Forgotten Declaration: Why they were Fighting Back
“Unconditional submission” or “resistance by force.” Thomas Jefferson, John Dickinson, and the Second Continental Congress said those were their two terrible options less than three months after the battles of Lexington and Concord and the “shot heard ‘round the...
John Dickinson and the Case Against Independence
July 1, 1776, witnessed one of the most consequential debates in American history. The venue was the floor of the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia. The topic was whether America should declare independence. The principal participants were the passionate...
Shots Fired, Ship Burned: The Sons of Liberty vs the HMS Gaspee
“For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended offences.” From the Declaration of Independence, one of the charges against the King that justified secession. It was built on a violent American raid on a British ship years earlier that few of us are ever...