![]() ![]() In his new book, American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic (Knopf, 304 pages, $26.95), the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Joseph Ellis engages the founders’ own ruminations on human agency to launch a wide ranging and fascinating investigation of the early years of the American republic. On the contrary, said Adams, were Washington still alive, he would surely be mortified by the “pilgrimages to Mount Vernon as the new Mecca or Jerusalem.” “I shall continue to believe that ‘great men’ are a lie,” wrote Rush, “and that there is very little difference in that superstition which leads us to believe in witches and conjurers.” Adams agreed heartily and even went a step further: “The feasts and funerals in honor of Washington is as corrupt a system as that by which saints were canonized and cardinals, popes and whole hierarchical systems created.” Adams meant no disrespect to Washington, a man he had known for 25 years and in whose administration he served two terms as Vice President. MANY YEARS AFTER PLAYING THEIR famed roles in promoting revolution and republicanism among the dispersed peoples of colonial North America, John Adams and Benjamin Rush engaged in a lively correspondence about the importance of human agency in determining the course of history. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |