On this day 250 years ago in New York City the “Mechanics in Union and their Associates” published a list of 21 candidates that they recommended “as fit men to represent the city and county of New-York, in the next Provincial Congress.” Most of the candidates on the list would win election to the Provincial Congress and would serve in elected office or in the Continental Army throughout the Revolution. The third candidate listed — Isaac Roosevelt — was the first member of his family to hold elected office, setting a tradition of public service carried on by his great-great grandson Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his cousin several times removed Theodore Roosevelt.

Sources: https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbpe.10901500/; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Roosevelt_(politician)

On this 250 years ago in Philadelphia, John Adams wrote to Mercy Otis Warren

Public Virtue . . . is the only Foundation of Republics. There must be a positive Passion for the public good, the public Interest, Honor, Power, and Glory, established in the Minds of the People, or there can be no Republican Government, nor any real Liberty. And this public Passion must be superior to all private Passions. …. We are engaged in the best Cause that ever employed the Human Heart, yet the Prospect of success is doubtful not for Want of Power or of Wisdom, but of Virtue.

The Spirit of Commerce… it is much to be feared is incompatible with that purity of Heart, and Greatness of soul which is necessary for an happy Republic…. While this is the Case there is great Danger that a Republican Government would be very factious and turbulent there. Divisions in Elections are much to be dreaded. Every Man must sincerely set himself to root out his Passions, Prejudices and Attachments, and to get the better of his private Interest. The only reputable Principle and Doctrine must be that all Things must give Way to the public.

Sources: https://americanfounding.org/entries/second-continental-congress-april-16-1776/; “John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 16 April 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-04-02-0044. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 4, February–August 1776, ed. Robert J. Taylor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979, pp. 123–126.]