John Adams (TV Mini Series)

Independence (2008)

Zeljko Ivanek: John Dickinson

Quotes 

• John Adams : General Warren is fallen at Bunker Hill. Shot through the head. Bayoneted and stripped of his clothes. I knew him, gentlemen. He was my physician. The full measure of british atrocity is too terrible to relate. "400 patriots dead." Not professional soldiers, ordinary citizens of Massachusetts who willingly gave their lives to defend what was rightfully theirs. Their liberty. But they took with them more than 1,000 british soldiers and 100 of their officers. If this congress does not support the Massachusetts militia, it could very well dissolve, gentlemen! Should that happen... Should that happen, we will be left defenseless, gentlemen. I move that the congress adopt the Massachusetts militia immediately!

  John Dickinson : You are asking us to form an army, Mr. Adams. A force acting not for a single colony, but all 13! Now there's not a man here present who does not mourn the loss of the brave men of Massachusetts. But it is at such times that caution must prevail. It may be weeks before our last petion reaches the King, many weeks more before we may hope for a reply. While we await answer, we must avoid any escalation of the hostilities between us.

  John Adams : The situation is perilous! What is required now is one able man to build and to lead this new continental army.

  Edward Rutledge : And who do you propose of the Massachusetts delegates should lead this force?

  John Dickinson : Gentlemen, we move too quickly. We have not yet resolved the question of any continental army, much less who is to lead it.

  John Adams : I have but one gentleman in mind, known to all of us. Mr. President, I propose as commander in chief our most honorable and esteemed delegate... The good gentleman from Virginia, Colonel George Washington.

• John Dickinson : Gentlemen. The consequences involved in the motion now lying before us are of such magnitude that I tremble at the oppressive honor of sharing in its determination. My conduct this day, I expect, will give the finishing blow to my once great and now much-diminished popularity. Yet I had rather forfeit popularity forever than vote away the blood and happiness of my countrymen. Independence will not strengthen us by one man! Nor by the least supply. But it may expose our soldiers to additional cruelties and outrages. The full fury of British wrath will be unleashed. Indians will be loosed on the frontier. Negroes will rise up to slaughter us. New York may well be destroyed. By their own admission, the advocates of separation say foreign assistance will be necessary. At what cost? Let us imagine a war without victors. When the guns fall silent, many will have bled and sacrificed, only to have exchanged the light yoke of Great Britain for the heavy dominion of an alien power. Some have argued that America will become one great commonwealth. But what is to keep 13 unwieldy colonies from splitting asunder? I have a strong impression in my mind that this will take place. No, gentlemen. To escape the protection of Great Britain by declaring independence, unprepared as we are would be to brave a storm in a skiff made of paper.