Review by boblipton

Here's another of the flag-waving shorts that Warner Brothers produced in the late 1930s, covering historical subjects, but mostly to show off Technicolor; given the immense amounts of light needed to produce the three-strip image, there's a sepia cast to the entire procedure that modern color techniques tell us means the events portrayed in the movie took place long ago, just as a blue tint tells us the events take place at night.

Even with John Litel playing Thomas Jefferson, it's pretty much a pantomime, with people declaiming their lines. Cesar Rodney's beating down highwaymen trying to stop his gallant ride to attend the Congress and cast the deciding vote is nonsense. While his vote to sign the Declaration was key, he was not at home courting his future wife. He was lying at home, dying when they dragged him back to Philadelphia.