Paris is unique.
Yes, and best enjoyed in the company of women.
Women would add interest to many things, Mr. Jefferson, if men would allow it.
Well, that has been my experience, Ms. Adams.
Reunion
I've resolved to renounce embarrassment in favor of enjoyment
BFBenjamin Franklin
The English love an insult. It's their only test of a man's sincerity.
Benjamin Franklin: There is talk of a convention in Philadelphia. They are to discuss a binding constitution. I hope to attend if only to have an effect on the style of its prose.
Thomas Jefferson: I expect that any constitutional document that emerges from Philadelphia will be as compromised as our Declaration of Independency. I am increasingly persuaded that the Earth belongs exclusively to the living and that one generation has no more right to bind another to its laws and judgments than one independent nation has the right to command another.
John Adams: But surely the Constitution, as it did with the ones we wrote for our own states, is meant to establish the stability and the long-term legality essential to the continuation of a civilized society.
Thomas Jefferson: Yes, possibly. But I fear it could prove a breach in the integrity of our revolutionary ideals through which will pour the forces of reaction.
John Adams: [to Franklin] Doctor, Mr. Jefferson's pet topic is not the artful arrangement of political power but the cordoning off of a space in which no power exists at all. [to Jefferson] You, sir, you are a walking contradiction.
Benjamin Franklin: We're all contradictions, Mr. Adams.
John Adams: Indeed yes. And what is government ultimately but the putting into effect of the lessons which we have learned in dealing with the contradictions in our own characters?
BFBenjamin Franklin
It is no small thing to build a new world, gentlemen. We have our republic. We must endeavour to keep it if we can.
[King George III receives John Adams at the Court of St. James, the first time the King has met with an emissary from the United States]
John Adams: The United States of America... The United States of America have appointed me minister plenipotentiary to Your Majesty. I think myself more fortunate than all of my fellow citizens in having the distinguishing honor of being the first to stand in Your Majesty's presence in a diplomatic character. I shall esteem myself the happiest of men if I can be instrumental in restoring the confidence and affection, or, in better words, the good old nature and the good old humour between peoples who, though separated by an ocean and under different governments, have the same language, the same religion, and kindred blood. I beg Your Majesty's permission to add that though I have been before entrusted by my country, it was never in my whole life in a manner more agreeable to myself.
King George III: The circumstances of this audience are so extraordinary, the language you have held is so extremely proper, and the feelings you have discovered so justly adapted to the occasion that I not only receive with pleasure the assurance of the friendly disposition of the United States, but I am very glad that the choice has fallen on you to be their minister. I will be very frank with you. I was the last to consent to separation. But the separation having been made and having become inevitable, I have always said, as I say now, that I would be the first to meet the friendship of the United States as an independent power.
John Adams: Thank you, Your Majesty.
King George III: There is an opinion among some people, Mr. Adams, that you are not the most attached of all your countrymen to the manners of France.
John Adams: [suppresses laughter] Yes, well, I avow to Your Majesty that I have no attachment to any country but my own.
King George III: An honest man will never have any other.
John Adams: Here's a fine culmination to all my years of service. Fewer than half the votes of the Electoral College. General Washington is unanimously acclaimed president with 69 votes, whereas I apparently am scorned by all but 34 of the electors.
Abigail Adams: John, there are two, four, six, eight, ten other names here. You have more votes than all of them put together. And John Jay comes in third with nine.
John Adams: Nonetheless, I consider ... I consider such a showing a stain upon my character.
Abigail Adams: John!
John Adams: I will not and I cannot accept it.
Abigail Adams: John, you are vice president now.
Unite or Die
I have seen what the future holds, Abigail. Men and manners, principles, opinions. They've altered very much in this country. Authority is our only protection against discord, civil war and sedition. Now the office of the president, no doubt, is sufficient to establish such authority. But we must not be surprised if we ever find we need a monarch -
Oh! You would do well -
- to keep us from coming asunder!
- to keep your thoughts to yourself, John! People will say that your mind has been tainted by foreign courts. They are already saying such things in Boston.
I've been, as you know, in revolutionary France, where the streets are filled with the songs of Liberty and Brotherhood, and the overthrow of ancient tyrannies of Europe. And to return from there to this, our cradle of revolution, and find the dinner table chatter is all of money, and banks, and authority, is an unwelcome surprise.
Unwelcome perhaps, but necessary.
The future prosperity of this nation rests chiefly in trade. Trade depends, among other things, on the willingness of other nations to lend us money.
And how would you propose to establish international credit?
Our first step would be to incur a national debt. The greater the debt, the greater the credit. And to that end I have recommended to the president that Congress adopt all the debts incurred by the individual states during the war through a national bank. The idea being that if the states owe Congress money, then other nations will feel more inclined to lend it to us.
If the states are indebted to a central authority, it increases the power of the central government.
There you have it exactly. The greater the government's responsibility, the greater its authority.
The moneyed interest in this country is all in the north, so the wealth and power would inevitably be concentrated there in a federal government. To the expense of the south.
If that is the case, it is unavoidable if the Union is to be preserved.
I fear our revolution will have been in vain if a Virginia farmer is to be held in hock to a New York stock jobber, who in turn is in hock to a London banker. The opportunities for avarice and corruption would certainly prove irresistible.
Well there you have it, as I have heard said, "If men were angels then no government would be necessary."
Our constitution has many good articles, and some bad ones. I do not know yet which predominate.
Well without this government our republic would have collapsed into anarchy long ago.
With this government, I am not certain that we are a republic.
Well... to the revolution.
Whose?
[angrily] They are one and the same, John! Are they not?
Mr. President.
GWGeorge Washington
Mr. President.
Thank you, sir. Thank you.
GWGeorge Washington
I am fairly out, and you are fairly in. See which of us will be the happiest.
Unnecessary War
John Adams: There has been a gross misunderstanding with France that I must reconcile.
Thomas Jefferson: You made a devil's pact with the British, their sworn enemy. And ours, I'd thought.
John Adams: It may be difficult, Thomas, if not impossible, for me to maintain neutrality, but to be drawn into war with either France or England when our own confederation is still so fragile would be suicidal. It could bankrupt the nation, divide the people even further, lead God knows where. Now I am of a mind to send an envoy extraordinary to strengthen our hand in dealing with the French government. And I can think of no one more qualified to engage with Foreign Minister Talleyrand than yourself. And nothing would give me greater pleasure than to rekindle our partnership.
Thomas Jefferson: Some may say you seek to remove a rival for public office.
John Adams: Well, let them prattle. As a known friend of France, your presence would reflect our seriousness of purpose. No one can object to that.
Thomas Jefferson: I cannot accept this commission.
John Adams: Do you tell me this as my vice president or as the head of your party?
Thomas Jefferson: That you and I differ on our assessment of the best form of government for these states united is well-known to us both.
John Adams: Yes, but we have only differed as friends should do, respecting the purity of each other's motives. Oh, surely you and I, Thomas, can rise above the din of politics.
Thomas Jefferson: Nowhere is the din of politics greater than in your own cabinet, which you have inherited from Washington without making a single change. They are Hamilton's men. They are determined upon a course of war with France.
JMJames McHenry
War is inevitable, sir.
No, war is never inevitable. It must be the course of last resort. How great would be the guilt of an unnecessary war?
These quotes come from Wikiquote's John Adams pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.