BYU professor and artist Anthony Sweat wrote in his recent book,

Repicturing the Restoration.

When United States founding father John Adams learned that the famous painter John Trumbull

was going to undertake a massive panorama of the Declaration of Independence,

Adams wrote Trumbull a letter and asked some poignant questions stating an important principle.

Quote, a few questions or two.

Who of your profession will undertake to paint a debate or an argument in the legislature?

Here the revolution commenced.

Then and there the child was born.

Truth, nature, fact should be your soul guide.

Let not our posterity be deluded by fictions under pretense of poetical or graphical licenses.

End quote. Brother Sweat continues. Trumble didn't choose to depict any arguments or fights.

Instead, he showed a group of 42 men

sitting or standing calmly with the document in hand ready to approve. Generations later,

we can mistakenly think that the Congress was peaceful and all were united in declaring

independence, when, in reality, there was abundant difficulty in the process.

Lynn Manuel Miranda, in his smash Broadway hit, play Hamilton, originally proposed starting

the play with a song called No John Trumbull to call attention to this conflicted reality.

Here are the words. You ever see a painting by

John Trumbull, founding fathers in a line, looking all humble, patiently waiting to sign a

declaration to start a nation, no sign of disagreement, not one grumble, the reality is messier

and richer kids. The reality is not a pretty picture, kids.

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