FReegards,
Posted on 07/28/2013 3:56:13 PM PDT by SoFloFreeper
A man whose wit was matched only by the looseness of his tongue, the combative John Adams quickly acquired a hefty reputation for articulate jabs and razor-sharp put-downs...
“His whole life has been one continued insult to good manners and to decency.”
“That bastard brat of a Scottish peddler! His ambition, his restlessness and all his grandiose schemes come, I'm convinced, from a superabundance of secretions, which he couldn't find enough whores to absorb!”
(Hamilton certainly wasn't above returning the fire.)
“What a poor, ignorant, malicious, crapulous mass.”
(For more on their relationship, head here.)
“That Washington is not a scholar is certain. That he is too illiterate, unlearned, unread for his station is equally beyond dispute.”
“Phyladelphia [sic], with all its trade and wealth and regularity, is not Boston. The morals of our people are much better; their manners are more polite and agreeable... Our language is better, our taste is better, our persons are handsomer; our spirit is greater, our laws are wiser, our religion is better, our education is better. We exceed them in every thing, but in a market.”
“His soul is poisoned with ambition.”
While working as a member of the American revolution's continental congress, Adams referred to one of his less-radical colleagues as “a piddling genius” in one of his letters—an insult which caused a good deal of uproar when the British intercepted and published the candid document. For a fictionalized account of the pair's tense relationship, check out this clip from HBO's 2008 John Adams miniseries:
(Excerpt) Read more at mentalfloss.com ...
Crapulous...so descriptive...
Pompous Yankee bump.
He was also a good singer, although he was known to be obnoxious and disliked, that cannot be denied. ;)
Washington fed off his advisors...And if it hadn’t been for his older brother, we’d all be going “George who?”
Illiterate is absolutely inaccurate, obviously. But it is true he had almost no formal education.
I read that book and also have watched the HBO series. I too don’t remember hearing or reading these.
I respect your opinion and I know Geo W wasn't perfect...but his campaign across the Delaware and into Trenton seemed to do the trick.
At long last we had the British (and their German assistants) on the defensive.
For most autodidacts with a good library, a formal education is a waste of time.
Don’t forget.
President John Adams was a big proponent of the Alien and Sedition Acts. These were clearly unconstitutional and later retracted by Congress.
Jefferson and Madison were very concerned about these acts and wrote the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions
Did “crapulous” mean back then, what it means now?
FReegards,
He was so privileged in so many ways but got gipped out of an education. But, I agree with you, it may have turned out to be an advantage.
It has to be a miracle that Washington, and so many of his generation, were there to establish this country. Talk about the greatest generation.
As they did then, when faced with extraordinary circumstances, the cream will rise. They always have. They will again.
Agreed, an arrogant and unlikable typical yankee of puritanical stock who has never measured up to the Virginians who truly made this nation great...
What a prig......
Yes, and his brother made good beer.
If it wasn’t for Washington—we would be singing the praises of baby George our king to be. We would be watching “Soccer” and “Dr. Who” on the ABBC. —and Obama would be waiting tables at Georgetown.
Well, vinegar is quite the healthy treat. And being hard prolly helped to justify the habit.
I read John Adams, too. A splendid biography, but not an exhaustive work.
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