Watched Charlie Rose interview David McCulloch last night
on McCulloch's new book "John Adams". McCulloch mentioned that we tend to visualize the founding fathers as stereotyped figures, knee britches, lace at the cuff, etc. He said that after his research he now has a memory of two men on horseback in a desolate landscape on a bitter New England February day with snow on the ground ... he said the men were John Adams and his friend Mr. Shoemaker who went along to keep Adams company and to return the two horses to Quincy Mass where Adams lived. They were starting the four hundred mile ride to Philadelphia for the Continental Congress. "They were tough men" McCullough said. He said he would be hard put to think of anyone who would be willing to ride forty miles on horseback these days, to get to a meeting of congress, let alone four hundred!
Gives one a new perspective.
I think I will buy that book.