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On this day 250 years ago in Cambridge, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress: strongly recommended to the inhabitants of the towns and districts of this province, that, should any person or persons presume to supply the troops now stationed at Boston or elsewhere in said province, with . . . any . . . materials whatever,…
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On this day 250 years ago, at Gunston Hall, Virginia George Mason wrote to his friend George Washington in nearby Mount Vernon: Inclosed You have a Copy of the plan I drew for embodying the People of this County [as a militia]; in which You’ll be pleased to make such Alterations as You think necessary.…
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250 years ago in London, Benjamin Franklin, William Bollan and Arthur Lee reported in a letter addressed to all of the assemblies of the Colonies on the rejection by Parliament of the Petition to the King submitted by the First Continental Congress: A Motion made by Lord Chatham, to withdraw the Troops from Boston, as…
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On this day 250 years ago in Cambridge, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress ordered Col. Roberson “to deliver the four brass field pieces, and the two brass mortars now in his hands, the property of the province, to the order of the committee of safety.” Four of these brass field pieces had been hidden away from…
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On this day 250 years ago in Braintree, Massachusetts, Abigail Adams wrote to Mercy Otis Warren: The die is cast. Yesterday brought us such a Speach from the Throne as will stain with everlasting infamy the reign of Gorge the 3 determined to carry into Execution “the acts passd by the late parliment, and to…
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On this day 250 years ago in Andover, Massachusetts, Col. Samuel Johnson of the 4th Regiment of Essex County Militia mustered the militia of the North and South Parishes of the Town of Andover. Johnson enlisted 50 men in the North Parish Company and 45 men in the South Parish Company. The North Parish Company…
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On this day 250 years ago in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Second Massachusetts Provincial Congress convened. About 200 towns, from all but two Massachusetts counties, sent delegates to the Congress. Some of the delegates, such as John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Lincoln and Elbridge Gerry, are well-remembered in American history, but most are known only by…
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On this day 250 years ago in Massachusetts, the Essex Gazette reported that Yesterday a Vessel arriv’d at Marblehead from Falmouth, in which, London Papers were brought to the 12th of December, which were immediately sent to the Committee of Correspondence of this Town, containing the King’s speech of November 30, 1774 and related actions…
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On this day 250 years ago in Plymouth, Massachusetts, Mercy Otis Warren wrote to her good friend John Adams: How much Longer sir do you think the political scale Can Hang in Equilibrium. Will not justice and Freedom soon preponderate till the partizans of Corruption and Venality (Even Backed with the Weight of Ministerial power)…
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On this day 250 years ago a copy of the King’s speech to Parliament on November 30, 1774 arrived by ship in Marblehead, Massachusetts. The King had proclaimed that a most daring spirit of resistance, and disobedience to the law still unhappily prevails in the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, and has in divers parts…