A pair of unfinished revolutions

A pair of unfinished revolutions

In my house, two legacies face each other. On one wall hangs a reproduction of “The Spirit of ’76,” painted by my cousin Archibald M. Willard for the nation’s 100th birthday. The central drummer in that painting — the older man leading the trio — was modeled after Archibald’s father, my cousin too. “The Spirit of ’76” is America’s most famous Revolutionary painting — the definitive image of independence, instantly recognizable wherever it appear…