Angel in the Whirlwind Quotes

“Jefferson, acknowledging Providence, gave equal importance to the legal conceit of America’s birth: on one side the Israelites in the wilderness, led by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night; on the reverse, Hengist and Horsa, the Saxon chiefs “from whom we claim the honor of being descended, and whose political principles and form of government we have assumed.”
― Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution

“enemy. Washington had issued a general standing order that when a shell was seen, the soldiers might cry out, “A shell,” but not, when a shot, “A shot,” because a shell could be avoided but a shot could not. Therefore to shout “A shot” would only cause confusion and futile alarm. According to a soldier who witnessed the altercation, however, Hamilton evidently thought it “unsoldierlike” to shout, “A shell,” while Knox contended that the order showed how much Washington “cared for the life”
― Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution

“God preserve the United States. We know the Race is not to the swift nor the Battle to the Strong. Do you not think an Angel rides in the Whirlwind and directs this Storm?”
― Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution

“Lord Dunmore, the last royal governor of Virginia, called upon slaves and indentured servants alike to rebel, and eight hundred immediately responded, making their way to Norfolk, a temporary British base. These were enrolled under Dunmore’s banner as the “Loyal Ethiopian Regiment” and wore shirts with the inscription LIBERTY TO SLAVES stitched across the front. “If [Dunmore] is not crushed before spring,” Washington wrote, “he will become the most formidable enemy America has. His strength will increase as a snowball.”
― Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution

“British and perniciously bred into their economic life. The First Continental Congress, however, pledged itself to oppose the slave trade generally; Rhode Island, noting that “those who are desirous of enjoying all the advantages of liberty themselves should be willing to extend personal liberty to others,” ruled that slaves imported into the colony would thereafter be freed. Connecticut followed suit; Delaware prohibited the importation of slaves; and Pennsylvania taxed the trade so heavily as almost to extinguish it there. Abigail Adams spoke for many when she wrote on September 24, 1774, “I wish most sincerely there was not a slave in the province. It always appeared a most iniquitous scheme to me—to fight ourselves for what we are daily robbing and plundering from those who have as good a right to freedom as we have.”
― Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution

“John Dickinson’s vastly influential Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer, which warned, “A free people can never be too quick in observing, nor too firm in opposing the beginnings of alteration either in form or reality, respecting institutions formed for their security. . . . Servitude may be slipped upon us, under the sanction of usual and respectable terms.”
― Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution

“In retirement, Washington devoted himself to animal husbandry, farming, the cultivation of his gardens; did his best to entertain and oblige the many friends and admirers who came to pay their respects or others seeking information or advice.”
― Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution

“As for the anonymous admonition about moderation and forbearance, how could the time for moderation be past? That would mean that reason is of no use to us. .”
― Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution

“André was a clever and cultivated man but to some degree without scruples. During the occupation, he had lived in Benjamin Franklin’s house, and upon departing (as noted earlier) he had made off with most of Franklin’s treasured collection of books. He had also been one of Peggy Shippen’s admirers and the architect of Howe’s farewell meschianza bash.”
― Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution

“was Thomas Paine’s misfortune, as mentioned, that he not only became involved but indiscreetly leaked privileged, sensitive information entrusted to him as secretary of the Committee of Foreign Affairs.”
― Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution

“It was a matter to be settled behind closed doors. But the press became involved and, more particularly, Thomas Paine, who at the time was secretary to the congressional Committee of Foreign Affairs. In an article published in several installments in the Pennsylvania Packet and transparently written under the pen name “Common Sense,” he asserted in January 1779 that official papers conclusively proved that the supplies furnished by Beaumarchais had been a free gift from France. Paine’s divulgence of such top secret information transformed the issue from a congressional quarrel into an international incident.”
― Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution

“The various privations of the encampment soon got to Dr. Albigence Waldo, an army physician who helped to inoculate the army against smallpox. He noted in his diary: I am sick, discontented, and out of humor. Poor food—hard lodging—cold weather—fatigue—nasty clothes—nasty cookery—vomit half my time—smoked out of my senses—the Devil’s in’t—I can’t endure it—why are we sent here to starve and freeze—what sweet felicities have I left at home! A charming wife—pretty children—good beds—good food—good cookery—all agreeable—all harmonious. Here all confusion—smoke and cold—hunger and filthiness—a pox on my bad luck. There comes a bowl of beef soup—full of burnt leaves and dirt, sickish enough such to make a Hector spew.”
― Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution

“Congress designated December 18 “for solemn thanksgiving and praise,” and on that day all across America bonfires blazed, bells pealed, and in the streets and on village greens the people sang patriotic songs.”
― Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution

“Congress was long faulted for casuistry on this matter, but in 1932, when Sir Henry Clinton’s secret service papers were declassified, it was revealed that the British had indeed planned to send the surrendered troops back into active American service, as had been feared.”
― Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution

“Burgoyne’s most capable officer, General Simon Fraser, began to rally the British left wing. Morgan called two or three of his best marksmen together and, pointing to him, said, “Do you see that gallant officer, mounted on a charger? That is General Fraser—I respect and honor him; but it is necessary that he should die.” A minute later, a bullet cut the crupper of his horse; another grazed its mane. “You are singled out, general,” said his aide-de-camp, “and had better shift your ground.” “My duty forbids it,” he replied, and a moment later he fell.”
― Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution

“Ferguson learned the identity of his target and remarked, “I could have lodged half a dozen balls in or about him before he was out of my reach. But it was not pleasant to fire at the back of an unoffending individual who was acquitting himself coolly of his duty, and so I left him alone.” To his decent forbearance, America owes an incalculable debt.”
― Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution

“Well, Sir, what have we done for them? Have we conquered the country for them from the Indians? Have we cleared it? Have we drained it? Have we made it habitable? What have we done for them? I believe precisely nothing at all, but just keeping watch and ward over their trade, that they should receive nothing but from ourselves, and at our own price.”
― Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution

“But the British fleet assembled to oppose them was much more powerful. It included three large ships disassembled into sections, transported overland, and rebuilt on the lake; twenty gunboats; a thirty-ton gondola; a great two-masted scow; thirty longboats; and four hundred bateaux”
― Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution

“Paine reminded the colonists that their cause was “not the affair of a City, a County, a Province, or a Kingdom; but of a Continent—of one-eighth part of the habitable Globe. ‘Tis not the concern of a day, a year, or an age; posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected even to the end of time, by the proceedings now.” Therefore, “The cause of America is . . . the cause of all mankind.” The issue was not only natural rights but oppressive”
― Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution

“Paine was understandably concerned at first that the outbreak of fighting would disrupt his new livelihood. He wrote to Franklin, “I thought it very hard to have the country set on fire about my ears almost the moment I got into it.” But then he grabbed a torch.”
― Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution

“I have been applied to by several gentlemen to instruct their sons on very advantageous terms to myself, and a printer and bookseller here, a man of reputation and property, Robert Aitkin, has lately attempted a magazine, but having little or no turn that way himself, he has applied to me for assistance. He had not above six hundred subscribers when I first assisted him. We have now upwards of fifteen hundred, and daily increasing.”
― Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution

“In the wake of British atrocities, both real and imagined, the ambient rhetoric heated up. Jonas Clark, pastor of the First Parish Church of Lexington, Massachusetts, was a fair representative of New England’s patriotic Church Militant. For some time he had been delivering sermons on such matters as “The Importance of Military Skill, Measures for Defense, and a Martial Spirit in a Time of Peace.” In commemoration of the killing on Lexington Green, he now thundered out a homily about “The Fate of Blood Thirsty Oppressors and God’s Tender Care of His Distressed People” with such resonant authority that cows were said to have been “startled into attendance” in pastures nearby.”
― Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution

“a modest and abstemious diet which favored pineapples, Brazil nuts, and Saturday dinners of salt cod.”
― Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution

“in a famous Massachusetts case, two slaves—Mark and his wife, Phillis—were so charged and executed, even though evidence emerged that their master had abused them. As a gruesome admonition to other blacks of insubordinate mind, Mark’s body was “hung in chains” on Charlestown Common for twenty years (eventually “shrivelling up into some sort of mummy”), and Paul Revere, mindful of his own treason and potential fate, would mournfully note the spot as he passed on his famous ride.”
― Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution

“It was, however, a delicate matter for colonists to accuse the British of trying to enslave them, because abject slavery was such a prominent feature of colonial life. This was noted with irony, of course, in England, where Dr. Samuel Johnson, for example, asked, “How is it that the loudest yelps for liberty come from the drivers of slaves?”
― Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution

“suit. Newspapers also published the first of John Dickinson’s vastly influential Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer, which warned, “A free people can never be too quick in observing, nor too firm in opposing the beginnings of alteration either in form or reality, respecting institutions formed for their security. . . . Servitude may be slipped upon us, under the sanction of usual and respectable terms”
― Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution

“From the top of the boot a grotesque horned head protruded, representing the Devil. That evening, the figures were cut down and burned in front of the local stamp commissioner’s house. Twelve days later, the home of the lieutenant governor, Thomas Hutchinson, was ransacked by a mob and his valuable library destroyed. Franklin’s friend Jared Ingersoll (who had been appointed a commissioner) was also burned and hanged in effigy in Connecticut, where, according to the Connecticut Gazette, “people of all professions and denominations” joined the cheering crowd.”
― Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution

“Henry accompanied these resolutions with a fiery speech given the next day in which he concluded, “Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell and George the Third”—amid cries of “Treason” that arose from all sides of the room—“and George the Third,” he continued artfully, “may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it!”
― Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution

“The development of literacy was furthermore accelerated by the growth of a postal service by which the colonies were joined. The postman in those days was required to be “active, stout, indefatigable, and honest” and was expected to report on the condition of all ferries, fords, and roads along his route. He delivered his mail to the local inn, which served as a post office where people came to look over all the letters and parcels that came in. Eventually, “mile-stones” were set at mile-long intervals”
― Benson Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind: The Triumph of the American Revolution