The Writings of John Adams

I have just completed reading The Revolutionary Writings of John Adams. This is the hardest yet most interesting book I have ever ready. It will take me many more times reading it to fully appreciate it. I would like to share a few things I learned from this book but I'll be just scratching the surface of what it contains.

One of his essays is on self-delusion. In this essay he talks about the problem with political parties. He talks about how the parties are so focused on fighting each other they forget about what the best solution for the issue may be. The people become more concerned with gaining support for their party or group than for doing what is right.

He also writes about canon and feudal law. Canon law is the church while feudal is the king. Both these forms of law can be a tyrant. The worst is when you mix the two. The religions leaders use their power and influence to prop up the tyrant king and teach the people they must support the tyrant for their spiritual good.

John Adams has many writings on discussing if America was part of the British Realm. This was a common idea in that time. Through a study of the colony charters and history there is a very good argument that Parliament had no power or authority over the colonies but the king still did. The colonies began to fight back because Parliament began to pass rules which it had no authority to do. The revolution was not about throwing off the existing government in place for a new one but for keeping things they way they had been since the founding of the colonies 150 years before. I learned more about the cause of the revolution reading this one book than from any other source I have studied.

This is a very quick summary of some of the points but I hope it interests you in reading some of the works of John Adams. This is a book I plan on reading many times as there is a great deal of knowledge that is useful for our current situation today.