David’s Reviews > John Adams > Status Update

Excellent biography about a truly admirable figure.

"Griefs upon griefs! Disappointments upon disappointments. What then? This is a gay, merry world notwithstanding."

What a splendid person Abigail Adams seems to have been.

I've read biographies of Franklin, Adams, Hamilton, and Washington. The only revolution figure who consistently comes out looking bad is Jefferson. But maybe when I read his biography I'll have to change my mind.

It's easy to see the appeal of the Sedition Act. Imagine if something could make the birthers shut up. But of course a law like the Sedition Act only makes everything worse.

What killed the cats of Philadelphia in July 1797?

"How unpardonable would it have been in you to have been a blockhead." (Abigail writing to her son John Quincy, cautioning him not to be arrogant with his knowledge, given all the advantages he had.)

"The education of a nation instead of being confined to a few schools and universities for the instruction of the few, must become the national care and expense for the formation of the many."

On her first ocean voyage, to England, Abigail brought her daughter, two servants and a cow. (The cow had won a lottery.)

Are the bigshots in the Netherlands still known as "Their High Mightinesses?"