Tea at Trianon: St. John Adams

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

St. John Adams

HBO offers some hagiography for the Americanist religion in an acclaimed mini-series about John Adams. It does look very entertaining. John Adams certainly shone among the Founding Fathers with his prudence, wit and brilliant legal mind. He is greatly admired, and should be. (Mrs. Adams, too.) We Americans like to view our Founders as models of all the virtues. While many did display a great deal of natural virtue, as well as the instincts and acumen of successful businessmen and gifted politicians, they do not necessarily meet the standards required by the Catholic Church for canonization. Patriotism is a virtue; nationalism, especially blind nationalism, is not. According to an article I came across this morning:

HBO’s new miniseries, John Adams, premiered this weekend; it is based on the bestselling biography by David McCullough. Producer Tom Hanks manages to retell familiar events in a captivating way that reminds the viewer history was not inevitable. Behind the debates, battles, and trials stood imperfect, nuanced men who made mistakes. The founders were not a monolithic group and each deserves careful consideration.

[....]

Unfortunately, this hagiographic portrayal of our second president needs to be questioned. McCullough's sympathetic view of Adams's actions reveals a failure to apply the classical liberal implications of the Revolution. In debunking Adams's case, the American Revolution itself can be better understood.