What is the difference between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson?
They began as friends, with Adams proposing that Jefferson make a first draft of the Declaration of Independence, and Adams serving with Benjamin Franklin on the committee that edited it further. Adams strongly supported it in the Continental Congress, with both of them supporting a clause that denounced King George for his support of the British slave trade, a clause ultimately not accepted by the Congress. They split during George Washington’s administration when Adams was vice president, and supported the Federalists led by Alexander Hamilton, and Jefferson was the Secretary of State, the main leader of the Democrat-Republicans. However, after both were out of office, the Universalist and Declaration signer, Benjamin Rush, reconciled them in 1812. After that they corresponded regularly about many issues, with both of them becoming apparently more liberal in their views of religion with age. They both died on the same day, July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the signing of the famo
