Arrived in Philadelphia, Left to Sign
Walton, Hall, and Gwinnett put aside their differences in Philadelphia and eventually agreed with the delegates from the other colonies that signing the Declaration of Independence would be good for America. They caused a bit of consternation before the final vote.
As of July 2, 1776, most of the colonies were in accord with the Declaration of Independence as written, with a few minor differences. Neither Georgia nor South Carolina wanted the clause abolishing slavery included in it. The delegates from the two colonies succeeded in getting it removed. That opened the door to the ultimate signing of the declaration.
A copy of the Declaration of Independence arrived in Savannah, Georgia, on August 8, 1776. Archibald Bulloch, Georgia’s president of the Council of Safety, read it to a happy gathering of citizens two days later. The three signers from Georgia were heroes to the patriots and traitors to the British. That could have cost Walton his life—but did not.
Walton’s Wild Ride after Philadelphia
Walton stayed in Philadelphia until October 1777. He returned to Georgia to fight the British as a soldier. His militia unit became engaged along the state’s borders, particularly near Florida, to protect the colony from Indians. Walton was in Savannah when the British attacked it in December 1778. He was wounded and taken prisoner. The British captured and held him for two years. Finally, they exchanged him for a British naval officer. Even though he had signed the Declaration of Independence, which technically made him a traitor to the British crown, the British did not hold it against him.
Walton was not about to let a wound and a two-year incarceration slow him down. Once the British released him, he roamed the backwoods of Georgia encouraging the residents to continue the fight. The exposure paid off handsomely for him. Walton was reelected to the Continental Congress, where he served from 1780–81.
After the war ended, Walton was in great demand. He served as a commissioner to negotiate a treaty with the Cherokees in Tennessee in 1783 and became the chief justice of Georgia from 1783–89. During that period he was also a member of the Augusta Board of Commissioners in 1784–85 and represented Georgia in the settlement of the boundary line between South Carolina and Georgia in 1786. There did not seem to be an end to political opportunities in Georgia for Walton.
REVOLUTIONARY REVELATIONS
Walton was elected as a delegate to the convention to frame the federal Constitution in 1787. He declined the opportunity for unspecified reasons.
Walton was selected as governor of Georgia in 1789 by the state assembly and was appointed the first judge of the Superior Courts of the eastern judicial circuit in 1790. Then, he was appointed in 1795 to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of James Jackson. He served for three months, from November 16, 1795, to February 20, 1796, when a successor was elected. George Walton was the last of the dysfunctional Georgia delegation to the Continental Congress to die. Dysfunctional they might have been, but they showed exceptional unity when they signed the Declaration of Independence together.
JOSEPH WARREN
Roxbury, Massachusetts
June 11, 1741–June 17, 1775
An Incendiary Man
Dr. Joseph Warren, a close associate of prominent Massachusetts radicals such as John Hancock and Samuel Adams, is not as well known as them because he died so early in the Revolutionary War. Warren, who came from a family of patriots, is best known for two exploits: inspiring Paul Revere’s ride, and dying in the line of duty at Bunker Hill. Neither one receives a great deal of publicity.
A Radical Doctor
Warren was a serious student in his younger days. He studied at the elite Roxbury Latin School and Harvard, from which he graduated in 1759. Following graduation, he taught at Roxbury Latin for a year, then studied medicine. Politics and independence were always on his mind, however.
Warren drew British authorities’ attention to himself as early as 1768, when they threatened to try his publishers, Edes and Gill, for printing a hostile newspaper essay he had written under his pseudonym, “A True Patriot.” But no local jury would indict. Later, in February 1770, a loyalist customs service agent named Ebenezer Richardson, who was being harassed by a group of young boys, fired shots into the crowd, killing the young Christopher Seider. That incident led to the Boston Massacre eleven days later, after which there was no turning back for the patriots.
Like so many of his fellow radicals, Warren was particularly incensed at the Intolerable Acts. In fairness, the British did not make the acts effective immediately. They gave the colonists an opportunity to accept them. Instead, the colonists grew more defiant. That defiance eventually cost Warren his life.
Quotations to Live (and Die) By!
“SHOULD EUROPE EMPTY ALL HER FORCE WE’LL MEET HER IN ARRAY.”
—JOSEPH WARREN, 1774, AFTER HEARING ABOUT THE INTOLERABLE ACTS
FEDERAL FACTS
The Boston Committee of Correspondence resulted from a motion made by Samuel Adams at a town meeting on November 2, 1772. It comprised twenty-two men chaired by James Otis Jr. The committee’s goal was to shape public opinion and disseminate to local and neighboring citizens the community’s views about colonists’ rights and real or perceived abuses by British officials. Eighty other Massachusetts communities formed similar committees within a few months.
Politics over Practice
As the conflict between the British government and the patriots widened, Warren became more active in politics. His fellow agitators appointed him to the Boston Committee of Correspondence in 1773. He took his duties seriously. Twice in the 1773–75 timeframe he delivered speeches to commemorate the Boston Massacre. On the second occasion, in March 1775, he did so while Boston was teeming with British troops.
In addition to his duties on the Committee of Correspondence, Warren found time to draft the Suffolk Resolves, a prelude to the Declaration of Independence, which the Continental Congress ultimately endorsed.
Warren also served as president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, which the patriots formed to bypass the British government’s laws intended to strip them of self-rule. Ironically, the Congress ruled every community in Massachusetts except Boston, where most of the radicals lived. The British had too large a presence there.
REVOLUTIONARY REVELATIONS
Warren’s brother James also served a term as president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, as did Samuel Adams. That was the highest position in the state’s government at the time.
A Good Doctor Falls
Like so many of his compatriots, Warren put his life on the line as a politician and patriot. He took it one step farther than many of the other patriots. Warren also served in the military as a major general in the Massachusetts militia. Thus, when events spiraled out of control in April 1775, he was ready to sacrifice his life for the patriots’ cause—which he did.
Warren was one of the last patriot leaders left in Boston in mid-1775. Many of them were en route to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia or hiding from the British in other towns. The British were determined to find them.
When the British sent a patrol to find and arrest John Hancock and Samuel Adams, who were “vacationing” in nearby Concord, Warren dispatched Paul Revere and William Dawes to alert the two men—an act that became legendary and was immortalized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s famous poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride.”
On April 19, 1775, British and American troops clashed at Lexington and Concord in the first battles of the Revolutionary War. Warren volunteered to fight at the Battle of Bunker Hill as a private—even though he outranked Colonel William Prescott, who was in actual command.
Joseph Warren died at Bunker Hill as he had lived: heroically. The British did not accord him any respect after his death, though. After the battle, British soldiers stripped Warren’s body of his clothing and bayoneted him until he was unrecognizable. Then they shoved his remains into a shallow ditch.
His brothers and Paul Revere exhumed his body ten months later.
Quotations to Live (and Die) By!
“THE FAMOUS DOCTOR WARREN, THE GREATEST INCENDIARY IN ALL AMERICA, WAS KILLED ON THE SPOT.”
—BRITISH OFFICER LIEUTENANT LORD FRANCIS RAWDON
Abigail Adams lamented Warren’s death. She wrote to John Adams on July 5, 1775, “We want him in the Senate; we want him in his profession; we want him in the field. We mourn for the citizen, the senator, the physician, and the warrior. May we have others raised up in his room.”
MERCY OTIS WARREN
West Barnstable, Massachusetts
September 24,1728–October 19, 1814
Drama Queen
Since Mercy Otis Warren could not carry a sword during the Revolutionary War, she wielded a pen, which was almost as lethal in her hands. She had an acute grasp of politics, particularly as they applied to the outcome of the war, which she expressed in plays, poems, pamphlets, and letters. Even though it was a man’s world in the 1700s, men certainly recognized her value to their patriotic cause. She was a rarity for the time: a woman who was not shy about voicing her opinion in public about independence.
Education by Osmosis
Mercy was raised at a time when families were either fierce Tories or patriots. There was no in between. The Otis family was decidedly in the patriot camp.
Her father, James Otis Sr., was adamantly opposed to King George III’s policies, and he was outspoken against Massachusetts’ governor, Thomas Hutchinson. His feelings rubbed off on his three children.
Mercy Otis’s father believed fervently in the value of a solid education, especially for his sons. That turned out to be an advantage for her. James Sr. hired the Reverend Jonathan Russell to tutor her brothers to prepare them for entry into Harvard. Reverend Russell allowed Mercy to sit in on his lessons and use his library. It was not a formal education for Mercy, but it gave her a background that she used later to needle the British and support the patriots.
Quotations to Live (and Die) By!
“TELL YOUR WIFE THAT GOD ALMIGHTY HAS ENTRUSTED HER WITH THE POWERS FOR THE GOOD OF THE WORLD, WHICH, IN THE CAUSE OF HIS PROVIDENCE, HE BESTOWS ON FEW OF THE HUMAN RACE. THAT INSTEAD OF BEING A FAULT TO USE THEM, IT WOULD BE CRIMINAL TO NEGLECT THEM.”
—JOHN ADAMS IN A LETTER TO JAMES WARREN
Marriage did nothing to change Mercy’s political views. In fact, it strengthened her patriotic fervor. She married her second cousin, James Warren (no relation to Joseph or John Warren), in 1754. As a result, she developed strong friendships with the anti-British leaders of the rebellion in Massachusetts—and their wives. One of the women with whom Mercy Warren was closest was the considerably younger Abigail Adams. She was both mentor and friend to Abigail.
FEDERAL FACTS
James Warren served for a time as the Continental Army’s paymaster. Even though he held the rank of general in the provincial militia, Warren did not participate actively in the war after the fighting ended in Massachusetts. He refused to serve under Continental Army officers of lesser rank.
The Warrens hosted many meetings of the radicals in their home. Noted leaders such as John Adams, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock sought her advice on what to do and how to do it. As a result, she became an activist, rather than just a listener, an unusual position for a woman at the time.
The Pen Is Mightier Than the Sword
Mercy wrote a series of pamphlets, poems, and plays to stir the hearts and minds of the people of Massachusetts. One of her favorite targets was Governor Hutchinson, whom her father and brothers had criticized vocally for many years.
REVOLUTIONARY REVELATIONS
Mercy Warren wrote plays even though there were no theaters in Boston at the time. They were published in newspapers instead. Two pre-war political satires in particular, The Adulateur (1773) and The Group (1775), caught the public’s fancy.
Mercy was aware that she was upsetting many Tories because of her writings. That did not deter her. She also recognized the dangers the patriots faced by openly defying the British and all they could lose. The potential perils did not force her to stow her quill in the inkwell and leave it there.
Quotations to Live (and Die) By!
“BUT OH! THE DREAD OF LOSING ALL THAT THIS WORLD CAN BESTOW BY ONE COSTLY SACRIFICE KEEPS MY MIND IN CONTINUAL ALARMS.”
—MERCY OTIS WARREN TO ABIGAIL ADAMS
Warren continued to write after the war ended and the country had settled down enough to concentrate on creating the Constitution and Bill of Rights. She published two poems in 1790, known collectively as “Poems Dramatic and Miscellaneous.” They were “The Sack of Rome” and “The Ladies of Castile.”
Mercy Otis Warren’s best-known work was the three-volume History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution, which she finished in 1805.
Warren started writing a history of the Revolutionary War while it was in progress, when the events were fresh in her mind. It was not a successful commercial venture for her. She was one of the few people who paid a price for the book.
Publication cost her the friendships of John and Abigail Adams, albeit temporarily, and upset friends and readers because of the way she portrayed some of the patriots.
Quotations to Live (and Die) By!
“MR. ADAMS’ PASSIONS AND PREJUDICES WERE SOMETIMES TOO STRONG FOR HIS SAGACITY AND JUDGMENT.”
—MERCY OTIS WARREN IN THE HISTORY OF THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND TERMINATION OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
Mercy Has Her Doubts
Even though Mercy favored independence, she was not sold on the need for a U.S. Constitution. Neither was her husband. Warren resorted to her pen to campaign against the Constitution. She stated her objections in a 1788 document, Observations on the new Constitution, and on the Federal and State Conventions. Following the custom of the time, she signed it with a pen name, “A Columbian Patriot.” For a time, people believed that it had been written by Elbridge Gerry.
Once she learned that her protests were being ignored, she campaigned to have equal rights for women included in the Constitution. That fell on deaf ears, too.
Quotations to Live (and Die) By!
“DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES ARE THE RESULT OF EQUALITY OF CONDITION.”
—MERCY OTIS WARREN
Mercy’s Last Few Years
Mercy’s history book was her last significant publication. She continued her correspondence with friends and family between then and 1814, when she died. One of her final achievements was to mend her rift with John and Abigail Adams.
Mercy Otis Warren died at eighty-six. Death, however, did not silence her voice. It is still being heard through her numerous writings two centuries later.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
Westmoreland County, Virginia
February 22, 1732–December 14, 1799
Four Bullets and Two Dead Horses
The name most often cited as the country’s Founding Father is George Washington. He was a man of accomplishment, whose well-documented list of “firsts” established him as one of the preeminent Americans in the country’s history. His military leadership enabled a raggedy Continental Army to defeat its professional British enemy. Then, when the United States was struggling to survive in the late 1780s, he stepped in to ensure passage of its new Constitution. Appreciative citizens elected him as their first president—then reelected him. He deserved the encomiums heaped on him, even though he might have been the first one to admit that he did not do the job alone. But he certainly played a leading role.
Early Days
It was a common practice among wealthy Virginians in the early 1700s to send their sons to England to receive an education. George Washington was an exception. He was trained as a surveyor. He spent a large part of his young adult years surveying Lord Thomas Fairfax’s land in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and fighting Indians in the French and Indian War.
Washington honed his military leadership skills during that war, which se
rved him in good stead in the years to come.
REVOLUTIONARY REVELATIONS
In 1755 George Washington served as an aide to General Edward Braddock in the ill-fated expedition to capture Fort Duquesne. During one skirmish, four bullets lodged in Washington’s coat without injuring him, and two horses were killed as he rode them.
By 1759, Washington had had enough of surveying and fighting. He went home to Mount Vernon to tend to his lands in peace and marry Martha Dandridge Custis. His marriage was peaceful; his domestic life was not.
From Delegate to Commander in Chief
Washington could not ignore the British tax and legislative policies aimed at the colonies. As a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, he was in a position to fight against them, which he did throughout the 1760s and early 1770s. The fight became literal in 1775.
Virginia elected George Washington as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress in 1775. His stay was short. He took his seat on May 10, 1775. On June 15, he walked out as the commander in chief of the Continental Army after John Adams urged Congress to appoint him to the post.
Not Your Father's Founders Page 20
