As America celebrates its semiquincentennial, we’re publishing this weekly look back into our colorful history.
This month, 250 years ago, was perhaps the most consequential of our nation’s history. On July 2, 1776 the Continental Congress voted to dissolve all political connections with Great Britain. Two days later, it adopted The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America by which it announced to “a candid world" its reasons for independence. The tensions, con. icts, and debates surrounding these events are lost in today’s popular 4th July narratives; yet it is in the details of these dramas that we encounter the true heroes of the American Revolution.
Consider, for example, John Dickinson, whose name is rarely mentioned in popular accounts although he is among the greatest
