John Adams by David McCullough

Before listening to this extraordinary biography of John Adams, I knew but little of the greatest founding fathers of my country .

I didn't know that John Adams was one of the driving forces that led to the Declaration of Independence and that Thomas Jefferson was it's author.

I didn't know that Adams and Jefferson were friends, then enemies, and then friends again. And that once their political passions and ambitions cooled, they managed to reconcile.

I didn't know that they both lived long and productive lives and both expired on the same day; exactly 50 years after July the 4th 1776.

Now I better understand the purity of the principles that they espoused and/or defended

• All men are created equal
• They have certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
• Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed

I hope that future governments of the United States will return to those principles from which they have currently strayed, because whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new Government.