"The 'Spirit of 76.' It has endured for two hundred years. It was there — unformed and unnamed — the night disguised patriots threw chests of British-taxed tea into Boston Harbor. It became a fearful reality as rebel drum beats summoned Minutemen to Lexington Green. It was proudly declared in that summer of 1776, when men signed their names to a document that began,'When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another...' It was formally conceded by the British five years later, on the fields of Yorktown, as the American, General Lincoln, received the sword of defeated Cornwallis. Many fought to keep that spirit alive. Young, old, famous, unknown. Benjamin Franklin was 70 the year he signed the Declaration of Independence."