Which Founding Father is most responsible for Independence?

Spoiler Alert: It's not Washington or Jefferson

Dear Reader of The Dean’s List,

With 4th of July celebrations in the rear view mirror, it’s time to reflect on which Founding Father is most responsible for this glorious event.

Obviously, names like Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, and the Adamses come to mind. But there is one name that moves unseen through many of the most important stories of independence. There is one Signer of the Declaration whose wisdom kept independence alive at every turn.

Today’s post explores the story behind this man who many would never guess to have played such an important role in our Independence.

Enjoy!

~Dean Bowen

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Which Founding Father is most responsible for Independence?

The day after Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty tossed the highly taxed tea into the Boston Harbor, John Adams rightly declared that “the die is cast.” In his journal entry of the same day, he sang the praises of the Boston Tea Party:

“Destruction of the tea is so bold, so daring, so firm, intrepid and inflexible, and it must have so important consequences, and so lasting, that I cannot but consider it as an epocha in history.”

Adams was right. It turned out to be a truly groundbreaking moment which would never be forgotten.

The British wouldn’t forget it either. Their retribution for the drowned tea was swift. The Intolerable Acts were imposed in early 1774 effectively closing the port of Boston.

In the meantime, the other colonies began to sympathize with the plight of Bostonians which lead to Virginia calling for a General Congress to meet on September 5, 1774.

While the delegates from Massachusetts had independence in mind, the idea of independence was a fragile one. Dr. Benjamin Rush, a delegate from Pennsylvania and a member of the Sons of Liberty, met John and Samuel Adams on their way to Philadelphia in Frankfurt about five miles outside of the city. He informed them that people were stirring up resistance to the idea of independence by calling the Adamses “desperate adventurers,” who were to be treated with suspicion if they should mention independence.

Rush advised them to “not utter the word independence . . . in Congress or any private conversation,” as John Adams would reveal several years later in an 1822 letter to Timothy Pickering. Rush warned that the idea of independence was just about as popular as the Stamp Act had been, and they should be very cautious not to come forward with any bold declarations of independence.

As a member of the Sons of Liberty, Rush wanted independence just as much as the Massachusetts delegates, but he also possessed the wisdom in how to go about it. If the Adams cousins would follow his advice, it would change the trajectory of the country for ever.

Instead of John and Sam introducing the idea of independence, Rush suggested, they should allow Virginia to take the lead on the subject as the “Southern States, and the Middle States too, are too much disposed to yield it to them.”

They took his advice and remained silent on the subject of independence while enduring “long debates and infinite delays,” and looking for a Virginian to take the lead. In a letter to William Tudor, John Adams complained that Congressional discussions were with “a moderation, an acuteness, and a minuteness equal to that of Queen Elizabeth’s privy council.”

It felt to John Adams that Congress was going nowhere fast. Meanwhile, the Massachusetts delegation had “been obliged to keep ourselves out of sight, and to feel pulses, and to sound the depths; to insinuate our sentiments, designs, and desires, by means of other persons.”

But in his patience and ability to take the advice of Benjamin Rush, the Colonial Congress had made the Massachusetts cause the common cause of all. By the time the session ended on October 26, they had suspended all trade with Britain and scheduled another meeting the following May if their grievances were not met.

Before the Second Continental Congress met on May 10, the shot heard ‘round the world had already been fired, and things were heating up. Yet Adams stayed true to the Frankfort advice. Instead of pounding his fist for independence, he would push the delegates in small nudges to move them closer to the idea as if they had come up with it on their own.

He did this by making a motion that Congress “adopt the army at Cambridge, and appoint a general.” Up to this point, the fighting forces were made up of independent militias which operated under their own banners. The Adams motion, which was seconded by Samuel Adams, essentially became the first step towards independence by uniting the army under the authority of Congress.

Ever mindful of the Frankfurt advice, John Adams nominated a Virginian to lead the army: George Washington.

On July 6, 1775, Congress issued a declaration stating “before God and the world” their decision to unite the army under one banner in the use of force was “for the preservation of our Liberties.”

John Dickinson was the lead antagonist against the idea of independence. Perhaps recognizing the gentle nudge the Adams cousins were applying to the delegates, he made sure the resolution also disavowed “ambitious designs” of establishing independence.

Congress also supported Dickinson’s move for a second petition of redress to the King. This prompted an agitated John Adams to write two letters, both of which were intercepted and published in local papers by James Duane with the intent of embarrassing Adams.

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In the letters, Adams referred to the petition of redress as a “measure of imbecility,” and also criticized Dickinson as one who “has given a silly cast to our whole doings. we are between hawk and buzzard.”

The publication of the letters had two results.