John Adams (TV Mini Series)

Independence (2008)

Clancy O'Connor: Edward Rutledge

Quotes 

• Edward Rutledge : Must you be so extreme, Dr. Franklin?

  Benjamin Franklin : [Wryly]  I'm an extreme moderate, Mr. Rutledge. I believe anybody not in favor of moderation and compromise ought to be castrated and that all this should be sent down to the... the Parliament for they seem to need - how should I put it? - stones.

  [He smiles broadly] 

• 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.