On September 20, 1774, Harvard Professor John Winthrop wrote to the theologian and intellectual Richard Price, one of America’s firmest supporters in London, that the Massachusetts Government Act “mutilated the Charter [of Massachusetts], so as to leave only a phantom remaining and, by depriving the people of every privilege has erected an absolute despotism.” Her further complained that the “manifest design” of the Administration of Justice Act was “to empower the military to kill the inhabitants without danger or fear of punishment.”
Also on that day, Governor Thomas Gage of Massachusetts wrote to Lord Dartmouth in London that when news of the Massachusetts Government Act and the Administration of Justice Act arrived in Massachusetts it “overset” his plans to strengthen Royal authority “and the flame blazed out in all parts at once beyond the conception of everybody.”
Source: Mary Beth Norton, 1774 The Long Year of Revolution at 132-34
On this day 250 years ago, the Sally set sail from Essex County, Virginia with “one thousand and eighty-seven bushels of Indian corn, for the use of our suffering brethren in” Boston. The Essex County Committee led by John Upshaw had arranged for the collection of the corn and the shipment to Massachusetts. Unfortunately inclement weather drove the schooner south, to the Dutch island of St. Eustatius. There the cargo was sold and the proceeds sent to the Boston Committee.
https://www.academia.edu/42263308/Death_Be_Not_Proud; Letter to John Hancock, Esq., or the Overseers of the Poor of the Town of Boston dated Sep. 19, 1774 reprinted in Commager, Henry Steele and Richard B. Morris, The Spirit of Seventy-Six, The Story of the American Revolution as Told by its Participants at 34-35
Also on this day, Rev. Ebenezer Parkman of Westborough, Massachusetts recorded in his diary that “there was gathering of people from Several Towns to Watertown, here they expected a Body of Regulars would come to carry off the Great Guns which had been moved there from Charlestown — but the Regulars which were in motion did not go to Waterton but to Dorchester neck, to entrench that important place.”
And on this day in Philadelphia, Samuel Adams wrote to Rev. Charles Chauncey of the First Church (Congregational) in Boston:
Last Friday Mr. Revere brought us the spirited and patriotick Resolves of your County of Suffolk. We laid them before the Congress. They were read with great applause, and the Enclosed Resolutions were unanimously passed,which give you a faint idea of the spirit of the Congress. I think I may assure you that America will make a point of supporting Boston to the utmost.
On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail Adams in Massachusetts about the Continental Congress:
The Proceedings of the Congress, are all a profound Secret, as yet, except two Votes which were passed Yesterday, and ordered to be printed. You will see them from every Quarter. These Votes were passed in full Congress with perfect Unanimity.
The Esteem, the Affection, the Admiration, for the People of Boston and the Massachusetts, which were expressed Yesterday, And the fixed Determination that they should be supported, were enough to melt an Heart of Stone. I saw the Tears gush into the Eyes of the old, grave, pacific Quakers of Pensylvania.
On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress adopted the Suffolk Resolves from Massachusetts. See my blog entry for September 9 for the text of the Suffolk Resolves. In adopting them the Congress added an unanimous resolution:
That this assembly deeply feels the suffering of their countrymen in the Massachusetts – Bay, under the operation of the late unjust, cruel, and oppressive acts of the British Parliament—that they most thoroughly approve the wisdom and fortitude, with which opposition to these wicked ministerial measures has hitherto been conducted, and they earnestly recommend to their brethren, a perseverance in the same firm and temperate conduct as expressed in the resolutions determined upon, at a meeting of the delegates for the county of Suffolk, on Tuesday, the 6th instant, trusting that the effect of the united efforts of North America in their behalf, will carry such conviction to the British nation, of the unwise, unjust, and ruinous policy of the present administration, as quickly to introduce better men and wiser measures.
The Congress also resolved unanimously that:
That contributions from all the colonies for supplying the necessities, and alleviating the distresses of our brethren at Boston, ought to be continued, in such manner, and so long as their occasions may require.
and ordered “That a copy of the above resolutions be transmitted to Boston by the president [and] That these resolutions, together with the resolutions of the County of Suffolk, be published in the newspapers.”
John Adams recorded in his diary “This was one of the happiest Days of my Life. In Congress We had generous, noble Sentiments, and manly Eloquence. This Day convinced me that America will support the Massachusetts or perish with her.”
the honorable delegates, now met in General Congress, were elegantly entertained by the gentlemen of this city. Having met at the City Tavern about 3 o’clock, they were conducted from thence to the State House by the managers of the entertainment, where they were received by a very large company composed of the clergy, such genteel strangers as happened to be in town, and a number of respectable citizens, making in the whole near 500. After dinner the following toasts were drank, accompanied by music and a discharge of cannon.
. . .
5. Perpetual union to the colonies.
6. May the colonies faithfully execute what the Congress shall wisely resolve.
7. The much injured town of Boston, and province of Massachusetts Bay.
8. May Great Britain be just, and America free.
. . .
12. May every American hand down to posterity pure and untainted liberty he has derived from his ancestors.
13. May no man enjoy freedom, who has not spirit to defend it.
14. May the persecuted genius of liberty find a lasting asylum in America.
This night 250 years, Patriots thinly disguised as “Pickwacket Indians” boarded a sloop named the Cynthia moored in the harbor of York, Massachusetts (now York, Maine). They removed around 150 pounds of tea, but instead of dumping it in the harbor, they carried it ashore and it reportedly was never seen again.
On this day 250 years ago “a number of inhabitants of that Town [of Easton, Massachusetts] assembled together and erected a Tree of Liberty ninety-six Feet high, as a Monument to be had in everlasting remembrance of a united Agreement to maintain LIBERTY AND PROPERTY.”
Source: Boston Evening Post, Sep. 26, 1774
Also on this day 250 years ago, Willard Buttrick of Concord, Massachusetts made his powder horn from the horn of a cow. A few weeks later Buttrick joined the the company of Concord Minutemen commanded by his brother Captain John Buttrick. In April 1775 Willard Buttrick carried his powder horn at the Battle of Concord Bridge, the first American victory of the Revolutionary War. You can see Willard Buttrick’s powder horn on display at the North Bridge Visitor Center of Minute Man National Historic Park today.
On this day 250 years ago in Boston, Joseph Palmer wrote to his neighbor and friend John Adams attending the Continental Congress in Philadelphia regarding the status of the rebellion in Massachusetts:
The spirit of liberty is amazingly increased, so that there is scarce a tory and hardly a neutral to be found in the country. This province seems ripe for a more popular government, if not restrained by congress, who will doubtless give all the encouragement to all that the good of the whole will admit of. Some talk of resuming our first charter, others of absolute independency. Our eye is to the congress—may wisdom direct your every step.—You will see that our government has told us, that the refusing submission to the late acts of parliament is general throughout the province; and that he should lay the same before his majesty: and since that I have received satisfaction that our friends to government are convinced they can’t carry these acts into effect; and are willing, if possible, to keep matters in a state of suspense until they hear from home. At the same time they continue to entrench and fortify the neck, professedly, and I believe really and only, for self-defence.
Palmer was born in England but was a member of the Committee of Safety and a commander in the Massachusetts militia in 1774. He would go on to fight in the Battles of Lexington, Concord, Bunker Hill and become a general in the Continental Army.
Abigail Adams also wrote her husband on this day about the unrest in Boston but included interesting anecdotes about the response to the Powder Alarm from the town of Braintree where they lived:
about 8 o clock a Sunday Evening there pass by here about 200 Men, preceeded by a horse cart, and marched down to the powder house from whence they took the powder and carried [it] into the other parish and there secreeted it. I opened the window upon there return. They pass’d without any Noise, not a word among them till they came against this house, when some of them perceiveing me, askd me if I wanted any powder. I replied not since it was in so good hands. The reason they gave for taking it, was that we had so many Tories here they dare not trust us with it. They had taken Vinton [a local Loyalist] in their Train, and upon their return they . . . calld upon him to deliver two Warrents. Upon his producing them, they put it to vote whether they should burn them and it pass’d in the affirmitive. They then made a circle and burnt them, they then call’d a vote whether they should huzza, but it being Sunday evening it passd in the negative. They call’d upon Vinton to swear that he would never be instrumental in carrying into execution any of these new atcts. They were not satisfied with his answers however they let him rest. A few Days after upon his making some foolish speaches, they assembled to the amount of 2 and [3?] hundred, swore vengance upon him unless he took a solemn oath. Accordingly, they chose a committee and sent [them] with him to Major Miller to see that he complied, and they waited his return, which proving satisfactory they disperced. This Town appear as high as you can well immagine, and if necessary would soon be in arms. Not a Tory but hides his head.
The same day in Philadelphia, John Adams was writing to his wife:
A Tory here is the most despicable Animal in the Creation. Spiders, Toads, Snakes, are their only proper Emblems. The Massachusetts Councillors, and Addressers are held in curious Esteem here, as you will see. The Spirit, the Firmness, the Prudence of our Province are vastly applauded, and We are universally acknowledged the Saviors and Defenders of American Liberty.
And also on this day five additional delegates joined the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. William Hooper and Joseph Hewes, were the first delegates to arrive from North Carolina. Henry Wisner and John Alsop from New York and George Ross from Pennsylvania also took their seats.
On this day 250 years ago, in Boston Lt. Robert MacKenzie of the British 43rd Regiment of Foot, wrote to his friend and former commander George Washington in Philadelphia. MacKenzie was from Virginia and had commanded a company in Washington’s regiment of Virginia militia during the French and Indian War, but had been commissioned in the British Army in 1761 and his regiment was in Boston under General Gage in 1774.
MacKenzie wrote to inform Washington “of the State of this unhappy Province,” and “of their fixed Aim at total Independance” and that
the rebellious and numerous Meetings of Men in Arms, their scandalous and ungenerous Attacks upon the best Characters in the Province, obliging them to save their Lives by Flight, and their repeated but feeble Threats to dispossess the Troops have furnished sufficient Reasons to Genl Gage to put the Town in a formidable State of Defence, about which we are now fully employed, and which will be shortly accomplished to their great Mortification.
On this day 250 years ago, the Town Meeting of Sudbury, Massachusetts voted “to purchase Six hundred Weight [of gunpowder] & 300 French Flynts or 500 English Flynts, [and] to purchase a Chest of Arms to the Number of 30 with Bayonets . . . .”
On this day 250 years ago Paul Revere departed Boston to ride to Philadelphia carrying copies of the Suffolk Resolves to the Continental Congress. Revere’s ride this day may have been more important for American history than his ride the following year that would be immortalized by poetry.
On This Day In The Revolution 