The following excerpt is why John Adams’ letters to his wife – and hers back to him – are among the most extraordinary historical documents ever preserved. We are lucky to have them. Adams is able to make events LIVE, in how he describes them. Not all people are able to do that. But he is. And so he gives us (through Abigail) the following glimpse (humorous, of course) of the first meeting of the Continental Congress, in 1774:
This assembly is like no other that ever existed. Every man in it is a great man — an orator, a critic, a statesman, and therefore every man upon every question must show his oratory, his criticism, his political abilities. The consequence of this is that business is drawn and spun out to immeasurable length. I believe if it was moved and seconded that we should come to a resolution that three and two make five, we should be entertained with logic and rhetoric, law, history, politics, and mathematics concerning the subject for two whole days, and then we should pass the resolution unanimously in the affirmative.
