What can I say? I’m completely hooked on the John Adams HBO miniseries. It provided a needed respite from work on my thesis today, work that goes as well as it can. I wrote or I guess I should say that I completely rewrote eleven pages of my short story Tagger. I trust in my wife and writing partner when she says that I these pages are improved over the originals. I’m afraid that I’m too close to project to be less than partial.

Part 2: Independence is the story of how the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia came to vote upon a declaration of independence from Britain. In my mind this decision was swift and unanimous from the beginning. However, many of the Thirteen Colonies did not so swiftly join. Much deliberation and oratory was necessary to finally arrive at the vote of twelve, none against, and New York’s abstention.

Much happened before the vote and this is where the brilliance of the Adams can be scene. Adams would have been the first to admit that he did not have the appetite and the patience that politics required. Enter his friend and fellow mentor Benjamin Franklin (played by Tom Wilkinson), who helped Adams with his political maneuvers. These maneuvers included enlisting Thomas Jefferson (played by Stephen Dillane) to compose the first draft of the Declaration of Independence because he was a Virginian, at that time one of the most powerful of the Thirteen Colonies and because Adams had read Jefferson’s earlier work and knew him to be of moral and like mind.

Part 2: Independence also contains a few side stories that are note worthy. The first is the enlistment of George Washington (played by David Morse) to lead the Massachusetts Militia. Washington is humble and cares for the men in his charge. There is an amazing scene where Washington calls on Abigail Adams at the Adams’ farm. Washington is seeking a needed respite from his worries over his men and the increasing number of Hessians that the British have enlisted. Abigail’s learned company does much for his disposition, but not even her witty banter can keep his mind from his troops.

The other interesting side plot is that of an inoculation against the bloody pox. A pox is known to have infected George Washington’s the troops. Abigail Adams takes is shown in the film to be obsessed with keeping her children save from it. She calls upon a doctor to inoculate her and her children. The scene is gritty and adds a lot to the film. I don’t know about it accuracy, more information can be had about it at Boston 1775 in the post No Pox Party in John Adams. What I found shocking was how the virus was obtained. The doctor had an infected man in the back of his cart from whom he cut pustules in to a clear dish. From there the scene cuts to a room where the doctor makes a small cut in the arm’s of each Adams then presses the puss into the wound.

It is going to be hard not to run up the street and get the next disk. To view all my reviews of the miniseries, click this tag: John Adams HBO Miniseries

The Soulless Machine