Patriot Jonathan Trumbull

Elaine Marie Cooper

One of my most enjoyable pastimes in researching the American Revolution is discovering lesser-known figures whose role was crucial in helping the Continental Army win against the King’s Army. Jonathan Trumbull was one of these patriots.

Trumbull was the only Colonial governor to remain in office throughout the war, and then win election as the governor of his state following the Revolution. He served Connecticut for 15 years. Siding with the Patriot cause, Trumbull is credited with supplying the Continental Army with about 60% of the food and canons. Because of his efforts, Connecticut earned the unofficial title of “The Provision State.”

A former business owner, Trumbull’s store in Lebanon, Connecticut, became the War Office and a meeting place for the Council of Safety. Dignitaries who visited there during the Revolution included a veritable Who’s Who list of political and military dignitaries, including George Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette, Benjamin Franklin, and cousins Sam and John Adams.

Jonathan Trumbull’s family was among the first to settle in the colony of Connecticut in 1705. Jonathan was born in 1710. As he grew, he originally planned on becoming a minister. However, when his older brother was lost at sea, Jonathan was recalled home from his studies at Harvard to help with the family business.

He proved to be a successful businessman and his reputation led to becoming a leader in his community. He was elected in 1733 to the colonial general assembly. He also served as colonel in the Twelfth Connecticut Regiment during the French and Indian War. He was elected state governor in 1769.

His wife, Faith Robinson, was a direct descendant of John and Priscilla Alden who sailed to America aboard the Mayflower. Jonathan and Faith had six children. One of their sons, John, became a famous early American painter, best known for his depiction of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. 

Jonathan Trumbull was unchallenged in his bid for the office of Governor of Connecticut in 1775. In 1784, he decided not to run for another term.

Trumbull spent his retirement studying theology. He died of a stroke on this day in history, August 17, 1785.

In 1934, The Daughters of the American Revolution purchased Trumbull’s Lebanon home and his store (the “War Office”) and have operated both as a museum ever since. They are open to the public but are currently under restoration, and closed for the 2016 season.

For further information, visit here.

The Connecticut Historical Society has collections of his personal and business letters, including correspondence with George Washington and Benedict Arnold.

The Value of Independence Day by Jennifer Hudson Taylor

#July4th #IndependenceDay

Independence Day means many things to different people, but for most, it is a time of reflection on our freedom. As each new generation is born, it seems that our country grows further and further away from the truth and reality of what it took and the sacrifices our ancestors made to give us the freedoms we enjoy today.

Thomas Jefferson of Virginia is credited with writing the Declaration of Independence, but he had help with edited corrections from a committee of John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Robert Livingston of New York and Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania. The document itself was divided into five parts, an introduction, a preamble, the body consisting of two sections listing grievances against British rule, and a conclusion. Congress deleted and revised one-fifth of the document, but the rest remained as Jefferson penned it, including the preamble.

Fact: The words "Declaration of Independence" are nowhere in the actual document. The actual title is "The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America".

The most famous passage from the preamble: 
"We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

It was adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776 in Philadelphia. This is why we celebrate Independence Day on July 4th across our country. North Carolina was the first colony to vote in favor of independence at their Revolutionary Convention in March 1776.

In fact, on May 20, 1775, the Charlotte area of North Carolina wrote a Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence a year earlier. It contained 27 signatures from the NC counties of Mecklenburg, Rowan and Cabarrus. Captain James Jack carried a report of it to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia who thought the declaration was premature. If the Continental Congress had accepted the Mecklenburg Declaration, would another author be as famous as Thomas Jefferson for writing it? How different would things have been? We may have not been as united and successful. Timing definitely makes a difference.

While the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 is the beginning of our nation's birth, it took fighting for our freedom during the next five years in what became known as the Revolutionary War or the War of Independence against Great Britain.

Most of my story in For Love or Country was set during the last year of the American Revolutionary War. It begins with a Christmas feast and ends a year later at Christmas right after the British surrender to General George Washington. While the story is an historical romance, it chronicles the war as it took place in North Carolina giving an in-depth view of what it was like for Patriots in Wilimington, NC during the British occupation. I include real-life incidents that may interest history lovers.

Britain was a seasoned nation with lots of war experience, a system of government, established funds, and by most standards more stable than our 13 colonies, yet we boldly persevered. We didn't let any of those things stop us as we pursued our freedom. I wonder, would we be so bold today? Would we be so united? I am saddened as I watch our current government make decisions and fight amongst themselves over the most mundane issues.

What would our founding fathers think of us now? I believe they would be proud of how we have tried to honor and preserve the Declaration of Independence and uphold the Constitution, but I also believe they would grieve over the corrupted politics that now rule our nation, the greed that has grown up as tares in our government, and the lack of morales bleeding through the land.

As you take this day to celebrate with your families, share our history, reflect on where we are going, and pray for our nation. Pray for our leaders. The value of our Independence Day--is the inheritance of our nation and the state in which we leave it to our children and the generations to come.

"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He chose for His inheritance."
(Psalm 33:12)

The Great Awakening Influences the American Revolution

 

In the 1730s and 1740s, a spiritual fervency swept the American colonies. It was called the First Great Awakening. Fiery ministers like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield preached about having a deep personal relationship with Jesus Christ and a standard of personal holiness. Many cast off the religious traditions of relying on the religious leaders to tell people what God wanted and started searching the Scriptures and seeking their own relationship with Jesus. Even many church goers had salvation experiences. This caused a revolution in the church, but that was only the beginning of more than one revolution.

Whitefield preached at both Harvard and Yale. At Harvard, it was reported, “The entire college has changed. The students are full of God.” Whitefield became so popular that he drew daily crowds of 8,000 people. In Boston, he drew a crowd of 23,000, larger than the entire population of Boston at the time. Even Benjamin Franklin wrote about the impact of his preaching. He was the cultural hero of the day.

The impact was huge. In New England alone, 25,000 to 50,000 people joined the church and claimed to have salvation experiences. When Jonathan Edwards preached “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, people held on to the posts of the church for hear they would go to Hell before they had a chance to repent. Many universities sprang up for the purpose of training ministers. The colonies united under the umbrella of revival.

It affected the political thought in the colonies as well. People became more democratic believing that the church should be self-governed, not governed by the state. It also welcome people from every walk of life. The church became a melting pot elevating all members of society as equals. As the colonies united in democratic thought, the Church of England – the Anglican Church, sought to crush this awakening causing a divide between England and the colonies.

Founding fathers were also influenced by the Great Awakening:

• John Adams studied at Harvard and considered becoming a minister.
• Samuel Adams was deeply impacted and sought a political revolution to separate the church from England’s influence.
• Benjamin Franklin and George Whitefield were friends. Some believe Franklin might have become a Christian in latter life.
• James Madison was very devout and fought for freedom of religion and checks and balances in government because of the depravity of man.
• John Witherspoon published several books on the Gospel.
• Although there’s no direct connection between George Washington and the Great Awakening, we know that Washington was a devout Christian who even wrote a prayer book.
• 54 of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence were devout Christians. Only Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were not.
• The first act of the Continental Congress was to pray. They prayed at the beginning of every session, and they prayed before voting to declare independence and signing the Declaration of Independence.

The Great Awakening started a spiritual revival that led to the American Revolution and the birth of modern democracy.

Caesar Rodney, Hero of Delaware

It was July 2, 1776.

Exhausted and muddied, the frail yet determined man stumbled into the doorway of the chamber where the second Continental Congress was meeting. Making his way to the desk where the delegates from Delaware sat, he slumped into his wooden chair. Soaked to the skin, he breathed with some difficulty. He had a bandage covering the cancerous sore on his face. But the 48-year-old major general of the Delaware militia, Caesar Rodney, voted with the passion of a man who would ride through any storm to let his desire for liberty lead to the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

Without his vote, the United States of America would likely not exist.

So who was Ceasar Rodney?

He was born the son of a Delaware farmer in 1728. When only seventeen, his father died and the teen was placed under the guardianship of a clerk of the peace in Kent County, Delaware. Through his guardian’s influence, Rodney became interested in politics.

At the young age of twenty-seven, Rodney was named Commissioner High Sheriff of Delaware. Other offices that he held in subsequent years were Registrar of Wills, Recorder of Deeds, Clerk of the Orphan’s Court, and Justice of the Peace. 

By the time he was thirty, he was elected to the Colonial Legislature at Newcastle, Delaware.

In 1765, Rodney was a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress, the first official gathering of several colonies fighting against the higher taxes being enacted by Great Britain. The battle cry of that Congress was “No taxation without representation.”

Rodney's Signature on the Declaration of Independence

Named a delegate to the Continental Congress, Rodney retained his position as a military leader in the colonial militia…and this was what drew him back to Delaware in June of 1776. He had just finished voting on an important resolution for independence in Congress when he was notified that there was a threatened uprising among those loyal to the king living in Sussex County, Delaware.

The final vote in Philadelphia on whether or not to adopt the Declaration of Independence was approaching and delegate Thomas McKean was beginning to panic. He knew that delegate George Read would vote “Nay” to independence. If there were only two votes from Delaware, they would cancel each other out. Delaware needed Rodney’s third vote for the majority. McKean was desperate and he sent a messenger to retrieve Rodney.

Caesar Rodney Statue, Rodney Square, Wilmington, Delaware

Rodney received the message on the evening of July 1. He left immediately for Philadelphia, 80 miles away

According to Russ Picket (russpicket.com), it was an “agonizing ride” through a severe thunderstorm, terrible heat, over mud-filled roads and across swollen creeks. All the while, Rodney suffered from asthma and the pain of a cancerous tumor on his face.

He arrived in Philadelphia on the afternoon of July 2, in time for the Congressional vote.

Rodney continued to serve his new country. He held the office of Speaker to the Upper House of the Delaware Assembly until the day he died, June 26, 1784.

Rodney never received proper treatment for his cancer. He put aside his personal pain to save his country. He was truly a hero, not just of Delaware, but of the United States.

Watch this interesting depiction of the arrival of Caesar Rodney to Congress, from the musical “1776.”  Click here.

Put Your John Hancock Here

 More than 200 years after signing the Declaration of Independence, it is still John Hancock’s ornate signature that draws the eye. His artistic style is looked upon with fascination by young and old alike. 

It is such a stark contrast to the methods of written communication today. Hovering with bent shoulders, writers click away on keyboards, leaving the "art" to the creation of passages that draw pictures for readers to envision. But the actual fonts? They are produced, magically it seems, by the software in computers.

So how did the Colonials write like that back in Early America? The students learned the art with painstaking practice. With a feather quill and homemade ink, these boys and girls refined their strokes in great flowing style that marked an era of intricate penmanship—an art nearly forgotten.

The script demonstrated by John Hancock was known as the “Boston Style of Writing,” taught by Abiah Holbrook, who was esteemed as a great master of the pen. Writing masters were universally honored in every community, according to Home and Child Life in Colonial Days by Shirley Glubock. In 1745, Mr. Holbrook had 220 scholars in one school, learning this art of penmanship. John Hancock was one of Holbrook’s most notable students.

Galls on a tree

It’s difficult to imagine all the intricacies of this type of written communication. It required a sharp quill with the feather still attached, usually from a goose. Some managed to perfect the art of sharpening the point of the quill with a knife—the origin of the word, “pen-knife.” Those not wanting to sharpen their own could have them done by professionals who stationed themselves on streets. These gentlemen were called “stationers.”

And then there was the ink. There were various recipes that produced the blue liquid that dried black and eventually faded to a brown tone. An essential ingredient of the formula was galls—odd swellings on oak trees that were a natural reaction to parasites—combined with copperas, which is an iron compound. This produced an ink that has lasted through hundreds of years, making letters from long ago still visible to the naked eye. And beautifully visible at that. The script makes any document look more art than narrative.

One recipe of olde to make “excellent ink:”

Raine water 3 gallons, of white wine vinegar a quart, gaules two pounds, gum arabeck one pound, pomegranate pills one quarter of a pound, all these bruised but not beat too small, copporus two ounces, this will be ready the sooner, if it stand nearby the fire, or in the sun.”