- John Adams: I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is called a disgrace; that two are called a law firm, and that three or more become a Congress! And by God, I have had this Congress! For ten years, King George and his Parliament have gulled, cullied, and diddled these colonies with their illegal taxes! Stamp Acts, Townshend Acts, Sugar Acts, Tea Acts! And when we dared stand up like men, they have stopped our trade, seized our ships, blockaded our ports, burned our towns, and spilled our BLOOD! And still, this Congress refuses to grant ANY of my proposals on independence, even so much as the courtesty of open debate! Good God, what in hell are you waiting for?
- John Dickinson: Mr. Jefferson, are you seriously suggesting that we publish a paper declaring to all the world that an illegal rebellion is, in reality, a legal one?
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: Oh, Mr. Dickinson, I'm surprised at you. You should know that rebellion is always legal in the first person, such as "our rebellion." It is only in the third person - "their rebellion" - that it is illegal.
- [Jefferson's wife visits, and they retire behind closed doors]
- John Adams: Good God, you don't mean... they're not going to...? In the middle of the afternoon?
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: Not everybody's from Boston, John!
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: Please Mr. Dickinson, but must you start banging? How is a man to sleep?
- [laughter from Congress]
- John Dickinson: Forgive me, Dr. Franklin, but must YOU start speaking? How is a man to stay awake?
- [More laughter]
- John Dickinson: We'll promise to be quiet - I'm sure everyone prefers that you remained asleep.
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: If I'm to hear myself called an Englishman, sir, I assure you I prefer I'd remained asleep.
- John Dickinson: What's so terrible about being called an Englishman? The English don't seem to mind.
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: Nor would I, were I given the full rights of an Englishman. But to call me one without those rights is like calling an ox a bull. He's thankful for the honor, but he'd much rather have restored what's rightfully his.
- [laughter]
- John Dickinson: When did you first notice they were missing, sir?
- [laughter]
- John Dickinson: Fortunately, the people maintain a higher regard for their mother country.
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: Higher, certainly, than she feels for them. Never was such a valuable possession so stupidly and recklessly managed, than this entire continent by the British crown. Our industry discouraged, our resouces pillaged... worst of all our very character stifled. We've spawned a new race here, Mr. Dikinson. Rougher, simpler; more violent, more enterprising; less refined. We're a new nationality. We require a new nation.
- John Adams: A second flood, a simple famine, plagues of locusts everywhere, or a cataclysmic earthquake, I'd accept with some despair. But no, You sent us Congress! Good God, Sir, was that fair?
- [Adams has barged into Jefferson's room, accompanied by Franklin, to read the results of Jefferson's work on the Declaration of Independence]
- John Adams: Well, is it written yet? Well, you've had a whole week, man. Is it done? Can I SEE IT?
- [with his violin bow, Jefferson picks up and hands Adams a discarded draft]
- John Adams: "There comes a time in the lives of men when it becomes necessary to advance from that subordination in which they have hitherto rem-"... This is terrible. Where's the rest of it?
- [Jefferson indicates dozens of rejected drafts strewn crumpled about his floor]
- John Adams: Do you mean to say that it is not yet finished?
- Thomas Jefferson: No, sir. I mean to say that it's not yet begun.
- John Adams: Good god! A whole week! The entire earth was created in a week!
- [Jefferson turns to face him]
- Thomas Jefferson: Someday, you must tell me how you did it.
- John Adams: Disgusting.
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: John, really. You talk as if independence were the rule. It's never been done before. No colony has ever broken from the parent stem in the history of the world.
- John Adams: Damn it, Franklin! You make us sound treasonous.
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: Do I? Treason, eh?
- [thoughtfully]
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: Treason is a charge invented by winners as an excuse for hanging the losers.
- John Adams: [scoffs] I have more to do than stand here listening to you quote yourself.
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: No, that was a new one.
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: [to John Dickinson] Be careful, Mr. Dickinson. Those who would give up some of their liberty in order to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
- [Adams and Frankline wait expectantly on the street below Jefferson's apartment]
- John Adams: [reading a note tossed down from Jefferson] "Dear Mr. Adams, I am taking my wife back to bed. Kindly go away. Your obedient, T. Jefferson." Incredible!
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: [chuckles] You know, perhaps I should have written the Declaration. At my age there's little doubt that the pen is mightier than the sword.
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: We've no choice, John. The slavery clause has got to go.
- John Adams: [stunned] Franklin, what are you saying?
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: It's a luxury we can't afford.
- John Adams: [pause, then] 'Luxury?' A half million souls in chains... and Dr. Franklin calls it a 'luxury!' Maybe you should have walked out with the South!
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: [dangerous] You forget yourself sir. I founded the FIRST anti-slavery society on this continent.
- John Adams: Oh, don't wave your credentials at me! Maybe it's time you had them renewed!
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: [angrily] The issue here is independence! Maybe you have forgotten that fact, but I have not! How DARE you jeopardize our cause, when we've come so far? These men, no matter how much we may disagree with them, are not ribbon clerks to be ordered about - they are proud, accomplished men, the cream of their colonies. And whether you like them or not, they and the people they represent will be part of this new nation that YOU hope to create. Now, either learn how to live with them, or pack up and go home!
- [pause, then]
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: In any case, stop acting like a Boston fishwife.
- [Standing awkwardly nearby as Jefferson and Martha embrace]
- John Adams: Jefferson, kindly introduce me to your wife.
- [pause]
- John Adams: She is your wife, isn't she?
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: Of course she is. Look at the way they fit.
- [Adams tries to persuade Jefferson to stay in Philadelphia and write the Declaration of Independence rather than return home to Virginia]
- Thomas Jefferson: Mr. Adams, I beg of you. I have not seen my wife these past six months!
- John Adams: [quotes from memory] 'And we solemly declare that we will preserve our liberties, being with one mind resolved to die free men rather than to live slaves.' Thomas Jefferson "On the Necessity of Taking Up Arms," 1775. Magnificent! Why, you write ten times better than any man in Congress. Including me. For a man of only thirty-three years, you have a happy talent of composition and a remarkable felicity of expression. Now then, sir... will you be a patriot? Or a lover?
- Thomas Jefferson: [thinks it over, then] A lover.
- John Adams: Franklin, where in God's name have you been?
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: Right here, John, being preserved for posterity. Do you like it?
- [John walks around to look at the painting]
- John Adams: It stinks.
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: As ever, the soul of tact.
- John Adams: Well, the man's no Botticelli.
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: And the subject's no Venus.
- John Adams: Franklin, where were you when I needed you? You should have heard what I suffered in there.
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: Oh, I heard, all right. Along with the rest of Philadelphia. Lord, your voice is piercing, John.
- John Adams: Well, I just wish to Heaven my arguments were.
- [reading George Washington's last letter]
- Thomson: I can now state, with some certainty, that the eve of battle is upon us. Toward this end, I have ordered the evacuation of Manhattan, and have ordered my men to take up stronger positions along the Brooklyn heights. At this time, my troops consist entirely of Rhode Island militia, and Smallwood's Marylanders, a total of five thousand troops to stand against... twenty-five thousand of the enemy. One personal note to Mr. Lewis Morris, of New York - I must regretfully report that his estates have been totally destroyed, but that I have taken the liberty of transporting Mrs. Morris and eight of the children to Connecticut in safety. The four older boys are now enlisted in the continental army. As I write these words, the enemy is plainly in sight beyond the river, and I begin to notice that many of us are lads under fifteen and old men, none of whom can truly be called soldiers. How it will end, only providence can direct. But dear God, what brave men... I shall lose... before this business... ends. Your humble, and obedient...
- [drum roll]
- Thomson: G. Washington.
- John Adams: Damn it, Franklin, we're at war.
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: To defend ourselves, nothing more. We expressed our displeasure, the English moved against us, and we in turn have resisted. Now our fellow Congressmen want to effect a reconciliation. Before it *becomes* a war.
- John Adams: Reconciliation, my ass! The people want independence!
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: The people have read Mr. Paine's "Common Sense". I doubt very much the Congress has.
- John Adams: Well, that's true.
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: John, why don't you give it up? Nobody listens to you; you're obnoxious and disliked.
- Hopkins: Ah, Ben! I want you to see some cards I'd gone and had printed up. Oughta save everybody here a lot of time and effort, considering the epidemic of bad disposition that's been going on around here lately. "Dear Sir, you are without any doubt, a rogue, a rascal, a villain, a thief, a scoundrel, and a mean, dirty, stinking, sniveling, sneaking, pimping, pocket-picking, thrice double-damned no-good son of a bitch." and you sign your name - what do you think?
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: I'll take a dozen, right now.
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: [to Dr. Hall] What are you staring at? Haven't you ever seen a great man before?
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: Don't worry, John, the history books will clean it up.
- John Adams: Hmm... Well, I'll never appear in the history books anyway. Only you. Franklin did this, and Franklin did that, and Franklin did some other damn thing. Franklin smote the ground and out sprang George Washington - fully grown and on his horse. Franklin then electrified him with his miraculous lightning rod and the three of them, Franklin, Washington and the horse, conducted the entire revolution all by themselves.
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: [pondering] I like it.
- Hancock: Gentlemen, forgive me if I don't join in the merriment, but if we are arrested now, my name is STILL THE ONLY ONE ON THE DAMN THING!
- John Adams: Now you'll write it, Mr. J.
- Thomas Jefferson: Who will make me, Mr. A?
- John Adams: I.
- Thomas Jefferson: You?
- John Adams: Yes!
- [Jefferson steps up, towering over Adams, and looks down at him]
- Thomas Jefferson: How?
- [tapping his chest with the quill pen]
- John Adams: By physical force, if necessary.
- John Adams: Look at him, Franklin. Virginia's most famous lover!
- Thomas Jefferson: [not having seen his wife in six months] Virginia abstains.
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: Congratulations, John. You just made your greatest contribution to Independence: you kept your flap shut.
- Hopkins: Well, in all my years I ain't never heard, seen nor smelled an issue that was so dangerous it couldn't be talked about. Hell yeah! I'm for debating anything. Rhode Island says yea!
- [John Adams volunteers to visit New Brunswick after a report is given of Washington's soldiers being afflicted with venereal disease and alcoholism]
- John Adams: Wake up, Franklin, you're going to New Brunswick!
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: [Half asleep] Like hell I am. What for?
- Hopkins: The whoring and the drinking!
- [Franklin gets up and marches off right behind Adams]
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: [referring to Martha Jefferson] No wonder the man couldn't write! Who could think of independence being married to her?
- [Adams and Franklin arrive at Jefferson's apartment to check the status of the Declaration, and hear him playing his violin instead]
- John Adams: What is that racket?
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: It's the latest thing from Europe, John. It's called music.
- John Adams: I came here expecting to hear a pen scratching, not a bow.
- John Adams: Good God, consider yourselves fortunate that you have John Adams to abuse, for no sane man would tolerate it!
- [Dickinson wants "tyrant" removed from the Declaration]
- Thomas Jefferson: Just a moment, Mr. Thomson. I do not consent. The king is a tyrant whether we say so or not. We might as well say so.
- Charles Thomson: But I already scratched it out.
- Thomas Jefferson: Then scratch it back in!
- John Hancock: Put it back, Mr. Thomson. The King will remain a tyrant.
- John Dickinson: Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Lee, Mr. Hopkins, Dr. Franklin, why have you joined this... incendiary little man, this BOSTON radical? This demagogue, this MADMAN?
- John Adams: Are you calling me a madman, you, you... you FRIBBLE!
- John Adams: You and your Pennsylvania proprietors. Oh, you cool, considerate men. You hang to the rear on every issue so that if we should go under, you'll still remain afloat!
- John Dickinson: Are you calling me a coward?
- John Adams: Yes... coward!
- John Dickinson: Madman!
- John Adams: Landlord!
- John Dickinson: LAWYER!
- Abigail: I never asked for more. After all, I am Mrs. John Adams and that's quite enough for one lifetime.
- John Adams: Is it, Abby?
- Abigail: Well, think of it, John, to be married to the man who is always the first in line to be hanged!
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: Oh John, you can dance!
- John Adams: We still do a few things in Boston, Franklin.
- [Jefferson is arguing about being appointed to the declaration committee]
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: Don't worry, Tom. Oh, let me handle it. I'll get Adams to write it.
- Thomas Jefferson: I don't know. He had a funny look on his face.
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: He always does.
- John Dickinson: Mr. Jefferson, I have very little interest in your paper, as there's no doubt in my mind that we've all but heard the last of it, but I am curious about one thing. Why do you refer to King George as a... tyrant?
- Thomas Jefferson: Because he *is* a tyrant.
- John Dickinson: I remind you, Mr. Jefferson, that this "tyrant" is still your king.
- Thomas Jefferson: When a king becomes a tyrant, he thereby breaks the contract binding his subjects to him.
- John Dickinson: How so?
- Thomas Jefferson: By taking away their rights.
- John Dickinson: Rights that came from him in the first place.
- Thomas Jefferson: All except one. The right to be free comes from nature.
- John Dickinson: And are we not free, Mr. Jefferson?
- Thomas Jefferson: Homes entered without warrant, citizens arrested without charge, and in many places, free assembly itself denied.
- John Dickinson: No one approves of such things, but these are dangerous times.
- John Adams: Well, Franklin, where's that idiot Lee? Is he back yet? I don't see him.
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: Softly, John. Your voice is hurting my foot.
- John Adams: One more day, Franklin. That's how long I'll remain silent, not a minute longer. That strutting popinjay was so damn sure of himself. He's had time to bring back a dozen proposals by now.
- John Adams: The Congress is waiting on you, Chase! America is waiting! The whole world is waiting!
- [taking a morsel of food]
- John Adams: What's that, kidney?
- Samuel Chase: [slapping his hand away] Leave me alone, Mr. Adams! You're wasting your time. If I thought we could win this war, I'd be at the front of your ranks, but you must know it's impossible. You've heard General Washington's dispatches. His army has fallen to pieces.
- John Adams: Washington is exaggerating the situation in order to arouse this torpid Congress into action. Why, as chairman of the war committee, I can state for a fact that the army has never been in better shape. Never have troops been more... cheerful. Never have soldiers been more resolute. Never have training and discipline been more spirited!
- [Washington's courier enters with a new message]
- John Adams: Oh, good God.
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: What do you think, Doctor? Democracy. What Plato called "A charming form of government, full of variety and disorder. I never knew Plato had been to Philadelphia.
- Richard Henry Lee: You've come to the one colony that can get job done: Virginia. The land that gave us our glorious commander in chief, George Washington, will now give the congress its proposal on independence. Where Virginia goes the south is bound to follow. And where the south goes, the middle colonies go! Gentlemen, a salute to Virginia, the mother of American independence!
- John Adams: Incredible, we're free and he hasn't even left yet!
- Samuel Chase: [to Adams, referring to the Declaration] Answer straight: what would be its purpose?
- John Adams: [lost for words] Yes, well...
- [Jefferson stands up]
- Thomas Jefferson: [slowly and deliberately] To place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent.
- Abigail: Have you forgotten what you used to say to me, I haven't. Commitment, Abby, commitment. There are only two creatures of value on the face of this earth - those with a commitment and those who require the commitment of others. Do you remember John?
- Edward Rutledge: [In the final vote for Independence, Rutledge wants the slavery clause removed from the Declaration, or else he will vote against independence] Well, Mr. Adams?
- John Adams: Well, Mr. Rutledge.
- Edward Rutledge: [stands] Mr. Adams, you must believe that I *will* do what I promised to do.
- John Adams: [stands and approaches him] What is it you want, Rutledge?
- Edward Rutledge: Remove the offending passage from your Declaration.
- John Adams: If we did that, we would be guilty of what we ourselves are rebelling against.
- Edward Rutledge: Nevertheless... remove it, or South Carolina will bury, now and forever, your dream of independence.
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: John? I beg you consider what you're doing.
- John Adams: Mark me, Franklin... if we give in on this issue, posterity will never forgive us.
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: That's probably true, but we won't hear a thing, we'll be long gone. Besides, what would posterity think we were? Demi-gods? We're men, no more no less, trying to get a nation started against greater odds than a more generous God would have allowed. First things first, John. Independence; America. If we don't secure that, what difference will the rest make?
- John Adams: [long pause] Jefferson, say something.
- Thomas Jefferson: What else is there to do?
- John Adams: Well, man, you're the one that wrote it.
- Thomas Jefferson: I *wrote* ALL of it, Mr. Adams.
- [stands and goes to the Declaration, crosses out the clause]
- John Adams: [snatches the paper from Jefferson and takes it to Rutledge] There you are, Rutlege, you have your slavery; little good may it do you, now VOTE, damn you!
- Edward Rutledge: [takes the paper] Mr. President, the fair colony of South Carolina...
- [looks at Adams]
- Edward Rutledge: ... says yea.
- Rev. John Witherspoon: Dr. Franklin? I'm afraid I must be the bearer of unhappy tidings. Your son, the royal governor of New Jersey, has been arrested, and has been moved to the colony of Connecticut for safekeeping.
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: Is he unharmed, sir?
- Rev. John Witherspoon: When last I heard, he was.
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin: Well then, why the long face? I hear Connecticut's a excellent location. Tell me... why did they arrest the little bastard?
- John Adams: [the vote on independence has come down to James Wilson] It would be a pity for a man who's handed down hundreds of wise decisions from the bench to be remembered only for the one unwise decision he made in Congress.
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