John Adams was a Federalist, and while Jefferson refused to be labeled as anything, he was viewed as an Anti-Federalist and clearly opposed John Adams presidential platform. Yet, both of them agreed on the duty to study government imposed on all citizens.

“The science of government is my duty to study, more than all other sciences; the arts of legislation and administration and negotiation ought to take the place of, indeed exclude, in a manner, all other arts. I must study politics and war, that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.”

— John Adams

“We owe every other sacrifice to ourselves, to our federal brethren, and to the world at large, to pursue with temper and perseverance the great experiment which shall prove that man is capable of living in society, governing itself by laws self-imposed, and securing to its members the enjoyment of life, liberty, property, and peace; and further to show, that even when the government of its choice shall manifest a tendency to degeneracy, we are not at once to despair, but that the will and the watchfulness of its sounder parts will reform its aberrations, recall it to original and legitimate principles, and restrain it within the rightful limits of self government.”

— Thomas Jefferson