“I stopped one night at a tavern….about forty miles from Boston, and as I was cold and wet, I sat down at a good fire in the bar-room to dry my great-coat and saddle bags, till a fire could be made up in my chamber. There presently come in, one after another, half a dozen, or half a score of substantial yeomen of the neighborhood, who, sitting down to the fire after lighting their pipes, began a lively conversation on politics. As I believed I was unknown to all of them, I sat in total silence to hear them.”
John Adams, 1794