A Committee of five

Day 163

Thomas Jefferson thought that John Adams should write the Declaration of Independence and John Adams thought the opposite. This is conversation that John Adams remembered.

    “Why will you not?” Jefferson asked “You ought to do it.”
    “Reasons enough.”
    “What can be your reasons?”
    “Reason 1st, you are a Virginian, and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this business. Reason 2nd I am obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular. You are very much otherwise. Reason 3rd you can write ten times better than I can.”