Successful revolutions depend on participation by the common man, but the establishment of the United States first required wealthy colonials to disrupt the very system that had enriched them, and then fund a very long war. Some made a fortune, but Tom Schachtman points out that some wanted better opportunities for their poorer countrymen. The contributions of Alexander Hamilton and Robert Morris are well known, but here are such figures as Henry Laurens, the plantation owner who replaced Hancock as President of Congress; privateer magnate Elias Hasket Derby; and Hamilton's successor at Treasury, Oliver Wolcott, Jr.