John Adams

[Chris Grieb]

This series started last Sunday on HBO.

It is very well done.

One thing that makes any entertainment is if the money is spent on actors. The supporting roles are as important as stars. To paraphase a line from Atlas there are no little parts only little actors to play them.

I hope Objectivists will watch John Adams. It nice to hear one's values expressed.

[syrakusos]

This series started last Sunday on HBO ...

We do not have television in this house and have not for over three years. We have had TV over the past few decades, especially when we were given a set in 1982 and then when Broadband became the delivery mechanism about 1993 or so. However, on the advice of a professor (my criminal justice prof for Ethics, Constitutional Law and Criminal Law), I read DAVID MCCULLOUGH'S recent biography. Adams was clearly the unsung genius of the American Revolution.

He wrote the Massachusetts constitution alone and it stood for 50 years. He was the point man in France and Holland. In France, he was eclipsed by Franklin, especially and also by Jefferson.[*] In Holland, he was free to be his own man and perhaps more than the ships and men from France, the money from Holland saved the new republic.

Also, not appreciated was ABIGAIL ADAMS. She exemplified the old saw that the best sounding board for a man's ideas is a pillow with a woman's head on it. We have no idea how much of her was actually displayed in his work; we can only surmise based on the intelligence, insight, wisdom and foresight evident in her letters to him.

The scene that moved me to tears in Adams's life was early on when the soldiers of the Boston Massacre came to him to defend them. He lost business as a result of that, a young lawyer starting out. But he was dedicated to RULE OF LAW. He gave the men their best possible defense and greatly minimized their sanctions, even arguing successfully that certain ones should be pardoned completely being "clergy" within their churches. He was completely dedicated to the law, a man of integrity. I go so far as to say that Adams displayed an integrity that was sorely lacking in Thomas Jefferson but that is another topic entirely.

[*] At an evening reception for the Americans, one of the nobles asserted that America lacked the basic refinements of civilization, to which Jefferson replied, "And yet we are the tallest people in the room." -- nothing like fresh game when you are pregnant.... surely better than thin dough beaten full of air and covered with sugar.

Edited March 22, 2008 by Michael E. Marotta

[Chris Grieb]

The portrait of Jefferson is going to be interesting.

Adams with the French should be fun.

[Mike Renzulli]

I appreciate John Adams for the work he did as a revolutionary against the British. However, as a President he was terrible!

I believed he built and expanded upon Washington's policies (like the national bank, internal improvements and high tariffs) and signed the Alien and Sedition Acts into law as well.

His philosophy was similar to Hamilton's in that he wanted the United States to be just like England.

This series started last Sunday on HBO.

It is very well done.

One thing that makes any entertainment is if the money is spent on actors. The supporting roles are as important as stars. To paraphase a line from Atlas there are no little parts only little actors to play them.

I hope Objectivists will watch John Adams. It nice to hear one's values expressed.

[Chris Grieb]

As some of you know my internet, cable and phone have been out for the past two weeks.

I am catching up with John Adams. In the new episod Adams tried to get a very long title for the US President.

I must add a question for Mike's statement about high tariffs in the Washington adminstration. I thought protectionism did not come until after the Civil War.

Edited April 17, 2008 by Chris Grieb

[Brant Gaede]

As some of you know my internet, cable and phone have been out for the past two weeks.

I am catching up with John Adams. In the new episod Adams tried to get a very long title for the US President.

I must add a question for Mike's statement about high tariffs in the Washington adminstration. I thought protectionism did not come until after the Civil War.

Tariffs were a major cause of the Civil War.

--Brant

[Wolf DeVoon]

As some of you know my internet, cable and phone have been out for the past two weeks.

I am catching up with John Adams. In the new episod Adams tried to get a very long title for the US President.

I must add a question for Mike's statement about high tariffs in the Washington adminstration. I thought protectionism did not come until after the Civil War.

Tariffs were a major cause of the Civil War.

--Brant

Brant is absolutely correct, as usual. The sole source of revenue for the Federal government in the beginning was import-export tariffs. They taxed British maunfactued goods, the Brits retaliated by taxing American cotton, which had the effect of unfairly subsidizing Northern manufactures and taxing Southern planters. South Carolina started the sucession movement in 1833 by attempting to nullify the tariffs. Wikipedia U.S Dept of State

W.

[Mike Renzulli]

No protectionism was practiced before then. I can't find anything on protective tariffs enacted by Adams but I believe he did enact a numer of internal taxes in order to support the mercantilist system he tried to erect.

I remember from the Thomas Jefferson PBS special that Jefferson scrapped much of the taxes and many departments enacted by Adams.

By doing so, I believe many states controlled by Federalists in the northeast threatened to seceed hence, Jefferson backed off of scrapping it all as evidenced by the National Bank still in existence when he was President.

As some of you know my internet, cable and phone have been out for the past two weeks.

I am catching up with John Adams. In the new episod Adams tried to get a very long title for the US President.

I must add a question for Mike's statement about high tariffs in the Washington adminstration. I thought protectionism did not come until after the Civil War.