Merchant of the Revolution

There are two kinds of people in the world: people who break things, and people who put the pieces back together.

Into the latter category falls banker Thomas Willing, among the delegates to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia in 1776. When the “committee of the whole” voted on American independence, Willing voted no — twice. The fact ensured that we find no Willing–Hamilton duet in the musical Hamilton. Thomas Paine gets hero status in the celebration of the 250th anniversary of our independence.