The Letters of Adams and Jefferson

This poignant segment from the HBO series "John Adams" describes the years of correspondence between Adams in Massachusetts and Thomas Jefferson at Monticello in Virginia. Hard feelings had come between Adams and Jefferson over the election of 1800, which Jefferson won. Adams had returned to Massachusetts defeated and resentful. He thought he had lost any chance of being remembered in history as Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson would be. But over the years, his bitterness lessened, and with encouragement from an old friend, Benjamin Rush, he sat down and wrote a letter to Jefferson. "You and I ought not die, before we have explained ourselves to each other," he wrote. Jefferson immediately wrote back. In their remaining years, they wrote 150 letters to each other, one of the greatest correspondences in American history.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• John
• Adams
• HBO
• Thomas
• Jefferson
• Monticello

[livinglegend01]

If only modern society was able to forgive one another and hold a sense of dignity about it as well. Sadly people are unaware of either or because they have neither sense for forgiveness nor any dignity - only pride.

God knows how brittle pride makes relationships between people.

[BrOkEnCyDebitchh]

Whatever happend to this type of government? Why cant our government go back to being One for all, then All for one? sigh

[awakened2ug]

Jefferson in all his years of correspondence as President and the years after his presidency, kept all the letters he wrote and would make duplicates of those letters. The device seen was in essence a copying tool, which made a duplicate of the letter he was writing. Jefferson wrote thousands of letters, and this device saved him an immense amout of time.

[ASamson123]

what is that writing tool Jefferson uses 1:00- 1:17?

[snipetracker]

While I enjoyed this series, and I appreciated how they were keen on production details, for some reason the chronology was rather poor. The footsteps that you hear just before the sequence begins are those of Benjamin Rush, suggesting to Adams to pick up the pen and reconcile with Jefferson. However, Abigail died some years after Adams and Jefferson commenced their great correspondence, and his daughter died a year after the correspondence began as well.

[sfafasfasfsa]

@mynyms we need all of them. honestly look at the men in the first cabinet Jefferson and Hamilton both great men honorable and thoughtful. george washington at the head with john adams as VP wow.... just amazing. Washington had only a slightly better then normal IQ but listened to both sides and surrounded himself with great men

[TheIcelandicPatriot]

One man once said. We seem to have reached the age where life stops giving us things and starts taking them away.

[soulcamille]

@bpvogel awwww. sorry about your loss.

[fdny9682]

@bpvogel dude thats an amazng post

[bpvogel]

When my wife passed away 5 yrs ago at the very young age of 36 yrs old, I would read Thomas Jefferson's heartfelt and beautifully written condolence letter to John Adams to help me put one foot in front of the other and keep going.

It is the same letter narrated in this video, but so much more impactful when read than listened to. It is too long to post as a comment, but can be found here:

ww-dot-familytales-dot-org-sla­sh-dbDisplay.php?id=ltr_thj170­0&collection=9

[Odstx17]

@mynyms im sorry we need John Adams now more then ever.

[BrOkEnCyDebitchh]

@tmccart3 i fucking love them, :P