The American Cause

In His Excellency, Ellis reports that

widespread support for what Washington described as the "American Cause" was in fact cresting, and would never again reach the height it achieved during the Boston siege. "The spirit of '76" should more accurately (if less lyrically) be called "the spirit of late '75 and early '76," because patriotic fervor began to erode just as the war became politically official and militarily threatening.

Ellis goes on to report the following:

The mythological rendition of dedicated citizen-soliders united for eight years in the fight for American libery was, in fact, a romantic fiction designed by later generations to conceal the deep divisions and widespread apathy within the patriot camp.

Interesting. Among other things, this reinforces in my mind the importance of ideas as opposed to trying to accomplish very difficult (to put it gently) goals across time primarily on emotion. An emotion can carry you only so far. An idea can carry you forever, gaining momentum as you continue to feed it daily with your choice to honor it.