On this day 250 years ago in New York, men from Elizabeth, New Jersey crossed the channel to Staten Island to skirmish with the British. The Patriots lost one man. Although I have not been able to identify his name we should still remember his sacrifice today.
On this day 250 years ago in Worcester, Massachusetts, The Massachusetts Spy or, American Oracle of Liberty published an article about the public reading two days earlier of the Declaration of Independence followed by a celebration that included 24 toasts:
On Monday last a number of patriotic gentlemen of this town, animated with a love of their country, and to shew their approbation of the measures lately taken by the Grand Council of America, assembled on the greeen near the liberty pole, where after having displayed the colors of the Thirteen Confederate Colonies of America, the bells were set a ringing and the drums a beating: After which, the Declaration of Independency of the United States was read to a large and respectable body (among whom were the Select-men and Committee of Correspondence) assembed on the occasion, who testified their approbation by repeated huzzas, firing of musketry and cannon, bonfires, and other demonstrations of joy.—When the arms of that Tyrant in Britain, George the III. of execrable memory, which in former reigns decorated, but of late disgraced the Court-House in this town, were committed to the flames and consumed to ashes; after which a select company of the Sons of Freedom, repaired to the Tavern, lately known by the sign of the King’s Arms, which odious signature of despotism was taken down by order of the people, which was chearfully complied with by the Innkeeper, where the following toasts were drank—and the Evening spent with joy, on the commencement of the happy aera. 1. Prosperity and perpetuity to the United States of America. . . . 24. May the Freedom and Independency of America endure till the sun grows dim with age, and this earth returns to Chaos. The greatest decency and good order, was observed, and at suitable time each man returned to his respective home.
On this day 250 years ago in East Greenwich, Rhode Island,
the Kentish guards, commanded by Col. Richard Fry, appeared in their uniforms; about 12 o’clock they drew up on the parade before the State-House, when the Declaration of the General Congress, declaring these Colonies Free and Independent States, was read; likewise a resolve of the Assembly concurring with the same; which was announced by a discharge of thirteen cannon at Fort Daniel; next the guards fired thirteen follies; this was followed by three huzza’s from a numerous body of inhabitants; they then repair’d to Arnold’s Hall, where, after partaking of a very decent collation, the following patriotic toasts were drank: 1. The Thirteen United States of America. 2. The General Congress of the American States. 3. General Washington. 4. The American army. 5. Augmentation of the American navy. 6. In memory of those immortal heroes who have fallen in the American cause. 7. May a happy rule of government be established in the State of Rhode-Island. 8. American manufactures. 9. Free trade with all the world. 10. May true patriotism warm the breast of every American. 11. May the independency of the American States be firmly established, and a speedy peace take place. 12. May Liberty expand her sacred wings, and in glorious effort diffuse her influence o’er and o’er the globe
As indicated in the last toast, the People of the United States knew that their Declaration of Independence was based on principles of Liberty that applied worldwide, and that the Declaration would be a model for other nations.
On this day 250 years ago an eight-ship fleet commanded by Lord William Dunmore had sailed up the Potomac River to Acquia Creek in Stafford County, Virginia. The British fleet comprised the 44-gun frigate HMS Roebuck, the 6-gun frigate HMS Dunmore, a row galley with a six-pound cannon and five swivel guns, and three tenders escorting the transport William mounting two cannons and the unarmed transport Anna, which were carrying 108 Loyalist and British Army and marines. The British ships landed these men and they attacked with the support of the ships’ cannon, 100 Stafford County militia gathered at the plantation of William Brent. The Stafford County militia fired on the British but were driven off and the British burned Brent’s mansion, outbuildings and haystacks. Prince William County militia then arrived to reinforce the Stafford County militia and drove the British raiders back to their ships. The Virginia militia and British forces each suffered about 15 casualties killed and wounded in the Stafford County raid. The British fleet then fired on and dispersed 300 Maryland militia gathered on the opposite side of the Potomac and began sailing back down the Potomac.
On this day 250 years ago in Boston, Massachusetts, the Declaration of Independence was read from the balcony of the State House by Col. Thomas Crafts to a crowd of the city’s citizens gathered in King Street. Abigail Adams was in the crowd and later wrote to her husband to describe the event:
Last Thursday after hearing a very Good Sermon I went with the Multitude into Kings Street to hear the proclamation for independance read and proclamed. Some Field peices with the Train were brought there, the troops appeard under Arms and all the inhabitants assembled there (the small pox prevented many thousand from the Country). When Col. Crafts read from the Belcona of the State House the Proclamation, great attention was given to every word. As soon as he ended, the cry from the Belcona, was God Save our American States and then 3 cheers which rended the air, the Bells rang, the privateers fired, the forts and Batteries, the cannon were discharged, the platoons followed and every face appeard joyfull. Mr. Bowdoin then gave a Sentiment, Stability and perpetuity to American independance. After dinner the kings arms were taken down from the State House and every vestage of him from every place in which it appeard and burnt in King Street. Thus ends royall Authority in this State, and all the people shall say Amen.
“Belcona” is an 18th Century alternative spelling of “balcony.” Mr. Bowdoin is James Bowdoin, President of the executive council of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, effectively making him governor of Massachusetts at the time. Bowdoin was plagued with illness throughout the Revolution and had a limited role in government at times, but would be officially elected Governor in 1785.
On this day 250 years ago in Boston, James Warren wrote to John Adams in Philadelphia:
When you are Informed, that on the variety of Changes that have taken place in this Town, it is now become A Great Hospital for Inoculation, you will wonder to see A Letter from me dated here, but so it is that the rage for Inoculation prevailing here has whirled me into its vortex, and brought me with my other self into the Croud of Patients with which this Town is now filled. Here is A Collection of Good, Bad, and Indifferent of all Orders, Sexes, Ages and Conditions. Your good Lady and Family among the first. She will give you (I presume) such an account of her self &c. as makes it unnecessary for me to say more on that head.
She will perhaps tell you that this is the reigning subject of Conversation, and that even Politics might have been suspended for A Time, if your Decleration of Independence, and some other political Movements of yours had not reached us. The Decleration came on Saturday, and diffused A general Joy. Every one of us feels more Important than ever. We now Congratulate each other as freemen. It has really raised our Spirits to A Tone Beneficial to mitigate the Malignancy of the small Pox, and what is of more Consequence seems to Animate, and Inspire every one to support, and defend the Independency he feels.
Source: “James Warren to John Adams, 17 July 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-04-02-0169. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 4, February–August 1776, ed. Robert J. Taylor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979, pp. 389–391.]
On this day 250 years ago in Maryland, Lord Dunmore’s British fleet and soldiers on St. George’s Island continued combat with Maryland militia but were still blocked from crossing to the mainland.
On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail:
I am informed that you were about taking the Small Pox, with all the Children. . . . It is not possible for me to describe, nor for you to conceive my Feelings upon this Occasion. Nothing, but the critical State of our Affairs should prevent me from flying to Boston, to your Assistance.
. . .
I can do no more than wish and pray for your Health, and that of the Children. Never—Never in my whole Life, had I so many Cares upon my Mind at once. . . . I shall feel like a Savage to be here, while my whole Family is sick at Boston. But it cannot be avoided. I cannot leave this Place, without more Injury to the public now, than I ever could at any other Time, being in the Midst of scaenes of Business, which must not stop for any Thing.
Source: “John Adams to Abigail Adams, 16 July 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-02-02-0028-0001. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Adams Family Correspondence, vol. 2, June 1776 – March 1778, ed. L. H. Butterfield. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963, pp. 50–51.]
Also on that day in Philadelphia, Thomas Jefferson wrote to Richard Henry Lee in Virginia:
I am sorry the Convention of Virginia did not accept of my resignation here. The state of Mrs. Jefferson’s health obliges me to persist in it. I hope you will be here before the 11th. of August when I propose going: otherwise the colony will be unrepresented. Indeed I wish you would come immediately. The confederation is just brought in and the plan of alliances will be reported to-day. The former is in every interesting point the reverse of what our country would wish. You can never be absent at a time so interesting to your country. I make no doubt it will be long in it’s passage through the1 Committee so that you may be here in time to attack it in the house from Alpha to Omega.
Source: “Thomas Jefferson to Richard Henry Lee, 16 July 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-15-02-0546. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 15, 27 March 1789 – 30 November 1789, ed. Julian P. Boyd. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1958, p. 577.]
On this day 250 years ago in St. Mary’s County, Maryland, 300 British troops on St. George’s Island, and a specially designed row galley designed to protect soldiers in the channel between the island and the mainland, exchanged fire with several hundred Maryland militia under the command of Cols. Jeremiah Jordan and Richard Barnes. One British soldier was mortally wounded and Capt. Rezin Beall of the Maryland militia was badly wounded but survived. The fighting would continue for the next three days in the largest engagement of the War in Maryland.
On this day 250 years ago in New York, the HMS Phoenix with 40 guns and HMS Rose with 20 guns sailed up the Hudson River to Tarrytown firing at the Continental Army’s batteries on Manhattan along their way. Six American artillerymen lost their lives in the cannonade, although most of the American losses were because the men were either too drunk or too inexperienced to load and fire their cannons properly. Only one British sailor was wounded by the American artillery.
Also on that day Admiral Lord Richard Howe, the commander of the Royal Navy in North America, arrived off Staten Island in the Bay of New York on the HMS Eagle.
On this day 250 years in Rowan County (now Burke County near present day Morganton) North Carolina, 2400 North Carolina militia led by Brigadier General Griffith Rutherford relieved the siege of McDowell’s Fort. Earlier Cherokee raiders had killed 37 settlers along the Catawba River and 120 settlers had fled to Lt. Col. Charles McDowell’s fort where they were defended by only 10 members of the Rowan County militia. The Cherokees had begun the siege of the fort on July 3 but McDowell and his men were able to hold them off from taking the fort until Rutherford’s men arrived. Rutherford would next lead his men to attack the villages of the Cherokee.
And on this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, Articles of Confederation were introduced in the Continental Congress. The proposed Articles began by declaring that the “Name of this Confederacy shall be ‘The United States of America.’” Overlooking that the Thirteen Colonies were now independent states the next article pledged that the “Colonies unite themselves so as never to be divided by any Act whatever.” The Articles also included a provision to preserve the “Rights, Liberties, Privileges, Immunities and Advantages” of the “Inhabitants of each Colony,” but the Articles of Confederation would not be adopted for another five years.
On this day 250 years ago off Gwynn’s Island, Virginia, Governor Dunmore’s fleet weighed anchor and sailed out into the Chesapeake Bay. The British fleet which had numbered more than 100 ships, was reduced to 96 ships because of damage from Patriot cannon fire and lack of experienced seamen, but the Virginians were able to salvage several of the ships that had been scuttled by the British. With the abandonmemnt of Gwynn’s Island the British lost their last foothold in Virginia and would not return for another three years.
Source: Wrike at 87-88
On this day 250 years ago in New York City, Gen. George Washington wrote to the Massachusetts General Court (i.e., the general assembly of Massachusetts) about the recruitment of Native Americans in Maine who had volunteered for the Continental Army:
the Congress have been pleased to empower me, as you will perceive by the Inclosed copy of their Resolve, which I have the honor of transmitting you, to call to our aid so many of the St John’s, Nova Scotia and Penobscott Indians, as I might Judge necessary; At the same time they have desired that I should request the assistance of your Honble body in carrying their views into execution, and to assure you that whatever expences you may necessarily Incur in doing It, and as Incident to It, they will reimburse.
Esteeming their service of much importance, particularly If the Enemy should attempt an Impression into the Interior parts of the Country, I must entreat your kind Offices upon this occasion, and your friendly exertions immediately to engage on the best terms you can, Five or Six hundred Men of these Tribes, and have them marched with all possible expedition to Join the Army here.
Having professed a strong inclination to take part with us in the present contest, It is probable they may be engaged for less pay & on better Terms than the Continental Troops, but If they can not, they must be allowed It. The Term of their Inlistment should be for Two or three years unless sooner discharged, (the right of which should be reserved us) If they will engage for so long a time—If not, for such time as they will agree to, provided It is not too short: and It must be part of the Treaty, & enjoined upon ’em, to bring every man his Firelock If It can be possibly effected. As the Services they may render will probably depend on their early & timely arrival, It is unnecessary to suggest to you the necessity of the utmost dispatch in the matter.
Maine was part of Massachusetts at that time.
Source: “George Washington to the Massachusetts General Court, 11 July 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-05-02-0194. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 5, 16 June 1776 – 12 August 1776, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1993, pp. 270–271.]
On this day 250 years ago the Virginia Continental Army and Militia forces under the command of Brig. Gen. Andrew Lewis occupied Gwynn’s Island, Virginia. They first drove off the remaining British ships guarding the island with artillery, and took canoes to capture the damaged sloop Lady Charlotte, its longboat and a pilot boat and their crew. The Patriots then used the canoes and captured longboat and pilot boat to ferry 250 men commanded by Lt. Col. Alexander McClanahan onto Gwynn’s Island. The Americans marched across the island just as the last British troops were rowing away. The British had left behind hundreds of escaped slaves dead and dying from smallpox, with some of the dead left unburied. One soldier wrote “such a scene of misery, distress, and cruelty my eyes never beheld.” But the Americans were able to capture a nine-pound cannon, numerous muskets and small arms, large officers tents, baggage, horses and cattle.
Continental Army Lt. Samuel Denny was one of the unsung heroes of the Battle of Gwynn’s Island 250 years ago today. The previous day he had taken command of the battery after Capt. Arundel was killed by the explosion of his experimental cannon, and then Lt. Denny effectively led his battery as it drove off the British fleet and troops. Then on this day he took command of the captured Lady Charlotte, manned it with men from his battery and other volunteers and then sailed toward the British fleet where he traded shots with the HMS Otter. According to his brother-in-law years later, Denny had enlisted in the British Army as a boy before the Revolution but “not being willing to fight against his Country he made his escape from the British Service” in Canada at the beginning of the War and made his way home to Virginia where he joined the Continental Army. He would be promoted to Captain and continue in Continental service through the siege of Yorktown serving until January 1, 1782, but died shortly thereafter without leaving children to carry on his memory. So we should honor his service today.
On this day 250 years ago in White Plains, New York, the Fourth Provincial Congress changed its name to the Convention of Representatives of the State of New York, and “acts as legislature without an executive” for the State. They began the task of writing a new constitution for New York.
On this day 250 years ago, ten delegates from the St. John’s, or Maliseet, and the Mi’kmaq tribes arrived in Watertown, Massachusetts. Over the next several days Ambroise Saint-Aubin of the Maliseets, the speaker of the delegation, pledged the military aid of sixty Maliseet men and more than 280 Mi’kmaq men and claimed that “all our People are all one as Boston.”
On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Declaration of Independence was published in the Pennsylvania Evening Post.
On this day 250 years ago in Annapolis, the Maryland Convention issued this resolution declaring independence from Great Britain:
We the delegates of Maryland, in convention assembled, do declare, that the king of Great Britain has violated his compact with this people, and that they owe no allegience to him; we have therefore thought it just and necessary to empower our deputies in congress to join with a majority of the united colonies in declaring them free and independent states, in framing such farther confederation between them, in making foreign alliances, and in adopting such other measures as shall be judged necessary for the preservation of their liberties . . . . We have also thought proper to call a new convention, for the purpose of establishing a government in this colony. . . . To maintain inviolate our liberties, and to transmit them unimpared to posterity, was our duty and first wish; our next, to continue connected with, and dependent on Great Britain. For the truth of these assertions, we appeal to that Almighty Being who is emphatically styled the searcher of hearts, and from whose omniscience nothing is concealed. Relying on his divine protection and affiance, and trusting to the justice of our cause, we exort and conjure every virtuous citizen to join cordially in defence of our common rights, and in maintainance of the freedom of this and her sister colonies.
The Maryland Convention had presumably received word of the Continental Congress’s passage of the resolution for independence on July 2, but apparently had not yet received a copy of the Declaration of Independence.
As almost all Americans know, on this day 250 years ago at what is now called Independence Hall in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. I have been thinking about the Declaration all day today, as well as in the past few days, and over the past year. I want to use this blog today to share a few of my thoughts on the Declaration of Independence.
As we also know, the Declaration sets forth the principles that the United States of America was founded on. Today, July 4, 2026, Americans and others across the United States and around the world have read or listened to the stirring words of the Declaration. The full text is easy to find and I do not need to repeat it all here, but I want to focus on two passages of the Declaration that I feel are especially important to reiterate today.
Some historians claim this as the greatest sentence ever written, and I am not inclined to argue:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
In the Declaration of Independence our Founding Fathers did not cite as the basis for the creation of our nation English laws such as the Magna Carta, their national heritage as Englishmen (although most were of English ancestry), their European ethnicity (though all were descended from Europeans), or the Bible or the Christian religion (although all were nominally Christian even if some were privately Deist). Some of the Founding Fathers certainly cited these attributes in their arguments for American Liberty, but our Founding document — the Declaration — does not. Instead the Declaration of Independence indicates our rights are derived from the “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” that are “self-evident.” The Continental Congress issued the Declaration of Independence “by Authority of the good People of these Colonies,” and the American people needed no other authority to create a new nation.
Some point to the reference to “Nature’s God” and other sentences in the Declaration that invoke the authority of a monotheistic God. But they simply reflect that the American colonists who worshipped God believed in a monotheistic God. After all Americans in 1776 were overwhelmingly Christian with only a smattering of Jews and Deists, and all of them were Monotheists. Even if some slaves carried to America from Africa or Native Americans may have retained polytheistic beliefs, the Founding Fathers sadly did not consider them to be citizens of the new United States. So the references to “Nature’s God” and the “Creator” in the Declaration cannot possibly be cited as authority for the proposition that the United States was founded as a Christian nation or on the authority of the Bible. Some may argue that the Declaration indicates that belief in a single God is a founding principle of our nation, yet the Founding Fathers cited Roman and Greek sources as frequently as they did the Bible in arguing for Independence, notwithstanding that they were fully aware that the Greeks and Romans worshipped multiple gods. So you cannot conclude from the Declaration that the Founding Fathers wanted a nation that welcomes only people of monotheistic faiths, such as Christians and Jews, and excludes people of polytheistic faiths.
The Declaration of Independence only indicates that the Founding Fathers believed that the universal tenets shared by all religions — “self-evident truths” — are founding principles for our nation. Nothing in the Declaration supports claims that the United States of America was intended to be the homeland of those of European heritage or Judeo-Christian faith, or that other faiths or heritage can be excluded from the United States because they do not belong here.
The Declaration declares that the founding principles of the United States are “self-evident” and include “unalienable rights”. The Continental Congress left it to Americans to decide if they agreed that these truths are self-evident and if they wanted to defend their unalienable rights. Some did not — many Americans in 1776 refused to recognize these truths are self-evident, or could not accept the consequences of claiming their unalienable rights, and became Loyalists to the King. But we won the Revolutionary War, not just with the force of arms, but also with the force of the ideas and ideals of these self-evident truths and unalienable rights. Our Nation was dedicated to these self-evident truths and unalienable rights and patriotic Americans should fight for them today, even if some Americans are willing to abandon them.
The Declaration also makes clear that the founding principles of the United States are not defined by statutes or laws or other documents written by kings or parliaments — or by the Founding Fathers themselves. They are “self-evident”. Our “unalienable rights” were not created by the Continental Congress, or the Constitutional Convention, and they cannot be taken away — they cannot be alienated — by a President, or a Congress, or a Supreme Court. Our “unalienable rights” were not given to us by anybody; they were claimed by Americans 250 years ago in a Revolution, and we should preserve them today.
The most important of the unalienable rights is that Governments must derive their “powers from the consent of the governed.” The “consent of the governed” is fundamentally expressed through periodic free elections. When the President, or legislators, or the courts impose or enforce restrictions on who can vote, or how people can vote, or whose votes get counted to secure the outcome they prefer in elections, they are not deriving their “powers from the consent of the governed.”
We should also remember if our present “Government becomes destructive of” of our unalienable rights or of “Life, Liberty, or pursuit of Happiness, . . . it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.” Furthermore, as the Declaration asserts in a later paragraph, when a Government “evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.” Our Founders had to fight a Revolution to abolish the government that became destructive of their unalienable rights, but I hope Americans today will be able to alter ours through peaceful the means of protests, litigation and elections.
Finally, I want to focus on one of the abuses of the King of Great Britain that Thomas Jefferson listed as a justification for throwing off British government, specifically that the King was
obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither
It is ironic and tragic that 250 years later our President and his Administration are obstructing the laws for the Naturalization of Foreigners and refusing to allow immigrants who came to this country lawfully to remain in the United States, and that our Supreme Court ruled only this past week that the President can do so. American citizens have an unalienable right as part of their “pursuit of Happiness” to have their friends and families and neighbors who entered into this country lawfully, and abide by our laws, remain in this country. The President and the Court do not have the authority to take that unalienable right away, and it angers and saddens me that they are doing so.
In counterpoint and on a happier note today, July 4, 2026, I was at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in Virginia to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, and the Naturalization ceremony for 75 immigrants who became American citizens today. It gladdens me and gives me hope to see new Americans pledging their loyalty and commitment to the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America, and to be with hundreds if not a thousand Americans who joined me in celebrating their new citizenship today.
You can see photos from Monticello at my Facebook page here:
On This Day In The Revolution 