The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams

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The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams

by Lester J. Cappon (Editor), Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Abigail Adams

4.27 of 5 stars 4.27 · rating details · 358 ratings · 16 reviews

An intellectual dialogue of the highest plane achieved in America, the correspondence between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson spanned half a century and embraced government, philosophy, religion, quotidiana, and family griefs and joys. First meeting as delegates to the Continental Congress in 1775, they initiated correspondence in 1777, negotiated jointly as ministers in E...more

Paperback, 690 pages

Published September 30th 1988 by University of North Carolina Press (first published 1959)

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Nov 23, 2012 Michael Austin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2012

There are only a few people in the world today who have both patience and the inclination to read 600 pages worth of 200-year-old letters. If you are one of these people, do yourself a favor and read this book now. If you are not one of these people, try really really hard to become one of these people and read this book now. And if you can't possibly imagine ever being the kind of person who reads this kind of book, then do the rest of us a favor and don't go all over the Internet popping off a...more There are only a few people in the world today who have both patience and the inclination to read 600 pages worth of 200-year-old letters. If you are one of these people, do yourself a favor and read this book now. If you are not one of these people, try really really hard to become one of these people and read this book now. And if you can't possibly imagine ever being the kind of person who reads this kind of book, then do the rest of us a favor and don't go all over the Internet popping off about what "The Founding Fathers" believed about stuff based on something that you heard on the radio. Because it is probably a lot more complicated than that.

Lester J. Cappon's Adams-Jefferson letters were first published in two expensive, hardbound volumes in 1959. Cappon was a historian and professional archivist who worked with these documents all of his life, and his edition is a model of good scholarship: it is thorough, it footnotes nearly everything that the modern reader would have trouble with, and it situates the letters in their historical context with 13 excellent, succinct section introductions to various series of correspondence. In 1988, the University of North Carolina Press did us all a favor and published a complete, one-volume paperbound edition of the letters.

The letters themselves trace all extant correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and both John and Abigail Adams beginning in 1777, the year after both men worked on the drafting committee for the Declaration of Independence, up until 1826, when both men died, within five hours of each other, on July 4, on the 50-year anniversary of the document in which they both pledged "[their] lives, [their] fortunes, and [their] sacred honor." From the very beginning, these letters give us a view of America's founding by two of the people who had the most to do with it. Letters between Jefferson and Abigail Adams (along with John) begin after the Jeffersons and the Adamses served together as America's minister to France in 1784.

In 1800, Adams and Jefferson were on opposite sides of one of the most contentious presidential elections in American history. Adams, a Federalist, stood for strong military preparation, a powerful federal judiciary, and an effectively pro-British foreign policy (though it was Adams, against the wishes of his own party, who secured peace with France in 1800). Jefferson, the leader of the emerging Republican Party (no relation), stood for stronger ties with France, a weak judiciary, and the abolition of standing armies and navies. The two sides savaged each other, and each other's standard-bearers, and Jefferson and Adams stopped communicating with each other. From 1796 through 1812, all we get are a few very formal letters between the two of them around the time that Jefferson was moving into Adams' house (The White House).

And then, in 1812, something remarkable happened. Through the agency of friends, Jefferson and Adams began corresponding again. And, over the next 13 years, they exchanged almost 60 letters about the past, the present, religion, politics, books, France, England, slavery, Native American culture, and, well, everything else. This is one of the most remarkable stories of reconciliation in our history and proof that severe political differences do not have to be an absolute bar to respect, civility, and friendship.

There are so many people talking and writing about history these days. But history itself has never been as available and accessible as these letters make the early days of America. Instead of reading other people's books about the Founding Fathers (including mine), take the time to read what they actually had to say for themselves. Really. You won't be sorry.

Michael Austin, author
That's Not What They Meant!: Reclaiming the Founding Fathers from America's Right Wing (less)

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Jun 22, 2012 Rick is currently reading it

I was motivated to buy this by the John Adams miniseries. The letters that were read in the final episode were very moving. I imagined I would have to hunt around in the volume for letters as good as the ones read in the series. That was mostly wrong. Not every letter is as good as the best letters, but most are quite readable. And many could have been as entertaining as the ones read in the series. (I loved where the former presidents compared notes on the cranks who came in to deliver their ap...more

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May 23, 2012 Bart Breen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Not a book about History, this IS History

Have you ever wanted to be a fly on the wall and to be able to share in the thoughts and happenings of important places and people? Well, if your desires in that regard include the office of the Presidency of the United States and the early days following the American Revolution, that is exactly what this book provides.

As was typical of statesmen of that day, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams maintained a lengthy personal and professional correspondance the...more

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Mar 28, 2008 Maggie rated it 4 of 5 stars

One of many books I've stolen from my dad's bookshelf. I ADORE Jefferson and Adams' letters to one another (although the Adams' letters to each other are wonderful to read also). The parallel of Jefferson and Adams' stories, their correspondence repairing their relationship at the end of their lives, the synchronicity of their deaths... pretty amazing stuff. (Such a dork.)

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Mar 24, 2012 Maloney rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

I was inspired to read this in its entirety after watching HBO's "John Adams". I was not disappointed, though the correspondence in their later years is the most intriguing, an amazing dialogue about everything from God to liberty to government to the past, present, and future of the United States. And what is more fitting than the two men, with different views but still united by love of country, both dying on the 4th of July, on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Indepen...more

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Dec 21, 2011 Paul rated it 5 of 5 stars

Sigh, when will we again grace with Statesmen like Adams and Jefferson.

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Jul 22, 2009 Carrie rated it 5 of 5 stars

When I started this book, I assumed I would slog through it, and learn some useful things, and get some enjoyment out of reading these Founding Fathers' own words instead of those of historians. I did not expect it would return to my bookshelf as one of the most beloved books there.

The letters delve deep into the expected — the inner workings of a young democracy, the establishment of a fledgling economic power on the world scene. And yes, there are points of mundane bureaucracy, passages about...more When I started this book, I assumed I would slog through it, and learn some useful things, and get some enjoyment out of reading these Founding Fathers' own words instead of those of historians. I did not expect it would return to my bookshelf as one of the most beloved books there.

The letters delve deep into the expected — the inner workings of a young democracy, the establishment of a fledgling economic power on the world scene. And yes, there are points of mundane bureaucracy, passages about whale oil, salt fish, loans, insurance. Especially in the early years, much of John Adams' and Jefferson's correspondence was taken up with matters of business.

Yet even within these passages, there are delightful gems, and in Jefferson and Abigail Adams' correspondence, there are far more abundant examples of the mutual friendship and admiration between the Adamses and Jefferson. Their personalities emerge, in a different and generally richer way than they do in even the best history books.

As expected, Jefferson's prose stands out. Were there nothing else of value in the collection, it would be worth a read just to see him pepper even the most mundane topics with bits like calling an ambassador a "torpid uninformed machine," much less the longer passages that show his eloquence was not limited to important documents. But while Adams doesn't achieve the same frequent elegance, his letters are filled with reminders that he was an excellent statesman, and right more often than history gave him credit for (although Jefferson does in later letters).

And then there is a lull in the correspondence, where the history books and the useful, concise chapter introductions of this book must fill in the blanks. The Adamses and Jefferson return to the United States. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson become political rivals, candidates in one of the most bitter election campaigns this country has known, leaders for a generation that agreed on independence, but not what to do after independence was won.

For all the highlighter-worthy lines before this point, the greatness comes when John Adams sends a letter and a package after both are retired, initiating a torrent of letters that lasted until the two men died. Their topics range from education to metaphysics to aristocracy, but Adams' and Jefferson's late-in-life correspondence is far more a story about a seemingly impossible reconciliation. Somehow, both men found the capacity to either forgive, or forget, and a willingness to listen.

"You and I ought not to die, before We have explained ourselves to each other," Adams writes. And they do, tiptoeing sometimes, and always explaining, not attempting to convince.

The politics and the history are there in abundance, but to me, this collection of letters is more about a human drama where the cast of characters are some of the most important names in American history. I've read at least one historian that presented the letters as Adams and Jefferson posing for posterity. They were surely aware that these letters might be published someday, but posing for posterity doesn't account for the clear joy both express in having one great mind to converse with, one friend left from the generation of 1776. Scribbling out these letters with aging hands, they long for an hour of conversation, difficult to imagine in our age of cell phones and jet travel.

These letters combine to tell a story about life, but also a story of death. In later years, facing their own mortality, Adams and Jefferson are unafraid of the topic. Religion, the afterlife, the rights of the next generation to take over. By the time I reached the final letters, the impossible timing of their deaths started to seem less impossible, and I found myself glad that neither had to deal with the loss of his dear correspondent.

Not surprisingly, Jefferson sums it up better than I have managed to in this review:

"A letter from you calls up recollections very dear to my mind. It carries me back to the times when, beset with difficulties and dangers, we were fellow laborers in the same cause, struggling for what is most valuable to man, his right of self-government. Laboring always at the same oar, with some wave ever ahead threatening to overwhelm us and yet passing harmless under our bark we knew not how, we rode through the storm with heart and hand, and made a happy port."(less)

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Nov 17, 2010 Richard rated it 5 of 5 stars

A fantastic collection of the entire correspondence between some of the greatest people of American history. A thoroughly engaging and enlightening experience, permitting one an intimate view into the hearts and lives of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. I highly recommend it!

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Feb 22, 2012 Danjel Lessard is currently reading it

As it was throughout John Adams by David McCullough the presentation of the literature that came out of these two men's pens is nothing short of inspiring.

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Jan 04, 2009 Sheila is currently reading it

Brilliant, detailed, vital exploration of making a new universe.

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Nov 09, 2007 Brad rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a collection of the correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. It may sound boring, but it is actually quite interesting. Adams and Jefferson started out their association as the best of friends, only to see that friendship fall apart when both men campaigned to become president of the new American republic. Their friendship was then renewed during their retirement years. It is a wonderful story to read about, and this book gives you the chance to read their ACTUAL words ins...more

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Dec 29, 2012 Tara Contrera added it

Shelves: 6-8, common-core-standards, informational

July 13, 1813 - John Adams

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Mar 02, 2008 Colin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: philosophy, scholarly-works

I once spent a week snowed in the house in Plymouth, unable to leave, during which I read this complete correspondence. Few weeks have been so instructive as to the nature of some of our founders.

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Oct 21, 2012 Tyler rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: us-presidents, modern-history, book

The first part was pretty boring so I skipped ahead and read from April 6th, 1796 until the end of their correspondance.

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Aug 01, 2008 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars

Because I seriously need more Adams books.... *grins*

This is an amazing book thusfar.

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Sep 25, 2008 Bill added it

A great book. Their use of the language and phrasing is incredible.

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Apr 21, 2008 Carma Bird added it

Only one word......EXCELLENT !

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“I steer my bark with Hope in the head, leaving Fear astern. My hopes, indeed, sometimes fail; but not oftener than the forebodings of the gloomy.” — 1 person liked it

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