On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet published this eloquent paean by an anonymous (and still unknown) author to American democracy:

The history of kings is nothing but the history of the folly and depravity of human nature.
. . . We read now and then, it is true, of a good King; so we read likewise of a Prophet escaping unhurt from a lion’s den, and of three men walking in a fiery furnace without having even their garments singed. The order of nature is as much inverted in the first as it was in the last two cases. A good King is a miracle.
The American Congress derives all its power, wisdom, and justice, not from scrolls of parchment signed by kings but from the People. A more august and a more equitable Legislative body never existed in any quarter of the globe. It is founded upon the principles of the most perfect liberty. A freeman, in honoring and obeying the Congress, honors and obeys himself. . . .

We are now laying the foundation of an American Constitution. Let us therefore hold up every thing we do to the eye of posterity. They will probably measure their liberties and happiness by the most careless of our footsteps. Let no unhallowed hand touch the precious seed of Liberty. Let us form the glorious tree in such a manner, and impregnate it with such principles of life, that it shall last forever.  . . . Let us not avail ourselves of the just spirit of the times, but bind up posterity to be freemen. 

. . . Let us neither think, write, speak, nor act, without keeping our eyes fixed upon the period which shall dissolve our connexion with Great Britain. The delirium of the present Ministry may precipitate it: But the ordinary course of human things must accomplish it. Britain may relax from her present arbitrary measures, but political necessity, not justice, must hereafter be the measure of her actions. Freemen cannot bear a middle state between liberty and slavery. It is essential to the happiness of liberty, that it should be secure and perpetual.

. . .

I almost wish to live to hear the triumphs of the Jubilee in the year 1874; to see the medals, pictures, fragments of writings, &c˙, that shall be displayed to revive the memory of the proceedings of the Congress in the year 1774. . . . Do not, illustrious Senators, avail yourselves of the gratitude and veneration of your countrymen. You have, we trust, made them free. But a nobler task awaits you. Instruct them, instruct posterity in the great science of securing and perpetuating Freedom.

Sources: “Political Observations, Without Order, Addressed to the People of America” available at https://digital.lib.niu.edu/islandora/object/niu-amarch%3A93413; https://www.sfponline.org/departments/socialstudies/amwk/ch4wkps.pdf

Also on this day 250 years ago the Town Meeting of Sudbury, Massachusetts voted

their approbation of the several measures of the Provincial Congress so far as has been communicated to them . . . [and] to choose a committee to observe the conduct of all persons touching the association agreement entered into by the Continental Congress, whose business it shall be to see the articles contained therein are strictly adhered to by the inhabitants of this town.

Source: https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/lexington-and-concord-sudbury-militia/

And also on that day the Town Meeting of Medford, Massachusetts voted not to pay any taxes to the Royal Tax Collector but to hold tax payments until further direction from the Massachusetts Provincial Congress. Even though the majority of the inhabitants of Medford were employed as brickmakers the Town Meeting further voted that “This Town does not approve of any bricks being carried to Boston till the committees of the neighboring towns shall consent to it.” The British Army was seeking bricks to build fortifications and barracks for the troops.

Source: https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/lexington-and-concord-medford-militia/