the honorable delegates, now met in General Congress, were elegantly entertained by the gentlemen of this city. Having met at the City Tavern about 3 o’clock, they were conducted from thence to the State House by the managers of the entertainment, where they were received by a very large company composed of the clergy, such genteel strangers as happened to be in town, and a number of respectable citizens, making in the whole near 500. After dinner the following toasts were drank, accompanied by music and a discharge of cannon.
. . .
5. Perpetual union to the colonies.
6. May the colonies faithfully execute what the Congress shall wisely resolve.
7. The much injured town of Boston, and province of Massachusetts Bay.
8. May Great Britain be just, and America free.
. . .
12. May every American hand down to posterity pure and untainted liberty he has derived from his ancestors.
13. May no man enjoy freedom, who has not spirit to defend it.
14. May the persecuted genius of liberty find a lasting asylum in America.
This night 250 years, Patriots thinly disguised as “Pickwacket Indians” boarded a sloop named the Cynthia moored in the harbor of York, Massachusetts (now York, Maine). They removed around 150 pounds of tea, but instead of dumping it in the harbor, they carried it ashore and it reportedly was never seen again.
On this day 250 years ago “a number of inhabitants of that Town [of Easton, Massachusetts] assembled together and erected a Tree of Liberty ninety-six Feet high, as a Monument to be had in everlasting remembrance of a united Agreement to maintain LIBERTY AND PROPERTY.”
Source: Boston Evening Post, Sep. 26, 1774
Also on this day 250 years ago, Willard Buttrick of Concord, Massachusetts made his powder horn from the horn of a cow. A few weeks later Buttrick joined the the company of Concord Minutemen commanded by his brother Captain John Buttrick. In April 1775 Willard Buttrick carried his powder horn at the Battle of Concord Bridge, the first American victory of the Revolutionary War. You can see Willard Buttrick’s powder horn on display at the North Bridge Visitor Center of Minute Man National Historic Park today.
On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution, Governor Joseph Wanton of Rhode Island issued written instructions to the two delegates that “the General Assembly of the Colony . . . nominated and appointed . . . to represent the people of this Colony in general congress of representatives from this and the other Colonies”:
I do therefore hereby authorize, impower, and commissionate you the said Stephen Hopkins & Samuel Ward, to repair to the city of Philadelphia, it being the place agreed upon by the major part of the colonies; and there, in behalf of this Colony, to meet and join with the commissioners or delegates from the other colonies, in consulting upon proper measures to obtain a repeal of the several acts of the British parliament, for levying taxes upon his Majesty’s subjects in America, without their consent, and particularly an act lately passed for blocking up the port of Boston, and upon proper measures to establish the rights and liberties of the Colonies, upon a just and solid foundation, agreable to the instructions given you by the general Assembly.
Also on this date in 1774, thirty Sons of Liberty met at Peter Tondee’s Tavern in Savannah, Georgia. Although they did not name delegates to the Continental Congress, they did adopt eight resolutions that included that “his Majesty’s subjects in America . . . are entitled to the same rights, privileges, and immunities with their fellow subjects in Great Britain” and that Parliament “hath not, nor ever had, any right to tax his Majesty’s American subjects.”
On this day 250 years ago, the people of Buckingham County, Virginia adopted resolutions in opposition to the Intolerable Acts and in support of the people of Boston and also elected delegates to the Virginia Convention.
Also on this day in Williamsburg, Virginia, Clementina Rind’s VirginiaGazette published on its front page an article by Thomas Mason that included the following incendiary language:
Let them draw up and transmit to England, an address to your gracious sovereign, expressive of the most affectionate loyalty to his person, . . . but assuring him of their determined resolution to sacrifice their lives, and every thing that is valuable to them, rather than submit to the legisla- tion of a British parliament; and . .. that if his majesty, deaf to these their reiterated complaints, should persist in permitting such acts of parliament to be enforced in America, his subjects of that great continent, though struck with horror at the idea of disloyalty to his sacred person, are, though reluctantly, firmly determined to break off all connections with Great Britain, and trust to that God who hath told them that the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, to support their en- deavours in preserving that liberty they received from their British an- cestors. . . .
But the stopping up the port of Boston, and prohibiting the owners from using their own wharfs, under colour of acts of parliament, which the inhabitants, or their representatives, had no share in framing, is such an illegal stretch of power, such a despotic invasion of property, that may be legally resisted, and ought not to be submitted to; indeed, I look upon it as little less than a declaration of war, which would justify all America in running immediately to arms, to repel so horrible an at- tack upon their liberties
Rind’s Virginia Gazette published Resolves from the Counties of Henrico, Caroline, Gloucester, Isle of Wight, Stafford, Hanover and Elizabeth City (now the City of Hampton) expressing support for Boston, opposing the Intolerable Acts, pledging aid to Boston, requesting a halt to the African slave trade, and electing delegates to the Virginia Convention. Rind stated that she had received similar resolutions from other Virginia counties but did not have enough space to publish them all.
Clementina Rind also reported that a “meeting of the freeholders and others” of Surry County had pledged “150 barrels of Indian corn and wheat and . . . eleven or twelve hundred barrels of commodities . . . for the benefit of those firm and intrepid sons of liberty, the Bostonians.”
On this date 250 years ago in Winchester, Virginia, a large crowd gathered at the Frederick County Courthouse but had to move to the larger Church of England in town to adopt resolutions in support of the Patriots in Boston. The Frederick Resolves read:
Voted 1st. That we will always cheerfully pay due submission to such acts of government as his majesty has a right, by law, to exercise over his subjects, as sovereign to the British dominions, and to such only.
2nd. That it is the inherent right of British subjects to be governed and taxed by representatives chosen by themselves only, and that every act of the British parliament respecting the internal policy of North America is a dangerous and unconstitutional invasion of our rights and privileges.
3rd. That the act of parliament above mentioned is not only itself repugnant to the fundamental laws of natural justice in condemning persons for a supposed crime unheard, but also a despotic exertion of unconstitutional power, calculated to enslave a free and loyal people.
4th. That the enforcing the execution of the said act of parliament by a military power will have a necessary tendency to raise a civil war, thereby dissolving that union which has so long happily subsisted between the mother country and her colonies, and that we will most heartily and unanimously concur with our suffering brethren of Boston, and every other port of North America, that may be the immediate victims of tyranny, in promoting all proper measures to avert such dreadful calamities, to procure a redress of our grievances, and to secure our common liberties.
5th.It is the unanimous opinion of this meeting, that a joint resolution of all the colonies to stop all importations from Great Britain, and exportations to it, till the said act be repealed, will prove the salvation of North America and her liberties; on the other hand, if they continue their imports and exports, there is the greatest reason to fear that power and the most odious oppression will rise triumphant over right, justice, social happiness, and freedom.
6th. That the East India Company, those servile tools of arbitrary power, have justly forfeited the esteem and regard of all honest men, and that the better to manifest our abhorrence of such abject compliances with the will of a venal ministry, in ministering all in their power an encrease of the fund of peculation, we will not purchase tea, or any other kind of East India commodities, either imported now, or hereafter to be imported, except saltpetre, spices, and medicinal drugs.
7th. That it is the opinion of this meeting, that committees ought to be appointed for the purpose of effecting a general association, that the same measures may be pursued through the whole continent, that committees ought to correspond with each other, and to meet at places and times as shall be agreed on, in order to form such association, and that when the same shall be formed and agreed to by the several committees, we will strictly adhere to, and till the general sense of the continent shall be known, we do pledge ourselves to each other, and to our country, that will inviolably adhere to the votes of this day.
8th. That Charles M Thurston, Isaac Zane, Angus McDonald, Samuel Beall, 3d, Alexander White, and George Rootes, be appointed a Committee for the purposes aforesaid; and that they, or any three of them are hereby fully empowered to act. Which being read, were unaminously assented to and ascribed.
I emphasized the threat of war in the 4th Resolve.
Also on this date in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Royal Governor John Wentworth dissolved the New Hampshire Assembly. Wentworth was attempting to prevent the Assembly from sending delegates to a continental congress but was unsuccessful.
On this day 250 years ago at the Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg, 89 members of the dissolved Virginia House of Burgesses met to adopt an “Association” in response to the Boston Port Act and other restrictions on American Liberty coming from London. Among other things, the Association, without coordinating with the other colonies, joined Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and New York in calling for a Continental Congress to convene. Here is the full text of the Association’s declaration:
We his Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal subjects, the late representatives of the good people of this country, having been deprived by the sudden interposition of the executive part of this government from giving our countrymen the advice we wished to convey to them in a legislative capacity, find ourselves under the hard necessity of adopting this, the only method we have left, of pointing out to our countrymen such measures as in our opinion are best fitted to secure our dearest rights and liberty from destruction, by the heavy hand of power now lifted against North America: With much grief we find that our dutiful applications to Great Britain for security of our just, antient, and constitutional rights, have been not only disregarded, but that a determined system is formed and pressed for reducing the inhabitants of British America to slavery, by subjecting them to the payment of taxes, imposed without the consent of the people or their representatives; and that in pursuit of this system, we find an act of the British parliament, lately passed, for stopping the harbour and commerce of the town of Boston, in our sister colony of Massachusetts Bay, until the people there submit to the payment of such unconstitutional taxes, and which act most violently and arbitrarily deprives them of their property, in wharfs erected by private persons, at their own great and proper expence, which act is, in our opinion, a most dangerous attempt to destroy the constitutional liberty and rights of all North America. It is further our opinion, that as TEA, on its importation into America, is charged with a duty, imposed by parliament for the purpose of raising a revenue, without the consent of the people, it ought not to be used by any person who wishes well to the constitutional rights and liberty of British America. And whereas the India company have ungenerously attempted the ruin of America, by sending many ships loaded with tea into the colonies, thereby intending to fix a precedent in favour of arbitrary taxation, we deem it highly proper and do accordingly recommend it strongly to our countrymen, not to purchase or use any kind of East India commodity whatsoever, except saltpetre and spices, until the grievances of America are redressed. We are further clearly of opinion, that an attack, made on one of our sister colonies, to compel submission to arbitrary taxes, is an attack made on all British America, and threatens ruin to the rights of all, unless the united wisdom of the whole be applied. And for this purpose it is recommended to the committee of correspondence, that they communicate, with their several corresponding committees, on the expediency of appointing deputies from the several colonies of British America, to meet in general congress, at such place annually as shall be thought most convenient; there to deliberate on those general measures which the united interests of America may from time to time require.
In addition to the 89 Burgesses, 21 “clergymen and other inhabitants” of Virginia signed the Association. The Burgesses who signed included two familiar to all Americans today — George Washington and Thomas Jefferson — plus other Founding Fathers who are well remembered by those who have studied the Revolution and the early Republic — such as Patrick Henry, Peyton Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, Francis Lightfoot Lee, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Benjamin Harrison, Robert Carter Nicholas, Richard Bland, Edmund Pendleton, Archibald Cary.
But almost all of the signers of the Association were committed Patriots who served Virginia and America in the Revolution. James Scott, for example, was a little known Burgess from Fauquier County who formed a company from Fauquier at the beginning of the War, marched north to join Washington’s army, fought at Brandywine and other engagements, but died during the war from an illness he contracted while serving. David Griffith from Loudoun County was one of the clergymen who added their names to the Burgesses on the Association. Griffith would become the surgeon and chaplain of 3d Virginia, serving at Long Island, Brandywine, Valley Forge and Monmouth before returning to Virginia to become minister of Fairfax Parish (incidentally, his home as minister incidentally was less than a mile from where I live now). All of the signers of the Association should be remembered. Here is the list:
Peyton Randolph, Ro. C. Nicholas, Richard Bland, Edmund Pendleton, Richard Henry Lee, Archibald Cary, Benjamin Harrison, George Washington, William Harwood, Robert Wormeley Carter, Robert Munford, Thomas Jefferson, John West, Mann Page, junior, John Syme, Peter Le Grand, Joseph Hutchings, Francis Peyton, Richard Adams, B. Dandridge, Henry Pendleton, Patrick Henry, junior, Richard Mitchell, James Holt, Charles Carter, James Scott, Burwell Bassett, Henry Lee, John Burton, Thomas Whiting, Peter Poythress, John Winn, James Wood, William Cabell, David Mason, Joseph Cabell, John Bowyer, Charles Linch, William Aylett, Isaac Zane, Francis Slaughter, William Langhorne, Henry Taylor, James Montague, William Fleming, Rodham Kenner, William Acril, Charles Carter, of Stafford, John Woodson, Nathaniel Terry, Richard Lee, Henry Field, Matthew Marable, Thomas Pettus, Robert Rutherford, Samuel M’Dowell, John Bowdoin, James Edmondson, Southy Simpson, John Walker, Hugh Innes, Henry Bell, Nicholas Faulcon, junior, James Taylor, junior, Lewis Burwell, of Gloucester, W. Roane, Joseph Nevil, Richard Hardy, Edwin Gray, H. King, Samuel Du Val, John Hite, junior, John Banister, Worlich Westwood, John Donelson, Thomas Newton, junior, P. Carrington, James Speed, James Henry, Champion Travis, Isaac Coles, Edmund Berkeley, Charles May, Thomas Johnson, Benjamin Watkins, Francis Lightfoot Lee, John Talbot, Thomas Nelson, junior, Lewis Burwell.
We the subscribers, clergymen and other inhabitants of the colony and dominion of Virginia, having maturely considered the contents of the above association, do most cordially approve and accede thereto.
William Harrison, William Hubard, Benjamin Blagrove, William Bland, H. J. Burges, Samuel Smith M’Croskey, Joseph Davenport, Thomas Price, David Griffith, William Leigh, Robert Andrews, Samuel Klug, Ichabod Camp, William Clayton, Richard Cary, Thomas Adams, Hinde Russell, William Holt, Arthur Dickenson, Thomas Stuart, James Innes.
On this day 250 years ago in London, Parliament passed the Massachusetts Government Act and the ironically named (from the Patriot perspective) Act for the Impartial Administration of Justice. King George III approved both Acts on this same day. The Massachusetts Government Act suspended elected offices in the colony and allowed the Crown to appoint their replacements. The “Administration of Justice” Act suspended trial by jury in Massachusetts and allowed British soldiers and officials to be returned to Britain for trial. These are the second and third of the Intolerable Acts that drove America to Revolution and probably did more to spark the Revolutionary War than any other acts of the British government before the first shots were fired at Lexington.
Also on this day at a meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania became the thirteenth and final colony to form a Committee of Correspondence. That original committee of 19 members would grow to 43, then to 66, and finally to to 200 members during its two years of existence. Hundreds of Pennsylvania Patriots participated in one or more of the committees, but only four were in all of them: Thomas Barclay, John Cox, Jr., John Dickinson, and Joseph Reed.
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.
On This Day In The Revolution 