ABSTRACT
Trumbull hoped, as he put it, for “the warm patronage of my countrymen” to fur-
ther his career. Also, he was worried about being caught up in France’s worsening
revolutionary conflict. Trumbull thought the French would soon force King Louis
XVI to give up absolute power and establish a republic. He only hoped it would not
involve violence and bloodshed. The American Revolution had lasted twenty years-
from the mid-1760s until 1783-but the actual fighting had been limited and the
deaths relatively few.
