I called my brother, Kevin, to ask if he would spend Independence Day with Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and me. Jefferson’s home (now museum) in Charlottesville, Monticello, has a new tour focusing on his fond and fractious relationship with Adams, which culminated in an exchange of 158 letters in their last 14 years of life.

Historian David McCullough deemed this attempt of the fiery Bostonian and reticent Virginian to overcome their political feuds and understand each other “one of the most extraordinary correspondences in American history”.

Now and then: Donald Trump and Thomas Jefferson present two Americas, too different.Credit: Marija Ercegovac, AP

My favourite anecdote about Adams and Jefferson, who both loved Shakespeare and used the Bard’s psychological insights as inspiration when they conjured the country, concerned their visit to Shakespeare’s house in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. As Abigail Adams recalled, her husband cut a relic from Shakespeare’s chair, while Jefferson “fell upon the ground and kissed it”.

Our family trip to Monticello on Wednesday was suggested by Jane Kamensky, a very cool historian of the American Revolution and the president and CEO of Monticello and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. She thought that my Trump-supporting brother and I might appreciate the new tour, “Founding Friends, Founding Foes”, as inspiration for “a thoughtful dialogue across the........

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