Americanism Redux

January 8, Your Today, 250 Years Ago, In 1776

A new year dawns and raw energy flows at a furious pace.

* * * * * * *

The ice broke apart in a loud CRACK! Heavy cannon plunged into the frigid water of the Hudson River. Men started shouting and cursing, oxen bellowed and horses shorted and whinnied.

Colonel Henry Knox heard the noise and rushed to the site, hoping his own nearly 300-pound bulk wouldn’t cause the next crash. Learning that some of the precious artillery that was being hauled to Washington’s army outside Boston had just sunk out of sight, Knox called for someone to get help in nearby Albany, New York.

In a few hours’ time, a band of volunteers of Albany residents had pulled these weapons of war up from the frozen river’s bottom. Straining on wet ropes, prying with iron bars, fastening with sturdy hooks, these hardy people wrestled the cannon back onto thicker ice. “Thank you, thank you, General Washington thanks you”, Knox said excitedly. He was too preoccupied, too relieved, to think of writing down their names.

Knox’s long march of artillery was back on solid ground, heading toward the outskirts of Boston.

* * * * * * *

“We’re stopping it at 1,000,” shouts Robert Bell. The employees at the print shop on Third Street in Philadelphia hear his trademark Scottish accent over the creaks and squeaks of the hand-operated wood-frame printing presses.

“You sure it’s a thousand?” asks a pressman.

“Aye”, replies Bell.

A 43-year old immigrant who’s lived in Philadelphia for the past nine years, Bell is a printer devoted to the cause of colonial and American rights. He’s printed and sold nearly a dozen of the best-known pamphlets on the subject, those, that is, from the colonial or American perspective. A friend calls him “the Republican printer.”

Bell looks at one of the newly printed pamphlets. The title page reads:

“Common Sense—addressed to the Inhabitants of America, on the following Subjects:

1. Of the origin and design of government in general, with concise remarks on the English constitution.
2. Of Monarchy and Hereditary Succession.
3. Thoughts on the present state of American affairs.
4. Of the present ability of America, with some miscellaneous reflections.

Man knows no master save creating Heaven,

Or those whom choice and common good ordain.”

Bell targets tomorrow—January 9—to get the thousand new pamphlets onto his shelves and out into the streets for sale. He’ll split the profits, if there are any, with the author. The author says he’ll use his portion of the money to pay for gloves for Continental Army soldiers serving in Canada. “He’s a good lad,” Bell mutters to himself.

* * * * * * *

The author/lad is fellow British Isles immigrant Thomas Paine, now of Philadelphia. Paine’s title for the front page is a bit deceiving with its proper, formal feel. Open the page and dive into the actual writing and you’ll find anything but formal and proper. Paine uses language and imagery you’d hear in any tavern, barn, dockside, or street corner. He presents his ideas with short, sharp words in short, punchy sentences. He rips away at King George III, leaving the impression the divinely ordained monarch is a roadside criminal and whorehouse cheat. When you reach the 46^th and final page of the pamphlet, you’ll think you need a bath to wash away the stench of monarchy and royal subjecthood. Paine’s point: to hell with the British Empire, let’s get going on the independent American Nation.

And yeah, I’ll have another round of ale.

* * * * * * *

Paine isn’t breaking new ground. Instead, he’s holding up existing ground so everyone to recognize for what it is. “Common Sense” brings onto the printed page what you’ll hear in many conversations across the colonies. One example of thousands is John Sullivan.

Sullivan is a native of New Hampshire, both a lawyer and a military man by choice and training. For a while he’d served in local protest committees, then was a member of the New Hampshire Assembly, and finally a delegate from New Hampshire to the Continental Congress. Now, though, he’s left politics to go full-time as one of George Washington’s generals in the Continental Army outside Boston.

By today, 250 years ago Sullivan’s emotions run redhot and he doesn’t care who knows it. What should we do about British abuses of our captured men? Sullivan: retaliate by abusing the Redcoats captured on our side. Otherwise, Sullivan adds, “let me ask whether we’ll have any thing to hope from the Mercy of his majesty or his masters.” What about colonists who urge more negotiations with the British? Sullivan: “…Destroy that Spirit of Moderation which has almost ruined (us) and if not Speedily Rooted out will prove the final overthrown of America.” Otherwise, Sullivan sneers, we’ll have more disasters like the loss of Boston, which was the fault of the “Moderates”.

In the Continental Congress, Sullivan had kept his emotions in check and his reason supreme. In the Continental Army, Sullivan has untethered his emotions and packed his reason away. He’s sees a national future.

* * * * * * *

Things with the Continental Army haven’t gone as General George Washington had hoped. He was supposed to have 20,000 men in his “New Army” that opened the year 1776. He and many other people believed the Continental Union’s armed force surrounding British-held Boston needed extensive reform and overhaul. “I hope and doubt not that better Order and Discipline will be seen in the new Army then was in the old,” said one officer to his father. Washington has the same hope and in new public orders to his 9800-man army—yes, only 9800 out of the targeted 20,000 had been recruited—he constantly encourages them to work hard at drill, training, discipline, and respectful, orderly relationships with each other and the public.

Washington fears the men’s wages are too low. He’s specifically worried about attracting low-quality chaplains and assistant engineers. He’s also upset that black soldiers are angered over being denied re-enlistments because of their race. Washington wants the Continental Congress to boost the pay scale and also allow for the re-enlistment of black soldiers. He’s hearing that in New York and Connecticut, prejudices over wealth and social status are destroying the chain-of-command and obedience of officers’ orders. Finally, Washington is increasingly sympathetic to the practice of his officers requiring oaths of allegiance in towns and counties where they serve. It’s been done in Newport, Rhode Island, and he’d like the Continental Congress to consider the policy in other communities, too.

* * * * * * *

The Second Continental Congress is finally done with its long debate on the proper military strategy for dealing with British-held Boston. The debate is slow, complex, and intricate. It reflects a dreadful realization: who has the power and authority to order the conscious destruction of one of the most important communities in British America? The result finally gives General George Washington the ability to attack Boston when ready.

* * * * * * *

(where he’s waiting)

David Colden is one of two hundred people huddled in their separate homes in Queens County, New York. Colden knows that he’s hated by supporters of colonial rights for his vote against sending delegates to a pro-rights Assembly. Colden, whose father is the British imperial governor of New York, has heard reports that mounted soldiers of the Continental Union will be going house-to-house among those known as sympathetic to British rule.

Every strange sound outside Colden’s home could be the next sign of men riding their horses into the yard, or men loading weapons as they rush onto the porch.

The rumors are right. The horses are on their way.

* * * * * * *

As a time of war, the year 1776 is off to a bad start for the colonial and American cause.

Colonel Daniel Morgan sits in a jail cell in Quebec. His confinement is a symbol of the American disaster that was the attack on Quebec almost ten days ago that killed one co-commander, Richard Montgomery, wounded the other co-commander, Benedict Arnold, and turned back the assaulting force of 1500 soldiers from the Continental Union. Colonial casualties reached 30% in killed, wounded, and captured. The colonial forces are dispirited, discredited, and the dreams of a fourteenth colony feel dead.

At Norfolk, Virginia, Lord Dunmore and his followers sit on board British ships in Chespeake Bay. They’ve retreated from the port to British ships, his efforts to regain British control left in tatters. As a final measure of vengeance, Dunmore orders the burning of several buildings in Norfolk on January 1. But, bizarrely, the greatest destruction is not by Dunmore’s soldiers but by pro-colonial soldiers rushing into the burning town to loot and plunder the homes of anyone suspected of supporting the British. The mayhem and rioting extends to, simply, anyone who has a house or other property. The damage done by the pro-colonial forces far outweighs that done by Dunmore’s supporters.

Colonel Richard Richardson sits fuming in his home at Clarendon County, South Carolina. As the leader of 2500 colonial volunteers, Richardson had defeated local units of pro-British South Carolinians in what was being called the “Snow Campaign” of the previous two months. The area is quiet and, for the moment, secure from British attack. Richardson’s frustration boiled over, however, when the South Carolina Committee of Safety failed to provide adequate food, clothing, and equipment to his men. Many of Richardson’s men are still suffering from severe frostbite, malnourishment, and various wounds and injuries. Richardson wonders how many of them would even consider volunteering again after this mistreatment. It’s success in combat and failure in support.

From Quebec to Virginia to South Carolina, victory is not quite the description of these war-like efforts.

* * * * * * *

(where he’s studying)

Today, 250 years ago, Bristol Yamma is using every hour at his disposal at Princeton, New Jersey to increase his knowledge of Christian theology and evangelical relationships. He is black, literate, was once enslaved but now is free, and meets regularly with College of New Jersey President John Witherspoon for his pastoral training. Yamma and a friend, John Quamine, are a two-man contingent preparing to serve as Christian revolutionaries—ultimately traveling to Africa to speak to black people there on behalf of spiritual liberation and human freedom.

Yamma operates inside a network that includes not only his friend Quamine and Witherspoon but also Reverend Samuel Hopkins of Newport, Rhode Island and Thomas Cushing, a Massachusetts delegate to the Continental Congress. It’s the hope of Hopkins that the Continental Congress will fund the missionary program.

* * * * * * *

(modern Coshocton)

Rachel Doddridge, 29 years old, waits for her husband, Koquethagechton, to return to their home in the Lenape village of Coshocton, at the headwaters of the Muskingum River in the Ohio River valley. Rachel was kidnapped at the age of six by Natives from her home in Pennsylvania. When she was old enough to decide for herself, Rachel refused to leave her Lenape home and soon married Koquethagechton and had three children with him. Her husband is attempting to negotiate an agreement whereby Lenape warriors assist the colonial and American cause. In exchange, they would receive approval of Coshocton and its surrounding region as the newest colony in the Continental Union. Along the ice-covered Muskingum River, Rachel stands on the verge of a new future if the Continental Congress, her husband, and other Lenape leaders can reach agreement.

* * * * * * *

The cold waters of early 1776 flow around the bend into a new stretch of River.

Also

(where the law passed)

The new year kicks in the formal execution of the American Prohibitory Act, passed by a large majority of the British Parliament several weeks ago.

January 1 marks the beginning of the law’s total ban on all trade with the British colonies in North America. All colonial ships are now subject to seizure and defined as enemy property. War-making is in the economy.

Ironically, at this exact moment, 33 year old Lord Drummond, who is well-known to many officials in the imperial government, is in Philadelphia, believing he has gathered enough support from Continental Congress delegates to pursue a broad framework for negotiated compromise in the imperial-colonial crisis.

Each entity—Parliament and the Continental Congress—has no knowledge of the other’s immediate doing.

For You Now

We often use the start of a new calendar year as a way to measure a beginning. Starting a new habit in January? Use your progress in the early days to help motivate yourself to achieve your goal. It’s a common thing, an understandable thing.

If we do the same with 1776 and the colonial/American cause, the result looks ragged and broken. In fact, the start is pointing to potential disaster. Very little has commenced in a positive fashion. Barely anything feels like it’s going in the right direction. Judging by this first week of 250 years ago, the goal is unattainable.

I’m sensing that the lesson here is one of category. All the categories we’re expecting to use—data like the number of actual recruits compared to the goal of recruits—show us one story. So is the outcome of battles, like that in Quebec. Across the board, the trend is bad.

Perhaps there are moments when the most important quantities can’t be measured. Will, for example. How do you gauge the will—the inner resolve, devotion, and commitment—inside a person or a group of people? It’s possible that Washington’s 9800 recruits (less than half of his target) might possess a will equal to the 20,000 men he wanted to have. It could be that the nature of what they’re supporting has bonded to their will in a way that can overcome enormous obstacles. And maybe the strength of will, the power of the bond, can be expressed in views like those seen in John Sullivan.

I make this point for a reason. Don’t forget that this week’s Redux introduces Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense.” Not to tip my hand, but we’ll soon see that the market for Paine’s pamphlet is gigantic, an indicator every bit as telling as Washington’s current recruitment numbers.

When you start and begin, you’re in the new. Being in the new means you may need to understand fresh approaches to measuring, assessing, and judging the health of the new.

Suggestion

Take a moment to consider: are you seeing the new in a way you understand?

(Your River)