Americanism Redux
August 14, your today, on the journey to the American Founding, 250 years ago, in 1775
In your life, you are the decider.
And today, 250 years ago, you would have been the decider as well.
* * * * * * *
(the Mauney house marker)
Among the three dozen men of decision at Christian Mauney’s log house on Court House Road is a 48-year old German immigrant, Frederick Hambright. He’s a bit restless, always in quest of contentment, moving from place to place along the mountain chains of Pennsylvania, then Virginia, and now Tryon County in west-central North Carolina. He’s left a trail of decision through the mountains.
Hambright and the others have been debating and discussing for hours. They’re done now. Hambright decides, yeah, I’ll sign. He steps up and scribbles down his signature, sixth one down, lower left side on the paper called the “Tryon County Association”.
The paper’s wording starts with the assertion that the battles of Lexington and Concord, along with “Hostile operations and Traitorous Designs now Carrying on by the Tools of Ministerial Vengeance and Despotism”, compel Hambright and the other signees to decide to take up arms to defend “those Rights and Liberties which the principles of our Constitution and the law of God, Nature, and nations have made it our Duty to Defend.”
Their decision reflects “sacred ties of Religion, Honor, and love to our Country”. They’ll “Risk our lives and fortunes” until the Continental Congress or the Provincial Congress say otherwise. They are open to a reconciliation with Britain “on Constitutional principles”. Meanwhile, they will “hold all such persons Inimical to the liberties of America, who shall refuse to Subscribe this Association.”
The ink dries, hands clasp and wave goodbye, and Hambright rides his horse back home and whatever decision tomorrow requires.
* * * * * * *
(the proposed target)
He’s deciding as well, except he’s not saying “yes”. He’s writing “no.” The decision is: no.
“Gentlemen…,” he begins in his letter of rejection addressed to a “Committee of the General Court of Massachusetts-Bay” (the colony’s anti-imperial legislature). He’s sorry, but their proposed seaborne Continental Army invasion of Nova Scotia will not be adopted as a plan.
He explains: we’re not attackers, we’re defenders; we don’t conquer, we protect what we have. And the truth is, we need to keep the gunpowder at our encampment, and we’d have to leave a large force there at Nova Scotia after an invasion to ensure any positive outcome at all.
Again, I’m sorry.
There’s only one name signed, unlike the three dozen in Tryon County, North Carolina.
In this case, the bottom of the rejection letter reads: “G. Washington”.
* * * * * * *
(the island’s point of departure for New England)
Four Frenchmen, Lieutenant Desambrager and three of his friends, arrive today at Cambridge, Massachusetts where Washington has his Continental Army headquarters and decided to reject the Nova Scotia plan.
The quartet of lower-ranking French officers have been in Santo Domingo (modern-day Haiti) and left there in order to join Washington’s ranks. The cause of colonial rights has inspired the young soldiers to make a life-changing decision. They’re seeking Washington’s permission to enlist in the Continental Army. If they judge the trans-Atlantic world’s brightest cause of humankind is here on the North American coast, well, they want to be part of it.
As officers, of course.
* * * * * * *
(St. George Tucker later in life)
Soft breezes, warm saltwater, gorgeous skies. The Tuckers are thinking about their native home in Bermuda. Father Henry Tucker and son St. George Tucker are now transplanted Bermudians living in Virginia. As those vivid scenes drift out of their heads, they focus on key knowledge that produces money. They know trade.
More precisely now, they believe they know how to structure trade relations between the colonies and Bermuda without violating the economic boycott policies of the Continental Congress. Today, the Tuckers are sending out letters describing their proposal for new inspection routines and watch-dog groups that can allow for the colonies to trade with Bermuda and still uphold the “Continental Association”, as the boycott is called. Recipients of the Tuckers’ plans include Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.
Ironically, on Bermuda, unknown to the Bermudian-Virginian Tuckers, a series of small ships are raiding the island’s shorelines today to seize gunpowder kept in storehouses on the island. The captains of the small ships have decided to head back north to Atlantic ports in the Carolinas to deposit the gunpowder with anti-imperial supporters.
This was a local decision, far outside the range of Washington’s encampment next to Boston and the Continental Congress in Philadelphia.
* * * * * * *
(yeah, I can get you some of the stuff)
Speaking of gunpowder, gunpowder obsesses the Committee of Safety in Philadelphia, which includes Benjamin Franklin. The Committee is in constant contact with people who say they can provide the black substance to supporters of the colonial cause in Pennsylvania. Franklin and the committee members have decided there’s no greater priority than gunpowder at the moment. They’ll talk with anyone this week who has even the faintest chance of securing the much-needed war resource.
* * * * * * *
(Matthew Tilghman)
In Annapolis, Maryland, the colony’s “Convention” comes to an end. With Matthew Tilghman as chairman of the group, the Convention had met for the past three weeks. Their purpose was to address issues that the current imperial-colonial crisis had created. Today, Convention delegates wrap up their work with a series of decisions designed to curtail lawsuits until a more peaceful climate can be restored. They push responsibility for limiting legal disputes down to county-based “Committees of Observation.” They also select sixteen men to serve as a smaller “Council of Safety” to monitor public events between now and the next Convention some months ahead.
From Conventions to Committees and Councils of Safety to Committees of Observation, an invisible haze hangs over these layers of public and civic units where people decide on countless topics. This is self-governance, where people build and tend to a lattice of decisions on how life is led. It’s a challenge of the highest order as events threaten to change week to week.
* * * * * * *
(he knows he’s not up to it)
A similar gathering is under way in Richmond, Virginia where an elderly man makes a decision.
A “Convention” there consists of participants who, this week, have among key decisions the selection of Virginia’s delegates to the next Continental Congress in Philadelphia next month. Seven delegates earn the top number of votes; Richard Bland ranks as sixth of the seven and has received a formal invitation from Convention participants for the journey north to Philadelphia in a few weeks.
Except, as Washington did to the committee seeking an invasion of Nova Scotia, Bland says “no” today. The 65-year old Bland fears he is losing his eyesight and that his health generally is slipping away. He politely refuses the invitation.
Bland had been an active protestor ten years ago when British-colonial relations had hit their first crisis with the Stamp Act. He’d written a popular and influential pamphlet that was one of the earliest expressions of the principle of “taxation only with consent.” He’d also helped mentor a very young Thomas Jefferson in those days. Bland has consistently been a voice that was both penetrating and moderating. He is also one of the Virginians who enslaves people and wants to find a way out of enslavement as a practice. Such a voice is needed.
But it’s a different season now in mid-August 1775. All over the colonies, one generation of leaders slips out to sea while another generation of leaders splashes ashore. Some decisions float out on one tide. Some decisions float in on the next tide.
* * * * * * *
A decision says a lot about the decider. Today, 250 years ago, the decider places a bet on whether present and future look the same.
Also
(a formal review)
While savoring a wonderful summer trip to Europe, Henry Rooke, a British soldier, writes to his brother George living in England. Henry will be leaving France soon, with Switzerland as his next stop.
Henry tells George that he will attend a formal military review of infantry before departing France. Henry hopes the rest of his trip remains as enjoyable as it currently is for him. He’s noting the differences in people and culture, in the Germans and the French.
The only problem that might spoil things is “if I am not recalled to assist with the Army in America, I find by the Gazettes that blood begins to flow there very plentifully: as the only determination of matters is now put upon the Issue of the Sword I should think Government ought to send all the force possible to bring things to a speedy Crisis, which if not disturbed by any other foreign Broils I should think they might soon do.”
For You Now
Notice how many of the decisions involve a span of something else?
You see the coverage of large areas in the decisions—Washington tamps down an effort to expand the Continental Army’s reach across the Bay of Fundy; the Tuckers look for a way to connect colonial trade to Bermuda; the four Frenchman have left Europe for the West Indies only to be inspired by events in New England; Henry Rooke travels on the European continent and learns of changes coming from America that could affect him; and a German immigrant in North Carolina signs a document that invokes events near Boston. Kind of amazing for 250 years ago, when you think about it.
A decision, or a potential decision, can cover a lot of ground. That coverage can add to a decision’s scale and consequence.
Do your decisions usually have a widespread scale? Are they more or less difficult to make when such a scale exists? Or do other things feed complexity into your decisions?
A last point, and let’s aim it at the history.
Go back over three extensive quotations in today’s Redux. You have Washington’s rejection letter, Rooke’s speculative letter, and the Tryon County Association’s explication of philosophy, political principles, and recent events.
All three include, one way or another, the issue of organized violence. All three include, one way or another, varying degrees of an outcome or target resulting from that organized violence. All three include, one way or another, the decision to perceive or not perceive a moral dimension in the struggle ahead.
The professional soldier sees a job on the horizon.
The citizen soldier sees a cause and its implications.
The citizen community sees the ideas, beliefs, and principles that create a cause.
They make three of the day’s decisions. They point toward different perceptions of immediacy, be it as a present that extends or as a future that harkens.
Suggestion
Take a moment to consider: can you recall an example in the last five years (2020-2025) of a statement with such roots in fundamentals as shown in the Tryon County Association? Is your answer suggestive in any way?
(Your River)
