Why did John Adams believe Jefferson was the right person to write the Declaration of Independence? Why did he insist that "a Virginian should be at the head of this business," and not a New Englander?
The second question is relatively easy to answer. Adams and his fellow New Englanders descended from a Puritan stock that had been in more or less constant revolt against church and crown since the 1610s, and had already fought two revolutions--in the 1640s, and in 1688. To the rest of the states, Massachusetts in particular was pugnacious, intolerant, and chronically rebellious. It was their incapability of living within the Anglican establishment that brought them to America in the first place. It passed as a truism with these zealous folk that "resistance to tyranny is obedience to God."
The southern states, by contrast, were far more lax about religious practice and belief, but they adhered to the Established Church--that is to say, the Church of England. To them, King George III was not merely the head of the state, but the head of the Church as well; and rebellion against his rule could look very much like rebellion against God.
There was really only one way that loyal Anglicans could be persuaded to take up arms against their King: they must be made to feel that, like his Stuart predecessors, he had placed himself in opposition to the true Church and to God. And that, paradoxically enough, is where Jefferson came in.
(To be continued)
The second question is relatively easy to answer. Adams and his fellow New Englanders descended from a Puritan stock that had been in more or less constant revolt against church and crown since the 1610s, and had already fought two revolutions--in the 1640s, and in 1688. To the rest of the states, Massachusetts in particular was pugnacious, intolerant, and chronically rebellious. It was their incapability of living within the Anglican establishment that brought them to America in the first place. It passed as a truism with these zealous folk that "resistance to tyranny is obedience to God."
The southern states, by contrast, were far more lax about religious practice and belief, but they adhered to the Established Church--that is to say, the Church of England. To them, King George III was not merely the head of the state, but the head of the Church as well; and rebellion against his rule could look very much like rebellion against God.
There was really only one way that loyal Anglicans could be persuaded to take up arms against their King: they must be made to feel that, like his Stuart predecessors, he had placed himself in opposition to the true Church and to God. And that, paradoxically enough, is where Jefferson came in.
(To be continued)
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