On this day 250 years ago in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Committee of Safety of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress named Artemas Ward, Jedediah Preble and Seth Pomeroy as Generals to command the Massachusetts Militia.

Sources: https://revolutionarywarjournal.com/general-artemas-ward-americas-first-commander-in-chief-in-the-war-for-independence/; https://revolutionarywarjournal.com/seth-pomeroy-forgotten-founder-and-the-first-brigadier-general-of-the-continental-army/;

Also on this day 250 years ago in Boston, Isaiah Thomas published another issue of The Massachusetts Spy. Under a masthead of a snake cut into separate pieces representing each colony, and the mottos “JOIN, or DIE” and “Do THOU Great LIBERTY inspire our Souls – And make our Lives in THY Possession happy – Or, our Deaths glorious in THY just Defence”, Thomas published numerous articles challenging the authority of the Royal Governor of Massachusetts, General Thomas Gage, who was also the Commander of the entire British Army in North America. Isaiah Thomas published his newspaper right under the nose of Gage who commanded the Army and attempted to govern Massachusetts from Boston.

On the front page of the October 27 issue of The Massachusetts Spy, Thomas published an article criticizing General Gage because his “foreign measures will force America into rebellion and thus be attended with some dreadful carnage.” Another page included a report from Salem “that General Gage’s ridiculous proclamation [barring the Massachusetts Provincial Congress from meeting] was treated with the utmost contempt, torn in pieces, and burnt; none of the sheriffs or civil officers would execute it.“ And he published a third letter that called the prior Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson an “infamous traitor” in the same issue.

Source: https://www.rarenewspapers.com/view/687194?list_url=%2Flist%3Fcode%3Dcatkey

The courage of Isaiah Thomas to publish his attacks on British authority 250 years ago stands in stark contrast to the news this weekend in 2024 that the multi-billionaire owner of The Washington Post is refusing to allow publication of an endorsement of Kamala Harris in his paper out of fear that Donald Trump will take retribution on his other business operations if Trump wins the election.