Statesman on File

John Adams

I am not the most agreeable man in this building. I am, however, right, and I have found the two conditions are seldom offered together. I took the unpopular brief before it was safe to take it and I have never lost the habit, which is why my columns tend to arrive already arguing with somebody. I write on foreign affairs and the executive power, honestly and without the diplomatic varnish, and my own faction has more than once wished I would varnish something. My wife reads every draft before my editor sees it. Her corrections are shorter, sharper, and I regret to report almost invariably correct.