brigadier general john dickinson. colonel william. few. captain thomas fitzsimons. captain nicholas gilman. lieutenant colonel hamilton. major william jackson. the convention secretary. major rufus king. colonel john langdon. brigadier general william livingston. major james mc. henry. major general thomas mifflin. volunteer. governor. morris. lieutenant charles pinckney. colonel charles coatsworth. pinckney. lieutenant colonel. richard dobbs. speed. surgeon general. hugh williamson. and commanding general. george washington. you know, painters have often found it difficult to distinguish in their art arising from a setting sun during the course of these sessions, i have often observed the sun on the back of general washington's chair. given my hopes and fears for the success of our business at the convention, i also pondered the same question. but now, as i see what we have accomplished, i have the happiness to know that it is indeed a rising and not a setting sun. ultimately, of course, dr. franklin was right. but the debates were far from over. on september 20th,

brigadier general john dickinson. colonel william. few. captain thomas fitzsimons. captain nicholas gilman. lieutenant colonel hamilton. major william jackson. the convention secretary. major rufus king. colonel john langdon. brigadier general william livingston. major james mc. henry. major general thomas mifflin. volunteer. governor. morris. lieutenant charles pinckney. colonel charles coatsworth. pinckney. lieutenant colonel. richard dobbs. speed. surgeon general. hugh williamson. and commanding general. george washington. you know, painters have often found it difficult to distinguish in their art arising from a setting sun during the course of these sessions, i have often observed the sun on the back of general washington's chair. given my hopes and fears for the success of our business at the convention, i also pondered the same question. but now, as i see what we have accomplished, i have the happiness to know that it is indeed a rising and not a setting sun. ultimately, of course, dr. franklin was right. but the debates were far from over. on september 20th,

moderate, like john dickinson of pennsylvania. they urges caution. is it possible to reconstruct possible opinions? >> is a big thing that the scholars are working on. we have to do some broad generalizations of the numbers. generalizing broadly, you think around 20% are very hard-core loyalists. they are going to stick with the kingdom. this is what we were thinking of. a vast majority of people are not looking at the independence of the point of this declaration. that is one reason why i think the war matter so much. the outcome of the war, the individual battles in different areas, you see people switching from side to side depending on what the area is. >> this is against the most powerful empire in the world. that was the impulse to declare it. we tend to think of the american revolution sometimes as elitists. this is the colonial attire. they have different enlightenment ideas. in some ways, a civil war. >> this is what the scholars have written about in the last second. this is how it can be. in some ways, this is what they might say. american

you had radicals john adams who were ready to do it right away and moderates alike john dickinson of pennsylvania who kept urging caution to reconcile . is it even possible to reconstruct public opinion during this. ? >> this is a big thing that scholars are working on, it is hard great we have to do broad generalizations of the numbers. we think that around 20% are very hard-core loyalist. they are going to stick with the king no matter what. we think around 80% or so around july 1776 are strongly patriot and pro-american independent. that leaves 60% of the population on the fence. it is not clear which side they will go to. another way of thinking about that is there are a vast majority people who are not supporting american independence at the point of declaration and that's why it had to be persuasive. i think that is why the war mattered so much. the outcome of the war, individual battles in different areas we see people switching from side to side depending on what army controlled the area. >> they also had to prepare for a long-term war against the most powerful army in the wo

moderates like john dickinson of pennsylvania who kept urging caution to reconcile, where was do we is it even possible to reconstruct public opinion during this period? yeah. so this is a big thing that scholars are working on and it's it's hard and we do have to do some broad generalized with the numbers. but i think, you know, generalizing broadly, we think that around 20% are very hard core loyalists. they're going to stick with, you know, the king no matter what we think around 30% or so as of july 76 are strongly patriot, you know, pro in american independence. that leaves about 50% of the american population. and that's kind of on the fence. it's not clear which side they're going to go to. but another way of thinking of that is that there's a vast majority of people are not supporting american independence at. the point of the declaration, and that's why it had to be a persuasive document. and that's one reason why i think the war matters so much, because the outcome of the war individual battles in different areas you see people from side to side depending on army is controlli