"John Adams" per HBO TV miniseries

[eye2i2hear]

"American" History: snippets of how it's presently being told in the HBO TV miniseries, "John Adams" Part 1

(I, admittedly not knowing how accurately quoted the characters are relative to written historical records)



Laura Linney and Paul Giamattias Abigail & John Adams.




[British Army Captain Preston (Ritchie Coster) has just been acquitted in a trial of he and his soldiers of the murder of 5 Americans during a mob confrontation, "Redcoats" defended in the case by "American" John Adams]
00:41:55
BCP: What about yourself, Mr. Adams, do you really think you're gonna be safe from this rabble?
[John Adams, pausing, then staring at his cousin, Samuel Adams (Danny Huston) among the angry crowd in the court room]
JA: You forget, Captain Preston; you have just been acquitted by a jury of New England men.  Massachusetts is my Country, sir.

Aaah, yes, Massachusetts is a COUNTRY!?!  no wait, a Colony... no wait, a State?


00:52:10
[John Adams, sitting at tea with Jonathon Sewall (Guy Henry), the last Attorney General of Massachusetts before the American Revolution *]
JA: [in a worrisome almost whispering tone] I am afraid of where this may lead us.  If we do not chart our course carefully-- together.
JS: [commandingly] This Colony does not dictate to Parliament, John.  Nor to the king.  If The Crown decides tea is to be taxed, it will be taxed. [said quickly with a tinge of preposterousness] Well would you have The Empire bankrupted?  The war We fought to expand Our territory, to protect Our borders from The Indians, Their French allies, it was a costly affair.
JA: I'm not hear to debate the necessity of taxes, Jonathon, but the manner in which they are imposed.
JS: Massachusetts must shoulder Its share of the burden.
JA: And be treated as second class citizens?!  Without the rights and liberties of natural born  Englishmen?!
JS: Liberty in this colony has often carried a taint of anarchy.
JQ: [silent, starring at his tea cup]

Aaaah!  The infernal red, white, & blue Scarlet "A" word:  anarchy! The opposite of "Liberty".  :rolleyes:

00:53:18
[scene fades to JA and Abigail embraced, sitting before a fire at night]
JA: The Crown is misguided; but it is not despotic-- I firmly believe that.
AA: Your cousin [Sam Adams] does not.  Nor his many friends.  They have cause.
JA: It seems my cousin, and his friends, intend to take the Government of this colony [saying  skeptically/snickeringly] into their own hands.
[pauses and slightly snickers skeptically again]
JA: People are in need of strong governance, Abigail.  Restraint.  Most men are [emphaticaly said] weak, evil, and viscious.
[after a pause, he reassuringly takes her hand; scene fades]



* side bar: Regarding Jonathan  Sewall, a family lineage website records this about him:
   

Quote:He wrote in a letter in 1783:  "Will ye independant Americans tamely submit to be dragooned into Submission and Compliance, by their fellow Citizens and Countrymen?" (Mary Beth Norton:  The British Americans, Boston, 1972, p. 124 & 251)

--- source: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.robertsewell.ca/sewell.html">http://www.robertsewell.ca/sewell.html</a><!-- m -->
I thought of marc's & Stef's remarking about the illogic of believing men are evil thus needing Government made of those very same inherently evil men.