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Harsh asked in Arts & HumanitiesHistory · 9 years ago

What does this quote mean by John Adams?

“The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people. . . in principles, opinions, sentiments and affections of the people [that] was the real American Revolution.”

John Adams

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  • 9 years ago
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    Adams was suggesting that the real war took place not on any farmer's field in Concord or any battlefield at Saratoga but instead in the hearts and minds of the American people. According to this theory, a fledgling "American identity" had emerged before the war. The muskets that were fired in the 1770s were essentially a means of securing the right to express in speech, print, and action the already-independent ideas of the American people.

    Adams' proposition was that the "alteration in the religious, moral, political, and social character" of Americans represented the true revolution, and the weapons in the battle must have been the conversations, speeches, sermons, engravings, paintings, letters, newspapers, books, pamphlets, and even posters that won over the hearts and minds of the people in the period before and during the military action.

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    Lv 4
    4 years ago

    the government could desire to be created with the intention to serve the people quite than a king or an elite, small team of fellows. while u.s. and the form have been created lots of the 1st tries have been to examine yet another monarchy like the single in England which the founders had merely fought a conflict to flee.

  • 9 years ago

    I think it means the people of the colonies have been ready to be free of British rule long before they declared war.

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