While John Adams called for a declaration of independence in the Continental Congress, a down-on-his-luck Englishman named Thomas Paine sounded the clarion call for revolution in January 1776 ...

Adams could barely contain [his criticism]."— Historian Joseph Ellis On May 15, 1776, the delegates to the Continental Congress passed John Adams' resolution "to declare the United Colonies free ...

Of all the words that spilled from Abigail Adams' pen, none are more famous than those of March 31, 1776. With her husband ... the very rhetoric of John Adams and his compatriots who were leading ...