In 1815, Jefferson and Adams exchanged six letters addressing peace, historical memory, and intellectual life. Jefferson celebrated war's end while analyzing Napoleon's paradoxical role in reshaping Europe. Adams grappled with preserving Revolutionary history, lamenting that crucial debates were lost forever. Both reflected on education's complexity, with Adams linking reform to centuries of religious violence. Adams articulated his famous definition of revolution as intellectual transformation rather than military conflict. Their correspondence attracted public fascination as an "oddity"—proof that former rivals could maintain genuine friendship. Jefferson's declaration "I cannot live without books" captured their shared bibliomania. These letters revealed aging statesmen engaged with contemporary politics while wrestling with how posterity would remember their revolutionary generation's true character and achievements.
