From My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams, With a Foreword by Joseph J. Ellis
From a letter John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail in 1774 during the first Continental Congress:
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.
Sounds like the dreadful committee meetings or confirmation hearings on C-SPAN. All the blowhards talking shit, trying only to make political points, or sounding like they want to host the Mr Obvious show.
Jay – true, true – but imagine if the blowhards in question were people like Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, Ben Franklin, etc etc!!!
Still, though – I love the image of all of these guys trying to impress each other endlessly. And John Adams calling all of them on it.