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From an email I received from Tim Phillips of Americans for Prosperity...

Recently, I read A.J. Langguth’s book Patriots: The Men Who Started the American Revolution. It tells the story of Samuel Adams and the difficult early years of the Patriot movement as they organized a grassroots movement for liberty against daunting odds: the seemingly invincible British Empire and many Tories loyal to the Crown in the colonies.

In the aftermath of numerous defeats, James Warren who was one of Adams’ trusted allies began to lose heart after one particularly tough canvassing effort across the Massachusetts countryside. He wrote to Adams saying of the Patriot movement, “They are dead and the dead cannot be raised without a miracle.”

Adams simply responded: “Nil desperandum, — Never Despair. That is a motto for you and me. All are not dead; and where there is a spark of patriotic fire, we will rekindle it.”