tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post5508382357146783296..comments2024-03-28T04:26:30.557-05:00Comments on Boston 1775: After-Death Revelations from the John Adams PapersUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-77004755698264163222020-07-19T10:13:15.356-05:002020-07-19T10:13:15.356-05:00From a follow-up email, I learned that the comment...From a follow-up email, I learned that the comment above came from William ("Chuck") diGiacomantonio, who worked on the First Federal Congress project. He wants people to know the citation should be to volume 19 of the series, not 12. Thanks, Chuck! J. L. Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15405157000473731801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-16806095467453936062020-07-19T08:02:30.061-05:002020-07-19T08:02:30.061-05:00A correction to this item's publication histor...A correction to this item's publication history: I believe it first appeared in print, in its entirety and fully annotated, in The Documentary History of the First Federal Congress, 1789-1791: Correspondence Series: Second Session (Baltimore, 2012) 12:1283-86. Deeming John Adams, as President of the Senate, a qualified "member" of the First Federal Congress, the editors routinely included relevant material from his papers. This document stood out not only because of its whimsical style (as Sarah Giorgini points out), but because it was another salvo in Adams's decades-long campaign against Franklin's memory. At the time of his death, Franklin was still very much public figure--thanks mostly to his recent work on behalf of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society's petition campaign in the First Federal Congress. Adams retrieved his "Dialogues of the Dead" from his papers much later, in 1813, when he wrote Benjamin Rush that he had dashed off the original draft shortly after hearing of Franklin's death on 17 April 1790. (The news from Philadelphia reached the seat of government in New York City on 21 April.) "The moment it was written," Adams concluded, "is the most curious Circumstance attending it."Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09453094731980429647noreply@blogger.com