They Were Magnificent and Flawed and Ours
THERE'S A SCENE IN EPISODE TWO of HBO's miniseries John Adams where George Washington (David Morse) pays a visit to Abigail Adams (Laura Linney) and describes the annihilation awaiting New York City by the reinforced British army, now out for blood since their staggering losses at Lexington and Concord where one thousand redcoats were killed or wounded. Abigail Adams says to George Washington,"That such evil should befall to people. Could it be punishment for the sin of slavery?" Washington looks downward, emits a half laugh "Hmpff" in contemplation, and says finally and softly, "I cannot say."
A scene like that, so human, so dramatic, so intimate, is at the core of this wonderful series. Washington, the patrician slave owner from Virginia, commander in chief of the Continental Army, compelled to speechless acquiesence before conscience of a Massachusattes farmer's wife. And not two days after that episode aired for the first time last Sunday, Barack Obama would take the stage at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia where he would attempt to speak candidly about the issue of race, and the legacy of "America's original sin," the legal sanction of human bondage. As William Faulkner reminded us, "The past isn't dead. It isn't even past."
One of the most effecting scenes in episode two is the arguement over a vote for independence during the Second Continental Congress between John Adams and John Dickinson, leader of the Pennsylvania delegation, who urged caution in the face of the military might of what was then the most powerful army in the world. The fact that Dickinson is played by a Yugoslavian immigrant named Zeljko Inavek and Adams is played by Paul Giamatti adds a certain bittersweet irony to the equally compelling arguements by both principled men.
In the end Independence won the day because Dickinson abstained from the vote, and yet when the Declaration of Independence was read for the first time from the steps of Independence Hall, Dickinson is shown listening astride a horse dressed as an officer in the Continental Army. The dove who lost the vote for peace still donned the military uniform of his country.
When I read David McCullough's biography of John Adams, a scene I remember is that of John Adams, then president of the United States, in his nightshirt manning a Philadelphia volunteer bucket brigade during a fire in the middle of the night. The burning building belonged to a print shop that published the harshly critical newspaper supported by Adams' political enemies.
Think of that image. . .the president of the United States in his pajamas passing buckets to save the property of a man who hates his guts. It's pretty powerful stuff. I believe we will see that moment in the miniseries because episode one foreshadows that event by showing Adams running to fill a bucket from a frozen water pump at the shout of "Fire!" which turned out to be a turning point in American history called the Boston Massacre.
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