Book Report Friday: John Adams

I came refreshingly ignorant to David McCullough’s biography John Adams.  I now feel refreshingly more informed.

The man who emerges from McCullough’s work is a solid, smart, responsible person.  Adams had the courage of his convictions and the diligence to turn convictions into actions.  He also married an amazing woman.  I would have voted for Abigail Adams, given the opportunity.

I particularly enjoyed the section of the constitution of Massachusetts on the benefits of public education that he wrote:

“Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people being necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties; and as these depend on spreading the opportunities and advantages of education in various parts of the country, and among the different orders of the people, it shall be the duty of legislators and magistrates in all future periods of this commonwealth to cherish the interests of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries of them, especially the university at Cambridge, public schools, and grammar schools in the towns; to encourage private societies and public institutions, rewards and immunities, for the promotion of agriculture, arts, sciences, commerce, trades, manufactures, and a natural history of the country; to countenance and inculcate the principles of humanity and general benevolence, public and private charity, industry and frugality, honesty and punctuality in their dealings, sincerity, good humor, and all social affections, and generous sentiments among the people.”

And he was also a proponent of exercise, as he wrote to his son, “Move or die is the language of our Maker in the constitution of our bodies… When you cannot walk abroad, walk in your room… Rise up and then open your windows and walk about your room a few times, then sit down again to your books or your pen.”

My kind of fellow.