A year after the shots were fired at Lexington and Concord, heralding the beginning of the American Revolutionary War, French Foreign Minister Vergennes submitted a report to King Louis XVI and his council on the escalating conflict between England and its North American colonies. Charles Gravier, the Comte de Vergennes (1719–1787), had been a career …
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson occupy the top tier in the American pantheon of Revolutionary Era giants. They knew each other for fifty years—from 1775 when they first met during the Second Continental Congress until they died, perhaps miraculously, on the 4th of July 1826—the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. …
With the adoption of the Constitution, Americans faced the arduous task of implementing a new government. One thing was certain—George Washington had to be the country’s first President. Preferring to remain retired at Mount Vernon, Washington agonized over re-entering public service. Between 15 December 1788 and 10 January 1789 the states elected presidential electors who …