The tricolor caused reverberations around the world. As people either sympathized with the revolutionaries or frowned upon their excesses, sides were chosen and cockades were displayed.
An interesting letter during this time by Abigail Adams relates the story of a fight between some men wearing American black cockades and their opponents showing the French tricolor cockade.
In great order & decorum the young men with each a black cockade marched through the multitude and all of them entered the house preceded by their committee....About four o’clock as is usual the State House Yard, which is used for a walk, was very full of the inhabitants, when about 30 fellows, some with snow balls in their hats & some with tri-colored cockades, entered and attempted to seize upon the hats of the young men to tear out their cockades. A scuffle ensued when the young men became conquerors, and some of these tri-colored cockades were trampled in the dust.
Cockades were serious business!