John Adams and Thomas Jefferson met at the 1775 Continental Congress in Philadelphia and became close friends. They survived disagreements on many subjects, but on one they were aligned:
Adams once wrote: “There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.”
Jefferson wrote: “If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all.”
– Chris Schroder, The Atlanta 100