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 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, the Prince William Resolves were adopted in “a Meeting of the Freeholders, Merchants, and other Inhabit-ants of the County of Prince William, and town of Dumfries, . . . at the Court House” in Dumfries, Virginia. George Mason drafted the Resolves which declared:
Resolved, And it is the unanimous opinion of this meeting, that no person ought to be taxed but by his own consent, expressed either by himself or his Representatives; and that, therefore, any Act of Parliament levying a tax to be collected in America, depriving the people of their property or prohibiting them from trading with one another, is subversive of our natural rights, and contrary to the first principles of the Constitution.
Resolved, That the city of Boston, in the Massachusetts Bay, is now suffering in the common cause of American liberty, and on account of its opposition to an Act of the British Legislature, for imposing a duty upon tea, to be collected in America.
Resolved, That as our late Representatives have not fallen upon means sufficiently efficacious to secure to us the enjoyment of our civil rights and liberties, that it is the undoubted privilege of each respective county, (as the fountain of power from whence their delegation arises,) to take such proper and salutary measures as will essentially conduce to a repeal of those Acts, which the general sense of mankind, and the greatest characters in the nation, have pronounced to be unjust.
Resolved, And it is the opinion of this meeting, that until the said Acts are repealed, all importation to, and exportation from, this Colony ought to be stopped, except with such Colonies or Islands in North America as shall adopt this measure.
Resolved, And it is the opinion of this meeting, that the courts of justice in this Colony ought to decline trying any civil causes until said Acts are repealed.
Resolved, That the Clerk of this Committee transmit copies of these Resolves to both the printers in Annapolis and Philadelphia, to be published in their Gazettes.
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 In The Revolution 