On this day 250 years ago, in New York City a meeting of workingmen and merchants was convened by Isaac Low (leading the conservative merchants) and Alexander McDougall (leading the radical workingmen) to discuss New York’s response to the Boston Port Act. When the colonies subsequently went to war against Britain, Low would be a Loyalist and eventually flee to England, while McDougall would become a general in the Continental Army.
Source: Norton, Mary Beth, 1774 the Long Year of Revolution at p. 90
On this day 250 years ago, the New York Committee of Correspondence dispatched a rider to Boston to deliver the news of the passage of the Boston Port Act. They were unaware that the Boston Committee of Correspondence had already dispatched Paul Revere to ride to New York City to deliver that news but would learn that in a couple of days when Revere
Also on this day at the Lenape village of Gekelukpechink which the British and Americans called “Newcomer’s Town” (present day Newcomerstown Ohio), two Lenape (or Delaware) Chiefs — Koquethagechton (who also was known by the English name “George White Eyes”) and Hopocan (aka “Captain Pipe”) — met with a council of Lenape plus Shawnee and Mingo Indians from the Ohio villages. White Eyes and Pipe attempted to persuade the Ohio Indians not to go on the warpath in retaliation for the murder of Logan’s family and other recent atrocities committed by Virginia settlers. They were successful in keeping the Lenape peaceful but by the end of the council the Mingo and Shawnee were threatening to kill all whites that they encountered.
Sources: Norton, Mary Beth, 1774 the Long Year of Revolution at p. 89;
On this day 250 years ago in Boston, Josiah Quincy, Jr. published his pamphlet entitled Observations on the Act of Parliament commonly called the Boston Port-Bill; with Thoughts on Civil Society and Standing Armies. This influential pamphlet was widely circulated in the Colonies and persuasively set forth the Patriots’ arguments. Quincy ended his pamphlet with a stirring call to arms: “AMERICA hath . . . Patriots and Heroes, who will form a BAND OF BROTHERS:—men who will have memories and feelings—courage and swords:—courage, that shall inflame their ardent bosoms, till their hands cleave to their swords—and their SWORDS to their Enemies hearts.”
Also on this day in Boston, the Committee of Correspondence dispatched Paul Revere to ride to Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia to deliver news of the passage of the Boston Port Act and copies of the letter approved by the Committee the previous day.
On this day 250 years ago, a Town Meeting in Boston moderated by SamuelAdams resolved that “it is the opinion of this town, that if the other, Colonies come, into a joint resolution to stop all importation from Great Britain, and exportations to Great Britain, and every part of the West Indies, till the Act for blocking up this harbor be repealed, the same will prove the salvation of North America and her liberties.” The Town Meeting formed a Committee of Correspondence led by Sam Adams that included Dr. Joseph Warren, JosiahQuincy, WilliamMollineaux, Thomas Cushing, William Phillips and John Adams plus four others. Warren, Quincy and Mollineaux made significant contributions to the Patriot cause that will be discussed in coming posts but would all die in the next few months cutting short their service to the founding of our Nation. Cushing and Phillips served honorably in various capacities in government of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts throughout the Revolution and John Adams of course would earn lasting fame as a Signer of the Declaration of Independence and President of the United States.
The Committee of Correspondence then approved a letter written by Sam Adams informing the other colonies of the impending shutdown of Boston Harbor ordered by the Boston Port Act and transmitting the Act. The letter warned the other colonies that the same thing could happen to them unless they surrendered their “sacred rights and liberties into the hands of” the British government. The letter also asked the other colonies to join Boston and Massachusetts in suspending trade with Britain, and to send a reply letter to let Massachusetts know how they stood.
Also on this same day, the ship carrying General Thomas Gage arrived in Boston Harbor. Gage was sent to Boston to replace Thomas Hutchinson as Governor of Massachusetts.
The Boston Committee of Correspondence met at Faneuil Hall with committees from eight of the neighboring towns. The Boston Committee also appointed a subcommittee to draft a circular letter to the other colonies recommending that trade with Great Britain be suspended in protest of the Boston Port Act.
On this day 250 years ago in Boston, Dr. Joseph Warren on behalf of the Boston Committee of Correspondence wrote to the surrounding towns requesting that they send representatives to a meeting the next day at Faneuil Hall to prepare a response to the Boston Port Act.
Also on this day in London a petition drafted by Arthur Lee and Benjamin Franklin and signed by 26 other Americans living in Britain was presented to the House of Lords. The petition objected to the bills then under consideration in Parliament that would suspend elected governments and trial by jury in Massachusetts. The petition asserted that
These bills reduce Americans to the alternatives of being totally enslaved, or contesting with a parent state that they have loved and venerated. The petitioners conjure the House not to pass legislation that will inflame the colonists’ passions, flout the principles of liberty that they have inherited from England, and “drive them to the last Resources of Despair.”
In addition to Franklin and Arthur Lee, the other signers include Henry Laurens, Thomas Pinckney, William Lee, Ralph Izard, Stephen Sayre, William Hasell Gibbes, Isaac Motte, John Grimké, Jacob Read, Philip Neyle, John Perroneaux, Joshua Johnson and Ralph Izard Jr., who all would return to America and served in the Revolution as soldiers, diplomats or elected officials for the United States.
On this day 250 year ago, a ship docked in Boston Harbor carrying news that Parliament had enacted the Boston Port Act, closing the Port of Boston starting on June 1, 1774, as punishment for the Boston Tea Party.
On the 8th of May 250 years ago, William Crawford wrote a letter to George Washington reporting (as his brother Valentine had done the previous day) on the attack on Indians on the Ohio River led by Michael Cresap and the massacre at Yellow Creek committed by Daniel Greathouse and his gang. Then William Crawford added:
Our inhabetints is much alarmd, many hundreds haveing gon over the mountain and the hole Country Avackquated as far as monongahalia and many on this Side monongahalia is gone over the Mountain in Short a war is every momint Expected we have a Council now with them what will be the event I do not now.
I am now Seting out to Fort pitt at the head of one hundred men many other is to meet me at Fort pitt and Wheeling whare we shall watch the Motions of the Endiens and Shall Acct Accordingly
On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution, Captain John Neville led 24 militiamen plus “four Negro men with proper working implements” from Peters Creek (now in Pennsylvania but then claimed by Virginia) to reinforce the garrison at Fort Pitt in anticipation of war with the Shawnee, Mingo and other tribes.
Source: Williams, Glenn F., Dunmore’s War at p. 83.
On this day 250 years ago from Jacobs Creek (now in Pennsylvania but then considered to be in Virginia) Valentine Crawford wrote George Washington to report on the hostilities on the frontier along the Ohio, including the Massacre of Indians at Yellow Creek committed by Daniel Greathouse and his gang and the attacks on Indians by Michael Cresap and his men, as well as the initial murder and robbery of white traders going down the Ohio. Washington had hired Crawford to lead workmen to clear Washington’s property on the Kanawha River for planting. Crawford wrote
I am Sorrey to Enform you the Indens have Stopt all the J[e]ntlemen from going down the River . . .
all this Alarming Surcomstances has put it out of My power to Excute your bisness I therefore Come to a Reselution . . . to Let you Know of this Desogreeable desopiontment we have Met with and allso to Know what I must doe with your Carpenters and Sarvents and goods for this Elarm has Made the people Move from over the Monongahala . . . as fast as Ever you Saw them . . . there wase More then one thousand people Crosed the Monongala in one days
On This Day In The Revolution 