On this day 250 years ago in Wilmington, North Carolina, William Hooper wrote to his friend James Iredell a letter that predicted “the Colonies . . . are striding fast to independence, and ere long will build an empire upon the ruins of Great Britain.” Hooper would become a Signer of the Declaration of Independence and Iredell would become one of the original Justices of the Supreme Court.
Category: Uncategorized
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On this day 250 years ago, The Boston-Gazette and Country Journal published an article criticizing Benjamin Franklin’s mistreatment by the Privy Council and reporting his removal as Postmaster for the Colonies. Following was an article announcing William Goddard’s arrival in Boston carrying letters from committees of correspondence of the surrounding towns of Portsmouth, Newbury, Newburyport and Salem supporting Goddard’s proposal for a “Constitutional Post” controlled by Americans to replace the Royal Post Office in the Colonies. The Gazette lauded the proposal and added “The Removal of Dr. Franklin from the Post-Office has added fresh Spirit to the Promoters of this salutary Plan . . . and all the Friends of Liberty rejoice that they have now the Opportunity of taking up a Gentleman discarded by an unrighteous Ministry for the faithful Discharge of his Duty, and placing him . . . in the grateful arms of his applauding Countrymen.”
Our Postal Service today originated in the Constitutional Post.
Sources: https://www.masshist.org/dorr/volume/4/sequence/567
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On this day 250 years ago in Kentucky, Lawrence Darnell and six men of his advanced survey party were making their way on foot to meet the main survey party led by John Floyd that was heading down the Ohio River to survey lands for settlement in Kentucky. Darnell and his team had been robbed and captured by Shawnee warriors while canoeing down the Ohio but were released after three days of captivity with the threat that they would be killed if they came down the river again. The capture of the Darnell survey party added to the tension on the frontier that would soon erupt in warfare between the Shawnee and Virginia.
Source: Williams, Glenn F., Dunmore’s War at p. 59
On a personal note —
On this day in 1964 and 1966 my brother and his wife were born. Happy Birthday Roger and Patti Vincent!
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On April 23, 1774 at 9:00 am one of the largest crowds in the City’s history to date congregated in front of Fraunces Tavern in New York City to demand an apology from Captain Lockyer of the Nancy for trying to import East India Company tea into New York. After his apology, the crowd escorted Lockyer to a boat at Murray’s Wharf that would carry him to the Nancy where it had been impounded by the Sons of Liberty off Sandy Hook, New Jersey. In addition, Captain Chambers of the London was forced to return to England on the Nancy as a passenger leaving his ship behind because of his unsuccessful attempt to smuggle tea into New York City. As the boat left New York harbor, “every bell in the city rang…the ships in the harbor raised their colors in triumph, the Liberty Pole was dressed in colors’ and a royal salute of artillery…concluded the ceremony.”
Source: https://www.frauncestavernmuseum.org/the-new-york-tea-party
[Sorry I was under the weather today and I am posting this one a few hours late.]
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On this day 250 years ago, New York City had its own tea party when the ship London arrived at the port. The ship’s captain claimed that he had no tea aboard, but the local Sons of Liberty had learned that the captain was smuggling tea for his own profit. The captain was seized, the ship was searched, and eighteen chests of tea were discovered, opened, and dumped into the Hudson River. The Sons of Liberty then brought the empty tea chests to the city, where they were used to ignite bonfires in the streets.
Source: https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/other-tea-parties
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John Connolly, Virginia Governor Dunmore’s representative at Pittsburgh, issued a circular letter that essentially declared war on the Shawnee, Mingo and other tribes in present day West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio. Dunmore and Connolly both remained loyal to Britain in the Revolution and ended up allied with these tribes but the Virginia militia who they summoned to fight in 1774 became the backbone of Patriot forces in the Revolution.
Source: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2210989?read-now=1&seq=21 at p. 473
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On this day 250 years ago The Pennsylvania Gazette published an anonymous letter from London dated February 19, 1774, that some scholars speculate was written by Franklin himself, recounting Benjamin Franklin’s mistreatment by the Privy Council on January 29, 1774. [See my prior post for that day.] The letter began:
The Ministerial People here are outrageously angry with Dr. Franklin. They took Occasion, when he was attending the Committee of Council with the Petition of the Massachusetts-Bay, to set the Solicitor-General upon him, who, leaving the Business that was before their Lordships, in a virulent Invective of an Hour, filled with Scurrility, abused him personally, to the great Entertainment of Thirty-five Lords of the Privy-Council, who had been purposely invited as to a Bull-baiting, and not one of them had the Sense to reflect on the Impropriety and Indecency of treating, in so ignominious a Manner, a Public Messenger, whose Character in all Nations, savage as well as civilized, used to be deemed sacred, and his Person under public Protection, even when coming from an Enemy; nor did one of them check the Orator’s Extravagance, and recal him to the Point under Consideration, but generally appeared much delighted, chuckling, laughing, and sometimes loudly applauding. I did not before think it possible for any Persons in their Stations to behave in a Manner so extremely unbecoming, especially when sitting in a judicial Capacity.
And the anonymous letter ended with this ominous intelligence from London:
Fleets and Troops are talked of, to be sent to America, but what they are to do when they come there, I am at a Loss to know, except it be to seize Individuals, and send them hither to be punished. God give us all a little more Wisdom.
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On this day 250 years ago in London Edmund Burke delivered his famous speech “On American Taxation” in Parliament. To no avail, Burke urged Parliament to repeal the Townshend Act and the duties it imposed on tea. This speech included many memorable passages including:
Could anything be a subject of more just alarm to America, than to see you go out of the plain high road of finance, and give up your most certain revenues and your clearest interests, merely for the sake of insulting your Colonies? No man ever doubted that the commodity of Tea could bear an imposition of three-pence. But no commodity will bear three-pence, or will bear a penny, when the general feelings of men are irritated, and two millions of people are resolved not to pay.
Sources: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/ecco/004902755.0001.000/1:3?rgn=div1;view=fulltext
https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2014/01/brilliant-agony-edmund-burke-spring-
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On this day 250 years ago, the last of the seven ships dispatched from London to carry East India Company tea (698 cases) finally made it to the shores of America. The Nancy, commanded by Captain Benjamin Lockyer, had been blown off course and badly damaged during the Atlantic crossing. After landing at Sandy Hook, New Jersey and asking for a pilot to New York City, Lockyer was ordered by New York Patriots to instead return to England, and Patriots took charge of the ship. Captain Lockyer agreed to return to England with the tea and the Nancy departed a few days later.
Sources: https://www.newyorkalmanack.com/2018/06/1774-patriots-new-yorks-tea-party/
https://www.monmouthhistory.org/250-1774/turning-away-the-tea-ship%2C-nancy-
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On this day 250 years ago, Virginia militia from the area around Fort Pitt were searching for the band of Cherokees who had ambushed the traders on the Ohio River on April 15. At this time both Pennsylvania and Virginia claimed the Pittsburgh area and both colonies had officials exercising authority in the area.
Source: Glenn F. Williams, Dunmore’s War at 56.
On This Day In The Revolution 