The men who declared independence from the British in 1776 could be a querulous and difficult bunch, but on a few big issues they stood shoulder to shoulder: they were free men and would, under no circumstances, submit to arbitrary, unlawful, and tyrannical authority. They would, to paraphrase James Otis, die before becoming slaves to despotic authority. Servitude, dependency of any kind was unacceptable. Their essence as men, as citizens was their freedom: their ability and right to govern themselves. This exhibit has been selected from a collection that documents these men, their ideas and the traditions that sustained them. It is, in many ways, a remarkable collection. Created by Marvin Weiner (W-38), it is nothing less than the intellectual history of the origins of the American Revolution.
