Did John Adams and John Dickinson get into a actual fight in the middle of the Continental Congress?
John Dickinson was Pennsylvania’s delegate to the Continental Congress and, although he argued that the British Parliament had no right to tax the colonies simply to raise revenue, was a firm opponent of independence, believing that the only just and sensible course was reconciliation. I couldn’t find any evidence that they actually dived into a physical fight, but, given that Adams had a bad temper and loathed Dickinson, it’s not an outlandish scene to write in. Did Richard Henry Lee really leave the Congress because he was called to be governor of Virginia or because of his ill wife? Just as the film relates, Richard Henry Lee was the one who actually submitted the proposal, called the Lee Resolution, to declare independence from Britain. He would have probably been the one enlisted to write the Declaration of Independence, if he did not have to leave the Second Continental Congress. However, he was never called to serve as governor of Virginia, but actually did leave because of his
