Excerpts from: Americanism Redux: February 29, on the journey to the American Founding, 250 years ago today, in 1774
No such day existed because it wasn’t a Leap Year. Only those people in a Leap Year have this day given to them. In 1774 the gift will come again in two years. In the meantime, at the close of this month two-hundred and fifty Februarys ago, the crisis between empire and colonies entangles with other parts of life. Mercy Otis Warren writes a poem about the Boston Tea Party. John Adams buys his childhood home, his lifelong dream. Other people accept new jobs and positions, vote to start their town by subdividing from another, seek to claim lands, or emphasize all the things wrong with their quality of life.
In England, a decision is reached that the legal system will not be used to respond to the colonies’ tea protests. It’s an entirely political matter now with entirely political reactions.
Americanism Redux, a series by historian author, Dr. Dan Miller, explores what Americanism meant 250 years ago and its significance for America today. Visit Dr Dan Miller’s website>
Reference: The Remnant Trust Collection
One of the new position-holders on this day is Abiel Chandler, newly elected as captain of the Second Company, Concord’s militia, in the colony of New Hampshire. Ninety men voted. It’s a process that has gained the status of ritual and tradition by 1774 in New England. The militia’s cherished role in New England communities was on clear display just three years earlier, in James Lovell’s “Oration Deliver’d April 2d, 1772, At The Request of the Inhabitants of the Town of Boston: to Commemorate the Bloody Tragedy of the Fifth of March 1770” (Item #0454). Lovell praised the militia “the true strength and safety of everyone commonwealth or limited monarchy.”
View The Remnant Trust “Wisdom of the Ages Athenaeum PDF for reference>