On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution — October 21, 1774

On this day 250 years ago in Taunton, Massachusetts the “Liberty and Union” flag was raised for the first time.

https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/before-old-glory-there-was-the-taunton-flag

Also on this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress adopted its Address to the People of Great Britain. The Address laid out the arguments for repeal of the Intolerable Acts and tax on tea including

That we consider ourselves, and do insist, that we are and ought to be, as free as our fellow-subjects in Britain, and that no power on earth has a right to take our property from us without our consent.

That we claim all the benefits secured to the subject by the English constitution, and particularly that inestimable one of trial by jury.

That we hold it essential to English Liberty, that no man be condemned unheard, or punished for supposed offences, without having an opportunity of making his defence.

That we think the Legislature of Great-Britain is not authorized by the constitution1 to establish a religion, fraught with sanguinary and impious tenets, or, to erect an arbitrary form of government, in any quarter of the globe. These rights, we, as well as you, deem sacred. And yet sacred as they are, they have, with many others, been repeatedly and flagrantly violated.

Source: https://founders.archives.gov/?q=%2221%20October%201774%22&s=1111311111&sa=&r=3&sr=


3 responses to “On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution — October 21, 1774”

  1. It’s interesting that the Continental Congress should declare themselves “fellow-subjects in Britain” while also saying that they “think the Legislature of Great-Britain is not authorized by the constitution to establish a religion” in 1774.

    Religious freedom in the UK did not exist then nor would it for at least another half century with the passage by Parliament of the Catholic Emancipation Act in 1829.

    The Anglican church has been the state Church in England since 1534 and remains so today as 26 church bishops hold seats in the House of Lords. In fact, attendance in the Church of England for all English citizens was required until 1791 no matter what sect one adhered to.

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    • All the way to the Declaration of Independence the Patriots would insist that they were only claiming their rights as Englishmen, while simultaneously asserting that they were claiming God-given rights that were universal in nature. Only in 1776 did the Patriots drop the fiction that all they were doing was demanding equal treatment with other Englishmen.

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  2. They must have entertained such non-Englishman ideas of freedom before they became Americans. It is said that those who settled Plymouth Colony were seeking religious freedom not available to them in Europe. You and I are both familiar with the freedoms early established by Virginia Colony such as some women inheriting property and the right to representation by popular consent rather than by appointment.

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