Goofs

When John Adams is singing "Piddle, Twiddle and Resolve" he walks away from the hall and turns right. When the camera angle changes, he turns right again.

At the end of the movie, Caesar Rodney comes back into the room to vote Delaware as Yea for Independence and is sitting in between McKean and Read. After Dickinson leaves, that seat is vacant in several shots until time comes for the states to sign. The Declaration is brought to Rodney who is again in his seat.

When Adams and Franklin are in the park, Franklin is holding a cane in his outstretched arm. In the next shot, his arm is against his body.

When Adams and Samuel Chase talk about visiting the Continental Army, Adams asks Chase if he would support independence by saying, "Would you or wouldn't you?" When Adams says, "wouldn't you" his hand is clearly above the notepad on the desk (as evidenced by the shadow below his hand). In the next shot from behind Adams, his hand is resting on the notepad.

Just before John Dickinson begins "Cool, Cool, Considerate Men" he asks McNair to open the window. Dickinson starts singing through the open window. But when he turns around into the room the window is shut.

The circumstances of Caesar Rodney's ride are historically inaccurate. Rodney suffered from asthma and skin cancer, but he had not returned to Delaware because he was dying. As a brigadier general in the Delaware militia, he was in Sussex County monitoring Tory activity when he received word that the vote on independence was about to take place. Changing horses several times, he rode all night, eighty miles through a thunderstorm, to reach Philadelphia in time to cast his vote. He remained almost continuously in public service until his death in 1784.

John Dickinson was a pacifistic Quaker who objected to revolution, not a Tory leading the resistance to declaring independence.

There was no direct requirement for unanimity, only the understanding that a less than unanimous vote would indicate a divided America to potential allies.

During the discussion on whether to allow slavery in the Constitution, Jefferson states that he has "already resolved to release my slaves." The implication is that he would do so in the very near future, however historical records at Jefferson's Monticello show that only two of Thomas Jefferson's slaves were freed during his lifetime. Another five were freed according to terms in Jefferson's will. Approximately 200 individuals were still enslaved at the time of Jefferson's death (1826) and sold at auction thereafter.

Contrary to what is portrayed in the Broadway musical and the film, John Adams and Richard Henry Lee had a healthy admiration and respect for one another.

South Carolina was not resistant to the notion of independence, far from it. In fact, South Carolina had rewritten its constitution in 1774, removing all references to Royal Authority.

It is stated quite clearly in the film that South Carolina would welcome independence, not just from England but from the other states as well.

Several times, Benjamin Franklin mocks John Adams for coming from Boston. Benjamin Franklin himself was born and raised in Boston, leaving only in his late teens, but this part of his life was very unhappy, so it makes sense that he would distance himself from it.

While attempting to write the Declaration in his apartment, Jefferson throws the paper about and finally tosses his quill and picks up the violin. As Adams and Franklin enter the apartment, the quill has reappeared in the inkwell on the desk in front of Jefferson. But the change in lighting (from darkness to broad daylight) indicates that many hours have passed between the two moments. Besides, in the quill pen era writers always kept multiple quills at hand because they wore out or needed resharpening with great frequency.

After the song "Cool Considerate Men," McNair remarks that he could not borrow a dollar from any of those men. Although American dollars were not minted until 1792, Spanish reales were recognized as international currency, and called dollars by English colonists. Although McNair himself was unlikely to have seen a real, he could have heard enough about them to make a colorful metaphor.

The very beginning of "Cool Considerate Men" quotes the first few words and notes of "The Star Spangled Banner", a song which did not exist in its present form until 1814. This is a small, obvious joke by the composer and lyricist. It raises the audience's expectation of hearing more of the national anthem but quickly violates that expectation, perhaps generating a small chuckle or smile from the audience.

The beginning of the film takes place in early June, 1776 in Philadelphia. There are several references to the heat, and several delegates are clearly sweating. After a squabble breaks out during the debate, John Hancock orders McNair to remove a dog from the room because it smells bad. As McNair complies, Hancock shouts, "Christ! It's hot!" and Thomas Jefferson sits on a sill by an open window to read a book. In the next scene, the dog is out on the sidewalk. It barks twice, and you can see its breath.

In the close-up of Franklin's portrait, the painter's brush is clearly not making any changes; no paint is added and none is removed.

Visible through the open door of the Assembly Room is the Supreme Court Room and on the wall is the coat of arms of Pennsylvania. This replaced King George's coat of arms which was torn down shortly after the first reading of the Declaration on Independence.

At the Congress, John Adams says "Benjamin Franklin smote the ground, and out sprang George Washington, fully grown and on his horse. Franklin then electrified them with his miraculous lightning rod and the three of them - Franklin, Washington, and the horse - conducted the entire Revolution all by themselves". John Adams made that speech in April 1790 at Benjamin Franklin's funeral.

In the song "Lees of Old Virginia" Richard Henry Lee mentions General Lighthorse Harry Lee. In fact Henry Lee III, in 1776, was neither a General, nor had he yet become known as "Lighthorse Harry," a moniker that he would only earn after taking command of "Lee's Legion" in 1778.

In "Cool Considerate Men" (included only in the extended version), Southern delegates sing about "moving to the right", but "right/left" political labels originated in the French Revolutionary Assembly of 1789.

During the debate over the anti-slavery clause, Edward Rutledge of South Carolina accuses the northern delegates of hypocrisy because "They don't keep slaves! Oh , no! But they are willing to be considerable carriers of slaves to others." At the time, slavery existed in all of the thirteen colonies.

Richard Henry Lee talks as he mounts his horse, yet his mouth is closed.

At one point in "The Lees of Old Virginia," you can hear Adams singing but his mouth is clearly not moving.

Martha Jefferson calls down to Franklin and Adams in a state of deshabille (i.e. her underwear) from Jefferson's window. She then comes down to them not two minutes later fully dressed, saying, "My husband is not yet up." Yet there's no way she could have laced herself into her dress, with corset-style lacings all down the back, if her husband was still asleep, unless she had one of her slaves handy to help her.

After the Declaration is approved Hancock asks the secretary if it is ready to be signed. The secretary replies that it is. This is not possible, as a deletion was made to the text only moments before, so no printed copy could yet exist.

This is called Dramatic License.

Lewis Morris of New York had only 10 children, not 12, and the 3 oldest boys fought in the Revolution - not 4 as stated in the movie.

During the song "The Egg" they sing "on this humid Monday morning", yet the date is shown as June 28, 1776, which was a Friday.

During "Sit Down, John", a Southern delegate knocks over a lit candle when he stands up to sing.

The insult that sparks the hand-to-hand brawl between Dickinson and Adams is "Lawyer!" One of the first lines is "One useless man is called a disgrace, two become a law firm, and three or more become a Congress." Yet 90% of Congress, including John Dickinson and John Adams themselves, were lawyers, so that seems a strange insult to use against somebody in the same profession. On the other hand, John Adams was known for his self-deprecating sense of humor.

Early in the garden, Franklin tells Adams "You make it sound as if independence were the rule. No colony has ever broken from the parent stem in the history of the world." Depending on how you define "broken from the parent stem," the US was only the fourth successful war of independence in history, according to Wikipedia.