Original subtitles

( Theme music playing )

John: good of you to come.

Our reunion has been long overdue.

Yes, indeed. Yes, indeed.

It's been too damn long.

Thank you for saying it.

Of course.

Abigail, benjamin has arrived.

- Thank you, sir, for coming. - Mrs. Adams.

Nabby, dr. Rush has come to see you.

Mrs. Smith.

Please.

We will be downstairs if you need us.

Your father has told me

Of a certain complaint.

Would you describe it for me?

I feel a hardness in my right breast.

Does it cause you discomfort?

There isreat pain sometimes.

Would you allow me

To examine you?

Of course.

- Would you excuse me for a moment? - Yes.

Ah.

Where is mrs. Adams?

Abigail?

- No no, caroline. - Please, sit.

- Come away. Come along. - Uncle thomas, let me see.

Sally: help me to set the table.

Your daughter suffers

From a cancer of the breast.

Merciful god.

The entire breast must be removed.

( Sighs )

Now from her account of the moving state of the tumor,

It is now in a proper situation for the operation.

Oh, good heavens. Is there no other remedy?

I know of none but the knife.

Now, my friends,

Let there be no delay.

Here...

Drink this.

Good.

Now lie down.

No, this way.

Mr. Harris.

Sally.

Yes.

I want you

To take the children for a walk.

- Of course. - Yes, madam.

Susanna.

- Sally: abigail... - William, come along.

We're going for a walk.

Come, my sweet.

Where is she going?

That's it.

Are you ready, my brave girl?

Bite.

- ( Flesh slicing ) - ( Muffled cry )

!C for god's sake, john, sit down.

( Loud thudding )

( Footsteps approaching )

I have never seen a patient

With so much fortitude.

She's resting comfortably.

- Be strong, my friends. - She is out of danger?

If it has not spread,

The cancer will likely not return

- To trouble her. - Can you be certain?

In the matter of disease, no.

You must look to providence

And put your trust in god.

Caroline, eat more carrots, please.

Sally: susanna.

- Susanna: good? - Thank you.

Thomas: would you like to see what's in the newspaper today?

Let's see, shall we?

Listen to this about our esteemed president mr. Jefferson:

"Of all the damsels on the green

On mountain... � or in valley �

� a lass so luscious ne'er was seen �

� as monticellian sally. � ( chuckling )

"Yankee doodle, who's the noodle?

What wife were half so handy? To breed a flock

Of slaves for stock a blackamoor's a dandy."

That's quite enough, thomas.

I cannot believe it, not mr. Jefferson.

Thomas: if mr. Jefferson had not been involved

With his slave sally hemings,

Then why would he have paid $50 to try and silence mr. Callender?

"Mr. Callender reveals further

That while vice president,

Mr. Jefferson encouraged and secretly subsidized

The publication of certain articles...

With the express intention

Of casting doubt on the credibility

Of his own president

The estimable mr. Adams."

Abigail, may i see that paper?

While i am bold as to say that i taught mr. Jefferson

Everything that has been good and solid

In his political conduct.

As for the rest--

Callender and sally hemings will be remembered

As long as mr. Jefferson.

A stain on all of them.

No no, you are wrong, sir. There you are wrong.

Mr. Jefferson's character in history

Can be easily foreseen. Oh, yes.

His administration will be quoted by philosophers

As a model of profound wisdom.

Mine will be conde to everlasting infamy.

They will write

Of the alien and the sedition act and of nothing else.

- ( Rock thuds ) - ( Screams )

- Father! - God!

- Oh christ! - Mother!

( Groans )

Abigail?

Now just what do you think you are doing?

( Groaning ) oh hell.

Abigail: let that be a lesson to you.

I feel like a prisoner out here.

Yeah.

And there's a letter from john quincy.

Is that all?

I should think you would be happy

To receive a letter from your son with news from washington city.

- ( Men shouting ) - ( Cows mooing )

Do not think that i do not know what this means.

In some circles, i am openly despised

And in others, i am irrelevant.

John, i do not think

That anyone thinks about us one way or t'other.

I can no longer bear this ennui, abigail.

I thought you would find great relief...

In having to fill your own days.

Why don't you pick up your pen

And correct people's misimpressions?

( Chuckles ) hopeless.

No no, the essence of our revolution

Will be that dr. Franklin smote the earth

With his electrical rod

And out sprang washington and jefferson,

That they together

Conducted all the policy negotiation,

Legislation and war.

Mr. Jefferson did you great harm, john.

I remember the place in my heart where thomas once sat.

That place is now empty.

At least he is not the revolutionary we forget.

Now he's expanding our territories

By brokering a deal with napoleon, huh?

I do not need to justify myself on paper.

Besides, posterity will judge

As she sees fit.

What about these, father?

What? No no no.

Newspapers,

"The aurora," april 1798.

Nasty piece of work.

It is in here somewhere, thomas!

This entire enterprise is a bondage

To old age.

( Groans )

Some of my posterity may wish

To see proof of the odious abuse

Of my character in newspapers, pamphlets

And letters for the past 30 years.

"The aurora," april '98!

Keep searching.

Are you sure?

Yes.

We shall send for dr. Rush.

There is no need.

No need? Nabby!

Mother, there is nothing he can do.

He has cured you once. He can cure you again.

I am beyond dr. Rush's art now, mother.

It is worse than before. I can feel it.

You must grant me something.

Anything.

When i am gone,

You must not bear my husband ill.

Promise me.

- ( Crying ) - ( Kisses )

Do not cry for me.

( Crying )

Our children will want for nothing.

At the very least i owe her memory that.

She never lost her faith in you.

No.

I'm sorry she could not live to see my success.

Our luck it seemed had changed at last.

I am sorry too, colonel.

An admirable likeness...

John: whose only purpose now is to remind me

Of my current state of decrepitude.

When were they painted?

Thomas: when father was president.

They'd been sitting in mr. Stuart's studio

All this time.

The white house should have them.

Thomas: mr. Stuart offered to deliverhem.

He was told neither president madison

Nor anyone else living in the white house

Has any interest in them at all.

We shall have them here

To remind us of all we have accomplished.

- Well? - Allow me to finish.

I have no illusions

That any sketches i leave behind will be received

By the public with any favor

Or read by them with any interest, you know?

John.

What possible use could anyone have

For a seven-Volume account of so many impulsive,

Tactless,

Ill-Considered things.

Rubbish!

If i had it to do all over again,

I would be a farming, shoemaking deacon

Like my father.

Yeah, although i fear i never would have won you.

, i can't imagine you a farming,

Shoemaking deacon's wife.

Old age is dark

And unlovely, sally.

Still, you have much to be happy about.

True.

In a week, you and mr. Adams celebrate another anniversary.

Yes.

54 years, is it not?

54 years.

There were times

As a young woman when i despaired

Ever having mr. Adams beside me.

Now...

We have been together longer than we were ever apart.

Sally, that was thoughtless. I am sorry.

I did not mean to go on so.

My own sadness

Has not diminished the joy i take

In what you and mr. Adams have shared.

You are a lovely

And generous girl, sally,

And our lives are much richer by having you with us.

Sometimes i fear i'm...

An unwelcome reminder of--

Of mr. Adams's disappointment in charles.

Mr. Adams loves you as i do.

And we'll wish you here always.

Mrs. Adams?

Mrs. Adams.

Mrs. Adams!

Thomas!

Mr. Adams!

Come quickly!

Mrs. Adams, wake up.

Mr. Adams.

- What are you talking-- What's the matter with her? - She won't wake.

Nonsense. Here. There we go.

( Sally gasps )

Abigail!

Abigail!

Oh, jesus, god!

( Mutters ) come here.

Help me, sally.

Sally: come on.

There we go. Inside.

- Come. - Can you walk?

( Moaning )

( Mumbling )

Abigail.

There we are.

Now there you are.

There we go.

There you are.

You'll see it.

Hydrangea.

Do you see it?

I brought you that.

- Oh, yes. - Yeah, it's everywhere now.

Oh, john.

They've bloomed.

Yeah, you see?

I knew that you would come back to me.

- John, john. - I told that doctor

That you would see me.

- I can feel it. - No.

Never, no.

And i am amazed

I am the first to depart.

I am not gonna let you go.

I will not let you go.

We have no choice in the matter, john.

Oh, john.

But i will be there

For you as they--

As they-- As they are now...

- For me. ( Labored breathing ) - No, you will wait for me.

You will wait for me. Abigail.

Abigail.

Don't go away from me, my friend.

Don't go away from me.

Abigail, my friend.

Thomas?

Thomas.

I wish i could lie down with her and die too.

I cannot conceive

That god would create such a creature as her

To simply live and die on the earth.

The longer i live...

The more i read,

The more patiently i think,

The more...

Anxiously i inquire,

The less i seem to know.

( Groans )

( Footsteps approaching )

Is there anyone else you wish me to notify?

There are so few left alive

Who know either of us.

What about mr. Jefferson?

Surely, he will wish to share your sorrow.

If i should receive a letter from him...

I would not fail to answer it.

Perhaps if you were to write yourself...

The man did me and my reputation great insult.

He honored and salaried

Every villain he could find who was my enemy.

Well...

That is why it is you

Who must show the magnanimity

Of great minds.

I always considered you and him...

The north and the south poles of our revolution.

Some talked, some wrote and some fought to promote

And establish it, but...

You and mr. Jefferson...

Thought for us all.

John's voice: "my dear friend,

One trouble never comes alone.

And at our ages,

We may expect more and more of them

Every day in groups,

And every day less fortitude to bear them.

In the years since our parting,

I have lost my daughter.

Now...

My dear wife of 54 years

Has been taken away from me.

And she goes to a country where there will be no war,

Nor envy, nor jealousy,

Nor rivalry or party.

I am, sir,

Your afflicted friend:

John adams."

Jefferson's voice: "monticello, april the sixth,

1819.

My dear friend,

Tried myself in the school of human affliction,

I know well and feel what you have lost,

What you have suffered, are suffering

And have yet to endure.

These same trials have taught me

That for ills so immeasurable,

Time and silence are the only medicines.

It is of some comfort to us both

That the term is not very distant

At which we are to deposit our sorrows

And suffering bodies,

And to ascend to an ecstatic meeting

With the friends we have loved and lost...

And whom we shall still love

And never lose again.

God support you under your heavy affliction.

Your friend, thomas jefferson."

John's voice: "you and i have passed our lives in serious times

And we have suffered ourselves

To be the passive subjects of public discussion,

And reaped animosity and bitterness.

I am fixed in my opinions

And too old to change them,

But you and i ought not to die

Before we have explained ourselves to each other."

Jefferson's voice: "as long as there is government,

There will be differences of opinion.

Everyone takes a side

In favor of the many or the few.

Nothing new coul added by you or me

To what has been said by others

And will be said in every age."

John's voice: "whether you or i were right,

Posterity must judge.

Yet, i ask of you,

Who shall write the history of our revolution?

Who can write it?"

Jefferson's voice: "you ask who shall write the history

Of our revolution.

Nobody,

Except merely its external facts.

I prefer to look back on those days

When massachusetts and virginia

Lived and acted in perfect harmony."

"Monticello,

February 20th,

1825.

Jefferson's voice: "my dear friend,

I sincerely congratulate you on the high gratification

Which the issue of the late election..."

John quincy: "...must have afforded you.

It must excite ineffable feelings

In the breast of a father

To have lived to see a son..."

Continue.

My dear, would you mind?

Louisa: "it must excite ineffable feelings

In the breast of a father

To have lived to see a son,

To whose education and happiness his life has been devoted,

So eminently distinguished

By the voice of his country."

John: yes indeed. Yes indeed.

Although, no man who ever held the office of president

Would congratulate a friend, to say nothing of his son,

On obtaining it.

"Nights of rest to you and days of tranquility

Are the wishes i tender you with my affectionate respects.

Thomas jefferson."

Well well well well.

None of the letters i have received from my friend in monticello...

Have ever meant as much to me as that one.

Mr. Jefferson knows my heart

As well as any man living.

He writes the truth, you know.

That boy over there has made me

The proudest father in america.

To presidejohn quincy adams,

The sixth president of these united states,

And to president john adams

On his 90th birthday.

May we all hope to achieve such longevity.

Hear, hear.

Hear, hear.

- You do not drink, mr. Adams. - I do not care to be reminded

That i am an old dotard.

Well, neither do we, sir.

( Grunts )

Congress has grown indolent and palsied

Before their constituents

So i intend to take a strong lead.

- Father? - Hmm?

Are you listening?

Ah. Yeah.

Go on.

In my state of the union address,

I intend to propose a strengthening

Of the federal government.

We need to raise taxes.

This country's in dire need of some decent roads,

Canals...

- A national university, - ( Grunting )

- A department of the interior, - ( Laughs )

A national currency.

They will call you a monarchist--

"King adams ii."

You move too fast.

There is no time to waste.

Ah.

You should look to your wife

For the guidance that you seek, not me.

Your mother was always my most faithful advisor...

And the wisest.

Trumbull: congress have commissioned me

To commemorate the 50th anniversary

Of the birth of our proud republic.

My humble rendition

Of this momentous scene--

For what could have been more momentous

In the history of our young nation

Than the signing of the "declaration of independence"--

Will hang in the rotunda of the capitol.

I offer to you now for your delectation

And, may i dare to hope,

Your approval.

( Sighs )

All dead.

Sir?

All dead...

The whole lot of them,

Except for me and jefferson.

Yes, sir.

Does the painting do you justice?

Mmm. ( Clears throat )

A shin piece.

- Trumbull: i beg your pardon? - A shin piece, sir.

It's all-- All legs and ankles.

( Chuckles )

You know, i-- I am informed

That one of the greatest talents of a painter

Is the capability to comprehend a large space.

Herr rubens, whose canvases

I always paused to admire

When i was staying in holland, was a master of this.

You, mr. Trumbull,

Are no rubens.

Well, i do not claim to be a rubens, sir.

I would, however, remind you that

Herr rubens never painted

Such a uniquely american subject.

As to the painting's singularity

I can offer no opinion.

But i will say this--

It is very bad history.

The likenesses have been very carefully researched--

No scene such as you depict here

Ever took place.

There was not one moment or one day

When all the delegates from the congress gathered

To record their signatures.

This is a matter of detail.

May i remind you, sir,

That we were already at war?

Now, contrary to your tranquil scene,

Your subjects were scurrying

In and out of philadelphia all summer long,

Affixing their names to mr. Jefferson's...

Hallowed parchment whenever they happened to be in town.

You would not deny the artist a certain... license?

Do not let our posterity

Be deluded with fictions

Under the guise of poetical

Or graphical license.

It is a very common observation

In europe, mr. Trumbull,

That nothing is so false

As modern history.

Well, i would hasten to add

That nothing is so false as modern european history

Except modern american history.

In plain english, sir,

I consider the true history of the american revolution...

As lost...

Forever.

I have some scruples of conscience about...

Whether i ought to be preserved,

Or whether it would be charity of me to stumble.

Still--

Still, i am not weary of life.

Strangely,

I have hope.

You take away hope and what remains?

What pleasures? Do you follow me, thomas?

Hmm?

It's getting late, father.

Is it?

Let's go inside.

Come here, come here.

I have seen a queen of france

With 18 million livres of diamonds on her person.

But i declare

That all the charms of her face and figure

Added to all the glitter of her jewels

Did not impress me as much

As that little shrub...

Right there.

My mother always said

That i never delighted enough

In the mundane.

But now i find if i look at even the smallest thing...

My imagination begins to roam the milky way.

Rejoice evermore.

- What's that, father? - Rejoice evermore.

Well, it's a phrase from saint paul, you fool.

Rejoice evermore.

Rejoice evermore!

( Chuckles )

Oh, i wish that had always been in my heart and on my tongue.

Oh.

You know, i am filled

With an irresistible impulse

To fall on my knees in adoration right here.

- Stop it. - ( Laughing, muttering )

Oh, if only my knees would bend like they used to.

( Sighing, laughing )

Father?

- Father? - ( Grunts )

Come, it's time for bed, father.

- What? - Let's get you to bed.

Sally! Sally!

- Come. - I can't.

Yes. Come on, father.

Come on. Come, father.

John: i can't.

I need to write a letter--

( Groaning )

- Are you comfortable? - ( Grunts )

- Thomas? - Yes?

( Panting )

Tomorrow is the fourth, yeah?

Yes. It is, father.

It was 50 years ago that our nation was born.

I must write a letter to jefferson.

Father, no.

Tomorrow-- Write to him tomorrow.

- ( Panting, grunting ) - You can do it tomorrow.

Good.

( Wheezing, moaning )

No.

( Thunder rumbling )

( Muttering )

No, father-- No, father.

It's july the fourth.

It was 50 years ago today

Our nation was born.

( Crickets buzzing )

It's the fourth.

Yes, sir.

Oh.

Fetch the others.

Sally.

( Thunder rumbling )

( Rain pattering )

( Mumbling ) is that cannon fire?

Father, it's only thunder. It's just thunder.

( Mumbling ) isn't that right, john?

Johnny?

Help me, child.

Help me, child.

Help me, child.

Abigail.

Abigail.

It is no matter.

You're mine.

It's time.

( Crickets chirping )

( Sniffles )

- ( Crying ) - ( Fly buzzing )

( Thunder rumbling )

( Wheezing )

Thomas jefferson.

( Crying )

Thomas jefferson...

Survives.

John's voice: "my dearest friend,

Whether i stand high or low

In the estimation of the world,

My conscience is clear.

I thank god i have you

For a partner in all the joys and sorrows,

All the prosperity and adversity of my life...

To take a part with me in the struggle."

Abigail's voice: "should i draw you the picture of my heart,

You would know with what undescribable pleasure

I have seen so many scores of years

Roll over our heads...

With an affection heightened and improved by time.

Nor have the dreary years of absence

In the smallest degree d

The image of the dear, untitled man to whom i gave my heart.

You could not be,

Nor did i wish to see you,

An inactive spectator."

John's voice: "no, posterity,

You will never know how much it cost us

To preserve your freedom.

I hope that you will make a good use of it.

If you do not,

I shall repent in heaven

That i ever took half the pains...

To preserve it."

( Theme music playing )