Division, Dearstyne said, has been part of our nation since its founding. In 1776, John Adams said that a third of the colonists wanted independence, a third did not, and a third were undecided. “And yet we came together,” said Dearstyne, noting cyclical divisions in our nation’s history, most notably the Civil War, but also in the 1890s, the 1930s, and the 1960s.