What do We mean by the Revolution? The War? That was no part of the Revolution. It was only an Effect and Consequence of it. The Revolution was in the Minds of the People, and this was effected, from 1760 to 1775, in the course of fifteen years before a drop of blood was drawn at Lexington.2 That assertion of it being over by 1775 isn’t completely true, because the Revolution could have failed in a variety of ways during the fighting. But Adams is right that many of the changes in the way of thinking happened before the first shot was fired. And he was one of the first to light the fuse of the
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