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On this day 259 years ago the Fourth Provincial Congress of North Carolina convened in Halifax. As one of its first orders of business the Congress named a committee of seven members to investigate “the usurpations and violences . . . by . . . Great Britain against America.” The President of the North Carolina…
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On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Members of the Continental Congress from Massachusetts — John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine and Elbridge Gerry — wrote to James Warren — the President of the Council of Massachusetts who also served as the President of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts. In…
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On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, John Hancock, the President of the Continental Congress, wrote to General George Washington: It gives me the most sensible Pleasure to convey to you, by Order of Congress, the only Tribute, which a free People will ever consent to Pay; the Tribute of Thanks and Gratitude to…
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On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress resolved That a treasury office of accounts, accountable to the standing committee for the treasury, shall be created. That an auditor general shall be appointed by Congress, “for stating, arranging, and keeping the public accounts.” Also on this day 250 years ago, the Congress…
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On this day 250 years ago in Braintree, Massachusetts, Abigail Adams wrote to her husband John Adams with her views that liberty was not a right to be enjoyed only by white men: I have sometimes been ready to think that the passion for Liberty cannot be Eaquelly Strong in the Breasts of those who…
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On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress appointed two immigrants from Germany — John Gaspar Stadler and Lt. Felix Lewis Massenbach — as Engineers for the Southern Department reporting to Major General Charles Lee. John Gaspar Stadler had come to America before 1758 and was farming in Spotsylvania County, Virginia at…
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On this day 250 years ago fifty miles east of Cape Ann, Nova Scotia, the British ship Elizabeth was captured by the American ship Hancock and two other privateers after a brief fight. In addition to the ship and its captain and crew, the privateers captured 13 British soldiers, 46 Loyalists, four people who were enslaved by the…
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On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress recorded in its Journal: Information being given to Congress that some prisoners in the gaol of this city have meditated an escape, and are near carrying their plan into execution: Resolved, That the gaoler be directed to confine John Connolly, J. Smith, and [Moses]…
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On this day 250 years ago in Newbury, New Hampshire (now Newbury, Vermont) Captain Thomas Johnson, Frye Bailey, Abial Chamberlain, Silas Chamberlain, and John McLean of the Newbury militia guided by Bill Heath of Rumney, New Hampshire set out on snow shoes to blaze a route to St. Johns, Lower Canada, (now Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Québec) following…
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On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, Samuel Ward died of smallpox. Ward was a delegate from Rhode Island in the Second Continental Congress and an early advocate for Independence. He was a fearless defender of American liberties who worked assiduously to create our Nation and should be honored as one of our Founding…