Free Republic

In 1787 the future of free government was dim. The spectacle of insurrection in Massachusetts, the state with the unquestionably best constitution, did not bode well for the Federal Convention. Where other state senates of the day featured senators chosen by either the lower house or popular election from large districts, the Massachusetts senate purposely represented the wealth of the state. If set side-by-side, the 1780 Massachusetts constitution and our federal Constitution of 1787 are strikingly similar. Both have three branches and a bicameral legislature. The senates of each sought to quell rash measures expected from the people’s representatives. In...

During the American Revolution, Patriot General George Washington crosses the Delaware River with 5,400 troops, hoping to surprise a Hessian force celebrating Christmas at their winter quarters in Trenton, New Jersey. The unconventional attack came after several months of substantial defeats for Washington’s army that had resulted in the loss of New York City and other strategic points in the region. At about 11 p.m. on Christmas, Washington’s army commenced its crossing of the half-frozen river at three locations. The 2,400 soldiers led by Washington successfully braved the icy and freezing river and reached the New Jersey side of the...

On this day in 1783, George Washington says his final goodbye to a group of officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York. washingtons-farewell-to-his-officersNew York had served as the British headquarters throughout the long years of the war. It was the last city to be evacuated when the war was over! On November 25, however, the British finally left, and George Washington entered the city. (See November 25 history post.) Despite the celebrations and elaborate dinners that ensued over the course of the next week, the British hadn’t entirely left the area. Some lingered on boats nearby. Others were still on...

During the American Revolution George Washington didn’t have any Tier-1 Spec Ops, but he made the most of what he had.When we think of modern day Special Forces, we think of Seal Team 6, Delta Force and the Green Berets. Back in the day of the American Revolution era, what did George Washington have? In a time where warfare was all about marching to fife and drum then lined up in rows to blast away with muskets at fifty paces. What did they know about unconventional warfare? According to retired U.S. Army colonel Robert Tonsetic explains that unconventional warfare was...

It pays to check those musty old boxes in your attic. An unidentified family in the Deep South made the discovery of a lifetime when they found a letter written by Founding Father Thomas Jefferson in which the third president extols the virtues of American independence and hails victory in the War of 1812. “As in the Revolutionary War, [the British] conquests were never more than of the spot on which their army stood, never extended beyond the range of their cannon shot,” Jefferson wrote in the letter, penned at his Monticello home on Valentine's Day, 1815. "We owe to...

In Philadelphia, in what now is called Independence Hall, is preserved a Chippendale style chair crafted in 1779 by the cabinetmaker John Folwell, with a sun on the horizon carved at the top. For nearly three months in 1787, George Washington used this chair during the sessions of the Federal Convention. According to James Madison, whose feet would have dangled from it since, at 5’4” he was ten inches shorter than Washington, Benjamin Franklin mused: “I have often in the course of the session looked at that sun behind the President without being able to tell whether it was...

It could never happen here, right? Boston – National Guard units seeking to confiscate a cache of recently banned assault weapons were ambushed by elements of a Para-military extremist faction. Military and law enforcement sources estimate that 72 were killed and more than 200 injured before government forces were compelled to withdraw. Speaking after the clash, the Massachusetts Governor declared that the extremist faction, which was made up of local citizens, has links to the radical right-wing tax protest movement. The Governor blamed the extremists for recent incidents of vandalism directed against internal revenue offices. The governor, who described the...

National Guard units seeking to confiscate a cache of recently banned assault weapons were ambushed by elements of a para-military extremist faction. Military and law enforcement sources estimate that 72 were killed and more than 200 injured before government forces were compelled to withdraw. Speaking after the clash, Massachusetts Governor Thomas Gage declared that the extremist faction, which was made up of local citizens, has links to the radical right-wing tax protest movement. Gage blamed the extremists for recent incidents of vandalism directed against internal revenue offices. The governor, who described the group's organizers as criminals, issued an executive order...

During the Revolutionary War, our new nation faced a financial crisis. The colonies had no money to pay for the war and the prospects of raising funds were dismal, at best. Colonial troops had not been paid the money due them, so protests ensued. Some officers even surrounded the Continental Congress and held it for ransom, trying to get what was promised the troops for years of hardship, struggle and deprivation. Our young country was very near imploding after all the years of bloodshed, sacrifice and valiant commitment to the dream of liberty. Enter Robert Morris: the richest man in...

In the popular mind, the American Revolution was mostly about liberty and the pursuit of happiness -- and the war that followed the Declaration of Independence wasn't much of a war. We imagine toy soldiers in red coats chasing picturesque rebels. Actually, the War of Independence was horrific, according to John Ferling, a leading historian of early America. It was a grinding conflict that rivaled, and in some ways exceeded, the Civil War in its toll on American fighters when looked at on a per-capita basis. Ferling chronicles the suffering in his new book, "Almost a Miracle: The American Victory...

HB 1035, a bill by Rep. Valarie Hodges that would have mandated that schoolchildren in Louisiana be taught the Declaration of Independence, sailed through the House Education Committee with a 6-2 vote. But Wednesday, when the bill reached the floor of the House, it had a different fate – amid a torrent of squabbling, Hodges returned the bill to the calendar and it’s likely finished for the session. The Louisiana House of Representatives has 61 Republican members out of 105, and yet it was apparent no consensus for a cornerstone of basic civics in the state’s public schools did not...

Sometimes the rigors of daily life just get too overwhelming, causing me to turn to other less stressful items of interest. So I am now reading, “Benjamin Franklin -- An American Life,” by famed biographer, Walter Isaacson. It is already an amazing story about an amazing man, and I am not half way through its 586 pages --- small type, no pictures! Benjamin Franklin: author, inventor, scientist, politician, raconteur. But he considered himself, first and foremost, to be a printer. And would generally sign his name, “Benjamin Franklin, printer.” For in that Colonial period, a printer was a person of...

Six maps from the American War of Independence, which helped convince George Washington to make a crucial change in strategy, go up for auction in a French chateau next month.

The First Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, being appointed by George Washington, was also President of the American Bible Society. Who was he? John Jay, who died MAY 17, 1829. As President of the Continental Congress, John Jay approved the "Circular Letter from the Congress of the United States of America to their Constituents," September 13, 1779: "Friends and Fellow Citizens... In governments raised on the generous principles of equal liberty... the rulers of the state are the servants of the people, and not the masters of those from whom they derive authority... ...The ungrateful despotism and inordinate...

In a gripping new look at the important relationship between American founders George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, Stephen F. Knott and Tony Williams – authors of the new book Washington and Hamilton: The Alliance That Formed America, tell the story below of the American founding, which would not have been possible without this grand alliance.  While many historians focus on the friendship and alliance of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, Washington and Hamilton reminds us why America would truly not be the prosperous country it is today without this special alliance.Congratulations Stephen & Tony on the paperback release of your new book: Washington and...

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) – Two state lawmakers have introduced legislation that would require Pennsylvania’s high school students to have a basic understanding of American history and civics before graduating. House Bill 1858 would require that students pass a test on 100 basic facts from the United States Citizenship Civics Test, the test all immigrants must pass when applying for U.S. citizenship.

The wreckage of the Endeavour, the storied British ship that 18th-century explorer Captain James Cook sailed through the uncharted South Pacific, may lie a few hundred feet off Rhode Island’s coast in Newport Harbor, researchers said Wednesday. The 105-foot (32-meter) long, three-masted bark, later renamed the Lord Sandwich, had been hired out by the British Royal Navy as a troop transport when it was one of 13 ships deliberately sunk by the British in 1778 in an effort to blockade the harbor.

On April 8, 2016, military historian and author Patrick K. O’Donnell spoke at the Heritage Foundation to discuss his book “Washington’s Immortals,” a book about the forgotten people and battles in the revolutionary war. The author discusses facts of the war that many schools fail to recognize; these include details of the colonists’ struggles with the loyalists, the soldiers’ shortages of clothing and food, and the sacrifices of many wealthy colonists. The stories in this book of the band of brotherhood and the sacrifices of the colonists are beneficial for students in order for them to fully understand American values....

History came on horseback here early Monday morning, with the breathless cries of a rider warning: “The Regulars are just down the road! They’re massing for battle.” Decked in lobster-red, marching up what’s now Massachusetts Avenue and onto the Common, the British soldiers did come, finding a ragtag band of local militiamen standing their ground, unwilling to disperse. The story of what happened next — the shot of unknown provenance, the lopsided battle, the American Revolution — has been told and retold for 241 years. But it was fresh to some of the thousands of spectators and performers at the...

Sixteen year old Sybil Luddington was a hero of the Revolutionary War.....as revolution number two shapes up, we could learn some lessons from our ancestors.