The North and South Poles of the American Revolution

Abstract

In February 1812 Benjamin Rush was in a mood to celebrate. The occasion was an exchange of letters between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson marking the end of a decade-long silence between the two men. No one had worked harder than Rush to rejuvenate this erstwhile friendship, and the Philadelphia physician and signer of the Declaration of Independence could scarcely contain himself. I rejoice in the correspondence which has taken place between and your old friend Mr. Jefferson, he explained to Adams, because although talked, some wrote, and some fought to promote the cause of independence, you and Mr. Jefferson thought for us all, were the North and South Poles of the American Revolution.' Jean Yarbrough and C. Bradley Thompson must surely share Rush's enthusiasm for Adams and Jefferson. Their thoughtful and frequently provocative studies suggest as much. But the overriding impression one is left with after reading American Virtues and John Adams and the Spirit of Liberty is not they hold in common but how markedly different they are in their stated purposes, approach, scope, methodology, and execution. American Virtues is a study of the Jeffersonian past inspired by Yarbrough's vision of the American present. And Yarbrough's America is in trouble. Moral relativists have eroded the belief in the existence of moral and spiritual truths (p. xx); postmodernists have promoted a reflexive tolerance (at least among elites) for almost any 'lifestyle' (p. xx); contemporary liberals have distorted the Founders' natural doctrine to include what are today called the 'privacy' issues, such as homosexuality (p. 11); the rights industry has succeeded in pushing for legislation that has elevated equality