Remembering our History

To the Editor:

As we explore the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we remind ourselves that war inevitably changes a colony’s, nation’s, state’s, or community’s sense of itself: its values, identities, relationships, and sense of place. That point is essential to understanding rebellion. In 1775-1776, colonists, known as Patriots, wanted a more constitutional and less monarchical government. They were offended by British laws, taxes, and military actions. The British government mixed monarchy and parliamentary debate to limit and even deny colonial input. Patriots lacked selfgovernment as official policy but enjoyed self-determination as unofficial politics and economics. They made do without much support from Britian but assisted Britian’s initiatives with little reward. Britian sought to control the colonies to its advantage. Colonists, called Loyalists, benefited from such arrangement and assured the Crown they would fight to oppose the Patriots. One such Loyalist was William Franklin, Benjamin Franklin’s son, the last Royal Governor of New Jersey. During the Revolution, he provided intelligence to British authorities and headed the Board of Associated Loyalists. Colonists arrested, imprisoned, and exiled him to England. We the people fought battles, shut down courts and drove out English officials. But independence did not come automatically or easily.

Agitators stirred up colonists, but was there common purpose? In 1774, Britain used the Boston Port Act, the first “Coercive Act,” to close Boston Harbor. An assembly of 56 delegates from 12 of the colonies, except Georgia, met in Carpenters’ Hall in Philadelphia from Sept. 5 to Oct. 26, 1774 to form the Continental Congress and debate common policy. In the spring of 1775, militiamen around Boston were alerted. They were not a standing army, but they sparked the British military to action. The Battle of Bunker/Breed’s hills in Boston occurred on June 17, 1775, a year before the Declaration was signed. Coincidentally, the Continental Congress, established the Continental Army on June 14, 1775. Militiamen changed into a standing army. But what was the purpose and mission of the army and its commander, General George Washington?

The Declaration was intended to answer that question and give Patriots a shared sense of identity and collective mission: to justify the drive for independence. Organizing Patriots was tedious and timeconsuming. Today, we have networks to share information, opinion, and mission at electronic speed, but the need to commit to a common purpose before engaging in battle remains as it was in 1775. Colonial patriots asked: Why are we going to war, who are we as warriors? What is our shared mission?

The Continental Congress democratically asked “we the people” to put themselves in harm’s way. In early July 1776, the drafting committee of the Continental Congress finished its work, got the Declaration approved, had it printed, and circulated it to colonial assemblies, militias, and top officers of the newly formed Continental Army. Officials held their breaths. How would people react? Some were Loyalists. Some were too busy to be involved, at least for now. A printed copy reached General Washington who was commanding troops to defend New York. He ordered the troops to assemble at 6 p.m. on July 9 at the New York Commons, Bowling Green, in Lower Manhattan. He had officers read the Declaration to groups of soldiers. After listening to the Declaration, some soldiers, as did citizens, rushed to the four-thousand-pound equestrian statue of King George III. They pulled down the gilded lead statue and cut off George’s head which was paraded on a pike. The statue was cut to pieces and shipped to Connecticut. There it was melted into 42,000 bullets. The statue had been erected in 1770 to celebrate the repeal of the Stamp Act. Now it became a lethal tool for fighting monarchy. Loyalists salvaged parts of the statue, including the head which had been mutilated. They sent it to England.

Colonial sentiment turned to the advantage of colonial leaders. Motivated by the Declaration, Patriots took up the cause that divided them from Loyalists. Sons of Liberty joined Daughters of Liberty. Whether accurate or not, descriptions and pictorial accounts of this attack on George III portrayed patriotic men, women, children, Native people and Black people in common unity of identity and purpose.