashed mightily over how the government should function.
Relations became so bitter that the friendship forged in Revolution was torn asunder. Through the Adams’ Presidency they continued to fight, even as Jefferson was Vice President. And in 1800, Adams’ left the new capital at Washington early, rather than see Jefferson’s inauguration to replace him.
Old Men
They remained enemies through Jefferson’s Presidency. But after they both retired from government life, the death of a comrade from the Revolution, Dr. Benjamin Rush, gave them pause. The generation that wrote the Declaration were in their seventies and eighties, and disappearing. In 1813, Jefferson wrote to Adams that only six remained of the fifty-five original signers. And so for the last thirteen years of their lives, they rekindled their friendship and regularly corresponded.
Like many old men, they seemed to choose the moment of their deaths. July 4th of 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration and the beginning of the United States, saw the final moments of both men. Adams was ninety-one years old and Jefferson eighty-three. The last words of John Adams’: “…at least Jefferson still survives”. He didn’t know that Jefferson was already gone.
Revolutionaries in the thirties, diplomats in their forties, government leaders in their fifties and sixties: they were the Revolutionary generation. They fought together. As Franklin said at the signing of the Declaration, “We must all hang together, or most assuredly, we will all hang separately”. They knew what was at risk – the final words of the Declaration itself made it clear: “…(W)e mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor”.
Common Purpose
And they fought against each other, as representatives of different visions of what the American government, and society, should be. It was more than bitter; as ugly a public fight as we have today. Adams was “fat-shamed”, called “His Rotundity”; and decried as wanting to become “King” and begin the “Adams Dynasty”. Jefferson was derided for having a slave as his paramour, and being a coward for not serving in the Continental Army. It was the kind of campaign where the wounds are so deep and personal, they never heal. It was the kind of hatred we are so familiar with today.
But in their last years, the ideas they risked “their sacred honor” for brought them together again. As old men, now observers of the government they created, they had a commonality of purpose. These two intellectual giants of the Revolution found each other again.
The New Year
The end of a year seems to a time of choosing the end of life for our retired leaders. Just in the past few weeks, we have said goodbye to Bob Dole, a wounded World War II veteran and a power in the United States Senate for decades. And just two days ago, Harry Reid passed away, less than a decade after he retired from that same Senate.
Both were men known for their biting wit and insults. But both were fierce warriors for their parties and beliefs, and for their vision of America. They could battle for their causes but still respect their opponents, a trait that seems lost in our current political climate.
Today’s essay, here at the end of 2021, is not to place blame for being in our current political circle of Hell. It is actually to point out that there is hope. Former friends, then bitter enemies Adams and Jefferson, reconciled at the end of their lives. America mourns both the loss of Bob Dole and Harry Reid. Maybe 2022 can offer some reconciliation, some hope. Or maybe we’ll have to wait longer, for a new generation to takeover, like Hamilton and Burr from Adams and Jefferson.
That turned out so well.
