Journey to the American Founding
June 22 1773
The stories we’re seeing from the last half of 1772 and early 1773 are a mixture of change and continuity. Surrounding the mixture is an intensification of actions and decisions. The new and old twist together in revolving cycles. The pace is not what it once was—it has picked up speed.
Excerpts from: Americanism Redux: June 22, on the Journey to the American Founding, 250 years ago today, in 1773
Filled with them. The pages are filled with them. The people—men, women, children—who are on the run, seeking freedom from some various forms of forced labor. . . . In the pages of the Maryland Gazette you can see their stories if you read between the lines, 250 years ago today and more than appeared a year ago, they are on the run, seeking freedom, seeking liberty, seeking a life that their heart and mind and soul tells them is out there, away from here. . . .
In a supremely odd combination, this day 250 years ago in the British colony of Rhode Island will combine a celebration and a snubbing. The celebration is a quiet recognition that roughly a year has passed since the British naval ship the Gaspee was seized, burned, and its captain brutalized by local protestors who despised British imperial attempts to enforce trade regulations. . . . the imperial investigation into the incident has resulted in no charges, no punishment, no arresting and incarceration of any particular individual or group for the incident with the Gaspee. It is holiday and uselessness together. It is defiance and absence of punishment in tandem.
The Spanish friars of the Dominican and Franciscan Orders of the Catholic Church get approval today, 250 years ago, to open their first missions—physical spaces of walls, windows, doors, and roof—to seek Christian converts from among the local native tribes of Baja California, south of the Catholic missions already established in San Diego. . . . It is an ongoing tension between imposing the religious beliefs founded in Rome and the Vatican on one side, and the natives’ inherent beliefs and outlooks on the other. Neither will dominate, each will contribute, and all will emerge despite resentments, biases, and ill-will.
Also
British King George III looks out toward the blue water. . . . It is a display of the rawest and most impressive of armed power, the key to the British Empire in Europe, Africa, southern Asia, and North America. It is His Majesty’s Royal Navy, the feared and respected military sea power of the Great Britain. The British monarch watches as the ships under his control display their prowess in movement and fire in a special review for the king’s benefit. . . .
For You Now
. . . . We have one man, a ruler of all others, watching the clearest example of power at his disposal.
One set seeks an answer not currently available but internally knows is possessed and pursuable. One set seeks to press down on another set a way of looking at the world here and the world later. One set—narrowed down to a manifestation in a single human body—relishes an expression of power and armed force that apparently exceeds all rivals on the planet. . .
Suggestion
Take a moment and consider this—which of the three, right now and in today’s terms, seems to you to be smoldering in plain sight.
*PHOTO CREDIT: See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons>
TITLE: Americanism Redux: June 22, on the journey to the American Founding, 250 years ago today, in 1773
By Dr. Dan Miller
To know us better then is to know us more fully now. Welcome to Americanism Redux and my one-a-week stories of 250 years ago. For the all the stories thus far, Visit Historical Solutions, Dr Dan Miller’s website>
Reference: The Remnant Trust Collection
Sermones de tempore super Evangelia et Epistolas, by Hugo de Prato Florido – Reference #1189
“Florido was a respected Dominican friar who, in this work featured from the 15th century, wrote about dealing with paganism. His writings helped inform the Dominican friars who served in the new Baja California missions of 1773.”
View The Remnant Trust “Wisdom of the Ages Athenaeum PDF for reference>
Journey to the American Founding
Welcome to Americanism Redux, a series by historian author, Dr. Dan Miller. He explores what Americanism meant 250 years ago and its significance for America today.
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