01/23/2021 – Pen Pals finally reunited the last 14 years of their lives: Adams and Jefferson // “The Education of John Adams” by R.B. Bernstein
I might perhaps have to turn this book back to the library before I finish it, but I was touched by reading this section early this morning. If not for the persistent urging of their mutual founding father warrior and friend, Benjamin Rush, Adams and Jefferson would in all likelihood not have reunited after their major falling out from the 1800 presidential election campaign pitting the two against one another. It unfortunately had set a high rancor mark in the early history of this country.
But with Benjamin’s persistence, perhaps undergirded with prayer, God delivered and they indeed reunited after Jefferson left office for his home in Monticello. They would not ever meet again face to face, but the letter writing was intense and no doubt gave then much joy in the last 14 years of their life. Unbelievably, they both died on the same day, July 4, 1926, on the 50th anniversary of the nation’s independence! I will pick it up with one of Jefferson’s letter on page 225:
“Still he kept reading, Jefferson marveled at his friend’s energy:
‘Forty three volumes read in one year, and 12,
of them quartos! dear Sir, how I envy you! half a dozen [octavos] in that space of time are as much as I am allowed. I can read by candlelight only, and stealing long hours from my rest; nor would that time be indulged to me, could I, by that light, see to write, from sun-rise to one or two aclock, and often from dinner to dark, I am drudging at the writing table, and all this to answer letters into which neither interest nor inclination on my part enters; and often for persons whose names I have never before heard, yet writing civilly, it is hard to refuse them civil answers, this is the burthen of my life, a very grievous one indeed, and one which I must get rid of.’
In particular, Adams shared his extensive reading on comparitive religion — he was particularly fond of a twelve-volume study by Charles Francois Dupuis, Origin de tous les cultes (Origin of All Religious Worship) to which he devoted letter after letter. An envious Jefferson answered, ‘Your undertaking the 12. vols of Dupuis, is a degree of heroism to which I could not have aspired even in my younger days. Both men also exchanged musings on the classics, philosophy and aristocracy.
Soli Deo Gloria!