Scythe Theme Quotes

The idea of his life ending was not much of a problem for him. In fact, it had become an oddly familiar theme. He had died so many times, and in so many ways, he was used to it. It held no more terror for him than falling asleep – which was often worse, because when he slept, he had nightmares. At least being deadish was a dreamless state, and the only difference between being deadish and being dead was the length of time involved.

None other than John Adams expanded on the theme of the armed citizen in his influential Novanglus series, a refutation of former Whig and now Tory "Massachusettensis" (Daniel Leonard), who argued that Parliament's authority extended to the colonies. In response to the suggestion that the colonies could not defend themselves, partly because the colonies south of Pennsylvania had no men to spare, Adams wrote: But we know better; we know that all those colonies have a back country, which is inhabited by a hardy, robust people, many of whom are emigrants from New England, and habituated, like multitudes of New England men, to carry their fuzees113 or rifles upon one shoulder, to defend themselves against the Indians, while they carry their axes, scythes, and hoes upon the other, to till the ground.