Quotes from John Ferling

Jefferson determined the lodestar that lay hidden in the motivations of others

But if Adams was certain of the necessity of the war, he found it difficult to reconcile himself to the role he should play in the conflict. Could he morally order other men to risk death on America's battlefields if he did not likewise face harm? Should he bear arms? Was he less than a man if he did not soldier? Adams struggled with these matters. For a sensitive man such as John Adams, it produced a terrible quandary.

Alexander Hamilton reflected as early as the middle of the Revolutionary War that rallying at the last minute was part of the national character of his countrymen.

By the fall of 1775 no one in Congress labored more ardently than Adams to hasten the day when America would be separate from Great Britain.

Jefferson subsequently came to believe that Henry's speech attacking the Stamp Act had been "the dawn of the Revolution."36

If that was not enough, Franklin also kept his exhausted younger cohort awake far into the night with an interminable disquisition on colds.

Independence may have been declared in 1776, but it still had to be won. Years of bloody warfare followed. The death toll was staggering, for soldiers and noncombatants. Of all the wars in the history of the United States, only the Civil War witnessed a greater percentage of deaths among those who soldiered. The ratio of

Jefferson was the rare student who came to college already knowing that there could be joy in studying.

The author distinguishes George Washington's leadership from that of another aristocratic general whose temperament was somewhat cold. Unlike him, Washington made the effort to at least appear to suffer with his troops.

Adams's proclivity for truculence and curtness probably emerged early. Uncertain of his abilities and laboring under an exaggerated sense of inadequacy, he probably fashioned such an aggressive manner as a defense mechanism.

He was convinced that public service and private misery were inextricably linked.

I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have the liberty to study Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Geography, natural History, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecutre, Statuary, Tapestry, and Porcelaine.

Established churches not infrequently formed an alliance with the aristocracy , joining arm in arm against change.

young desire it, the middle aged are not averse, the old alone are opposed to it [and they soon] will die.

Pointing out the possible, and expensive, entanglements that could come with widespread commercial enterprise, the author calculates the Great Britain was at war half the time between 1689 and 1783.

Washington's

Clearly, the John Adams of 1774 was quite different from the man who proclaimed "Farewell Politicks" in 1766 and again in 1771 and 1772.

While a British band allegedly played a march tune, "The World Turned Upside Down," 7241 British soldiers surrendered their arms.

We fight[,] get beat[,] rise and fight again.