“To have been in Philadelphia in the first days of July in 1776, knowing that the British had just landed 32,000 troops—a force larger than the population of Philadelphia—in Staten Island, just a day and a half’s march away, and to still declare independence? These are characters! These are stories!” - David McCullough

“What I hope to convey here is the sense of wonder that one experiences in reading about the American Revolution. At almost every turn there is cause for amazement and awe that the whole effort did not come apart…”

“The colonists were fervent in their protestations of affection and attachment to the mother country almost up to the very eve of the Revolution. As late as 1775, a resolution drafted by Thomas Jefferson read, “we mean not to dissolve that union which has so long and so happily subsisted between us.”[12]”

“A man capable of being this imperious might easily have become intoxicated with self-importance. With Washington it was the opposite. The power that he sought, exercised and nurtured was not for himself. His every movement was directed toward the cause of his country.[23] Most of those who have written about Washington have noted the importance of his character in this regard. His good name and reputation were of the highest importance to him. He had aligned himself with the emerging idea of America, and any defect of character on his part would reflect badly on the great cause. He was fiercely protective of his reputation, not so much for himself as for the future of the country, for somehow he knew that the two were to become one.[24]”