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The late Lester J. Cappon was director of the Institute of Early American History and Culture and editor-in-chief of the Atlas of Early American History: The Revolutionary Era, 1760-1790.

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The correspondence between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson embraces government, philosophy, religion, quotidiana, and family griefs and joys. It begins in 1777, ceases in 1801 after Jefferson's defeat of Adams for the presidency, resumes in 1812, and continues until the death of both in 1826.

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Adams-Jefferson Letters

University of North Carolina Press

Chapter One

"The great Work of Confederation,
draggs heavily on"

* MAY 1777-OCTOBER 1781 *

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson first met in Philadelphia duringthe summer of 1775 as delegates to the Continental Congress. Adamswas thirty-nine, Jefferson thirty-two. Both were lawyers and each hadto his credit several years' experience in the lower house of his provinciallegislature. The elder, who had represented Massachusetts inthe Congress of 1774, quickly became identified as a radical in theconflicting loyalties and emotions of the times. His authorship of theanonymous Novanglus letters, printed in January 1775, was not longin doubt, so vigorously did they uphold the rights of the Bay Colonyagainst the oppression of the British government. The younger delegatehad exposed himself even earlier to the charge of radicalism inhis Summary View of the Rights of British America, resolutions whichhe sent to friends in advance of his attending the Virginia House ofBurgesses in 1774. Without asking his permission, they supplied thetitle, "By a Native, and Member of the House of Burgesses," and hadit printed at Williamsburg in August of that year. Within a fewmonths it was reprinted in Philadelphia, again anonymously, thusbranding the author, who was easily identified, as one of the revolutionaryvanguard even before he took his seat in Congress.

    During 1775-76 Jefferson and Adams found themselves on the sameside of the debates, impatient with the moderates whose hope for conciliationwas stronger than their love of liberty, and they readily tookeach other's measure. The fledgling from Virginia was impressed byAdams's clarity of argument and forcefulness of phrase, and by his"sound head on substantial points"; the latter probed the depth ofthe reticent Jefferson, whose "reputation of a masterly pen" had wonconsiderable recognition.

    During May 1776 the movement in Congress on behalf of independencewas accelerated in response to the more advanced developmentsin some of the colonies; and after Richard Henry Lee's resolutionof June 7 that "the Congress should declare that these United Coloniesare and of right ought to be free and independent states," Adams andJefferson were appointed to the committee of five, with BenjaminFranklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston, to draft a declarationof independence. To Adams it seemed a foregone conclusionthat Jefferson the Virginian, rather than an "obnoxious" New Englander,should write the declaration. There is no uncertainty as toauthorship, however much some critics may question its originality.Although Adams hailed Congress's adoption of Lee's resolution forindependence on July 2 as "the most memorable epocha in the historyof America," Jefferson's Declaration, designed to convince a "candidworld" that separation from Great Britain was both just and justifiable,has forever fixed the Fourth of July as the anniversary of Americanindependence.

    The association of Adams and Jefferson in the Continental Congresscontinued until September 2, 1776, when Jefferson left Philadelphiato return to Monticello. During the next five years, however, hespent only intermittent periods of a few weeks or months at home, forhe was a conscientious member of the Virginia House of Delegatesand served on innumerable committees. His attendance in Congresshad deprived him of the opportunity to participate in the revolutionaryConvention which established the Commonwealth of Virginia, buthe now played an important part in assuring the reality of the Revolutionto his own people through the orderly operation of government.Two of those years, 1779-81, were spent as governor, when militarynecessity often threatened civil rights. Adams's services continuedon the national stage which, for him, merged with the internationalearly in 1778. He had been a member of the American delegation thatmet Lord Howe on Staten Island in June 1776 to consider impossibleterms of reconciliation with Great Britain. Among his many committeeassignments, Adams drafted the credentials of the commissioners toFrance (originally Franklin, Arthur Lee, and Silas Deane), and inFebruary 1778 he was aboard the frigate Boston en route to France toreplace Deane. Ten years of diplomatic service were to be interruptedonly by his brief stay in Massachusetts in 1779 as a member of itsConstitutional Convention.

    Though Jefferson and Adams thus viewed the issues of the waryears from different vantage points, one as a local legislator andexecutive, the other as a national legislator and diplomat, they stillfound themselves in fundamental agreement harking back to theircollaboration in Congress. From this background and set of circumstancesbegan their correspondence, on a limited scale: six letters inseven years of war and revolution.

    In the opening letters of May 1777 they discussed a crucial needof their time—strength and unity of purpose at home in order to winsympathy and support abroad. It was questionable how long the resolute"join or die" spirit that initiated the conflict could survive theattrition of localism and provincial prejudice. In the protracted winningof the war the Americans left an abundant record of defeatism,promoted by successive armies of occupation and the disintegration ofcivilian life and loyalties. Despite the untiring efforts of Adams andJefferson on behalf of independence, it was a distant goal when theybegan their correspondence in 1777. An undercurrent of discouragementruns through it, in their discussion of requisitioning troops forthe Continental Army, financing the war—"Financiers," declaredAdams, "we want more than Soldiers"—and regulating trade.

    Both men were convinced that confederation was "a great and necessarywork," but Jefferson doubted that any implied power shouldbe left open to Congress. He was also concerned about the votingpower of the states under the Articles and his proposal for reconcilingthe differences between the large and the small states anticipated oneof the fundamental issues in the Federal Convention of 1787. AlthoughAdams conceded that the "Work of Confederation, draggsheavily on," he was the more optimistic: "I don't despair of it."But it was four years before the Articles of Confederation were ratifiedby nine states and went into effect in 1781; and it was threemore years before the careers of Jefferson and Adams converged onthe diplomatic scene in Europe.

Jefferson to Adams

Williamsburgh May 16. 1777.

Dear Sir

    Matters in our part of the continent are too much in quiet to send younews from hence. Our battalions for the Continental service were sometime ago so far filled as rendered the recommendation of a draught fromthe militia hardly requisite, and the more so as in this country it ever wasthe most unpopular and impracticable thing that could be attempted. Ourpeople even under the monarchical government had learnt to consider itas the last of all oppressions. I learn from our delegates that the Confederationis again on the carpet. A...