Beeman - Our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor: the forging of American independence, 1774-1776

Beeman is a strong, direct writer, adept at bringing historical personalitiesto life.

Philadelphia Inquirer

Richard Beemans account of the movement to American independence is gripping, even if the reader knows the subject well and has no doubt as to how it ends.... We are fortunate to have as readable and cogent account of it as Our Lives, Our Fortunes and Our Sacred Honor.

Federal Lawyer

Our best history of the Continental Congress and the grand debate that led to independence.... With back-room deals and personality clashes in abundance, Beemans tale of independence is as complex, worldly, and occasionally tedious as modern-day politics.

Books & Culture

[Beeman] demonstrates his virtuosity.... [T]he book abounds with colorful descriptions and personalities... vivid writing.

Cleveland Plain Dealer

An outstanding book that should become an instant classic and needs to be on the bookshelf of anyone who fancies themselves knowledgeable about the Revolutionary period.

Battles and Book Reviews

Lively study of the main players of the two Continental Congresses.... Beeman elegantly moves through the deeply compelling process of how these motley characters fashioned government as an agency for the people. A welcome addition to a rich, indispensable field of scholarly study.

Kirkus, starred review

The American Revolution tends to bring out the best in its chroniclers. Case in point: Richard Beemans latest book, Our Lives, Our Fortunes and Our Sacred Honor: The Forging of American Independence, 17741776. Its a charming, fast-paced retelling of a narrative thats been retold a thousand times before.... Its not really the historians trade hes plying in these pages but rather the epic poets: reciting the grand old stories while the wine of patriot season flows and the night sky over Boston is filled with fireworks. Theres a worth to that, and Beeman has written a worthy book.

Open Letters Monthly

Beemans prose captures those tensions and facilitates the imagination so the reader can feel a part of the debate.

Roanoke Times

An engaging history of the Founders of 1776.

Booklist

Full of fascinating details.

Publishers Weekly

The biggest accomplishment in all of American politics was the first. Richard Beeman tells the intricate, grinding, suspenseful story of how thirteen contentious colonies agreed to leave an empire and form a nation.

Richard Brookhiser, author of James Madison

With a dazzling combination of effortless prose and impeccable research, Richard Beeman has given us a fresh understanding of how thirteen very differentand often differingcolonies became a nation.

Thomas Fleming, author of Liberty!: The American Revolution

A solid and lucid account of the momentous years leading up to the Revolution by one of early Americas expert historians. Indeed, the story of those two years 17741776 has never been better told.

Gordon Wood, professor of history emeritus at Brown University

OUR LIVES,

OUR FORTUNES

AND OUR SACRED HONOR

ALSO BY RICHARD R. BEEMAN:

Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution

The Penguin Guide to the United States Constitution

The Varieties of Political Experience in Eighteenth-Century America

The Evolution of the Southern Backcountry

Patrick Henry: A Biography

The Old Dominion and the New Nation, 17881801

Editor, with Stephen Botein and Edward Carter II:

Beyond Confederation: The Origins of the

American Constitution and National Identity

Series Editor, The Penguin Civic Classics:

The Declaration of Independence and Constitution;

Common Sense; Selected Essays of the Federalist Papers;

Selected Speeches by Abraham Lincoln;

Great American Speeches from the Founding to the Present;

and Major Supreme Court Decisions

OUR LIVES,

OUR FORTUNES

AND OUR SACRED HONOR

THE FORGING of

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE,

17741776

RICHARD R. BEEMAN

BASIC BOOKS

A MEMBER OF THE PERSEUS BOOKS GROUP

NEW YORK

Copyright 2013 by Richard R. Beeman

Hardcover first published in 2013 by Basic Books

A Member of the Perseus Books Group

Paperback first published in 2015 by Basic Books

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address Basic Books, 250 West 57th Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10107.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Beeman, Richard R.

Our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor : the forging of American independence, 17741776 / Richard R. Beeman.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-465-03782-7 (e-book) 1. United StatesHistoryRevolution, 17751783. 2. United States. Continental CongressHistory. 3. United StatesPolitics and governmentTo 1775. 4. United StatesPolitics and government17751783. 5. RevolutionariesUnited StatesBiography. 6. United StatesHistoryRevolution, 17751783Biography. 7. StatesmenUnited StatesBiography. I. Title.

E210.B43 2013

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For Mary

John Adams: Fiercely intelligent and fiercely opinionated, he took great pride in his reputation as the Atlas of Independence. While many of his fellow delegates no doubt admired his commitment to high principle, on many occasions they must have rolled their eyes at his flights into high dudgeon. Adams was an active participant in the Congress from the moment it first convened and stayed around long enough to serve on the drafting committee of the Declaration of Independence. His ideas and emotions were always on display, and, because he was a compulsive correspondent and diarist, he has left us with the most vivid accounts of the events of the forging of American Independence.

Samuel Adams: The Massachusetts Tory Peter Oliver believed that if an artist wished to draw the Picture of the Devil... he would get Sam Adams to sit for him. British officials in the Bay Colony and in London believed that John Adamss older second cousin was capable of turning the minds of the vulgar... into any course that he might chuse. When Sam Adams appeared at the First Continental Congress in September 1774, he surprised the delegates by his somber, logical exegesis on the imperial crisis. The interplay between Sam and John Adams at the Continental Congress had some fascinating twists and turns, with Sam, not John, more often recognizing the importance of gently persuading, rather than badgering, the more reluctant colonies to embrace the decision for independence.