On this day 250 years ago in Burlington, the New Jersey Provincial Congress elected Richard Stockton, Abraham Clark, John Hart, Francis Hopkinson, and the Rev. Dr. John Witherspoon as Delegates to represent the Colony of New Jersey in the Continental Congress and directed them

to join with the Delegates of the other Colonies in Continental Congress, in the most vigorous measures for supporting the just rights and liberties of America. And, if you shall judge it necessary and expedient for this purpose, we empower you to join with them in declaring the United Colonies independent of Great Britain, entering into a confederacy for union and common defence, making treaties with foreign nations for commerce and assistance, and to take such other measures as to them and you may appear necessary for these great ends, promising to support them with the whole force of this Province

Source: Minutes of the Provincial Congress of New Jersey at 473 accessed at https://archive.org/details/minutesofprovinc00newj/page/472/mode/2up

On this day 250 years ago at West River in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, “a very respectable meeting of the Associators of Anne Arundel County,” resolved unanimously that Maryland should allow its delegates to the Continental Congress to vote for Independence and

that the true interests and substantial happiness of the United Colonies in general, and this in particular, are inseparably interwoven and linked together, and essentially dependant upon a close Union and Continental Confederation. The complexion of the times is such that, in our opinion, unanimity alone can render our opposition to the establishment of a Parliamentary tyranny glorious. By division, the most diabolical wishes of the King, Lords, and Commons, will be effectually realized.

Source: https://declarationproject.org/?p=545

On this day 250 years ago at his country home in Flatbush, New York, the Mayor of New York City, David Mathews, was arrested by Lt. Col. Ezekiel Cornell, on the orders of John Jay, Chairman of the Committee of Conspiracies of the New York Provincial Congress and General George Washington. Mathews was accused of plotting with Sgt. Thomas Hickey of Washington’s Life Guard and others to kidnap Gen. Washington.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Mathews; https://substack.com/home/post/p-203113990

On this day 250 years ago on the Ile Aux Noix in Canada, Capt. John Lacey of Pennsylvania recorded his visit from his camp on the western side of the island to the camp of the New England Continental regiments on the eastern side of the island:

my Feelings were indiscribable, some men in and some out of Tents sick on the bear ground infected with Fluxes, Fevers, Small Pox and over run with legions of Lice, and none but Sick to wate on one another. My eyes never before beheld such a seen, nor do I ever desire to see such another — the Lice and Maggots seme to vie with each other, were creeping in Millions over the Victims; the Doctors themselves sick or out of Medicine. The estimation in both Camps was that 15 to 20 die daily. I examined the Burying Ground of each Camp, found two large holes dug in the Earth, one for each Camp — while there I saw several Corps brought, carried by four Soldiers in a blanket, one holt of each corner. On their ariving at the pit or Grave, those next to it let go of the blanket, the other two giving a Hoist rolled the dead body into the pit where lay several bodies already deposited in the same way, with no other covering but the Rags in which they dyed, heads and points as they happened to come to the place. In this manner the burial continued all day, as soon as the breeth had left the unfortunate Victim, the body was thus laid on a dirty Blanket and toted off’ to the silent Toom, without a sie from a Friend or relative, or a single morner to follow it. In the evening the dirt in front of this General Grave, or deposit of the dead, was thrown over the Dead bodies leaving a new space open for the next Day. This seene of human retchedness & missery ingrossed my daily visits. The New England & New York Camp was the most infected with the smallpox scarcely a single one of whome survived. The whole Armey was computed to be about five thousand of which it could not be said more than one third was fit for duty.

It is estimated that 900 Continental soldiers were buried on Ile aux Noix. The British in the 1800s erected a fort on the island and it is today the Fort Lennox Historic Site of Canada, although the fort is at the present time closed to the public for repairs. I hope to one day also visit this site to pay my respects to these 900 Americans, mostly unknown, who gave their lives for American Liberty.

Sources: “Memoirs of Brigadier General John Lacey, of Pennsylvania,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 25, No. 2 (1901), at pp. 203-04 accessed at https://www.jstor.org/stable/20085965?seq=13; https://substack.com/home/post/p-203113990; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%8Ele_aux_Noix; https://parks.canada.ca/lhn-nhs/qc/lennox