Franklin, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, and Thomas Jefferson, and it will be seen at a glance that the group can easily be divided into two groups, those from the colony of Massachusetts and those from the colony of Virginia, and while there were many other patriots of that period who did much toward bringing about American freedom, these six men were the prime movers in the events that led to the Declaration of Independence.
Let us form another group made up of the men who did most toward upholding the declaration that "these states are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states," and we have Washington, Hamilton, John Adams, Robert Morris, LaFayette, and others. Now form a group of those men who shaped the opinions of the masses previous to the Civil War,
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