February 27, 2015

Revolutionary visionary


In short my dear Friend you and I have been indefatigable Labourers through our whole Lives for a Cause which will be thrown away in the next generation, upon the Vanity and Foppery of Persons of whom we do not now know the Names perhaps. — The War that is now breaking out will render our Country, whether she is forced into it, or not, rich, great and powerful in comparison of what she now is, and Riches Grandeur and Power will have the same effect upon American as it has upon European minds. -  John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson, Oct. 9, 1787

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Adams, the first president to pretend to be royalty, had no room to talk.

Anonymous said...

1787 kinda early to say, since Adams and Jefferson were not yet in power. He couldn't mean JQA. But it did come to pass, e.g. Buchanan. Adams' 1820 remarks published at wikisource describing his revolutionary elders are revealing- hard core paranoia about America becoming another India. The founders had a vision that the US would have about 120 million people from coast to coast. That did happen.