ON THE FOURTH OF JULY

[thelivyjr]

THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR JULY 9, 2017

On the Fourth of July, Now Past and Gone!

Opinion by Paul Plante

Ah, yes, the Fourth of July, and lucky us this year, ain’t it people?

Gas the cheapest its been in years, and the same with hamburgers!

Isn’t this a wonderful country we live in, then?

But if so, why aren’t we happy?

That’s right, people, according to a MARKETWATCH article by Quentin Fottrell published just before the Fourth of July on June 28, 2017, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, which once used to be ours, at least pursuant to the Declaration of Independence, but who knows of that anymore, now seems more attainable overseas.

Think about that people, after fighting a War of Revolution in this country to gain the life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness promised us in the Declaration of Independence on the very first Fourth of July in the country, we now need to go to some foreign country like Norway to get it today.

When it comes to happiness in the citizen body, the U.S. ranked No. 19 just behind the Czech Republic, Japan and France.

Now, think of this – according to that article, the U.S. has seen its happiness slide over the last decade, which is the last ten years, or all of the Barack Obama years, plus the last two of George W. Bush, all of which have been war years, which are not conducive to happiness in a citizen body.

"The United States can and should raise happiness by addressing America's multi-faceted social crisis - rising inequality, corruption, isolation, and distrust - rather than focusing exclusively or even mainly on economic growth, especially since the concrete proposals along these lines would exacerbate rather than ameliorate the deepening social crisis," the report said.

America’s multi-faceted social crisis, people, and yes, it certainly does seem to be that way, at least to me who has seen seventy years go by now.

Rising inequality, corruption, isolation, and distrust - that is so us today in this country, people.

Just as it was us back in 1776 when the first Independence Day took place, with the reading of the Declaration of Independence to among others, the America militias fighting the British in Boston.

Today we look on the Fourth of July as the beginning of summer, and a day to party hardy, as if it was always that way right from the beginning, a day to celebrate freedom and democracy and all that stuff, but you know what?

It was not a day to party and celebrate, at all back in the beginning.

The Declaration of Independence and the first Fourth of July did not end anything, and it certainly did not give us freedom.

The Declaration of Independence was real serious business because it started a war of revolution which was to turn the world upside down for many, many people back then, which is something we no longer think about in this country today, although as we become more and more divided, perhaps we should.

With respect to the highly-divided nature of the fledgling nation back then, I would refer you to p.10 of the Minutes Of The Commissioners For Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies In The State Of New York – Albany County Sessions 1778-1781, where is found as follows with respect to the state of war that existed right here in this country as a direct result of the signing of the Declaration of Independence:

“There was a definite relationship among all the bodies growing out of the Revolution.”

“The Continental Congress stood at the head; then came the Provincial Congress or Convention, then the general committee on Tories, then the county committees, and at the base, the district committees.”

These various bodies varied in size, authority, procedure and effectiveness.

With the erection of Constitutional government in the State, Toryism was more clearly defined and handled in more summary fashion.

“The inquisitorial methods and machinery developed previous to the Declaration of Independence were continued by the Constitutional Convention and by the new state government,” citing from Flick, “Loyalism in New York during the American Revolution,” New York, 1901 (Columbia University Studies in History, Economics and Public Law, vol. xiv, no. 1), wherein the whole system of the inquisitorial bodies of New York is given in admirable detail.

Inquisitorial bodies, people, right here in the United States of America!

Tories, of course, were people in this country at that time who remained loyal to King George III in England, and that in turn made them enemies of those who called themselves “the American people” back then.

As to the “more summary manner” in which Toryism in New York was treated after the Declaration of Independence, that “more summary manner” can be seen clearly in this extract from CALENDAR OF HISTORICAL MANUSCRIPTS RELATING TO THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION IN THE OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE, ALBANY, NY, to wit:

Tuesday the 10th June 1777

The Court met pursuant to adjournment.

Present: Colonel STEPHEN J. SCHUYLER, President

Colonels:

Anthony Van Bergen
Jacobus Van Schoonhoven
Peter Vrooman
Peter Van Ness

Lieut. Col.:

Philip P. Schuyler
John H. Beekman
Henry K. Van Rensselaer
James Gordon
Cornelius Van Vechten

Majors:

Abraham Cuyler
Issac Goes

Captain:

Andrew Douw

Jacob Miller of Half Moon District in the County of Albany, being a Prisoner was brought before the Court & the Judge Advocate Exhibited the following charges against him Vizt

“You Jacob Miller stand charged for that you being a member of the state of New York, residing within the said state, protected by the Laws thereof & owing allegiance thereunto, on the 21st Day of March last and at Divers other days and Times both before & after and since the 16th Day of July 1776 at the District of Half Moon in the County of Albany, Wickedly, Traitorously & Treasonably & Contrary to your allegiance aforesaid Did levy war against the state of New York within the same whilst owing allegiance thereto, Enlist men for the service of the King of Great Britain now in actual war against the said state and being adherent to the said King of Great Britain & others the Enemys of the said state Contrary to the Resolution of the Convention of said state.”

The Prisoner pleads not Guilty to the Charge.

Friday 13th June

The Court met pursuant to adjournment.

Present as before.

The Judge Advocate having no further Evidence to produce the Court proceeded to the Consideration of the Evidence offered and are of the opinion that the Prisoner is Guilty of Levying war against the State & being adherent to the King of Great Britain and do sentence him to suffer death.

end quote

Do sentence him to suffer death by hanging for being loyal to an English king.

That is 10th June 1777, just shy of one year after the first Fourth of July in this country, people!

Serious business, indeed, which comes from these words of the Declaration of Independence:

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.

A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren.

We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us.

We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here.

We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.

They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity.

We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

end quotes

Deaf to the voice of justice, people!

So that we must, therefore, hold them as enemies in war, and so it was to be, all because of the First Fourth of July in America.

For another glimpse at how divided the people of this nation were back then, I refer the reader to the HISTORY OF The Seventeen Towns OF Rensselaer County FROM THE Colonization of the Manor of Rensselaerwyck to the Present Time BY A. J. Weise A.M. AS PUBLISHED IN THE TROY DAILY TIMES TROY; N. Y. J. M. FRANCIS & TUCKER. 1880, wherein is provided as follows:

CHAPTER XIII.

THE TOWN OF BRUNSWICK.

TORYISM RAMPANT.

Peculiar to this portion of the manor of Rensselaerwyck a great number of the earlier settlers were Germans.

When Burgoyne invaded the province of New York, in the summer of 1777, many of them, on account of their national relationship to the Hessians, hired by British money to take an armed and offensive part against the Americans, manifested extreme partisanship toward the royal cause, which soon stirred up among the patriotic supporters of the continental rebellion considerable ill-will.

On the closer approach of the English forces many of the loyal farmers fled to Albany, and the royalists, believing that the English crown was about to conquer the rebellious Americans, committed many transgressions, both in the way of personal insults, appropriation and despoliation of property.

It is related that Abner Roberts, who belonged to the army of the North, was waylaid, murdered and scalped on the old Hoosick road, a short distance from Troy, by the Tories as they were called.

When, however, Burgoyne was forced to surrender to Gates at old Saratoga, (Schuylerville), these royalists were forced to flee to Canada, from which they never dared to return to enter again into the possession of their deserted farms.

end quotes

The royalists, believing that the English crown was about to conquer the rebellious Americans, committed many transgressions, both in the way of personal insults, appropriation and despoliation of property.

And that was right here in the United States of America, as a direct result of the first Fourth of July in America.

And Abner Roberts, who belonged to the army of the North, was waylaid, murdered and scalped on the old Hoosick road, a short distance from Troy, by the Tories as they were called.

Why?

Because the British coming down from Canada were paying money for rebel scalps is why.

But as we celebrate the Fourth of July today, I don’t think we as a nation are aware of any of that real history, what conflict in this country was really like as a result of the Declaration of Independence.

As for me, I was taught that history in grade school at the end of WWII, and I was expected to know it, and that was as a grade school attendee.

Why?

So that we as children at the end of a world war which should not have been would know the high price people pay for war in their nation, and thus, we would do our utmost to make sure those days of division in this country were never repeated.

But here we are, with Independence Day of 2017 now just a memory, with the nation again seeming to be on the brink of a civil war as we were in 1776, although for reasons far less clear today than they were back then, which has me wondering if, as a people, we should at all be cognizant of that Revolutionary War history I am citing above here?

Or is that history now to unpalatable for us, as it is too violent, so that it is no longer relevant in this day and age of an American president who TWEETS nonsense and inane gibberish in 140 characters or less to his TWITTERATI followers and adherents and acolytes in the TWITTERSPHERE of TWITTER, because that is all they expect of and from him?

Afterall, that I cite above admittedly does not readily lend itself to being TWEETED about, afterall, so perhaps it really is a dead letter among America’s younger generations.

But should it be?

So what does anyone think on that?

Should we know that stuff today?

As to tyranny, in “A Citizen of America: An Examination Into the Leading Principles of America,” the esteemed Noah Webster posited as follows on October 17, 1787, eleven years after the first Fourth of July in America, to wit:

But what is tyranny?

Or how can a free people be deprived of their liberties?

Tyranny is the exercise of some power over a man, which is not warranted by law, or necessary for the public safety.

A people can never be deprived of their liberties, while they retain in their own hands, a power sufficient to any other power in the state.

This position leads me directly to enquire, in what consists the power of a nation or of an order of men?

end quote

In 1787, eleven years after the first Fourth of July in America, at the beginning of this nation’s political history, the esteemed Noah Webster raised that question, and then, in my estimation, anyway, as a conscientious American citizen, he never really answered it, nor could he have, really, again in my estimation, leaving it to us today in our own times to have to address the question.

So, people, in 2017, in what consists the power of a nation or of an order of men?

Is it the same as it was in 1776?

Or is it now different because we are no longer the same as those original Americans?

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[thelivyjr]

THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR July 9, 2017 at 10:31 pm

Paul Plante says:

And here, I need to go back and make a correction or clarification in my above statement that the Declaration of Independence was real serious business because it started a war of revolution which was to turn the world upside down for many, many people back then, which is something we no longer think about in this country today, although as we become more and more divided, perhaps we should.

By the summer of 1776, at the time the Declaration of Independence was read to the American troops actually engaged in fighting with the British Army, American and British forces had already been engaged in armed conflict for fifteen months.

The battles of Lexington and Concord, where the mighty British Army, the most powerful land army in the world at that time, sent to confiscate colonial weapons, ran into an untrained and angry militia of as many as 3,500 militiamen firing constantly for 18 miles, which killed or wounded roughly 250 Redcoats compared to about 90 killed and wounded on the American side, proving they could stand up to one of the most powerful armies in the world, with news of the battle quickly spreading and reaching London on May 28, itself took place on April 19, 1775, while Bunker Hill, where some 2,200 British forces under the command of Major General William Howe and Brigadier General Robert Pigot landed on the Charlestown Peninsula and then marched to Breed’s Hill, where the actual battle took place, where when the Redcoats were within several dozen yards, the Americans let loose with a lethal barrage of musket fire, throwing the British into retreat, so that by the end of the engagement, the Patriots’ gunfire had cut down some 1,000 enemy troops, with more than 200 killed and more than 800 wounded, with more than 100 Americans perishing, while more than 300 others were wounded, took place on June 17, 1775.

So the first Fourth of July in 1776 did not start the fighting, that had been on-going in some fashion for some long time already; rather, on July 4, 1776, and this is important, or used to be, anyway, the Declaration of Independence changed the purpose and nature of that conflict.

With respect to that change in the nature and purpose of the conflict then existing on July 4, 1776, five days later, on July 9, 1776, in his General Orders for that day, George Washington, commanding general of the American forces, stated thusly on the subject:

The Hon. The Continental Congress, impelled by the dictates of duty, policy and necessity, having been pleased to dissolve the Connection which subsisted between this Country, and Great Britain, and to declare the United Colonies of North America, free and independent States: The several brigades are to be drawn up this evening on their respective Parades, at Six OClock, when the declaration of Congress, shewing the grounds and reasons of this measure, is to be read with an audible voice.

The General hopes this important Event will serve as a fresh incentive to every officer, and soldier, to act with Fidelity and Courage, as knowing that now the peace and safety of his Country depends (under God) solely on the success of our arms:

And that he is now in the service of a State, possessed of sufficient power to reward his merit, and advance him to the highest Honors of a free Country.

end quotes

Ask not what the country can do for you, ask instead what you can do for the country, now that you have one.

That is what the first Fourth of July in 1776 did – gave the Americans, the rebels, a real country to fight for, instead of it being a fight of colonists in rebellion against a foreign king.

Psychologically, there is a huge difference between the two when it comes to maintaining fighting spirit in what was to be a long and difficult war.

With respect to that psychological change caused by the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, on July 10, 1776, Washington wrote to the Continental Congress concerning the Declaration of Independence, as follows:

Sir: I am now to acknowledge the receipt of your two favors of the 4th and 6th instants, which came duly to hand, with their important inclosures.

I perceive that Congress have been employed in deliberating on measures of the most interesting Nature.

It is certain that it is not with us to determine in many instances what consequences will flow from our Counsels, but yet it behoves us to adopt such, as under the smiles of a Gracious and all kind Providence will be most likely to promote our happiness; I trust the late decisive part they have taken, is calculated for that end, and will secure us that freedom and those priviledges, which have been, and are refused us, contrary to the voice of Nature and the British Constitution.

Agreeable to the request of Congress I caused the Declaration to be proclaimed before all the Army under my immediate Command, and have the pleasure to inform them, that the measure seemed to have their most hearty assent; the Expressions and behaviour both of Officers and Men testifying their warmest approbation of it.

I have transmitted a Copy to General Ward at Boston, requesting him to have it proclaimed to the Continental Troops in that Department. . . .

General Mercer is now in the Jerseys for the purpose of receiving and ordering the Militia coming for the Flying Camp, and I have sent over our chief Engineer to view the Ground within the Neighbourhood of Amboy, and lay out some necessary Works for the Encampment, and such as may be proper at the different passes in Bergen Neck, and other places on the Jersey Shore opposite Staten Island, to prevent the Enemy making impressions and committing depredations on the Property of the Inhabitants.

The Intelligence we have from a few Deserters that have come over to us, and from others, is, that General Howe has between 9. and 10.000 Men, who are chiefly landed on the Island, posted in different parts, and securing the several communications from the Jerseys with small Works and Intrenchments, to prevent our people paying them a visit; that the Islanders have all joined them, seem well disposed to favor their Cause and have agreed to take up Arms in their behalf.

They look for Admiral Howe’s arrival every day, with his Fleet and a large Reinforcement, are in high Spirits, and talk confidently of Success and carrying all before them when he comes.

I trust through Divine Favor and our own Exertions they will be disappointed in their Views, and at all Events, any advantages they may gain will cost them very dear.

If our Troops will behave well, which I hope will be the case, having every thing to contend for that Freemen hold dear, they will have to wade thro’ much Blood and Slaughter before they can carry any part of our Works, if they carry them at all; and at best be in possession of a Melancholly and Mournfull Victory.

May the Sacredness of our cause inspire our Soldiery with Sentiments of Heroism, and lead them to the performance of the noblest Exploits.

With this Wish, I have the honor to be, etc.

end quotes

And the battle, not the party, was on.

Should we really be bothered with knowing any of this today?

Would it make a difference in our daily lives, which are already busy enough, if we didn’t know any of this stuff?

Yeah, okay, we get it, a lot of blood was shed by our so-called forefathers to give us a nation of our own but now that we have it, do we really need to know how it came into being?

What will that change today in this unhappy and highly divided nation at war with itself within?

A question for our times, indeed!

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[thelivyjr]

THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR July 10, 2017 at 6:11 pm

Paul Plante says:

And staying for the moment with my above statement that the Declaration of Independence was real serious business because it started a war of revolution which was to turn the world upside down for many, many people back then, which is something we no longer think about in this country today, although as we become more and more divided, perhaps we should, as much as we might take it for granted today that separation from Great Britain was a foregone conclusion in this country, a review of actual history shows that such was not actually the case, and as late as 1780, one year before the Battle of Yorktown, here in Virginia, which began September 28, 1781, when General George Washington, commanding a force of 17,000 French and Continental troops, began the siege known as the Battle of Yorktown against British General Lord Charles Cornwallis and a contingent of 9,000 British troops at Yorktown, Virginia, in the most important battle of the Revolutionary War, the British still did not believe the Declaration of Independence had any validity or meant a word that it said, as can readily be seen in this following Proclamation from 1780 by his Excellency James Robertson, Esquire, Captain General and Governor in Chief in and over the Province of New York, and the Territories depending thereon in America, Chancellor and Vice Admiral of the same, and Major General of His Majesty’s forces, wherein was stated as follows:

The King having been graciously pleased to honor me with the care of a Province, where, in a long Residence, I have contracted an Esteem for some, and an Affection for many of its Inhabitants, I proceed with great Pleasure to announce his benevolent Intentions.

It is his Majesty’s wish by the revival of the Civil Authority, to prove to all the Colonies and Provinces, that it is not his Design to govern America by Military Law, but that they are to enjoy all the benefits of local Legislation and their former Constitution.

To this End I have brought out the Royal Appointments for forming the Council, and supplying the places of Lieutenant Governor and Chief Justice.

And in Concurrence with the Commander in Chief of the British Forces, who is also his Majesty’s Commissioner for restoring Peace to the Colonies, I shall, as speedily as the public Exigencies will permit, Give Order for opening the Courts of Judicature, and convening the Assembly, and in general proceed to the Execution of the Powers reposed in me, for the free Course and complete Re-Establishment, both of the Legislative and Executive Authority.

I take great Satisfaction in the Anticipation of that happy Day, when Relations, Friends and Fellow-Citizens, having dismissed their gloomy Apprehensions, Shall re-embrace each other, and return to the Offices, Pleasures and Employments of Peace.

Your Country with your Ancient Privileges, will then participate in an extensive Commerce, and be exempted from all Taxations not imposed by Yourselves.

Until I meet you regularly in General Assembly for the Restoration of mutual Confidence, and the Remedying of private as well as public Evils I pledge myself to Men of all Classes, in every part of the Province, that it is the compassionate Desire of your Sovereign and of the Parent Country to unite in Affection as in Interest, with the Colonies planted by her Hand, and which have long flourished in her Care, that the Suggestions of her Intention to impair their Rights and Priviledges, are the Arts of Malice and Faction, and that every Insinuation made by the domestic Enemies of Great Britain, of her being disposed to abandon the Provinces to internal Anarchy, and the mischiefs of their jarring Interests and Claims, or to the fraudulent or ambitious views of foreign, popish and arbitrary Powers (of whom your Fathers had a wise and virtuous Jealousy) is equally false and malicious.

Happy herself, under a Constitution which is the Envy and Admiration of surrounding nations, She wishes to include in one comprehensive System of Felicity, all the Branches of a Stock, intimately connected by the Ties of Language, Manners, Laws, Customs, Habits, Interests, Religion and Blood.

I lament with the ingenuous Thousands of America who are irreconcilable to the unnatural Separation, so inauspicious to yourselves, as well as all the Rest of your Fellow Subjects in the other Quarters of the world, that the Few who have found Means to acquire a Sway in the Management of your Affairs, have been averse to every uniting System of Policy, and studiously shunned the Paths to Harmony and Peace.

But it is not my Aim to call them to a hopeless and mortifying Review of their Conduct.

Can they want Evidence at this Day of the Detestation of their Measures, by an increasing Majority of their own Countrymen?

And having every Thing to fear from their exhausted Patience, I warn them to desist from any future Attempts to restrain and seduce the Loyalty of others, and wisely to provide against their Resentment, by signalizing themselves, as heretofore in exacting, so now in closing the scene of their intolerable Calamities.

And I hereby give the strongest Assurances of effectual Countenance, Protection and Support to all Persons who avail themselves of the Proclamation issued by his Excellency Sir Henry Clinton, dated at James Island the third Day of March.

Less inclined to reproach than to conciliate, to aggravate than to forget even the Guilt of those, who, privy to the repeated Calls of Great Britain to Friendship, upon Terms adequate to the Desire and Expectation of their Constituents, yet nevertheless to forbore to reveal them that they might with the greater Ease, press the Ancient Enmity of foreign Foes, to the aid of their own Ambition and Avarice, I exhort them to seek an Early Refuge in the abundant Clemency of the Crown from the Perils to which they have exposed themselves, by Measures fraudulently concerted and tyrannically inforced, and affording by the complicated Miseries they have brought upon their country, and the mighty Ruin still impending irresistible Evidence of the Folly and Malignancy of the Councils by which its affairs have been conducted.

Towards redressing the Disorders, arising from the Loss or want of Charters, I recommend it to all concerned, to apply without Delay in the ordinary Course for Charters, which shall be granted as soon as Civil Authority takes place.

As to the Public Books of Record, so important to your Titles and Estates in all Parts of the Colony and formerly lodged in the Secretaries Office, I understand that they were separated from the Rest by the provident Circumspection of my Predecessor, whose Merits are above my applause and have often had yours; and having been afterwards sent Home for safe Custody, you may rely upon their being carefully preserved, and duly returned as soon as the Common Tranquility is restored.

I now call upon every Individual in the Colony to shew his Allegiance, Fidelity and Patriotism, by affording his Assistance towards accomplishing the Kings most gracious Design of restoring the Blessings of Peace and Good Government; and they who shall most distinguish themselves by their laudable Efforts for those good Purposes will most assuredly best recommend themselves to the Royal Approbation and Favor.

Given under my Hand and the Great Seal of the Province of New York, in the City of New York, the Fifteenth Day of April 1780, in the Twentieth year of his Majesty’s Reign.

JAMES ROBERTSON

By His Excellencys Command

Sam Bayard, Jun D. Secry.

God save the King

end quote

“God Save The King,” of course, is the tune to which the American anthem “My country Tis of Thee” is sung.

My country tis of thee,

Sweet land of liberty,

From every mountain side,

Let freedom ring!

Our father’s God to Thee,

Author of liberty,

To Thee we sing.

Long may our land be bright

With freedom’s holy light;

Protect us by Thy might,

Great God, our King!

And such it was to be!

But is it anymore?

Another question for our times.

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[thelivyjr]

THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR July 11, 2017 at 7:55 pm

Paul Plante says :

For anyone interested in the source of this Proclamation from 1780 by his Excellency James Robertson, Esquire, Captain General and Governor in Chief in and over the Province of New York, and the Territories depending thereon in America, Chancellor and Vice Admiral of the same, and Major General of His Majesty’s forces, it can be found at pp. 354-55 of a book available on-line entitled “CALENDAR OF HISTORICAL MANUSCRIPTS RELATING TO THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION IN THE OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE, ALBANY, N.Y.”

As to that Proclamation, dated the Fifteenth Day of April 1780, in the Twentieth year of his Majesty George III of England’s Reign, by his Excellency James Robertson, Esquire, Captain General and Governor in Chief in and over the Province of New York, and the Territories depending thereon in America, Chancellor and Vice Admiral of the same, and Major General of His Majesty’s forces, as if by 1780, the American patriots gave a damn about any of that royalty crap by then, wherein was stated, “It is his Majesty’s wish by the revival of the Civil Authority, to prove to all the Colonies and Provinces, that it is not his Design to govern America by Military Law, but that they are to enjoy all the benefits of local Legislation and their former Constitution,” what was going on in the fledgling nation at that time that would have any American, unless a Loyalist or Tory, believing that it was not his design to govern America by military law?

Referring to the website “The American Revolution Month-by-Month August 1780” by Andrew “Andy” Stough, that same month, the fall of Charleston, South Carolina left a large void in the southern patriot military, while the bulk of Patriot General Benjamin’s Lincoln’s army had been eliminated as a fighting force.

However, there still remained small scattered remnants that had been outside Charleston at that time, and they had survived not only the immediate battle but the hunting down of small units by that “Hound from Hell” Banastre Tarleton.

For those unfamiliar with Banestre Tarleton, as a British military commander he was the subject of a rebel American campaign which claimed that Tarleton’s British Legion had massacred surrendering Continental Army troops at the Battle of Waxhaws, South Carolina, in 1780, this at a time when George III of England, who many believe was mentally deranged, was trying to convince the “colonies and provinces” that he really was a nice, benevolent dude.

In the 19th century those killings became known in American history as the “Waxhaws Massacre”.

In the biography “The Green Dragoon: The Lives of Banastre Tarleton and Mary Robinson” (1957), by Robert D. Bass, Tarleton is identified as the ‘Bloody Ban’, the ‘Butcher’, and ‘The Green Dragoon’.

In American popular culture those nicknames were the result of Col. Tarleton’s reputation for brutality during the War of Independence, whilst the colonial Loyalists and the British hailed and praised Tarleton as an outstanding leader of light cavalry, and as an officer of great tactical prowess and soldierly resolve, especially against superior numbers of enemy.

Tarleton’s cavalrymen were called ‘Tarleton’s Raiders’.

Indefatigable in his search for any remaining forces, Tarleton seemed, like a hound, able to smell out the small scraps of a defeated army to put them to the sword in an effort to destroy any southern resistance.

Any who survived had primarily moved north to the mountainous regions of North Carolina and areas that were loyal to the Revolution.

After becoming commander of the British Legion, a force of American Loyalist cavalry and light infantry, also called Tarleton’s Raiders, Tarleton went to South Carolina, at the beginning of 1780.

There, Tarleton’s Raiders supported Sir Henry Clinton in the siege operations that culminated in the capture of Charleston, which siege and capture of the city were part of the British strategy in the southern military theatre meant to restore royal authority over the southern colonies of British North America.

So much for alleged mad king George III’s wish, by the revival of the Civil Authority, to prove to all the Colonies and Provinces, that it was not his Design to govern America by Military Law, but that they were to enjoy all the benefits of local Legislation and their former Constitution.

The Battle of Waxhaw Creek took place on 29 May 1780, shortly after that Proclamation was issued, in Lancaster County, South Carolina

On 29 May 1780, Colonel Tarleton, with a force of 149 mounted soldiers, overtook a detachment of 350 to 380 Virginia Continentals, led by Colonel Abraham Buford, who refused to surrender or to stop his march.

Only after sustaining many casualties did Buford order the American soldiers to surrender.

Nonetheless, Tarleton’s forces ignored the white flag and massacred the soldiers of Buford’s detachment; 113 American soldiers were killed, 203 were captured, and 150 severely-wounded soldiers.

The British army casualties were 5 soldiers killed and 12 soldiers wounded.

From the perspective of the British Army, the affair of the massacre is known as the Battle of Waxhaw Creek.

In that time, the American rebels used the phrase ‘Tarleton’s quarter’ (a high-rate of casualties) as meaning ‘no quarter offered’.

In the 19th century, American historians represented Tarleton as a ruthless butcher, whilst the perspective of some contemporary historians has changed in this regard.

An eye-witness, the American field surgeon Robert Brownfield, wrote that Colonel Buford raised the white flag of surrender to the British Legion, “expecting the usual treatment sanctioned by civilized warfare”; yet, while Buford called for quarter, Colonel Tarleton’s horse was shot with a musket ball, felling horse and man.

On seeing that, the Loyalist cavalrymen believed that the Virginia Continentals had shot their commander — while they asked him for mercy.

Enraged, the Loyalist troops attacked the Virginians with an “indiscriminate carnage never surpassed by the most ruthless atrocities of the most barbarous savages”; in the aftermath, the British Legion soldiers killed wounded American soldiers where they lay.

Colonel Tarleton’s account, published in 1787, said that his horse had been shot from under him, and that his soldiers, thinking him dead, engaged in “a vindictive asperity not easily restrained”.

On the other hand, Tarleton advocated repression, and criticized the mildness of Lord Cornwallis’s methods, because moderation “did not reconcile enemies, but . . . discourages friends”.

Regardless of the extent to which they were true or false, the reports of British atrocities motivated Whig-leaning colonials to support the American Revolution.

In the event, on 7 October 1780, at the Battle of Kings Mountain, South Carolina, soldiers of the Continental Army, having heard of the slaughter at Waxhaw Creek, killed surrendering American Loyalists, after a sniper killed their British commanding officer, Maj. Patrick Ferguson.

end quotes

Americans killing other Americans, people.

In some cases, brother killing brother.

Are there any lessons in any of that for us in our own times in this highly divided nation at war with itself?

Something to think about, anyway.

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[thelivyjr]

THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR July 18, 2017 at 6:32 pm

Paul Plante says :

In “The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam,” Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Barbara W. Tuchman presents us with what is said to be her boldest subject: the pervasive presence, through the ages, of failure, mismanagement, and delusion in government.

Drawing on a comprehensive array of examples, Barbara W. Tuchman defines folly as the pursuit by government of policies contrary to their own interests, despite the availability of feasible alternatives.

In brilliant detail, Tuchman illuminates four decisive turning points in history that illustrate the very heights of folly: the Trojan War, the breakup of the Holy See provoked by the Renaissance popes, the loss of the American colonies by Britain’s George III, and the United States’ own persistent mistakes in Vietnam.

As to delusion in government, that can readily be seen in the above Proclamation from 1780 by his Excellency James Robertson, Esquire, Captain General and Governor in Chief in and over the Province of New York, so he thought, anyway, and the Territories depending thereon in America, Chancellor and Vice Admiral of the same, and Major General of His Majesty’s forces, wherein was stated as follows:

The King having been graciously pleased to honor me with the care of a Province, where, in a long Residence, I have contracted an Esteem for some, and an Affection for many of its Inhabitants, I proceed with great Pleasure to announce his benevolent Intentions.

end quotes

Benevolent intentions?

In 1780, four years after the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776?

Who, one must wonder, did he think was going to buy into the crap spew, besides some Tories and Loyalists?

Were the people in rebellion against the king since 1775 going to be deluded enough in 1780 to believe that George III of England, who was characterized in the Declaration of Independence in 1776, as “The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States,” was capable four years later, in 1780 of acting towards them in a benevolent manner, when the Facts submitted to a candid world in 1776 stated thusly about his lack of benevolence at that time:

* For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

* For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

* He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

* He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

* He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

* He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

end quotes

Benevolent, people, where “benevolent” is defined as “well meaning and kindly?”

How about not hardly!

As we celebrate the Fourth of July today in what is essentially a nation at peace, although not with itself, and here let me say how glad I am that the Fourth was a success down this way (I took the banjo out in the countryside, myself, and played patriotic old-fashioned tunes such as “My Country Tis of Thee,” and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and “The Star-Spangled Banner”), we forget, or in so many cases with younger people, never even knew what a bloody time in America that was back then when the first Fourth of July was occurring.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

Was that just some hype, does anyone think, thrown in there as a drama statement or sympathy grab?

With respect to the Declaration and the Fourth of July today, only a literal handful of the states in this country even have a Revolutionary War history, so that the roots of the Fourth of July for people in those states that did not exist at the time of the Revolution for them are simply lost in the mists of antiquity, and thus are totally irrelevant – who cares how the country came into being, let’s party!

But was it always that way?

To answer that question, at least in part, let’s drop back in time to 1880 and “The HISTORY OF The Seventeen Towns OF Rensselaer County FROM THE Colonization of the Manor of Rensselaerwyck to the Present Time” BY A. J. Weise, A.M., AS PUBLISHED IN THE TROY DAILY TIMES, TROY; N. Y., wherein is found as follows:

CHAPTER VIII – FOURTH OF JULY FESTIVITIES.

The return of the anniversary day of our national independence was yearly honored after the revolution by the people of Schaghticoke.

The following are parts of the recorded proceedings of the citizens of the town July 4, 1798:

A respectable number of the inhabitants of the town of Schaghticoke convened at the house of Jesse Jadwin on the 4th of July, 1798, to celebrate the anniversary of American independence, where they partook of an elegant dinner and spent the day in conviviality and merriment, and received a federal salute from a number of militia, who attended on the occasion.

Among the toasts of the day were:

May we never pay tribute to any nation except in powder and ball.

May the tree of liberty, which blossoms with the American cockade, flourish triumphantly in the soil of America and root out all foreign obnoxious weeds.

Another company assembled at Mr. Viele’s for the celebration of the birth of our national existence.

“The ceremonies were introduced by a song, wherein was developed the progress of the Revolution, etc.”

“Mr. Howell Gardner then delivered an oration pertinent to the occasion; after which a song, composed for the day was sung.”

“The company then partook of a repast of the delicious bounties of nature, the rich reward of independence.”

end quotes

May the tree of liberty, which blossoms with the American cockade, flourish triumphantly in the soil of America and root out all foreign obnoxious weeds, as we are reeling today in this country with allegations of our American president being a tool and lackey and dupe of Mother Russia, which happens to be one of the nations funding the government of this nation in Washington, D.C.

With regard to the “benevolent” intentions of George III of England in 1777, and those large Armies of foreign Mercenaries sent here by George III to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation, and what those people in the town of Schaghticoke who convened at the house of Jesse Jadwin on the 4th of July, 1798, to celebrate the anniversary of American independence were actually celebrating, that same history source cited above tells us this:

THE INVASION OF BURGOYNE.

When in the summer of 1777 Gen. Burgoyne was making almost an unopposed invasion of the northern part of New York from Canada, the people of the Hoosick valley were greatly alarmed by the reports of the barbarous cruelties of the Indians which the British commander had sent forward as a band of terror to the rebellions people.

end quotes

Talk about acting against your own interests, Burgoyne did that for the British in 1777 by bringing on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, was an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions, who ended up scalping a woman named Jane McCrea for the bounty on her scalp being paid by the British, and that inflamed passions against the British all the way down here to Virginia and galvanized the resistance that was to meet Burgoyne and turn his world upside down at a place known as Stillwater on the Hudson, north of Albany, New York in the fall of 1777, the year after the first Fourth of July.

Getting back to that history:

In the vicinity of Fort Edward he (Burgoyne) dispatched Col. Frederick Baum on a “secret expedition to the Connecticut river,” having been informed that the Americans had gathered together there “a considerable depot of cattle, cows, horses and wheel carriages, most of which were driven across the Connecticut river from the provinces of New England; and, as it was understood to be guarded by a party of militia only, an attempt to surprise it seemed by no means unjustifiable.”

He received of Burgoyne instructions on August 9th, that he was “to try the affections of the country; to disconcert the councils of the enemy; to mount the Riedesel’s dragoons; to complete Peters’s corps; and to obtain large supplies of cattle, horses and carriages.”

end quotes

In other words, he was sent to pillage.

Getting back to history:

Having performed these and other things mentioned in the Instructions he was then, in order to form a junction with the main army of Burgoyne, to proceed expeditiously with his force “by the great road to Albany.”

end quotes

Now, with respect to the bloody times spawned by the first Fourth of July in America, consider this:

Col. Baum departed on this mission with about 900 Hessian mercenaries, Canadians, tories and Indians and two cannon.

Col. Philip Skene accompanied Col. Baum for the purpose of advising him “upon all matters of intelligence.”

On the 14th of August, Baum reached the little settlement at Sancoik.

Here, in a grist mill, on Little White creek, a small stream emptying into the Walloomsac, he wrote a letter to Burgoyne regarding his progress:

Sancoik, 14th August, 1777, 9 o’clock— I have the honor to inform your excellency that I arrived here at eight in the morning, having had intelligence of a party of the enemy being in possession of a mill, which they abandoned at our approach, but, in their usual way, fled from the bushes and took their road to Bennington.

end quotes

“But in the usual way, they fled from the bushes” – that is a lament heard from American soldiers in Viet Nam in the 1960’s complaining of the Vietnamese who would not stand and fight, as the Americans would not generally stand and fight the British in the Revolution, how unfair it was for them to skulk and attack from ambush.

Getting back to history:

A savage was slightly wounded; they broke down the bridge, which has retarded our march over an hour; they left in the mill about 78 barrels of very fine flour, 10 bushels of wheat, 80 barrels of salt, and about £1,000 worth of pearlash and potash.

I have ordered 30 provincials and an officer to guard the provisions and the pass of the bridge.

By five prisoners taken here, they agree that from 1,500 to 1,800 are at Bennington, but are supposed to leave it on our approach.

I will proceed so far to-day as to fall on the enemy early tomorrow, and make such dispositions as I may think necessary from the intelligence I may receive.

People are flocking in hourly, but want to be armed.

The savages cannot be controlled, they ruin and take everything they please.

I am your excellency’s most humble servant, F. Baum.

end quotes

The savages cannot be controlled, they ruin and take everything they please, and that was to spell the end for Baum and Burgoyne, as we can see from the following:

THE BATTLE OF WALLOOMSAC.

On the night of the 14th of August, Baum “bivouacked at the farm of Walmscott, about four miles from Sancoick, and three from Bennington.”

On the 15th there was “a perfect hurricane of wind,” and a great fall of rain.

During the day the skirmishers of the provincial militia under Gen. John Stark several times drew the fire of the British pickets.

Meanwhile Col. Baum took a position on an eminence near the “farm of Walmscott.”

He posted here the dragoons, with a portion of the marksmen on their right, in rear of a little zig-zag breastwork, composed of logs and loose earth.

Such of the detached houses of which there were about half a dozen log ones as came within the compass of his position he filled with Canadians, supporting them with detachments of chasseurs and grenadiers, likewise intrenched behind breastworks; and he kept the whole, with the exception of about 100 men, on the north side of the stream, holding the woods upon his flanks, in his front and rear by the Indians.

Gen. Stark with his brigade of Mew Hampshire militia and a number of companies of Vermont and Massachusetts militia, on the morning of the 16th, moved against Baum in the position taken by the latter on the 14th.

Gen. Stark, in his report of the engagement, says:

I divided my army into three divisions, and sent Col. Nichols with 260 men on the rear of their left wing.

Col. Iftoriok in the rear of their right with 300 men.

In the meantime I sent 800 men to oppose the enemy’s front to draw their attention that way.

Soon after I detached the Cols. Hulbert and Stickney on their right wing, with 200 men to attack that part, all of which plans had their desired effect.

Col. Nichols sent me word that he stood in need of a reenforcement, which I readily granted, consisting of 100 men, at which time he commenced the attack, precisely at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, which was followed by all the rest.

I pushed forward the remainder with all speed.

Our people behaved with the greatest spirit and bravery imaginable.

Had they been Alexanders or Charles of Sweden they could not have behaved better.

The action lasted two hours, at the expiration of which time we forced their breastworks at the muzzle of their guns, took two pieces of brass cannon, with a number of prisoners, but before I could get them into proper form again I received intelligence that there was a large reinforcement within two miles of us, on their march, which occasioned us to renew our attack.

But lucky for us. Col. Warner’s regiment came up, which put a stop to their career.

We soon rallied, and in a few minutes the action began very warm and desperate, which lasted till night.

We used their own cannon against them, which proved of great service to us.

At sunset we obliged them to retreat a second time.

We pursued them till dark, when I was obliged to halt for fear of killing my own men.

We recovered two pieces more of their cannon, together with all their baggage, a number of horses, carriages, etc., killed upwards of 200 of the enemy in the field of battle.

The number of wounded is not yet known, as they are scattered about in many places.

I have one lieutenant-colonel, since dead, one major, seven captains, fourteen lieutenants, four ensigns, two cornets, one judge-advocate, one baron, two Canadian officers, six sergeants, one aid-de-camp and seven hundred prisoners.

I almost forgot one Hessian chaplain.

Our wounded are forty-two.

Ten privates and four officers belonging to my brigade are dead.

The dead and wounded in the other corps I do not know, as they have not brought in their returns yet.

In the engagement Col. Baum was shot through the body and mortally wounded.

end quotes

Good-bye, Col. Baum, and soon after, good-bye Burgoyne and the British army.

So much for the good intentions of George III, then, three years later in 1780.

Such is history, people?

Should we be aware of it?

Only you can decide.

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[thelivyjr]

THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR July 19, 2017 at 6:09 pm

Paul Plante says :

As George III proved beyond a shadow of a doubt back in 1780 with that above Proclamation from his Excellency James Robertson, Esquire, Captain General and Governor in Chief in and over the Province of New York, and the Territories depending thereon in America, Chancellor and Vice Admiral of the same, and Major General of His Majesty’s forces, wherein was stated “The King having been graciously pleased to honor me with the care of a Province, where, in a long Residence, I have contracted an Esteem for some, and an Affection for many of its Inhabitants, I proceed with great Pleasure to announce his benevolent Intentions,” you really didn’t need to have a brain in your head to be king of England, none at all.

Did George III and his Captain General and Governor in Chief in and over the Province of New York, and the Territories depending thereon in America, Chancellor and Vice Admiral of the same, and Major General of His Majesty’s forces James Robertson, Esquire really think in 1780 that the people of America would have forgotten Burgoyne coming south from Canada just three years earlier, unleashing his Indians on the people of New York state as he did so?

As this 1777 letter from Revolutionary War General Horatio Gates to General George Washington, then with the army, in Bucks county, in Pennsylvania, makes clear, only a deluded fool would have thought so:

Van Schaick’s Island, August 22,

Sir: Upon my arrival in this department I found the main body of the army encamped upon Van Schaick’s island, which is made by the sprouts of the Mohawk river joining with the Hudson river, nine miles north of Albany.

A brigade under Gen. Poor encamped at Loudon’s ferry, on the south bank of the Mohawk river, five miles from hence; a brigade under Gen. Lincoln had joined Gen. Stark at Bennington, and a brigade under Gen. Arnold marched the 15th inst. to join the militia of Tryon county, to raise the siege of Fort Stanwix.

Upon leaving Philadelphia the prospect this way appeared very gloomy; but the severe checks the enemy have met with at Bennington and in Tryon county have given a more pleasing view to public affairs.

Particular accounts of the signal victory gained by Gen. Stark, and the severe blow Gen. Herkimer gave Sir John Johnson and the scalpers under his command, have been transmitted to your excellency by Gen. Schuyler.

I anxiously expect the arrival of an express from Gen. Arnold with an account of the total defeat of the enemy in that quarter.

By my calculation he reached Fort Stanwix the day before yesterday.

Cols. Livingston’s and Courtland’s regiments arrived yesterday and immediately joined Gen. Poor’s division.

I shall also order Gen. Arnold, upon his return, to march to that post.

I cannot sufficiently thank your excellency for sending Col. Morgan’s corps to this army.

They will be of the greatest service to it, for until the late successes this way I am told the army were quite panic-struck by the Indians and their tory and Canadian assassins in Indian dresses.

Horrible, indeed, have been the cruelties they have wantonly committed upon many of the miserable inhabitants, insomuch that it is not fair for Gen. Burgoyne, even if the bloody hatchet he has so barbarously used should find its way into his own head.

Gov. Clinton will be here to-day.

Upon his arrival I shall consult with him and Gen. Lincoln upon the best plan to distress, and I hope finally defeat the enemy.

I am sorry to be necessitated to acquaint your excellency how neglectfully your orders have been executed at Springfield — few of the militia demanded are yet arrived, but I hear of great numbers upon the march.

Your excellency’s advice in regard to Morgan’s corps, etc., etc., shall be carefully observed.

My scouts and spies inform me that the enemy’s headquarters and main body are at Saratoga, and that they have lately been repairing the bridges between that place and Stillwater.

As soon as time and circumstances will admit I shall send your excellency a general return of this army.

I am, sir, your excellency’s most obedient humble servant,

Horatio Gates.

His Excellency, Gen. Washinqton.

end quotes

The Col. Morgan mentioned therein, of course, was Col. Daniel Morgan of Virginia, who was one of the most gifted battlefield tacticians of the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783).

After the American Revolutionary War began at the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, the Continental Congress created the Continental Army on June 14, 1775, calling for the formation of 10 rifle companies from the middle colonies to support the Siege of Boston.

Accordingly, late in June 1775, a little more than a year before the first Fourth of July, Virginia agreed to send two, and the Virginia House of Burgesses chose Daniel Morgan to form one of these companies and become its commander.

Morgan had already been an officer in the Virginia militia since the French and Indian War, and he recruited 96 men in just 10 days and assembled them at Winchester, Virginia on July 14.

He then marched them 600 miles (970 km) to Boston, Massachusetts in 21 days, arriving on Aug. 6, 1775.

His company of marksmen was nicknamed “Morgan’s Riflemen.”

In 1777, a year after the first Fourth of July, a detachment of Morgan’s regiment, commanded by Morgan, was reassigned to the army’s Northern Department and on Aug. 30 he joined General Horatio Gates in New York state to aid in resisting Burgoyne’s offensive.

Morgan led his regiment, with the added support of Henry Dearborn’s 300-man New Hampshire infantry, as the advance to the main forces.

At Freeman’s Farm, which is a part of the Saratoga Battlefield National Park today, Morgan’s troops fired into the advance of General Simon Fraser’s wing of Burgoyne’s force.

Every officer in the British advance party died in the first exchange, and the advance guard retreated.

Morgan’s men charged without orders, but the charge fell apart when they ran into the main column led by General Hamilton.

As the British began to form on the fields at Freeman’s farm, Morgan’s men continued to break these formations with accurate rifle fire from the woods on the far side of the field.

They were joined by another seven regiments from Bemis Heights.

For the rest of the afternoon, American fire held the British in check, but repeated American charges were repelled by British bayonets.

Burgoyne’s next offensive resulted in the Battle of Bemis Heights on Oct. 7, 1777.

Morgan was assigned command of the left (or western) flank of the American position.

The British plan was to turn that flank, using an advance by 1,500 men.

This brought Morgan’s brigade once again up against General Fraser’s forces.

Passing through the Canadian loyalists, Morgan’s Virginia sharpshooters got the British light infantry trapped in a crossfire between themselves and Dearborn’s regiment.

Although the light infantry broke, General Fraser was trying to rally them, encouraging his men to hold their positions when Benedict Arnold arrived.

Arnold spotted him and called to Morgan: “That man on the grey horse is a host unto himself and must be disposed of — direct the attention of some of the sharpshooters amongst your riflemen to him!”

Morgan reluctantly ordered Fraser shot by a sniper, and Timothy Murphy obliged him.

With Fraser mortally wounded, the British light infantry fell back into and through the redoubts occupied by Burgoyne’s main force.

Morgan was one of those who then followed Arnold’s lead to turn a counter-attack from the British middle.

Burgoyne retired to his starting positions, but about 500 men poorer for the effort.

That night, he withdrew to the village of Saratoga, New York (renamed Schuylerville in honor of Philip Schuyler) about eight miles to the northwest.

During the next week, as Burgoyne dug in, Morgan and his men moved to his north.

Their ability to cut up any patrols sent in their direction convinced the British that retreat was not possible.

The result was Burgoyne being trapped with winter coming on, and accordingly, he was forced to have to surrender his army, which was a real turning point in the American Revolution, as it proved Americans could in fact stand up to and beat an army from the world’s greatest superpower.

Such is the stuff that American history is made of.

Could George III of England have been ignorant of all of that history in 1780 when his Excellency James Robertson, Esquire, Captain General and Governor in Chief in and over the Province of New York, and the Territories depending thereon in America, Chancellor and Vice Admiral of the same, and Major General of His Majesty’s forces, issued his Proclamation wherein was stated “The King having been graciously pleased to honor me with the care of a Province, where, in a long Residence, I have contracted an Esteem for some, and an Affection for many of its Inhabitants, I proceed with great Pleasure to announce his benevolent Intentions?”

For that matter, could his Excellency James Robertson, Esquire, Captain General and Governor in Chief in and over the Province of New York, and the Territories depending thereon in America, Chancellor and Vice Admiral of the same, and Major General of His Majesty’s forces have been ignorant of it?

Or were they simply deluded?

A question for our times.

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[thelivyjr]

THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR July 20, 2017 at 6:49 pm

Paul Plante says :

So why do we need to know all this “Revolutionary War” stuff then, especially on the occasion of the Fourth of July, which didn’t end that war, but got it started on a grand scale, instead, with 25,000 Revolutionary Soldiers dying during the war while 25,000 Revolutionary Soldiers were estimated to have been wounded or maimed and 24,000 British Soldiers were killed during the war with 100,000 Loyalists fleeing to Canada, the Bahamas and England during the war with 3 million being the estimated population of America in 1776, as compared to 300-plus million today?

So what, people?

To celebrate the Fourth of July today, do we really need to know that some 1,547 known military engagements occurred during the Revolutionary War subsequent to the first Fourth of July, with 6.5% as the population participation rate during the war, higher than any American war since WWII, including Viet Nam, with the cost of the war of the Revolution being $151 million?

And that answer is of course not.

To celebrate the Fourth of July today, and here you have to say, even if you are an atheist, “God bless America for the freedoms we enjoy today,” because it is so true, what with the cost of both gas and hamburger being down this year thanks to Wall Street and the monetary policy of the Federal Reserve, which has our best interests as American people at heart, especially when it is the Fourth of July and the official start to summer; all you need to know is that it is a holiday and let’s party!

And that is it.

So simple, isn’t it, as it should be in a democracy!

There is no requirement to play or sing “My Country Tis of Thee,” which is based on the music of “God Save The King,” which we took over on and made ours after kicking the king out, or “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” or the “Star-Spangled Banner” which is based on the music of another British drinking song we took over on after kicking the Brits out, along with their king.

In fact, you don’t even have to know those songs exist to celebrate the Fourth of July today, especially if you are into Bruce Springsteen or Lady Gaga or Katie Perry, instead.

So why then, is it necessary at the time of the Fourth of July celebration we are privileged to have today to know that in 1777, Timothy Murphy, a rifleman in the American Revolutionary War at the Battle of Bemis Heights, shot British General Simon Fraser, Burgoyne’s “fighting general?”

Do we today have any possible reason, outside of curiosity, to know that on June 29, 1775, shortly after the start of the American Revolutionary War, Timothy Murphy and his brother John enlisted in the Northumberland County Riflemen, specifically Captain John Lowdon’s Company, and that their unit saw action in the Siege of Boston, the Battle of Long Island, and “skirmishing in Westchester?”

What, afterall, does that have to do with the price of a gallon of gas, or a pound of hamburger?

And that answer is nothing, so why then should we be bothered to know that Murphy was promoted to the rank of sergeant in the Continental Army’s 12th Pennsylvania Regiment and fought at the battles of Trenton and Princeton, or that Murphy was an “expert marksman”, defined as being “able to hit a seven inch target at 250 yards?”

Or that in July 1777, this skill led to Murphy joining Virginian Daniel Morgan’s newly formed Morgan’s Riflemen and that he was selected as one of 500 handpicked riflemen to go with General Daniel Morgan to Upstate New York to help stop General John Burgoyne and the British Army?

Why do we need to know that?

What possible relevance could that possibly have to how we celebrate the Fourth of July today?

As we party hearty today on the Fourth of July as we are privileged to do in this country, perhaps thanks to Timothy Murphy so many years ago shooting Simon Fraser, should we take a moment to reflect on the fact that a year after the first Fourth of July, as the battles around Saratoga raged, the British had been pushed back, which was not believed possible by the British, who held the Americans in contempt as a rag-tag army, just as we dismissed the Viet Cong, nor was that supposed to happen; to the contrary, the Americans were supposed to break and run, but they didn’t, in large part because of the scalping of Jane McCrea?

Does it make a difference to us today that the fleeing British were being rallied by Brigadier General Simon Fraser when Benedict Arnold rode up to General Morgan, and pointed at Fraser and told Morgan the man was worth a regiment, so that Morgan then called on Murphy and said: “That gallant officer is General Fraser, I admire him, but it is necessary that he should die, do your duty,” which caused Murphy to scale a nearby tree, take careful aim at the extreme distance of 300 yards, and fire four times, with the first shot a close miss, the second grazing the General’s horse, and the third tumbling Fraser from his horse, shot through the stomach, while the fourth shot hit British Senior officer Sir Francis Clerke, General Burgoyne’s chief aide-de-camp, as he galloped onto the field with a message, killing him instantly?

Would that make an ice-cold beer taste any better, and a hamburger on a bun any juicier?

And once again, I would say, of course not.

So why should we know such things?

Because if they hadn’t of happened, or if they had happened differently, if Timothy Murphy had missed Simon Fraser, for instance, there wouldn’t be a Fourth of July to celebrate today and instead of “My Country Tis of Thee,” we would still be singing “God Save the King,” or “God Save the Queen.”

So there is a reason, but it isn’t the most important.

As it was told to me when I was young and learning the significance of the Fourth of July to our lives as American citizens back then, after the close of WWII, we were to know those things because of what James Madison of Virginia meant when he said, “Do not separate text from historical background, if you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution, which can only end in a distorted, bastardized form of illegitimate government.”

Once upon a time in America, that meant something to us as citizens – to understand our form of government, you had to understand our specific history and how we came into being as a nation, and that history was one of years of hardship, misery and bloodshed with people like Timothy Murphy fighting to give us the liberty to celebrate the Fourth of July in America today, so that as we celebrated the Fourth of July, and this was years ago now, before the Fourth of July became the rip-roaring, let’s party holiday that it has become today, and God bless America again for that, and for giving us Bruce Springsteen and Lady Gaga in our times, we were asked to give a moment’s thought to those sacrifices that gave us our freedom that we enjoy today.

That’s why.

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[thelivyjr]

THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR July 25, 2017 at 9:11 pm

Paul Plante says :

As hard as it is to believe in this day and age of an American president who has to communicate with his followers by resorting to 140-character TWEETS to the TWITTERATI in the TWITTERSPHERE serviced and kept informed by TWITTER, which actually has become a totally new language in the United States of America today called TWITTERESE that is used by hundreds of millions of people, it is said, to communicate with each other because they know no other means of doing so, not being conversant in the Old American that I continue to use in here, with words and phrases and sentences and paragraphs being utilized to convey meaning, because I am totally illiterate when it comes to employing TWITTERESE in a TWEET, and thus, cannot understand a word that American president Donald Trump is trying to convey with his TWEET STORMS, assuming there are even coherent thoughts buried in there somewhere, just beyond my ken, there once was a time in America, and this is admittedly a long time ago now, in years and centuries and even millennia, when people en masse used words and sentences and paragraphs to convey their thoughts and ideas to each other, because they had not yet been taught to TWEET, which requires an ability to assimilate TWEETERESE, and that takes us back to these words from Virginia’s own Jemmy Madison, who went on to be an American president himself, to wit:

“Do not separate text from historical background, if you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution, which can only end in a distorted, bastardized form of illegitimate government.”

end quote

When I was young, and yes, I do understand, that was in a different century and things have changed since then and now are different, and if I don’t like it, tough luck, that’s what I get for getting old, those words were taught to me as an admonition, which is an authoritative counsel or warning, and that from my teachers, who were the women of the community setting the community’s values beginning in kindergarten, as the duty of each and every citizen of this nation, including us, which is why we were there to be educated – not so that we could get rich, not so that we could compete for jobs with kids of other nations, but that we could be productive, useful citizens, instead.

This was back, of course, in a time when character still mattered, before discussing character of politicians in America became politically un-correct to do, and it was based on character out in the country where I was raised that people were judged, so if you didn’t want to be judged harshly, then don’t be of such character as would draw that opprobrium on you.

And we were expected when young to become discerning judges of character, especially when it comes to picking elected officers.

And to be a discerning judge of character, it was necessary to read and know history, which meant back then that one had to learn Old American, because that was the common language back then that ideas and thoughts were conveyed in, and here, I make reference to a writer named Caesar in Letter II posted in the Daily Advertiser in New York City, on October 17, 1787, before the United States Constitution was ratified, wherein he stated as follows in keeping with the admonition to us young Americans when I was young of Virginia’s Jemmy Madison above to not separate Constitutional text from historical background, for if we were to do so, and that has been done since I was young, we would have perverted and subverted the Constitution, which has been done, and accordingly, has given us the distorted, bastardized form of illegitimate government we are now suffering under in this country, with the gridlock caused by the faction fighting between the worthless Republicans in Congress and the equally worthless Democrats, who have just adopted as their latest slogan, “A BETTER DEAL,” as if they were now competing with McDonald’s for the hamburger trade in America, to wit:

I viewed the public mind as wound up to a great pitch of dissatisfaction, by the inadequacy of the powers of the present Congress to the general good and conversation of the union.

I believed then, as I do now, that the people were determined and prepared for a change.

end quote

That is in 1787, people, two hundred thirty (230) years ago now, in the beginning days of this nation’s history, and speaking of Democrat slogans, doesn’t that remind you of the Marxist Barack Hussein Obama’s slogan of “Change We Can Hope For,” and for the same reasons as 230 years ago – because the public mind was once again wound up to a great pitch of dissatisfaction by the inadequacy of the powers of the present Congress to the general good and conversation of the union, which remains the case today under the casino operator/reality TV star/U.S. president Donald Trump.

As to character when it comes to politics, and the need for an educated citizenry, this is what Caesar had to say to us young Americans on that subject all those years ago:

I am not one of those who gain an influence by cajoling the unthinking mass (tho’ I pity their delusions), and ringing in their ears the gracious sound of their absolute Sovereignty.

I despise the trick of such dirty policy.

I know there are Citizens, who, to gain their own private ends, enflame the minds of the well-meaning, tho’ less intelligent parts of the community, by sating their vanity with that cordial and unfailing specific, that all power is seated in the people.

For my part, I am not much attached to the majesty of the multitude, and therefore waive all pretensions (founded on such conduct), to their countenance.

I consider them in general as very ill qualified to judge for themselves what government will best suit their peculiar situations; nor is this to be wondered at.

The science of government is not easily understood.

Cato will admit, I presume, that men of good education and deep reflection, only, are judges, of the form of a government; whether it is constituted on such principles as will restrain arbitrary power, on the one hand, and equal to the exclusion of corruption and the destruction of licentiousness on the other; whether the New Constitution, if adopted, will prove adequate to such desirable ends, time, the mother of events, will show.

end quotes

Cato will admit, says Caesar 230 years ago in America (yes, there was an America back then, it is not a new invention just recently sprung on the world) that men of good education and deep reflection, only, are judges, of the form of a government and whether it is constituted on such principles as will restrain arbitrary power, on the one hand, and equal to the exclusion of corruption and the destruction of licentiousness on the other, and that is why, as young Americans, we were supposed to know all that history I cite above, and more, so that we too could become men and women of good education and deep reflection, as citizens of a functioning republic like the United States of America must be for it to stay functioning.

As to whether the New Constitution, if adopted, would prove adequate to such desirable ends, restraining arbitrary power, on the one hand, and equal to the exclusion of corruption and the destruction of licentiousness on the other, only time, the mother of events, would show, and 230 years later, people, that ball is in our court and the answer is a resounding NO – the Constitution which was new in America 230 years ago, when Caesar was writing his essay in 1787, has been an abject failure when it comes to restraining arbitrary power, on the one hand, while excluding corruption and destroying licentiousness (disregarding accepted rules or conventions), on the other.

Getting back to the need for an educated and informed citizen body in this nation, Caesar stated as follows:

When a new form of government is fabricated, it lies with the people at large to receive or reject it – that is, their inherent right.

Now, I would ask (without intending to triumph over the weaknesses or follies of any men), how are the people to profit by this inherent right?

By what conduct do they discover that they are sensible of their own interests in this situation?

Is it by the exercise of a well-disciplined reason, and a correspondent education?

I believe not.

How then?

As I humbly conceive, by a tractable and docile disposition, and by honest men endeavoring to keep their minds easy, while others, of the same disposition, with the advantages of genius and learning, are constructing the bark that may, by the blessing of Heaven, carry them to the port of rest and happiness, if they will embark without diffidence and proceed without mutiny.

end quote

While others, of the same disposition, with the advantages of genius and learning, are constructing the bark that may, by the blessing of Heaven, carry them to the port of rest and happiness!

What a thought that is to ponder, all these years later, as we decry the lack of such people in our federal government, people with the advantages of genius and learning who were supposed to be constructing the bark that may, by the blessing of Heaven, carry us to the port of rest and happiness!

Instead, for all to many of us, thanks to the denizens who now inhabit MORONICA on the Potomac, as the former Washington, D.C. is now known, the bark that was, by the blessing of Heaven, to carry us to the port of rest and happiness, is smashed on the rocks of partisan political strife, instead!

Which takes us to these words of Caesar 230 years ago, which still apply to us in this country today:

There are always men in society of some talents, but more ambition, in quest of that which it would be impossible for them to obtain in any other way than by working on the passions and prejudices of the less discerning classes of citizens and yeomanry.

end quotes

To which I answer, yes there are, and we are now swamped by them at the federal level in this country, to our detriment.

And perhaps a large part of the reason for that is because we as a people have become so ignorant in this country that we can no longer read, let alone assimilate the meaning of words formed into sentences and paragraphs to convey thoughts and ideas.

With respect to all this Revolutionary War stuff I have brought into this discussion above, Caesar said this in 1787:

I venerate the memory of the slaughtered patriots of America, and rejoice as much as Cato that they did not bleed in vain, but I would have America profit by their death in a different manner from him.

I believe they sought to obtain liberty for no particular State, but for the whole Union, indissolubly connected under one controlling and supreme head.

end quotes

And there is where it all began to break down, right at the very beginning, in my estimation, anyway, because America was never something concrete, only an idea, and as Caesar makes clear above here, that idea was never commonly shared, which brings us to the highly divided nation that we are today.

Just a thought, anyway.

http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/news/p ... -and-gone/

[thelivyjr]

THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR July 2, 2020 at 5:50 pm

Paul Plante says :

When I posted the start of this thread three years ago on July 9, 2017, and titled it “On the Fourth of July, Now Past and Gone,” little was I to know just how true that was to be only three years later, as we witness the Fourth of July fading into obscurity because it is a racist holiday that celebrates white supremacy, and thus is offensive to all the people in America who do not like racism or white supremacy, and want every trace and possible symbol of either completely erased and excised from our American history, so people who have sensitive emotions will not have to know any of it ever happened, which will make them feel good about themselves and all warm and squishy inside knowing they live in a world where no bad things have ever happened and never will, because they are in control of what is thought and said, for the good of the rest of us who don’t know better, which happens to be the Democrat “mudsill theory” from pre-Civil War days brought forward in time to today.

The Fourth of July has to go because let us face it, it is a symbol of the beginning of WHITE SUPREMACY here in America, and no greater symbol of that have we than the Fourth of July, even more so than the Confederate Flag or statues of Bobby Lee or Jefferson Davis.

If it was not for the Fourth of July, there would be no white supremacy here in America today, so the two are inextricably linked, which makes it only fair that the Fourth of July and the white supremacy it represents are consigned to the trash bin of history, along with pretty much everything that happened since that the people of color want abolished, and that Juneteenth become our nation holiday, instead, as the Democrats in Congress are pushing for right now.

http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/news/p ... ent-258250

[thelivyjr]

THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR July 3, 2020 at 6:43 pm

Paul Plante says:

When I was young, I honestly did not know that the Fourth of July was a racist holiday to celebrate white supremacy in this country.

And truly, how would you know?

When I was young, the Fourth of July was called INDEPENDENCE DAY!

There were no racial overtones to the holiday back then, and how could there have been, given there really is nothing racist about the holiday!

The racial overtones concerning the Fourth of July have come into the picture only recently, a fact that I was “woke” to by Albany, New York Democrat Mayor Kathy Sheehan issuing an executive order demanding that a statue of Revolutionary War general Philip John Schuyler be removed from a park across from her city hall in Albany, because she finds it offensive to her sensitive sensibilities because Philip Schuyler owned black people as slaves.

That is when I finally made the connection and said, “My God, what on earth could I have been thinking, thinking people like Philip Schuyler are American heroes," when Kathy Sheehan is making it real clear that because he owned slaves he really was a bad person we should have nothing to do with, with his role in American history being totally erased, along with his name and story, which is intimately and inextricably tied up with the Fourth of July!

So if we cannot remember Philip Schuyler because he is a racist white supremacist, then it only logically follows that anything he was associated with, starting with the Fourth of July has to be racist and white supremacist by association.

As to Philip Schuyler, who we no longer can remember or talk about, because the name offends the more sensitive among us, he was born on November 11, 1733 in Albany, New York to parents Johannes “John” Schuyler Jr. and Cornelia Van Cortlandt.

Schuyler’s family has migrated from Amsterdam, Holland in 1650 and were related to the families of the old Dutch aristocracy.

Schuyler’s second great-grandfather was the first mayor of Albany, New York, the place of his birth.

Philip Schuyler began his military service during the French and Indian War as a captain and was later promoted to major.

He partook in the battles of Lake George, Oswego River, Ticonderoga, and Fort Frontenac.

After his first stretch in the military, Schuyler ventured into politics.

He began his tenure as a New York State Assemblyman in 1768 and served until 1775 when he was selected as a delegate to the second Continental Congress in May of that year.

On June 19, 1775, he was commissioned as one of only four major generals in the Continental Army.

He established his headquarters in Albany, NY and began planning an invasion of Canada.

Early into his campaign he was plagued with a medical condition that caused command to be deferred to General Richard Montgomery.

After leaving his regiment he returned to Fort Ticonderoga and then later to his hometown of Albany.

He remained there for the winter of 1775 to 1776 where he collected supplies and forwarded them to Canada.

He also aided the American effort in subduing British forces in the Mohawk Valley region of Western New York.

Schuyler’s original plan to invade Canada fell short upon the death of General Montgomery and the Patriot force’s failure to capture Quebec.

Upon the American troops’ retreat to Crown Point and the evacuation of Fort Ticonderoga, General Horatio Gates attempted to claim precedence over Schuyler and sought Schuyler’s dismissal from service.

The matter was taken up in front of Congress and Schuyler was superseded in August of 1777.

Schuyler requested a trial in military court to prove his case.

Schuyler was acquitted on all charges in 1778, but his reputation was still damaged.

He resigned from military service in April of 1779.

Upon his departure from military service he reentered politics and served first as a delegate from New York to the Continental Congress from 1797 to 1781 and then three terms in the New York State Senate from 1781 to 1997.

He served a term as a United States Senator from New York but lost his seat to Aaron Burr, who’s campaign was backed by enemies of Schuyler.

Alexander Hamilton was enraged by the Schuyler’s loss, as Hamilton backed his campaign due to his support of New York ratifying the Federal constitution.

In addition to being a political ally of Schuyler’s, Alexander Hamilton married Schuyler’s daughter, Elizabeth, in 1780.

Once Hamilton regained control of New York State politics, Schuyler won back his seat in the United States Senate from Aaron Burr in 1797.

Schuyler served only a few years of his term before resigning due to poor health.

Philip Schuyler died on November 18, 1804.

end quotes

But forget all of that.

It is American history that Democrat Mayor of Albany, New York Kathleen Sheehan finds offensive, because she believes Philip Schuyler is a racist, white supremacist.

And being the mayor of Albany, she is the authority on the subject, so that is that – the Fourth of July is a racist holiday that celebrates white supremacy, which is why it should be abolished!

http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/news/p ... ent-258355