Back to Our Roots

At age 84, Gordon Wood is still doing book tours.  As the nation’s foremost living historian of the Revolutionary period, Mr. Wood is out lecturing on his new book, “Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.”  Wood is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the Medal of Honor.   He is mentioned in the same breath as Page Smith and Samuel Eliot Morison.  His writing is clear, readable and accessible.

And in these tumultuous political times, he is just the sane voice the doctor ordered.  With a swath of the country convinced that America is a colonial, dominant power that is a source of evil and discord in the world, Wood reminded me of our glorious heritage through his latest book, contrasting two of our most important Founders.   Wood’s mind is still crisp.  Although academic looking, he moves with the body of a man thirty years younger.  His presentation was organized, methodical and he steered completely clear of our modern day politics, even in the question and answer.

Gordon would could have entitled his book “Frenemies.”  Jefferson and Adams represented two polar aspects of the young nation, and their views echo to this day.  Jefferson was optimistic about human nature and confident in the future.  Adams had a much more cynical nature about the human condition.  Jefferson thought people were blank slates and were created equal.  Adams was on the opposite pole of the nature/nurture continuum.  Jefferson was a Francophile.  Adams admired the English constitution.  Wood asserted that Adams was as important to the American Revolution as Jefferson, but their political struggle (and Jefferson’s eventual victory in it) shaped the nation forever.

People took it as providential that the two men died on the same day, July 4, exactly 50 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a document that Adams lamented that he had not written.

As many other historians have, Gordon Wood found it miraculous that these intellectuals came together in one place at one time.  But Wood has noted that “clusters” of genius tend to occur.  Scotland had Adam Smith and David Hume.  Ireland has a long history of great literary genius.  Wood might also have thrown in the economics department at the University of Chicago in that crowd with its 9 Nobel Prizes.

Two things struck me about Wood’s talk and book.  First, our seemingly rancorous time is not unprecedented.  As early as 1790, there were concerns that the South might secede.   Bitter partisanship is not new.  Name calling, the partisan press, the fight over the size and reach of the federal government have been with us since our inception.  In fact, Alexander Hamilton wrote a pamphlet decrying the “eccentric tendencies” of Adams and said he had an “ungovernable temper,” “vanity without bounds,” “extreme egoism” and was “unfit for office.”

Sound familiar?

It all helped give a little perspective.

In addition to their genius and devotion to the Republic, the Founders were also known for something else—they knew when it was time to quit.  Washington retired to Mount Vernon.  Jefferson also tried to retire from public service before being pressed into service again, “No state,” he said, “had a perpetual right to the services of its citizens.”   How refreshing an attitude.  Today, it’s almost impossible to get rid of the bastards.