John Adams, recalling his "...total despair of
any good coming from the petition or of those things which are
called conciliatory measures" was referring to the faction within the Continental Congress in favor of appeasing the British. He continued, "I constantly insisted that all such
measures, instead of having any tendency to produce a
reconciliation, would only be considered as proofs of our timidity
and want of confidence in the ground we stood on, and would only
encourage our enemies to greater exertions against us."
By contrast, today's whinging milquetoasts politicians are not fit to be scraped of Adams' shoe.
Nod to: Dan Sullivan on HBL