David asked for a cite on John Adams' letter that contained the lines; >"What do we mean by the Revolution? The War? That was no part of the >Revolution. It was only an Effect and Consequence of it. The >Revolution was in the Minds of the People, and this was effected, from >1760 to 1775, in the course of fifteen Years before a drop of blood >was drawn at Lexington." In "Passionate Sage", by Joseph Ellis it is cited as 'Adams to Thomas Jefferson, August 14, 1815, Adams-Jefferson Letters, 11, 455'. Ellis also mentioned the similar wording in the Hezekiah Niles letter that Margaret points out. My own thoughts on the very similar wording is that Adams was looking over his notes when Niles approached him with some questions or a request for his collection. [Niles' collection was published as "Principles and Acts of the Revolution", and is a hodge-podge of miscellany of some interest.] Niles may have even asked specifically about the Adams-Jefferson letters, as many of them were published in newspapers of the day. I'm still wondering on the Keith quote - but I'm going to try alt.quotations. There are a couple folks there that might have the answer at their fingertips. Jim

Dear friends, I have the book, "THE ADAMS-JEFFERSON LETTERS" THE COMPLETE CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THOMAS JEFFERSON AND ABIGAIL AND JOHN ADAMS, Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture at Williamsburg, Virginia by The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill and London, Edited by Lester J. Cappon, Originally published 1959. This book is over 600 pages, single spaced, front and back. There is a letter written by Jefferson to Adams over a period of days, including August 10-11th in the year 1815, which is where I believe someone misunderstood the dating and because the year number appears thus: (-15) they picked up that date. As to the letter, there is discussion, and has been between Jefferson and Adams at people coming out of the woodwork, (my phrase) writing about what had been said behind closed doors. John Adams said something to the effect, "I'd like to know how that could be written when not one soul was writing as we were talking"....It goes on and on between the two. If our listowner would like, I shall transcribe the letter written from Monticello on August 10-11th, 1815 from Thomas Jefferson to John Adams? Regards, Margaret