1776

About the show

NOTE: The show can be performed in one or two acts. On May 8, 1776, the Second Continental Congress, convening in Philadelphia at present-day Independence Hall, proceeds with its business. John Adams, the controversial delegate from Braintree, Massachusetts, is frustrated because Congress will not even debate his proposals on independence. The other delegates, preoccupied with the rising heat, implore him to "Sit Down, John". Adams is frustrated that the Congress does nothing but "Piddle, Twiddle, and Resolve" as he imagines a conversation with his wife Abigail, who remains at the Adams homestead in Massachusetts and communicates by letter. Later, Adams meets delegate Benjamin Franklin, an elderly lecherous scamp, who suggests that Adams should let another, more popular delegate propose a resolution on independence and summons the charismatic Richard Henry Lee of Stratford, Virginia. Lee eagerly agrees to return to Virginia to procure an independence resolution from the Virginia House of Burgesses using his family's reputation and clout ("The Lees of Old Virginia"). Weeks later, new delegate Dr. Lyman Hall of Georgia arrives and is introduced to many important members of Congress, including Andrew McNair, the custodian; Stephen Hopkins of Rhode Island, an acerbic drunk; Edward Rutledge of South Carolina, the mysterious youngest delegate who leads the Congress's Southern caucus; and Caesar Rodney of Delaware, among others. As Congress is assembled, President John Hancock notes that the entire New Jersey delegation has been absent for quite some time. A gloomy dispatch from George Washington, commander of the Continental Army, arrives by courier and is read aloud by Secretary Charles Thomson. Shortly thereafter, Richard Henry Lee returns, bearing a resolution for independence. Elated, Adams seconds the motion to open debate on the resolution. John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, a conservative and royal apologist, immediately moves to table the debate. The vote is close, but debate is ultimately approved, prompting Dickinson to denounce the desire for independence as an overreaction to petty squabbles with Great Britain. The debate becomes more heated and personal, sparking a physical fight between Dickinson and Adams and causing Caesar Rodney to intervene; Rodney collapses from cancer. Pro-independence Scotsman Thomas McKean escorts Rodney back to Delaware, leaving conservative George Read in control of Delaware's delegation. Read quickly seconds Rutledge's motion to end the debate and vote on independence, knowing it is likely to fail. At this moment, the Reverend John Witherspoon arrives, announcing that New Jersey's legislature has deposed its royal governor, Franklin's estranged loyalist son, and has sent Witherspoon as the new delegate with explicit instruction to vote for independence. Adams, now seeing a path to victory, pushes to proceed with the vote, since ties are broken by Hancock, an Adams ally who is also from Massachusetts. Dickinson moves to require the vote for independence to be unanimous. The vote ends in a tie, but Hancock unexpectedly votes in favor of unanimity, explaining that if the colonies are divided, the crown will pit the colonies against each other. Knowing that Dickinson will quash the resolution if the vote proceeds immediately, Adams moves to postpone the vote to buy time to rally the needed support; he proposes that Congress draft a Declaration of Independence to build support abroad for the cause. Again, the vote ties; this time, Hancock votes to postpone. Before they adjourn, John Hancock appoints a committee of Adams, Franklin, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Robert Livingston of New York, and Lee to draft the declaration. Lee informs the Congress that he has been appointed Governor of Virginia and departs, never to be seen again; Adams nominates another Virginian, the resident meteorologist Thomas Jefferson, who wants no part of the task as he is returning home to see his wife after six months. Jefferson is forced to accept the task after the other four explain why they cannot or should not ("But, Mr. Adams"). Adams sends for Jefferson's beloved wife Martha, reasoning that if Thomas cannot return to her, she can be summoned to him and potentially break his writer's block. When she arrives, she refuses to speak to Adams or Franklin and spends the night with her husband. Adams, alone, again exchanges letters with his wife Abigail ("Yours, Yours, Yours"). The next morning, Franklin and Adams again attempt to engage Martha in conversation; she speaks, but tersely, and talks of her courtship with Thomas ("He Plays the Violin"). Adams is delighted to find that Jefferson has written something, but instead of work on the declaration, it is a mere note asking for him and Martha to be left alone. In June, with the Congress in what looks like a state of total lethargy, another grim dispatch from General Washington arrives, denouncing the Continental Army recruits as useless, undisciplined and outmatched, having fallen prey to numerous prostitutes at the camp in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Adams, sensing that Washington is exaggerating the crisis in hopes of securing more money, convinces Samuel Chase of Maryland to go with him to New Brunswick to test Chase's fears that the Revolutionary War is doomed to end in defeat; Franklin, eager to see the prostitutes for himself, tags along. The other liberals also leave the chamber; with only the conservatives left, and a cold front having brought down the ambient temperature, John Dickinson leads his congressional allies in a defense of their wealth, status and politics ("Cool, Cool Considerate Men"), during which the courier arrives with another gloomy Washington dispatch. The conservatives depart, leaving McNair, the courier (a Continental Army corporal from Watertown, Massachusetts), and a teenage "leather apron" (workman) alone in the chamber. As McNair begins a mock session as president pro tempore, he escorts the courier to Adams's seat; there, the courier and McNair discourage the leather apron from joining the Army as the courier recalls his friends' deaths at Lexington ("Momma Look Sharp"). As Congress reconvenes in Philadelphia, Jefferson is outside the chamber while Thomson reads the completed draft of the declaration to the Congress. Adams and Franklin arrive, delighted: though the troops are indeed undisciplined, they showed exceptional shooting skill hunting waterfowl for dinner, and this convinced Chase to vote for independence. They congratulate Jefferson on his work, and Franklin compares the creation of this new country to the hatching of a bird, though they disagree on what kind ("The Egg"). On June 28, Hancock asks if there are any alterations to be offered to the Declaration of Independence. Many delegates voice suggestions, additions or deletions. Edward Rutledge of South Carolina objects in particular to a clause condemning the slave trade. He fiercely defends slavery as an institution, claiming that blacks are not people, that Jefferson is a hypocrite for also owning slaves while opposing their trade (to which Jefferson claims he has arranged for his existing slaves' manumission) and the northern colonies profit off it via the Triangle Trade ("Molasses to Rum"). Rutledge leads a walk-out with the delegates from both Carolinas and Georgia, and the rest of the Congress follows. Adams, who insists on including the slavery clause on principle that excluding it would make the Congress hypocrites, discusses the matter with Franklin, who tells Adams that he must accept some degree of compromise if he wants the independence resolution to pass. Adams calls on Abigail in his mind to help him, and she reminds him of his commitment to the cause ("Compliments"). Bolstered by her (and the arrival of a delivery of kegs of saltpeter he had previously requested from her), Adams recovers his energy and sends Franklin to try and win the support of Pennsylvania's James Wilson and Jefferson to talk to Rutledge. Re-reading a dispatch from Washington, Adams, now alone, wonders "Is Anybody There?" Hall returns; after considering the words of Edmund Burke, he decides to buck his constituency's loyalist preference and use his own judgment to vote Yea for independence on Georgia's behalf. It is now July 2. Hancock calls for the vote on the Lee Resolution. At this moment, Rodney returns to Congress to assure that Delaware will vote in favor of independence. Thomson calls on each delegation. Although Pennsylvania passes on their first call, the rest of the New England and Mid-Atlantic colonies vote in favor of independence except for New York, who reluctantly abstains. (New York's delegate, Lewis Morris, explained earlier that the New York Provincial Congress had been so dysfunctional that he had received no instructions on how to vote.) When South Carolina is called, Rutledge again insists that the slavery clause be removed in exchange for the southern colonies voting in favor; after a brief but passionate final argument about the matter, Jefferson himself reluctantly strikes out the passage. South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia all vote "yea". On Pennsylvania's second call, Dickinson is about to announce that his colony votes "nay" when Franklin requests that the delegation be polled. Franklin votes "yea" and Dickinson votes "nay", leaving the decisive vote in the hands of Wilson, who had previously subordinated himself to Dickinson; now, fearing that if he sides with Dickinson he will be remembered forever as the man who prevented American independence, he changes his vote to "yea." With twelve colonies voting in favor of independence, none against, and one colony abstaining, the resolution is unanimously adopted. Hancock proposes that no man be allowed to sit in Congress without signing the Declaration.