When John Laurens urged the audience to “shout it from the rooftops,” the crowd had no choice but to oblige him. And when John Laurens sang “raise a glass to freedom, something they can never take away,” it was easy to imagine him in a dusty French bar with a tricolor cockade pinned to his lapel, convincing the other members of the Les Amis de l’ABC to fight and die for the cause.