SUCH a great book! It is full of fact, but written in such a way that keeps you interested the entire time. Thank goodness for the amazing history found in all of the letters John Adams wrote. How incredible to have actual thoughts and feelings and worries and joys and frustrations and EVERYTHING associated with the founding of our country. It made me very aware of how important journals and record keeping are.
I was also touched by John Adam's love and respect for his wife, Abigail. I love that she had her own opinions and relationships and ideals, separate from her husband, but together they were still very much a united front.
I was also constantly impressed by what a good and honest and true man he was, yet he was ridiculed for being that way. In times it actually worked against him. John Adams' political character was attacked by someone who was once a dear friend and his own response sums up the kind of man he actually was perfectly.
"...I never soliced a vote in my life for any public office. I never swerved from any principle, I never professed any opinion - I never concealed even any speculative opinion - to obtain a vote. I never sacrificed a friend or betrayed a trust. I never hired scribblers to defame my rivals. I never wrote a line of slander against my bitterest enemy, nor encouraged it in any other."
I can't help but wonder what he would think of our country now. He and Abigail sacrificed so much to help grant us our freedoms, and I wonder if he would be pleased with what our country has become, or appalled. There is a quote from Abigail, "Posterity who are to reap the blessings will scarcely be able to conceive the hardships and sufferings of their ancestors."
After reading this book, I am certain that Heavenly Father had everything to do with the foundation of our country. There were so many miracles come to pass that it is impossible to think otherwise. I had no idea that John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died the EXACT same day, on July 4th, a day that meant everything to them. They were the last two signers of the Declaration of Independence still alive, they had a very close and complicated relationship, and they lived nowhere near eachother at the time of their deaths. Thomas Jefferson died first, and according to several accounts, John Adams last words were, "Thomas Jefferson survives". This makes me think that perhaps Thomas Jefferson was there waiting for him on the other side.
I give this book an "A"!
And how's that for a long book review?!
