Last week John Adams and Thomas Jefferson discussed in passing the difference between a strong central authority and a government truly by the people. What Adams feared then, and what he continues to fear, is the idea of mob rule. Jefferson, on the other hand, is a revolutionary. He believes in the power and the rightness of people to govern themselves without any sort of central authority sticking their nose in where it doesn't belong. This is the beginning...
We find Mr. Adams having to leave his family again to venture out to Paris for a diplomatic mission. It's 1777, the war has commenced, however an alliance with France is key to victory. With his son, and future president, John Quincy in tow, Adams braves the high seas and gets to Paris to find out that Ben Franklin has done quite a bit of schmoozing already. Not to mention the fact that the French aren't taking too...