But America is a great, unwieldy Body. Its Progress must be slow. It is like a large Fleet sailing under Convoy. The fleetest Sailors must wait for the dullest and slowest. Like a Coach and six—the swiftest Horses must be slackened and the slowest quickened, that all may keep an even Pace.

Letter to Abigail Adams (17 July 1775); in L. H. Butterfield, ed., Adams Family Correspondence (1963), vol. 1, p. 216