- Despite all of our
talk about genes and DNA,
which they didn't know about,
we still, as Americans,
believe strongly, I think,
in that Jeffersonian belief
that environments are crucial.
Well, Adams wouldn't have any of it.
He said, "All men are created unequal."
He says to Jefferson,
"I was in a foundling hospital in Paris.
"Babies four days old,
"and I could see they were all unequal.
"Some were beautiful and some were ugly.
"Some were smart and some were stupid.
"At four days," he said,
"and that remains the same.
"Education can do very
little to change that."
That's not an American view,
and that separates them
more than anything.
Adams believed in nature, not nurture.
That is not what
Americans want to believe,
or can believe.
And he denied that America
was exceptional, he said,
"We are just as corrupt, just as sinful,
"just as vicious as every other nation.
"There's no special providence
"for the United States," Adams says.
Jefferson says, "No, we
are a chosen country,
"and we have a special responsibility
"to bring democracy or Republicanism
"to the rest of the world."
They really divide on that,
and they divided on everything else, too.
Jefferson was not much for religion.
He had no religious
sensibility to speak of.
Adams did.
Although they're both
Unitarians in their beliefs,
Adams had a respect for religion
that I don't think Jefferson had.
So, they differ on
almost every single thing
except the rightness of
the American Revolution
and their hatred of Hamilton.
