Patriots (82 page)

Washington asked for Congress’s patronage for his family of officers and commended his country to the protection of Almighty God. Then his voice broke, and everyone in the State House felt his agitation. He recovered, reached into his coat, and brought out his commission as commander in chief. With a few words, he handed it back to Thomas Mifflin.

In his tribute to the retiring commander, President Mifflin
praised George Washington, not only for his wisdom and fortitude but for always protecting the nation’s civil rights through every change and disaster. Many found Mifflin’s reading of his remarks dry and uninspired, but no one complained about the words themselves, which had been written for the occasion by Thomas Jefferson.

Writing the story of the American Revolution first occurred to me more than twenty years ago when I was reporting from Saigon on the war in Vietnam. The unconventional tactics of the National Liberation Front as its soldiers fought the world’s most powerful nation brought back memories of the battle of Lexington and Concord from high-school history class. From time to time after that, I tested the parallel by reading histories of the American Revolution, and I found that they fell into two categories. Those surveys that were intended as textbooks were often blandly neutral and heavy with dates. Books by such writers as Susan Alsop, Bernard Bailyn, Fawn Brodie, Marcus Cunliffe, Burke Davis, Pauline Maier, Edmund Morgan, Gary Nash, Arthur Tourtellot and Hiller Zobel were vivid and exciting, but they usually treated a single life or event—Thomas Hutchinson or Thomas Jefferson, the Stamp Act congress or the Boston Massacre. There seemed to be a place for a book that approached the revolution as a story, focusing on the principal actors as they moved from the writs-of-assistance trial in 1761 to General Washington’s resignation from the Continental Army in 1783. The book would be meant for readers who knew that Washington
had crossed the Delaware, but didn’t know why; that Benedict Arnold had betrayed his country, but didn’t know how.

The research taught me that after two centuries few facts or interpretations were beyond dispute. Parson Weems’s anecdote of George Washington and the cherry tree appeared only in the fifth edition of his imaginative biography. Other inventions and errors were harder to detect and, sometimes, to give up. Modern historians do not believe, for example, that Nathan Hale said he regretted having but one life to give for his country. Many of them also question whether Patrick Henry had the presence of mind to conclude his challenge to George III with “If this be treason, make the most of it.” In their old age, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams each gave slightly different answers to historians who were asking about events already fifty years past. A writer today can only sift the evidence and make judgments, aware that Samuel Adams would probably repudiate every line that has ever been written about him.

No pleasure quite compares with reading original letters and diaries in their own faded ink. But if a writer ignored the modern scholarship available to him, he might labor a lifetime and still not grasp the whole epic story. I have drawn on the writers I’ve mentioned, as well as the multi-volume works of James Thomas Flexner, Dumas Malone, Douglas Southall Freeman, G. O. Trevelyan and William V. Wells, among others. Sometimes the most valuable insights have come from the shortest studies. Professor Bailyn’s essay on John Adams succinctly revealed Adams’ admirable, contradictory character; and Arthur M. Schlesinger’s article on the phrase “the pursuit of happiness” convinced me that he had penetrated its significance. Two other unusually valuable guides have been George F. Scheer and Hugh F. Rankin’s
Rebels and Redcoats
and the monumental bibliography of the Revolution completed in 1984 by Ronald Gephart for the Library of Congress.

I have had kind and knowledgeable assistance from staff members at the British Library in London, the Doheny Library of the University of Southern California, Harvard University’s Houghton Library, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the New York Public Library, the New-York Historical Society and the Swem library, William and Mary College. I would like to mention especially Virginia Renner and Leona Schonfeld at the Henry E. Huntington Library in San Marino, California, and Judith Farley at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Professors Larry Ceplair and Pauline Maier undertook careful readings of the manuscript, and their suggestions were extremely helpful.

Among other friends and colleagues who aided and encouraged me were Norman Corwin, Peter Craske, Ed Cray, William X. Dunne, Charles Fleming, Karl and Anne Taylor Fleming, Donald and Patty Freed, Betty Friedan, Albert B. Friedman, Lew Grimes, David Halberstam, Denton Holland, Sue Horton, Richard Houdek, Leonard Leader, Irwin C. Lieb, Luther Leudtke, Ethel Narvid, Bryce Nelson, Lynn O’Leary-Archer, Frances Ring, Joe Saltzman, Sebastião Santos, Jorge Schement, Robert J. Schoenberg,
Clancy Sigal, Ronald Steel, Peter Virgadamo, Franklin Woodson, Paul Zall and the late Jon Bradshaw.

Lynn Nesbit at International Creative Management brought an enthusiasm for the project that has been heartening throughout the years of research and writing. The skill and dedication of Alice E. Mayhew and Henry Ferris in their editing at Simon and Schuster, and of Vera Schneider in her copyediting and indexing, have been unique in my experience. I thank them most gratefully.

A. J. LANGGUTH
, professor emeritus of journalism in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California, is the author of nine previous books, including
Union 1812
and
Our Vietnam: The War, 1954–1975
. He lives in Los Angeles.

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Adams in Town House: Hosmer, 56–57; Tudor, 60; Francis Bowen, 63–64; Wells, I, 44; John Adams,
Works
, X, 245; John Adams,
Statesman
, 126–28.

Molasses:
Galvin, 69.

Boston’s unemployed: Benjamin Labaree,
Colonial
, 218.

Hutchinson supported writs:
Old South
, 4.

Hutchinson family deaths: Bailyn,
Ordeal
, 22.

“. . . te expectare”:
Hutchinson,
Diary
, I, 46.

“Depend on it”:
Sibley, VIII, 152–53.

Hutchinson’s style: Bailyn,
Ordeal
, 20.

Hutchinson and silver: Warden, 139.

Hutchinson in Milton: Hutchinson,
Diary
, I, 164.

Peggy Hutchinson dies: Bailyn,
Ordeal
, 29.

“Summa Potestatis”:
Galvin, 18. “Potestas”: M. H. Smith, 227.

Otis calls on Hutchinson: Hosmer, 47; Waters, 119.

Otis sees Hutchinson on Boston Neck: Galvin, 20.

threw out votes: Waters, 82.

Indian scalps:
Ibid., 89.

Speaker Otis as shoemaker: Oliver, 27.

“little low dirty things”:
Waters, 105.

Bernard offers justiceship: Hutchinson,
History
, III, 63; Hosmer, 47.

Montesquieu:
Hosmer, 67–68.

province in flames:
Oliver, 36.

“. . . hell I’ll stir.”:
Francis Bowen, 45.

“. . . danced the brutes!”:
Ibid., 10.

pregnant nanny: Waters, 75.

Otis’ largest fees: Francis Bowen, 16.

“Powder plot . . .”:
Forbes, 89.

Otis refused a fee: Francis Bowen, 18.

“. . . despise all fees.”:
Tudor, 57.

Gridley’s arguments: Waters, 22.

Ware anecdote: Francis Bowen, 60; Adams,
Works
, II, 525.

Thacher’s voice: Tudor, 58.

Hutchinson on Thacher: Sibley, X, 325.

Otis as flame of fire: Francis Bowen, 58.

Parliament’s power: Bailyn, ed.,
Pamphlets
, I, 100–102.

Otis warns king: Bancroft, IV, 415; Hosmer, 58.

“A man’s house is his castle”:
M. H. Smith, 554.

Adams’ attitude toward Britain: Ibid., 254–56; John Adams,
Spur
, 34η.

Adams on taking up arms: Wells, I, 44; John Adams,
Statesman
, 132.

London Magazine:
Hutchinson,
History
, III, 68.

Otis elected to House: Ibid., 69.

“a damned faction”:
John Adams,
Works
, X, 248.

Otis’ temper in House: Francis Bowen, 67–68.

“Bedlamism”:
Sibley, XI, 254.

“. . . beings called devils.”:
John Adams,
Diary
, I, 346.

Otis would take revenge on Hutchinson: Waters, 148.

“. . . live half well enough.”:
Boston Gazette
, Jan. 11, 1761.

“. . . ill-gotten gain and power.”:
Sibley, XI, 256.

House drops Otis’ language: Francis Bowen, 84–85.

“is very obstinate”:
Bancroft, IV, 386.

“reading the Bible”:
Guedalla, 23.

George’s sexual desires: Guttmacher, 32–33.

“. . . according to his deserts.”:
George III,
Letters to Bute
, Dec. 8, 1758.

“Be a King!”:
Guttmacher, 25.

Hutchinson’s lecture: Miller,
Adams
, 41.

“Esquire Bluster”:
Waters, 130.

“Furio”:
John Adams,
Diary
, I, 237.

Otis threatens to resign:
Waters, 148.

Deacon Adams:
Wells, III, 427.

Land Bank:
Miller,
Adams
, 9–11.

“the idle and the extravagant”:
Young, 15.

Adams’ thesis at Harvard: Wells, I, 10.

Adams’ indifference to money: Ibid., 54.

Adams saves his house: Ibid., 28; Sibley, X, 422–23.

tyranny by the few:
Becker,
Eve
, 166.

America’s area: Morison,
History
, I, 1.

“. . . greasy, shining head.”:
Sibley, XIII, 380.

gentlemen outvoted in Town Meetings: Young, 22.

“a filthy skunk”:
Boston Evening Post
, Mar. 28, 1763.

Hutchinson’s history: Bailyn,
Ordeal
, 19.

Hutchinson on Whigs: Hutchinson,
History
, III, 75.

Bernard’s background: Higgins, I, 174–82.

Bernard’s son: Ibid., 219.

“. . . spread with brass.”:
Harlow, 21.

“. . . an hour more.”:
Ayling, 328.

“. . . Mr. Greenville.”:
Bancroft, V, 145.

meetings broken up:
Willison, 62.

Virginia games: George Morgan, 55.

Maury’s slaves’ names: Willison, 73.

tobacco laws: Tyler, 36.

Peter Lyons:
Willison, 78.

Henry accepts fifteen shillings: Meade, 126.

Jefferson on Henry: Jefferson,
Works
, XII, 388n.

Henry’s preparation for law: George Morgan, 44.

Henry’s hunting: Meade, 52–53.

“sold the last peck”:
George Morgan, 38.

Peyton Randolph’s education: Willison, 53.

Henry with John Randolph: George Morgan, 47.

man of genius:
Jefferson,
Works
, XI, 228.

Virginia considers barring lawyers: Meade, 95.

tobacco rates: Tyler, 38.

“. . . vulgar herd”:
Mayer, 63.

Henry’s jurors: Willison, 77.