Americanism Redux

September 4, your today, on the journey to the American Founding, 250 years ago, in 1775

You’ve got your assumptions. You’re working along those lines, from those predicates built out of assumptions.

Two things.

First, thing one, way, way out there is an action, a decision, or both that sets in motion stuff which, sooner or later, meets your assumptions.

Second, thing two, deep, deep down inside are implications you don’t yet grasp or realize even though they are close by your assumptions.

The week leading up to today, September 4, 250 years ago, is full of assumptions and these two things.

* * * * * * *

(in peacetime)

Bombs have torn into some of the sea-side houses in Stonington, Connecticut. British naval vessels fired them. Two people are dead. Several houses have gaping holes in walls and roofs, with smashed chairs and tables inside.

* * * * * * *

(not a drop left by Moses)

Three men sit under guard in the Continental Army camps surrounding Boston. They are, essentially, imprisoned. The crime they’ve committed is not obeying orders and appearing for duty. One of the three is a captain, an officer.

Meanwhile, Moses Sleeper is telling his buddies of his day yesterday. He and they are soldiers in this Continental Army. Sleeper laughs as he talks about a pigeon he shot, a pint of wine he drank, and enemy shells that exploded in the air not far from him on Ploughed Hill.

* * * * * * *

(a rifleman speciman, source of Washington’s disgust)

In a private moment, disgust marks the face of George Washington, ultimately the commander of Sleeper, the three jailed men, and thousands of other Continental Army soldiers surrounding the British in Boston. He writes to a fellow Virginian that “It is among the most difficult task I ever undertook…to induce these people to believe that there is…danger until the (enemy) Bayonet is pushed at their breasts.”

The woodsmen who know how to shoot rifles add to Washington’s disgust as well. He’s been seeing and hearing reports that they are shooting, hitting, and killing British officers on their horses 250 yards away. The act and the effort are not much different than Sleeper’s shooting of pigeons. To Washington, that is not how war should be waged, not disciplined, not virtuous. He orders the practice to cease or face punishment—perhaps imprisonment like the three soldiers or worse, a whipping.

And yet, Washington is sending units of riflemen to be part of a special invasion operation he’s just approved. He is sending Benedict Arnold to lead 1100 men up the Kennebec River to attack Quebec, part of a broader campaign (Richard Montgomery and his 1500 men are going north up the Richelieu River) to seize, liberate, and/or persuade (pick your word) Canadians to join the colonial cause.

* * * * * * *

(an order for 200 of these)

Reuben Colburn saddles his horse and rides north to Gardnerston on the Kennebec River. In his pocket are written orders, Washington’s signature at the bottom, to build 200 bateau, canoe-like vessels designed for river travel. The 200 bateau will be the transport mechanisms for the 1100 men who will soon arrive for the Quebec operation.

* * * * * * *

(Wolcott)

Oliver Wolcott of Connecticut has good news and bad news for General Philip Schuyler in Albany, New York. The good news is that recent negotiations with several Native tribes seem to be yielding positive results. Bands of warriors are expressing a willingness to support the Richelieu River portion, that led by General Richard Montgomery of New York, in the Canada invasion operation. The bad news is that supplies of just about everything are too low to sustain such an action. Wolcott will continue to interact with the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, the New York Provincial Congress, and Washington’s command in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It’s heavy lifting to find supplies in these human thickets.

* * * * * * *

(York minutemen)

South of the Richelieu River is York County, Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania’s Committee of Safety is reading a report from York County. A group in the county has decided to organize both a militia AND a separate set of five “minuteman” units. The minutemen, the York group believes, will have their greatest value in serving for short periods as “irregulars”, which means they focus on ambushes, raids, surprise attacks, and kidnappings. Benjamin Franklin and his colleagues on the Committee of Safety are coalescing around a shared opinion that the most important point is allowing the same man to be an officer in the militia and in the minutemen simultaneously; you can be, and do, both. This policy will prevent confusion and disruption within the units, which the Committee of Safety regards as the worst condition of all.

The colony’s Committee of Safety is practically functioning as a war-policy body for Pennsylvania. It has its own relationships, culture, and habits.

* * * * * * *

(he’ll be getting two letters from one family)

Three Virginians are in a communication loop 250 years ago today. Two of them are father and son. They’re writing a third person, a friend of each.

John Randolph is the father of Edmund Randolph. They’re writing Thomas Jefferson.

John’s letter is the next thing to a farewell note. He is supportive of England and imperial power. He writes to Jefferson with the open acknowledgement that they are on opposing sides of the clash. John wishes good health and happiness to his friend, Thomas.

Edmund’s letter is an update. He’s in Washington’s headquarters. Edmund shares news of the latest firings and counter-firings between the colonial and British forces at Boston. His purpose is more than informational; he contrasts his report with a question as to why Virginia seems stuck in “supineness”, or a state of weak inaction. Perhaps his friend Thomas will explain in his written response.

* * * * * * *

(Peale, self-drawn)

Charles Willson Peale has been in Annapolis, Maryland and struggling to pay his debts. He’s an artist, a painter, and work is not easy to find with everyone’s focus being on the imperial-colonial storm. As he tends to his one-man business, Peale sees numerous British supporters like John Randolph boarding ships bound for England or Scotland. They’re leaving the American colonies to avoid punishment for honestly expressing their views or lying about their views.

* * * * * * *

(for three of these)

The South Carolina Provincial Assembly votes today to construct a navy to strengthen the colony’s defenses. A contract will be released for the building of three schooners. Officers and crews will have to be found next.

* * * * * * *

From North Carolina to Newfoundland, a hurricane rages over the past several days. Wind rip through buildings, torrents of rain fill rivers and creeks, ocean waves blast onto the beaches and shoreline. Nearly 5000 people have died in the storm.

* * * * * * *

Each person, whether as an individual or part of group, enters their night 250 years ago with their assumptions intact. Tomorrow, the next round of challenges will come.

Also

(George III)

British King George III has formally rejected the “Olive Branch” petition sent to him by the Second Continental Congress.

Actually, the British monarch won’t read it at all. For him, it doesn’t exist.

* * * * * * *

(Usman dan Fodio)

21-year old Usman dan Fodio is at the school he created last year in Degel (in modern northern Nigeria). He’s attracted a loyal and growing band of followers to his teaching and studying of Islam. His approach to Islam is a combination of ethical and generous adherence to the Quran with a willingness to expose corruption, hypocrisy, and oppression. The local tribe known as Fulani find solace and direction in his understanding of Islam, a welcome counterweight to the Hausa’s heavy taxation and harsh land controls. For now, Hausa’s officials pay not attention to the new Islamic school. They remark mostly about dan Fodio’s youthfulness.

For You Now

Okay, let’s go back to my introduction to today’s Redux. I referred to “two things” that existed along with a person’s set of assumptions. Before I share the two things explicitly, I offer a soft challenge: go back to each story and tease out what you think the assumptions-becoming-predicates are for each of them. You’ll see them when you take a moment to reflect.

Now, as to the two things. Here they are: first, the external, George III’s complete and utter obliteration of the Olive Branch petition is the start of a new reality of an official military silencing of colonial protest and resistance; and second, the internal, two separate centers of actual war are already at work in the colonies with one being Boston and the other being Canada.

The external is the start of a new chapter in our overall story of the American Revolution and 250 years ago. There is no going-back from a military-based response. And yet, it won’t be fully known in the American colonies for another six weeks or so, and that doesn’t include the additional time to actually gather and dispatch all the war-making resources that are needed.

The internal is the implication of the bifurcated war on the ground. This condition has massive consequences for the American Union, for the Continental Congress, for individual colonies and their “Provincial Congresses”, and on and on. The Canada half of the bifurcation bears a resemblance to other colonial wars. It also is deeply Native and irregular. The Boston half is more regular warfare, more standing army, more magnetic pull toward centralization and centralized power, more uplifting of a thing called the Continental Army and a man called Washington. And the two halves interact with difficulty.

How many of the town meetings of 1774 dealt with these topics? You know the answer: none.

All of this means that the external action way, way out there and the internal implication deep, deep down there will be contacting the assumptions by which individuals are acting, deciding, and behaving and not acting, not deciding, and not behaving.

Now begin to think about what the assumptions have produced as predicates, as larger and more fixed stands of thought. A leader will almost certainly find they will need adjustment or, in some cases, abandonment.

Suggestion

Take a moment to consider—do you regard yourself as good in adjusting your assumptions? Does assumption abandonment come any easier to you?

(the river called Assumption)