end time

Posted on September 13, 2026 by SUMPTER

I’m grateful for the great hobby bluegrayreview has been for the last 16 years; and now it’s time to shut it down. Thanks to those who’ve looked over some of the material here. Goodbye. Thank you. Peace and Godspeed.

L.R. Martens

“Fort Sumter in April, 1865”

I sure hope it’s OK to love my country even if I don’t love everything Americans have done in the past; I know I don’t like everything I’ve done in my past.

I took the snapshot of the Lincoln quote on September 11, 2026 at the American Civil War Memorial in Waterloo, New York. The quote is from the last paragraph of President Lincoln’s December 1, 1862 Annual Message to Congress (at Project Gutenberg). The last section of the message is devoted to Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and a constitutional amendment the president proposed that would provide federal compensation to states that abolished slavery before 1900. Here’s the last two paragraphs:
Is it doubted, then, that the plan I propose, if adopted, would shorten the war, and thus lessen its expenditure of money and of blood? Is it doubted that it would restore the national authority and national prosperity and perpetuate both indefinitely? Is it doubted that we here—Congress and executive—can secure its adoption? Will not the good people respond to a united and earnest appeal from us? Can we, can they, by any other means so certainly or so speedily assure these vital objects? We can succeed only by concert. It is not “Can any of us imagine better?” but “Can we all do better?” Object whatsoever is possible, still the question recurs, “Can we do better?” The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.
Fellow-citizens, we can not escape history. We of this Congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We, even we here, hold the power and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free—honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last, best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just—a way which if followed the world will forever applaud and God must forever bless.
A. LINCOLN.
FortSumter2009

Fort Sumter October 2009

From the Library of Congress: George N. Barnard’s photo of Fort Sumter in April, 1865. Bubba73’s 2009 photo of Fort Sumter is licensed by Creative Commons; I did not make any changes

Farewell, you all!

Posted in Aftermath, Postbellum Society | Tagged | Leave a comment

centennial shock

Posted on September 1, 2026 by SUMPTER

Centennial Fourth in New York City

Here’s a final look back at events 150 years ago. In its July 22, 1876 issue, Harper’s Weekly covered the centennial July 4th celebration and reported on an incredible disaster in Montana territory:

THE MONTANA SLAUGHTER.

CLOSE upon the intelligence of the check to General CROOK’s command on Rosebud River comes the news of a disaster on the Little Horn River so terrible and ghastly in its details that at the first announcement it was considered incredible or grossly exaggerated. Later dispatches, however, confirmed the dreadful story in all its shocking particulars.

many reservations out west

The map on this page gives the scene of the disaster, and the sketches on page 592, engraved from drawings sent us by officers in the field, show the character of the country where our troops are operating against the Indian forces under the command of SITTING BULL, the famous Sioux chief. It is admirably adapted by its rough, broken character, its precipitous, craggy hills and deep, narrow defiles, for a defensive war on the part of the Indians; and SITTING BULL, a chief of great natural sagacity and intelligence, sharpened by fifteen years of fighting, knows how to avail himself of every advantage offered by the terrain. The region where the recent battles have taken place lies, as a reference to the map will show, between the Big Horn spur of the Rocky Mountains and the Yellowstone River, and through it flow the Big and Little Horn and the Rosebud rivers. Early last spring a campaign was planned against the Indians located in this region to compel them to remove to the reservation set apart for them by the government, which they had refused to do. Three columns, under command of Generals GIBBON, TERRY, and CROOK, were equipped and placed under marching orders, their objective point being SITTING BULL’S camp, in the Big Horn country. These columns were to meet on the Powder or the Tongue river, and combine their forces in the heart of the hostile territory. General CROOK, at Fort Reno, was to strike north; General TERRY, with General CUSTER’S cavalry, at Fort Lincoln, was to march west; and General GIBBON, at Fort BUFORD, was to descend the Yellowstone Valley and join General TERRY.

General CROOK set out from Fort Fetterman, of which we give an illustration on page 592, on the 29th of May, and after a short halt at Fort Reno advanced to the head waters of the Tongue River. On the 9th of June the Indians attacked his camp, and were gallantly repulsed. On the 16th of June the march was resumed, in the direction of the Rosebud Valley. The next day the Sioux surprised the troops while on the march. The attack was made with great vigor, the Indians having all the advantages of position and superior numbers. Ten of the troops were killed and nineteen wounded, and General CROOK deemed it necessary to order a retreat to Goose Creek.

immediate attack

Meanwhile General TERRY, with 1500 men, had left Fort Lincoln, striking for the Powder River and the Yellowstone, where he was to meet General GIBBON, with 500 men, coming from Fort Ellis. At the Rosebud, General CUSTER, with twelve companies of cavalry, left TERRY to make a detour around by the Little Horn. This was on the 22d of June. On the 25th he struck what was probably the main camp of SITTING BULL. He had pushed forward with greater rapidity than his orders directed, and arrived at the point where a junction of the forces was intended, a day or two in advance of the infantry. Without waiting for the rest of the troops to come up, General CUSTER decided upon an immediate attack. The Indians were posted in a narrow ravine, about twenty miles above the mouth of the river. At the head of five companies of cavalry he charged into the ravine, while Colonel RENO, with four companies, made an attack on the other side, three companies being held in reserve. According to the story of the scout who brought the intelligence of the disaster, CUSTER led his brave men into a fearful slaughter-pen. The Indians poured a murderous fire upon them from all sides, and not one of the detachment escaped alive. General CUSTER himself, his two brothers, his brother-in-law, and his nephew were all killed. The Indians surrounded Colonel RENO’s command, and held the troops on the hills, cut off from water, for a whole day, when the force under General GIBBON, for which CUSTER should have waited before going into the fight, arrived on the ground. The Indians then broke up and retired under cover of darkness.

A survey of the disastrous battle-ground disclosed a dreadful slaughter. Two hundred and seven men were buried in one place, and the total number of killed is estimated at three hundred and fifteen, including seventeen commissioned officers. The bodies of the dead were terribly mutilated. The Indians are supposed to have numbered from 2500 to 4000, and all the courage and skill displayed by our troops was of no avail against such overwhelming odds. The Indian loss can not be ascertained, as they carried off both killed and wounded. They stripped our killed of arms and ammunition.

General GEORGE A. CUSTER, of whom we give a portrait on page 601, was a native of Ohio. He graduated at West Point in 1861, with the grade of Second Lieutenant of Cavalry. He was attached to the Army of the Potomac, and distinguished himself at Williamsburg in the Peninsular campaign, for which he was made a First Lieutenant. Promotion now came to him rapidly, as a reward for gallant services. He was soon made Captain, and displayed so much ability while acting as a brigade commander of mounted cavalry that in 1863 he was appointed a Brigadier-General of Volunteers. General CUSTER participated in many important engagements, and won great honor for dash and gallantry during the terrible campaign in the Wilderness and in SHERIDAN’S brilliant campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, for which he received the commission of Major-General of Volunteers. He participated with distinguished ability in the grand movements which decided the fate of LEE’s army and of the rebellion in 1865, and was breveted Colonel and Brigadier-General in the regular army for his eminent services. Since the close of the war General CUSTER has been chiefly engaged in the Indian country. At the time of his death he was acting simply as commander of his regiment, the Seventh Cavalry.

Of the illustrations on page 592 not mentioned in the foregoing account, the first shows the monument erected in the grave-yard of old Fort Phil Kearney to the memory of FETTERMAN, BROWN, GRUMMOND,and eighty-three men, who were massacred by the Indians a short distance north of the fort on the 22d of December, 1866. The second gives a view of Rosebud River, taken from the north side of the Yellowstone. The fourth is a sketch of General CROOK’s supply camp on Tongue River, mouth of Prairie Dog Creek. The mountains in the background are a part of the Big Horn range.

Centennial Fourth at Independence Hall

page 592

Sitting Bull / photographed & published by Palmquist & Jurgens, St. Paul, Minn. (c1884.; LOC: https://www.loc.gov/resource/cph.3g07960/)

on the warpath

In its June 17, 1876 issue Harper’s Weekly didn’t seem too concerned about Sitting Bull and used the possible threat out west to promote one of its advertisers selling a centennial souvenir (page 498):
Spotted Tail and Sitting Bull have dug up the hatchet and are on the war path, but the “Little Hatchet” Watch Charm will cause more excitement among the whites. See advertisement on page 499.—[ Com. ]

Centennial Charm

From the Library of Congress: Sitting Bull. Everything else comes from Harper’s Weekly for 1876 at Hathi Trust.
Posted in 150 Years Ago, United States Centennial | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

“this mighty revolution”

Posted on July 4, 2026 by SUMPTER

John Adams thought future generations of Americans would celebrate the Second of July as the great day of independence. On that day in 1776 the Second Continental Congress voted to separate from Great Britain and proclaim the thirteen colonies free and independent states. According to Familiar Letters of John Adams and His Wife Abigail Adams During the Revolution by Charles Francis Adams (at Project Gutenberg) John Adams wrote two letters to his wife Abigail Adams on July 3, 1776. Here are excerpts (starting on pages 190 and 192):

3 July, 1776.

… Yesterday, the greatest question was decided which ever was debated in America, and a greater, perhaps, never was nor will be decided among men. A Resolution was passed without one dissenting Colony “that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, and as such they have, and of right ought to have, full power to make war, conclude peace, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which other States may rightfully do.” You will see, in a few days, a Declaration setting forth the causes which have impelled us to this mighty revolution, and the reasons which will justify it in the sight of God and man. A plan of confederation will be taken up in a few days.

When I look back to the year 1761, and recollect the argument concerning writs of assistance in the superior court, which I have hitherto considered as the commencement of this controversy between Great Britain and America, and run through the whole period from that time to this, and recollect the series of political events, the chain of causes and effects, I am surprised at the suddenness as well as greatness of this revolution. Britain has been filled with folly, and America with wisdom; at least, this is my judgment. Time must determine. It is the will of Heaven that the two countries should be sundered forever. It may be the will of Heaven that America shall suffer calamities still more wasting, and distresses yet more dreadful. If this is to be the case, it will have this good effect at least. It will inspire us with many virtues which we have not, and correct many errors, follies, and vices which threaten to disturb, dishonor, and destroy us. The furnace of affliction produces refinement in states as well as individuals. And the new Governments we are assuming in every part will require a purification from our vices, and an augmentation of our virtues, or they will be no blessings. The people will have unbounded power, and the people are extremely addicted to corruption and venality, as well as the great. But I must submit all my hopes and fears to an overruling Providence, in which, unfashionable as the faith may be, I firmly believe.

Philadelphia, 3 July, 1776.

[If the colonies separated seven months earlier, things might have been better – the Americans might have taken Canada, for example.]

now comes the hard part

… But, on the other hand, the delay of this Declaration to this time has many great advantages attending it. The hopes of reconciliation which were fondly entertained by multitudes of honest and well-meaning, though weak and mistaken people, have been gradually, and at last totally extinguished. Time has been given for the whole people maturely to consider the great question of independence, and to ripen their judgment, dissipate their fears, and allure their hopes, by discussing it in newspapers and pamphlets, by debating it in assemblies, conventions, committees of safety and inspection, in town and county meetings, as well as in private conversations, so that the whole people, in every colony of the thirteen, have now adopted it as their own act. This will cement the union, and avoid those heats, and perhaps convulsions, which might have been occasioned by such a Declaration six months ago.

But the day is past. The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epocha in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore.

You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost us to maintain this Declaration and support and defend these States. Yet, through all the gloom, I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is more than worth all the means. And that posterity will triumph in that day’s transaction, even although we should rue it, which I trust in God we shall not.

The Congress passed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th. By modern standards it took a while for the news to spread throughout the states. From The Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles, Volume II at Internet Archive (p21-22):

the British made us do it

July 13, 1776. Mr. Channing returned from Newport and brought the Congresses Declaration of INDEPENDENCY dated at Philadelphia the fourth day of July instant. This I read at noon, and for the first time realized Independency. Thus the CONGRESS have tied a Gordian Knot, which the Parliament will find they can neither cut nor untie. The thirteen united Colonies now rise into an Independant Republic among the kingdoms, states and empires on earth. May the Supreme and Omnipotent Lord of the Monarchical Republic of the immense Universe, shower down his blessings upon it, and ever keep it under his holy protection! And have I lived to see such an important and astonishing revolution? Scotch policy transfused thro’ the collective body of the ruling powers in Great Britain; and their violent, oppressive and haughty measures have weaned and alienated the affections of three millions of people, and dismembered them from a once beloved parent state. Cursed be that arbitrary policy! Let it never poison the United States of America!

Ezra Stiles seemed to echo the importance of divine protection as stated in the last last sentence of the Declaration:

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

drafting committee presents the document

The Pennsylvania Gazette July 10, 1776

Excerpts from John Adams’ letters and Ezra Stiles’ diary entry were published in The Spirit of ‘Seventy-Six. [1]. I used the book’s modern rendering of Ezra Stiles’ diary entry in this post. A letter from John Adams to Samuel Chase in the same section of the book said when the Declaration was published and proclaimed on July 8th the people in Philadelphia celebrated with three cheers, feu de joie, and “The bells rang all day and almost all night.”

From the Library of Congress: Declaration of Independence from 1851; Ezra Stiles, who served as president of Yale from 1778-1795. From Wikimedia Commons: William B. T. Trego’s 1883 painting, The March to Valley Forge
From the National Park Services 1973 Signers of the Declaration at Project Gutenberg: John Adams; Drafting Committee presenting their draft of the Declaration on June 30, 1776; Declaration as printed on the first page of the July 10, 1776 issue of The Pennsylvania Gazette. “This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg™ License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.”

toil and blood and treasure that it will cost us

  1. [1]Commager, Henry Steele and Morris, Richard B. (eds). The Spirit of ‘Seventy-Six. Edison New Jersey: Castle Books 2002, pages 320-322] ↩
Posted in 250 years ago, American History | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Thank you

Posted on June 10, 2026 by SUMPTER

Thanks to everyone who has looked over the material here during the past 15 years or so. I appreciate it.

L.R. Martens

“Fort Sumter in April, 1865”

From the Library of Congress: George N. Barnard’s photo of Fort Sumter in April, 1865
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pres pay reduction?

Posted on April 20, 2026 by SUMPTER

No. In its May 6, 1876 issue Harper’s Weekly lauded President Grant for vetoing a bill that would have reduced the U.S. president’s salary by 50%:

not much of a demagogue

THE SALARY VETO

WHEN the bill reducing the salary of the President was passed by Congress, we said that the President would probably veto it, and he has done so, upon the most legitimate grounds. The increase of salary, it will be remembered, was a part of the “grab bill,” which was part of an appropriation bill. The grab was so called not because it raised the President’s salary, but because it gave back pay to members of Congress as well as raised their salary. The President now remarks, with great force, that the salary of $25,000 was fixed when the population was about 3,000,000, and when members of Congress received but $6 a day for actual service. The population is now nearly 40,000,000, and allowing five months’ session each year, they receive fully $30 a day. Congress has voted to restore the President’s salary to the original sum, but not that of its own members. The act is an illustration of Democratic “reform” in the House and of Republican pusillanimity in the Senate. The majority in the Senate which voted for the general increase also voted for the particular decrease, and threw upon the President the odium, which it did not dare to accept itself, of seeming to withstand an economical reform. The President is too little of a demagogue to follow an unworthy example, and his veto is manly and sensible, and will be approved by the country.

no claptrap

He truly says that the cost of living is entirely out of proportion to what it was when the salary was fixed at $25,000, and that he knows by personal experience that the old salary is inadequate to the proper and necessary expense of the White House establishment. He has, of course, no personal interest in the reduction, for his official emolument can not be increased or diminished during his term. Moreover, unless the salary was grossly extravagant eighty years ago, Which has never been pretended, it is insufficient now. It is possible, indeed, that a President might keep house at the White House for $15,000 or $10,000 a year. And there are doubtless gentlemen who would gladly take the Presidency without any salary at all. But those are not very cogent reasons for paying the President meanly. General GRANT has shown a proper regard for the national dignity and for the honorable comfort of his successors in vetoing a bill whose passage was a piece of clap-trap and demagogery, and an insult to the popular intelligence.

Thomas Nast did a couple cartoons for the same issue of Harper’s Weekly. One implied that the U.S. House was controlled by ex-Confederates who were willing to shut down the federal government over President Grant’s veto. The other cartoon is on the front page of the May 6th issue. It shows corruption and scandals possibly associated with the Grant administration. According to invaluable, the Greek scandal was a relatively minor scandal. Other scandals like the Whiskey Ring were more serious. Wikipedia agrees in its Scandals of the Grant administration – “The worst and most famous scandal to hit the Grant administration was the Whiskey Ring of 1875 … .” The Salary Grab Act is considered one of the scandals. You can read Wikipedia’s full article about the Salary Grab here. “The proposal for a salary increase was fueled by what was considered low pay for members in government, while the salary for the president was the same as it had been for George Washington. The bill subsequently included a 50 percent salary increase for the president and for members of Congress, retroactive to the beginning of their [members of Congress] term, which was the most highly contested provision in the bill. Public outcry led Congress to rescind the congressional salary increase [in 1874].” The increased pay for President and Supreme Court stayed the same.

According to several sources, including Oregon State, $50,000 in 1876 would be worth at least $1,000,000 today. It seems that back in 1876 the president and members of Congress had to pay more expenses associated with their offices from their salaries. Grant’s veto message might be suggesting that. That was one of the motivations for the Salary Grab. See the cartoon in bronze below.

veto message (part 1)

part 2

Harper’s Weekly May 6, 1876

corruption scandals

grabbers galore

D.C.’s expensive

From the Library of Congress: President Grant’s veto message; the cartoon from the December 27, 1873 issue of Frank Leslie’s illustrated Newspaper; another cartoon that lists some of the high prices at the nation’s capital.
From Wikimedia: Thomas Nast’s 1872 Vanity Fair caricature of U.S. Grant – “Captain, Tanner, Farmer, General, Imperator”; the Carte de visite of General Grant – “by Theo. Lilienthal’s Photographic Gallery, 102 Poydras St., New Orleans,” “possibly from Grant’s visit to New Orleans in August 1863”.
You can see Harper’s Weekly for 1876 at Hathi Trust.
Posted in 150 Years Ago This Month, The Grant Administration | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

disarmament

Posted on April 6, 2026 by SUMPTER

The first major military actions of the American Revolutionary War occurred on April 19, 1775 when the British sent a force from Boston to capture and destroy colonial military supplies. About eleven months after the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the Continental Congress passed a resolution encouraging patriots throughout the thirteen colnies to disarm their opponents. In its April 12, 1776 issue (at the Library of Congress), The Virginia Gazette published the March 14th resolution.

The Virginia Gazette

disarm the disaffected

__________________________________________

Here’s how the Library of Congress published the resolution (with more modern spelling) in 1906 (at the Library of Congress, Volume 4, page 205)

Resolved, That it be recommended to the several assemblies, conventions, and councils or committees of safety of the United Colonies, immediately to cause all persons to be disarmed within their respective colonies, who are notoriously disaffected to the cause of America, or who have not associated, and shall refuse to associate, to defend, by arms, these United Colonies, against the hostile attempts of the British fleets and armies; and to apply the arms taken from such persons in each respective colony, in the first place to the arming the continental troops raised in said colony; in the next, to the arming such troops as areraised by the colony for its own defence, and the residue to be applied to the arming the associators; that the arms when taken be appraised by indifferent persons, and such as are applied to the arming the continental troops, be paid for by Congress, and the residue by the respective assemblies, conventions, or councils, or committees of safety.

Resolved, That a copy of the foregoing resolve be transmitted by the delegates of each colony, to their respective assemblies, conventions, or councils, or committees.

The same issue of The Virginia Gazette included a report about the condition of Boston after the British evacuated it on March 17, 1776:

The British are leaving!

CAMBRIDGE, March 21.

The joy of our friends in Boston, on seeing the victorious and gallant troops of their country inter [sic] the town, almost at the heels of their barbarous oppressors, was inexp[???] great. [?The mutual con??]gratulations which soon afterwards took place, between those of the nearest connexions in life, for a long time cruelly rent asunder by the tyranny of our implacable enemies, surpasses description. From such a set of beings the preservation of property was not expected; and it was found that a great part of the evacuated houses had been pillaged, the furniture broke and destroyed, and many of the buildings greatly damaged. It is worthy of notice, however, that the buildings belonging to the hon. John Hancock, esq; particularly his elegant mansion-house [?], were left in good order. All the linen and woollen goods, except some that might be secreted, were carried off by the enemy. All the salt and molosses, which they could find, were destroyed. The enemy also destroyed great quantities of effects belonging to themselves which they could not carry off, such as gun carriages, and other carriages of various kinds, house furniture, &c. together with a quantity of flour and hay. All their forts, batteries, redoubts, and breastworks, remain entire and complete. They left many of their heaviest cannon, mounted on carriages, and several of them charged; all of them were either spiked up or had a trunnion beat off. They also left several of their largest mortars; quantities of cannonshot, shells, numbers of small-arms, and other instruments of war, have been found in many parts of the town, thrown off the wharves, concealed in vaults, or broken in pieces. In the fort on Bunker’s Hill, several hundred good blankets were found. It is said about 15 or 20 of the king’s horses have been also taken up in the town; and it is thought about the same number of Tories remain behind, all the rest being gone with the fleet.

The prisoners, who were long confined in jail, were cruelly carried off in irons.

Tuesday evening the enemy set fire to the block-house and barracks at the castle, and yesterday they were employed at the same place in blowing up and demolishing the fortifications.

A part of the continental army are now employed in fortifying Fort Hill, in Boston, to secure the town against any attacks which may be made by the enemy’s ships of war.

The enemy’s fleet, consisting of about 100 sail, still lie between the Castle and Nantasket.

We have since heard they have all put to sea, by their course supposed to be bound for Halifax.

Two vessels arrived at Portsmouth the beginning of this week, and brought in six tuns of gunpowder.

We have just learned that between 90 and 100 pieces of cannon, 2 or 3000 bushels of wheat, and a vast quantity of coal, have been found in Boston, also upwards of 100 horses.

“implacable enemies” evacuate Boston

The Spirit of ‘Seventy-Six mentioned Boston and the disarmament resolution in its introduction to a section called Independence Like a Torrent. There were many factors that caused the torrent: Washington’s victory before Boston, Common Sense, King George III’s intransigence; decisive steps by the Continental Congress – authorizing privateers, embargo on exports to Britain and British West Indies, sending Silas Deane to France to negotiate for aid and tell the French total separation was increasingly probable, resolving to disarm Loyalists, excluding British ships from American ports and trade; a change of opinion in the states – except for the Middle States, “the radicals succeeded in getting control of the machinery of government, and committing their states to independence.” For example, on April 12th North Carolina instructed “her delegates to support independence.” “Virginia and Massachusetts had precipitated the issue with the mother country; now at last both embraced the logical conclusion of their policies and their arguments, and committed themselves to independence.” At meetings in Massachusetts towns throughout May and June freemen voted overwhelmingly for independence. On May 15th in Williamsburg the Virginia Convention voted unanimously for independence. That night Patriots in Williamsburg raised a “Union Flag of the American States.” On May 10th the Continental Congress passed a resolution instructing the colonies to institute governments best suited for happiness and safety of their constituents and America.[1]
According to the University of Pennsylvania, Charles Thomson “was the first tutor hired by the Academy of Philadelphia (the forerunner of the University of Pennsylvania).” Thomson was Pennsylvania’s leading protest organizer after the 1765 Stamp Act. From 1774 he served fifteen years as Secretary to the Continental Congresses and Confederation Congress. At Colonial Willamsburg you can read an interview with The Virginia Gazette owner Alexander Purdie, played by Dennis Watson,

Pennsylvania Patriot

Hancock mansion-house at the Commons

Hancock’s house close up

From the Library of Congress: the April 12, 1776 issue of The Virginia Gazette; Lord Howe’s leaving Boston with some of the king’s horses; the portrait of Charles Thomson; John Hancock’s mansion; 1862 view of Williamsburg during Peninsula Campaign; Civil War envelope
From Wikipedia: William James Aylward’s 1911 painting of the British evacuation of Boston; part of Boston Commons with Hancock mansion upper right – “Notes: 1902 engraving by Sideny L. Smith after Christian Remick’s 1768 watercolor. Note 2.) Print dedicated to John Hancock. Note 3.) Print depicts October 1, 1768.” According to the article, “The Hancock Manor became the headquarters of General Henry Clinton while he remained in Boston; he took command at Charlestown in September 1775. Both house and stables were in part occupied by the wounded from Bunker Hill. The house, however, remained relatively intact during the occupation, the furniture showing little signs of damage and the paintings none.”

A view in Williamsburg, Va. (1862 by William McIlvaine; LOC: LC-DIG-ppmsca-20005)

On to (the outskirts of) Richmond!

revolutionary inspiration

  1. [1]Commager, Henry Steele and Morris, Richard B. (eds). The Spirit of ‘Seventy-Six. Edison New Jersey: Castle Books 2002, pages 292-293] ↩
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celebration preparation

Posted on March 1, 2026 by SUMPTER

In its February 19, 1876 issue Harper’s Weekly published some artist’s sketches from the grounds of the U.S. Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia as the May 10th opening approached:

at the workste

CENTENNIAL SKETCHES.

We give on page 149 a few choice sketches from our artist’s portfolio — notes, as it were, of a day’s ramble through the Centennial Exhibition grounds, The “Swedish School-House,” situated quite near the main Exhibition building, and almost joining the Judges’ Pavilion, is destined to be an attraction to many visitors, who will see in the simple but exquisite little structure a model for the future school for their little ones. A short walk, during which you cross, by rustic bridges, a quiet brook, brings you to the Horticultural Building, which is in itself an exhibition worth quite a journey to see. In architectural features it is Moorish. The exterior is rich in color and ornament; the interior is even more florid in effect. The corridors formed by columns and arches of variously colored brick; the iron truss brightened with brilliant tints. Great carved heads of lions for drinking fountains attract attention for the moment; next you gaze through glass into the forcing-house, upon orange-trees the branches of which are filled with fruit, and the tropical verdure surrounding seems out of place as you turn and look at the workmen in overcoats bringing in the few last loads of rich earth with which to complete the great garden of the main building. These beds are to be heated by numerous steampipes, as will be seen by the sketch, and within a month are to be ready for the reception of plants permanently arranged for the Exhibition.

In your walk from Horticultural Hall to the Agricultural Building you pass the nearly finished American Restaurant, picturesquely located in a grove of oaks, within which are groups of dark fir. The workmen are clustered about the small fires which, if carefully guarded, they are permitted to build for comfort during their noon hour. While warming numbed hands at one of these chip comforts, our artist’s attention is invited to “the way the boss will make them nagurs git when the whistle blows; he wants that car unloaded ter wonster, Sir.” Suffice to say that car-load of lumber for the Agricultural Building was unloaded by ten minutes after one by “colored help.” Work upon the main building is nearly complete, but as many as fifty structures, additions, etc., are yet to be finished, and all of this by the 10th of next May.

The National Centennial Bulletin of America, 1776-1876 (at the Library of Congress) showed a couple of the buildings that Harper’s Weekly mentioned above.

Horticulture Building

Agriculture Building

George Washington would have been 294 this past February 22nd. I was sorry I missed it, but I hadn’t organized my time right. Anyway, here’s part of David McCullough’s conclusion to 1776:
“… Above all, Washington never forgot what was at stake and he never gave up.
“Again and again, in letters to Congress and to his officers, and in his general orders, he had called for perseverance – for ‘perseverance and spirit,’ for ‘patience and perseverance,’ for ‘unremitting courage and perseverance.’ Soon after the victories of Trenton and Princeton, he had written, ‘A people unused to restraint must be led, they will not be drove.” Without Washington’s leadership and unrelenting perseverance, the revolution almost certainly would have failed. As Nathanael Greene foresaw as the war went on, ‘He will be the deliverer of his own country.'”[1]

George Washington’s centennial

“he never gave up”

thanks to George Washington and others

According to 1776 the Washington quote is from a letter to Lord Stirling fromThe Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series , VII,110; the Nathanael Greene quote is from a letter to James Varnum from The papers of Nathanael Greene, X,36.
You can see Harper’s Weekly for 1876 at Hathi Trust.
From the Library of Congress: Centennial Bulletin, the whole thing is 48 pages; the image of a Philadelphia commemoration of the centennial George Washington’s birth – “The event shown in this lithograph is the civic procession held in Philadelphia on February 22, 1832, in honor of the centennial anniversary of George Washington’s birth. Onlookers cheer the participants in front of the Second Bank on Chestnut Street, between 4th and 5th Streets. City officials and other prominent people of Philadelphia lead the parade, followed by tradesmen, volunteer fire companies, and the military. The top-hatted artisans (the artificers of the title, who struck special commemorative medals for the event) are led by a mounted parade marshal, their craft represented on a float carrying men operating a coin press. The print is by Manneville Elihu Dearing Brown (1810-96), a premier early Philadelphia lithographer and painter who received some early training in Boston. Several years after producing this work, he moved to Upstate New York, where he concentrated on portrait painting.”; Washington portrait, c.1876; Centennial shield – Print shows a stars and stripes shield with a bust portrait of George Washington, facing right, within a wreath, an eagle perched on the top of the shield, and the American flag with several other flags representing other countries. A ribbon on the shield states “E Pluribus Unum.”;

souvenir’s holding up great after 150 years

  1. [1]McCullough David, 1776. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2006. Pages 293 – 294. ↩
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donations appreciated … and needed

Posted on February 7, 2026 by SUMPTER

On the first day of 1776 John Morgan, the chief medical officer with the American army at Boston sent out a public letter thanking people in Massachusetts for donating hospital supplies to the army. He then went on to request similar donations from people in other colonies. Here’s Doctor Morgan’s letter from the January 29, 1776 issue of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet, The General Advertiser from Philadelphia (page 2):

Dr. John Morgan

General Hospital at Cambridge, January 1, l776
TO THE P U B L I C.

IMPRESSED with a lively sense of the spirit of patriotism which so eminently adorns the good people of this country, the subscriber, who is appointed to the chief direction of the sick and wounded, thinks it incumbent on him to make known the seasonable aid he has lately received from the towns of Concord, Bedford, first and second parishes of Sudbury, Acton, Marlborough, Stow and Lincoln. The Hospital having, for some time past, been in great want of old linen for bandages, compresses and lint; of fine tow for dressings; sadlers or sole leather, and web or gartering for tourniquets; of tape, thread, needles, pins, and other articles of a like nature; application was made to the inhabitants of the above-named places for a supply, at such prices as they themselves should think reasonable. No sooner were our wants thus made known to them, than with an alacrity and zeal truly characteristic of the people, the business of collecting those things was immediately undertaken by some of their Select-Men, and other proper persons. The Clergy in particular of the several congregations engaged warmly in the work. To their pious and animated exhortations, from the sacred desk, may be ascribed much of that Christian charity, and those laudable effusions of philanthropy which were manifested on this occasion, and which cannot fail to secure to them the esteem of the public, and to reflect a lasting honour on their attachment to the cause of liberty, and the rights of human nature. What they could, they furnished with an unsparing hand: Offer of pay they nobly rejected, preferring the conscious pleasure that arises from deeds of charity to every selfish, sordid gratification that interest inspires: An instance of benevolence worthy of admiration! Neither is its importance limitted by the intrinsic value of the donation: It holds up a bright example of imitation to others.

Ever since the first establishment of a military hospital among us, there has been too great a scarcity of those essential articles; and though the present supply is truly liberal in respect to the numbers who furnished it, yet its salutary influence cannot be lasting, unless it is still continued from other quarters. May we not therefore expect that a spirit of emulation will be kindled in every humane breast, and an affectionate concern to yield all possible assistance to the wants and distresses of the sick soldiery. Men who chearfully [sic] and hourly expose their lives for their country’s welfare; and who, amidst the destructive rage of battle, willingly encounter danger in all shapes, for its defence, may surely challenge the compassion of those who reap the advantage of their courage, without any of that risk which is inseparable from it. Can it be once doubted, then, whether the inhabitants of other places will be backward to contribute what need to cost them so little, towards laying in a sufficient store of those articles to secure against all future apprehensions of further scarcity or want of them? But whilst they are of a low price in themselves, yet money cannot always purchase them, and from their exceeding utility, in cases of need, they become of inestimable value.

As it is impracticable for the subscriber to make personal application to people at a distance to furnish a supply of what is wanted of this sort for the patients in the hospital, he hopes all printers of the public news will be pleased to give this address a place in their papers: He alto flatters himself the Committees established in different places, especially in all large towns, will be pleased to set on foot a further collection of such of the articles already enumerated, as may be most easy for them to procure, especially of old sheets and soft worn linen; and to forward the same to the Camp with all possible dispatch. The expence of conveyance, if any, will be cheerfully paid, and the generous donors may rest assured their contributions will be managed with the strictest care to prevent waste, and meet with due acknowledgment from their humble servant, JOHN MORGAN,
Director General of the Continental Hospital,
and Chief Physician to the Army.

N. B. Blankets are greatly wanted for the Hospital; for which a suitable price will be given, if sent to Cambridge. Any persons having blankets to dispose of, who live at a distance, if they will be to kind as to send notice thereof by the post, mentioning the quality and price of them, shall have an immediate answer.

Philadelphia from New Jersey, 1768

The Spirit of ‘Seventy-Six, mentions Dr. Morgan in a section on “Health, Hospitals and Medicine.” Like the American Civil War, more soldiers died from disease than from battlefield wounds. The large number of deaths from disease was due to the general condition of medicine in the 18th century (“more medieval than modern”) and the specifics of the American situation. For the most part American soldiers were healthy but America had few well-trained doctors, almost hospitals, “and a desperate want of medicines, surgical instruments, bandages, bedding and other necessities.” Congress did not adequately address the medical issues. It did not provide enough funds for reasonable medical wages, and “arrangements for hospitals, food. clothing, bedding and medicines were likewise niggardly.”
Dr. Morgan replaced Benjamin Church as director-general. Morgan studied medicine at Edinburgh and on the continent and helped found the Philadelphia College of Medicine. Although he “was generally regarded as the first doctor of the country … within a year Dr. Morgan had fallen victim to a combination of professional jealousy and impossible conditions of work, and was cavalierly dismissed” [1]
You can read more about John Morgan at University of Pennsylvania.
In the last post I mentioned that Common Sense was published on January 9, 1776. When I glanced through the January 29, 1776 issue of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet, The General Advertiser, I noticed that by January 29th a second edition was already being sold, although there was a dispute with the author about what was being printed. I also noticed some other advertisements. Slavery was legal in Pennsylvania in 1776. Also, a couple ads that reminded me of high school social studies so long ago – indentured servants and the three-way trade between Britain, the Caribbean, and the English colonies in North America (“West-India rum Jamaica spirits”).
According to the National Park Service, “In 1780 the Pennsylvania Assembly passed the Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery into law. It was the first of several legislative enactments to abolish slavery in the United States between 1780 and 1804. The act did not free anyone immediately …” Apparently, Triangular trade was more complicated than I remember being taught.

for sale

flying off the presses

it’s Common Sense

As of February 7, 2026 this issue of the newspaper was available at the Library of Congress.
From the Library of Congress: the January 29, 1775 issue of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet, The General Advertiser from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; portrait of Thomas Paine.
From Wikipedia: Angelica Kaufman’s 1764 portrait of John Morgan.
From the National Archives: the image of Philadelphia (“Taken by George Heap from the Jersey shore, under the direction of Nicholas Scull, surveyor general of the province of Pennsylvania. Engraved and published according to an act of Parliament by T. Jeffreys, near Charing Cross.”)

the newspaper

  1. [1]Commager, Henry Steele and Morris, Richard B. (eds). The Spirit of ‘Seventy-Six. Edison New Jersey: Castle Books 2002, pages 815-816] ↩
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declaration recommendation

Posted on January 19, 2026 by SUMPTER

250 years ago American rebel forces were besieging Boston and the British Redcoats holed up in it. One of the American commanders Nathanael Greene wrote a letter to fellow Rhode Islander Samuel Ward, a member of the Second Continental Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia. In his fourth paragraph General Greene recommended a “declaration of independence”.

From American Archives, Fourth Series, at Internet Archive:

General Nathanael Greene

GENERAL GREENE TO SAMUEL WARD.

Camp on Prospect-Hill, January 4, 1776.

Dear Sir : Your kind favour of the 23d last, is now before me. I am extremely happy to find your views so affectionately extended to the combined interests of the United Colonies. Your apprehensions that George III, is determined, at all hazards to carry his plan of despotism into execution, is fully confirmed by his late gracious speech to both Houses of Parliament. In that, you will find, he breathes revenge, and threatens us with destruction. Indeed, it is no more than common sense must have foreseen long since, had we not been blinded by a too fond attachment to the parent state. We have consulted our wishes, rather than our reason, in indulging the idea of accommodation. Heaven has decreed that tottering empire to irretrievable ruin, and, thanks to God, since Providence has so determined it, America must raise an empire of permanent duration, supported upon the grand pillars of truth, freedom, and religion, based upon justice, and defended by her own patriotick sons.

No doubt a large army must be raised in addition to the forces upon the present establishment. You are acquainted with my sentiments upon that head already. How they must be divided, and where stationed, is a matter at present problematical. However, one thing is certain, the grand body must be superior in number to any force the enemy can send. All the forces in America should be under one commander, raised and appointed by the same authority, subjected to the same regulations, and ready to be detached wherever occasion may require. Your observation with regard to the Canadians has often struck me ; that their attachment to the one party or the other will greatly depend upon the superiority of force. To prevent which in some measure, and fix them to the common interest, let us raise one or more regiments of Canadians to serve in New-England, and send an equal number into Canada from the Colonies, in addition to what you have proposed. With regard to the scanty measure dealt out to the Army upon the new establishment, we are not altogether different in sentiment ; yet I am convinced the regiments will fill to their full complement. I believe they are more, upon an average, than half full already. Undoubtedly, the detaining of arms, being private property, is repugnant to many principles of civil and natural law, and hath disgusted many. But the great law of necessity must justify the expedient, till we can be otherwise furnished. The pay of the soldiers is certainly generous, and the officers likewise, except the field officers, whose pay is much below that of any others, considering their rank and experience, and it will operate to excite an opinion derogatory to their merit.

Samuel Ward

My dear, sir, I am now to open my mind a little more freely. It hath been said that Canada, in the late war, was conquered in Germany. Who knows but that Britain may be, in the present controversy! I take it for granted, that France and Spain have made overtures to the Congress. Let us embrace them as brothers. We want not their land force in America; their navy we do. Their commerce will be mutually beneficial; they will doubtless pay the expense of their fleet, as it will be employed in protecting their own trade. Their military stores we want amazingly. Those will be articles of commerce. The Elector of Hanover has ordered his German troops to relieve the garrisons of Gibraltar and Port-Mahon; France will, of consequence, attack and subdue Hanover with little trouble. This will bring on a very severe war in Germany, and turn Great Britain’s attention that way. This may prevent immense expense, and innumerable calamities in America.

Permit me, then, to recommend from the sincerity of my heart, ready at all times to bleed in my country’s cause, a declaration of independence; and call upon the world, and the great God who governs it, to witness the necessity, propriety, and rectitude thereof.

My worthy friend, the interests of mankind hang upon that truly worthy body of which you are a member. You stand the representatives, not of America only, but of the whole world; the friends of liberty, and the supporters of the rights of human nature.

How will posterity, millions yet unborn, bless the memory of those brave patriots who are now hastening the consummation of freedom, truth, and religion! But want of decision renders wisdom in council insignificant, as want of power hath prevented us here from destroying the mercenary troops now in Boston. Frugality, a most amiable domestick virtue, becomes a vice, of the most enormous kind, when opposed to the common good. The tyrant, by his last speech, has convinced us, that to be free or not, depends upon ourselves. Nothing, therefore, but the most vigorous exertions on our part, can shelter us from the evils intended us. How can we, then, startle at the idea of expense, when our whole property, our dearest connexions, our liberty, nay! life itself is at stake; let us, therefore, act like men inspired with a resolution that nothing but the frowns of Heaven shall conquer us. It is no time for deliberation; the hour is swiftly rolling on when the plains of America will be deluged with human blood. Resolves, declarations, and all the parade of heroism in words, will not obtain a victory. Arms and ammunition are as necessary as men, and must be had at the expense of every thing short of Britain’s claims.

Siege of Boston with Prospect Hill

An army unequipped, will ever feel the want of spirit and courage ; but properly furnished, fighting in the best of causes, will bid defiance to the united force of men and devils. When a finishing period will be put to the present dispute, God only knows. We have just experienced the inconveniences of disbanding an army within cannon shot of the enemy, and forming a new one in its stead. An instance never before known. Had the enemy been fully acquainted with our situation, I cannot pretend to say what might have been the consequence. A large body of troops will probably be wanted for a considerable time. It will be infinitely safer, and not more expensive in the end, for the Continent to give a large bounty to any number of troops in addition to what may be ordered on the present establishment, that will engage during the war, than to inlist them from year to year without a bounty. And should the present regiments be inclined to engage for the same term, let them receive the same encouragement. There is not the least prospect of our being able to disband and form a new army again, without the enemy’s availing himself of the advantage.

I have taken the liberty to show your last letter to General Lee, whose knowledge of Europe, and American genius and learning, enable him to give you the advice you want. He has written you fully on the subject ; it would be mere arrogance in me to say any thing upon the subject, after he has taken up the pen.

I this day manned the lines upon this hill, and feel a degree of pleasure that I have not felt for several days. Our situation has been critical. We have no part of the militia here, and the night after the old troops went away, I could not have mustered seven hundred men, notwithstanding the returns of the new inlisted troops amounted to nineteen hundred and upwards. I am now strong enough to defend myself against all the force in Boston. God bless you and preserve you. Adieu, &c.

David McCullough began 1776 in 1775. On October 26, 1775 British King George III rode to the Palace of Westminster to deliver a speech to Parliament. The king wanted to put down the rebellion in America. “he was committing land and sea forces – as well unnamed foreign mercenaries – sufficient to put an end to that rebellion, and he had denounced the leaders of the uprising for having American independence as their true objective, something those leaders themselves had not as yet openly declared.” After George III left Parliament both Houses heatedly debated the king’s proposal; both Houses voted to support the king.[1]
On January 1, 1776 the American troops at Boston first saw copies of George III’s October speech. “The reaction among the army was rage and indignation.” Soldiers burned the speech in public. With the new year the speech marked a turning point – no more possibility of reconciliation. In a letter General Washington referred to “a tyrant and his diabolical ministry,” and wrote ” we were determined to shake off all connections with state so unjust and unnatural.” January 1st was also the day many volunteers went home and new recruits took their places. Washington declared a new army with a continental point of view, even though most of the soldiers were still from New England. A 13-gun salute introduced the raising of a new flag – thirteen red and white stripes with the British colors in an upper corner. [2]

probably raised on Prospect Hill on January 1, 1776

Happy Fourth … of May!

Rhode Island’s declaration

Excerpts from Nathanael Greene’s letter to Samuel Ward appear in The Spirit of ‘Seventy-Six in a section called “The Turn of the Tide.” Also in the section: Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter in November 1775 suggesting that separation was probably imminent (Greene’s and Jefferson’s expressions for independence “could be matched in every colony”); excerpts from Common Sense, published on January 9, 1776, “Doubtless the most important single influence in bringing about a change in popular sentiment” in favor of separation; opposition to Common Sense by Virginian Landon Carter.[3]
Samuel Ward died in March 1776 of smallpox, so he didn’t have the opportunity to vote for independence and sign the declaration. He’s a member of the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame. According to George Washington Greene, Nathanael Greene’s grandson and another Member of the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame, Samuel Ward also didn’t live to see the colony of Rhode Island declare its own independence on May 4, 1776. From Greene’s A Short History of Rhode Island (1877; at Project Gutenberg, page 228):
While these events, so grievous in the present, so full of a glorious future, were passing, Samuel Ward, who had so nobly represented the highest conscience and culture of Rhode Island in the Continental Congress, was dying of small-pox in Philadelphia—the advanced post of civil heroism. An upright and conscientious man, who had drawn from books and men those lessons which make men wise in judgment and firm in principle and bold in action. Had he lived a few weeks longer his name would have been foremost among the signers. A marble monument was voted him by Congress, “in testimony of the respect due to his memory, and in grateful remembrance of his public services.”
The last Colonial Assembly of Rhode Island met on the 1st of May. On the 4th, two months before the Congressional Declaration of Independence, it solemnly renounced its allegiance to the British crown, no longer closing its session with “God save the King,” but taking in its stead as expressive of their new relations, “God save the United Colonies.”
You can read more about Prospect Hill at the National Park Service. Most scholars think the flag raised on January 1, 1776 was indeed the Grand Union Flag, but there is some disagreement. “During the 1860s, Civil War regiments used the land as a training field and campsite.”
The portrait of Nathanael Greene is from the National Park Service. I got the Samuel Ward portrait at Free-Images, along with the image of the stamp depicting the Grand Union Flag, the flag probably raised on January 1, 1776 by the American army at Boston.
From the Library of Congress: the map showing American and British troop dispositions during the Siege of Boston (after March 5, 1776 when American troops under General John Thomas took control of Dorchester Heights, according to 1776 page 90); calendar showing and describing Henry Knox and the transport of cannon from Fort Ticonderoga to the American lines at Boston. It seems the artillery arrived in late January -this was very important for the American plan to get the British out of Boston – the artillery was in use when the Americans occupied Dorchester Heights; the portrait of Henry Knox – you can read more about him at the U.S. Army, According to 1776 Knox arrived back in Cambridge on January 18, 1776, the cannon were still at Farmingham but would soon follow; leaflet commemorating the Rhode Island declaration of independence on May 4, 1776, which still referred to Rhode Island and Providence Plantations as an English colony – one of the songs for the 1909 commemoration was “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” written by Julia Ward Howe, a great-granddaughter of Samuel Ward, Greene’s correspondent in the letter above.

Knox and Ticonderoga cannon arrive at siege

frigid mission

Henry Knox

_________________

[January 20, 2026] I should have mentioned that David McCullough began Chapter Two of 1776 with a description of Nathanael Greene. Born a Quaker and mostly self-educated, he worked a a foundryman until the war. He was only 33 in January 1776. “But Nathanael Greene was no ordinary man. He had a quick, inquiring mind and uncommon resolve. He was extremely hardworking, forthright, good-natured, and a born leader. His commitment to the Glorious Cause of America, as it was called, was total. And if his youth was obvious, the Glorious Cause was to a large degree a young man’s cause … [for example, Washington, Hancock, John Adams, Jefferson] … Washington had quickly judged Nathanael Greene to be ‘an object of confidence.'” [1776 pages 20-21]. Unsurprisingly, Nathanael Greene is also a member of the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame.
  1. [1]McCullough David, 1776. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2006. Pages 12 -18. ↩
  2. [2]ibid Pages 67-69↩
  3. [3]Commager, Henry Steele and Morris, Richard B. (eds). The Spirit of ‘Seventy-Six. Edison New Jersey: Castle Books 2002, pages 282-292] ↩
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fake news?

Posted on January 1, 2026 by SUMPTER

maybe Christmas next year?

I admit I’ve been sitting on this story. When I was reading newspapers a few weeks ago at the Library of Congress, I was quite shocked by an article that seemed to contradict a rock-solid assumption I’ve held for over six decades. I just couldn’t credit it. I’ve never had any doubt that every Christmas Eve Santa Claus loads up his sleigh and, with the help of eight or nine reindeer, personally delivers gifts to all the good boys and girls throughout the world (and lumps of coal for others of us). But the newspaper article from 150 years ago reported that Santa Claus sloughed off at least part of his typical gift-delivering duties to people he called his coadjutors. That was hard for me to take, but I tried to think it through logically. According to the article, Santa attended a reception that America’s Brother Jonathan was hosting at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. That seemed possible because 1) 1876 would be the centennial of the Declaration of Independence, proclaimed by the Continental Congress that was meeting in what became known as Independence Hall 2) It wouldn’t surprise me if Santa Claus was a history buff since he has lived through so many centuries of history 3) possibly he realized he couldn’t attend the Independence commemoration in July 1876 because at that time he’d need to be up at the North Pole in his workshop leading and managing the large elfin workforce, ensuring enough toys got made for Christmas 1876.

So, while I didn’t like it, I thought it was at least possible; it wasn’t necessarily April’s Fools Day on Christmas Day, so I started to get the story ready. From the December 25, 1875 issue of The New York Herald (page 3):

The New York Herald December 25, 1875

letter from Santa

Wait for my coadjutor, Johnnie

______________________

For the first time in many years – perhaps for the first time in history – Santa Claus changed his plans last night, and instead of travelling all over Christendom, as was his wont, he left the giving of good gifts to children to others, as appears from the following circular letter which he issued some time ago: –

TO MY COADJUTORS ALL OVER THE WORLD:

I am under special engagement with Brother Jonathan to attend his levée at Independence Hall, in the city of Philadelphia (America), on Christmas Eve. I therefore call upon all my friends and the friends of the little ones to relieve me as far as possible from my ordinary Christmas duties; especially do I command my coadjutors who have wrought with me so well in the past not to forget the poor children to whom Christmas is the brightest day of the year when a little forethought is employed to make them happy.

SANTA CLAUS

A copy of this letter was sent to the HERALD in order to give us notice of Brother Jonathan’s levée and enable us to send a reporter to witness and report the scene. When the HERALD representative arrived at the Old State House in Philadelphia he found everything in the building exactly as it was 100 years ago, while it was occupied by the Continental Congress. It was impossible to look at the old building standing now nearly as it stood in 1775, and not feel with the poet –

This is the sacred lane wherein assembled
The fearless champions on the side of Right;
Men at whose declaration empires trembled,
Moved by the truth’s immortal might.

Brother Jonathan straddles the U.S.

The Hall of Independence was opened for the mystic celebration and the reception of the mystic guests. The changes which man and time have wrought are few, but as we said before, even these wore restored, and the Independence Hall of which we speak was the Independence Hall of 1776. In this venerated chamber, sacred to memory and patriotism, sat Santa Claus and Brother Jonathan, conversing of the past, the present and the future. Surrounded by a hundred relics of the Revolution and even seated in John Hancock’s chair, Jonathan’s complacency was only equalled by his volubility. Bringing down his huge fists upon the arms of the old chair, he said, “Hancock was always a great favorite with me, Mr. Claus. Hancock was a gentleman; If you don’t think so all you have to do is to look at bis handwriting. Nobody but a gentleman could sign his name as John Hancock signed his to the Declaration of Independence.” …

This as a very long article so when I got to this point I looked ahead, way ahead, to the end. And “what to my wondering eyes did appear”? It turns out that the whole story was the reporter’s dream! At the end of the festivities Mr. Claus was enjoying his pipe and a glass of grog, then

As the smoke cleared away the images all disappeared, and it was found that Santa Claus, too, was gone. And, to crown all, the reporter found himself quietly snoring in his own bed, like the majority of Christian men on Christmas morning, with a headache.

levée venue

The reporter’s dream included some contemporary politics. Mr. Clause was strongly opposed to President Grant seeking a third term:
In the chatter between the two every possible subject was discussed, even the question of a third term for General Grant, and it was remarked that Santa Claus was even more hostile to the idea than Brother Jonathan himself.”It would would be a strange thing, Mr. Jonathan,” he said, “if you and Uncle Sam should consent to give away the liberties of your people after what we have seen tonight. What good were your Washington and Adamses, and Jefferson and Jackson and the long line of your Presidents, if at last you are weak enough to forgot the traditions and glories we have seen pictured here? Should you consent to such a sacrifice this old hall would not be true to itself or to its name unless it crumbled to pieces before your very eyes. And that magnificent palace which you are building on the Schuylkill would be the badge of American degradation and shame, instead of the evidence of the freedom and prosperity of a great country. General Grant is not a bad sort of man in his way; the people owe him a debt of gratitude for his services during the late war which they can never repay; but he is much like some of the children I meet in my annual tours -unable to refuse anything and always wishing for something more. The people do not owe him another term and they will make fools of themselves if they give him one.” …

Santa says, elect #19 in 1876

Santa on phone in workshop, about 1906

From the Library of Congress: Currier and Ives’ c1876 Brother Jonathan, Library says, “A cartoon celebrating the centennial of the United States. The figure of Brother Jonathan, a precursor of Uncle Sam, straddles the towers of the main building at the Philadelphia World’s Fair of 1876. Between his feet the North American continent, crossed by a railroad, appears on a half globe. Hot-air balloons labeled “1776” and “1876” rise toward the top of the print on either side.”; Independence Hall, c1875; 1876 print of first eighteen U.S. presidents; Santa on phone in workshop, 1906; Currier & Ives’ c1876 Happy New Year lithograph;
The image of Santa Claus out in the snow with the little boy is from James Whitcomb Riley’s A Defective Santa Claus at Project Gutenberg, where you can also find the pictureof Santa Claus and reindeer.
By the way, I’m quite thankful for the various lumps of coal I’ve received in my life. Sometimes “no” is the kindest word.

Happy new year (New York : Published by Currier & Ives, c1876.; LOC: https://www.loc.gov/item/2002695831/)

USA 250!

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