Excerpt
This is the opening:

"Mighty states and kingdoms change," wrote the young man. "A few people came over to this new world for conscience' sake; this apparently trivial incident may transfer the great seat of empire to America. Our people will, in another century, become more numerous than in England itself. The united force of Europe will not be able to subdue us."

The young man who wrote these words was a twenty-year old school teacher in Worcester, Massachusetts. His name was John Adams. The year was 1735. At that time America was a group of thirteen relatively unimportant colonies that was part of a great empire ruled by England. To most Europeans it was a wilderness for which England, France, and Spain were still contending.