On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, a committee comprising James Cannon, Thomas Nevil, John Chaloner, Andrew Epley, and William Thorne published a broadside urging Pennsylvania’s Military Associators (i.e., voluntary militia) to select delegates to the upcoming constitutional convention of “honesty, common sense, and a plain understanding, when unbiased by sinister motives” and warned that “overgrown rich men will be improper to be trusted” to serve in the convention. The broadside also warned against electing men motivated by “Covetousness,” “Self-Aggrandizement” and “Corruption,” and reminded the voters that

We are contending for the Liberty which GOD has made our Birthright: All Men are entitled to it, and no Set of Men have a Right to any Thing higher.

I am unable to identify any further role that Nevil, Chaloner, Epley and Thorne had in the Revolution but James Cannon, who immigrated from Scotland to become a Professor of Mathematics at The Academy and College of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania), would become one of the leading authors of Pennsylvania’s Constitution of 1776 — the most democratic constitution of all thirteen original states — and serve as a Justice of Peace for Pennsylvania during the War. James Cannon is one of the unsung Founding Fathers of America who we should all remember today.

Sources: https://diglib.amphilsoc.org/islandora/object/apsrevcity:7154; https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/2137578

On this day 250 years ago at the Cherokee village of Seneca (near modern-day Clemson) Capt. James McCall and 33 South Carolina militia were on a mission to the Cherokee to try and capture British agent Alexander Cameron. McCall was on a peaceful mission to the Cherokees and brought gifts and assurances that South Carolina would respect the boundary with the Cherokees, and had already passed peaceably through two other Cherokee villages. Nevertheless, 200 Cherokees attacked the South Carolinians, capturing McCall and three others, and killing four of the militia including Lt. Calhoun, McCall’s second-in-command. The rest of the South Carolinians were able to fight their way out and escape, killing about six of Cherokees in the fight. Capt. McCall would eventually escape but the other captives were tortured to death by their captors.

We should remember Lt. Calhoun and the other unnamed men who gave their lives in the War for American Liberty 250 years ago.

Sources: https://www.schistory.net/3CLD/Articles/Cherokee.html; https://www.schistory.net/3CLD/Articles/exploits.html; https://revolutionarywar.us/year-1776/; https://southcarolina250.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/scarsc_12831_Publications_04-James-McCall_01.pdf