This is the fourth in a series.

For years, independence from Great Britain had been talked about among friends, then debated in taverns. By the winter of 1776, Thomas Paine had published his thoughts on the subject in” Common Sense,” but by June of that year, more than 14 months after Lexington and Concord, since Bunker’s Hill and a failed invasion of Canada, the Continental Congress in Philadelphia had not tackled the question.

On June 3, John Adams wrote to Patrick Henry, saying, “The dons, the bashaws, the grandees, the patricians, the…