May 25, 1776

Oliver Wolcott, in Philadelphia to represent Connecticut in the Continental Congress, wrote to his wife, Laura Wolcott, "G. Britain mean or rather the King of it [means] to exert his utmost force agt. this Country and has infamously hired Mercenaries to Subdue us but I trust God he will be defeated."

Paul Herbert Smith, ed., Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789: Vol. 4: May 16-August 14, 1776 (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1979), page 72

May 24, 1776: Efforts in Canada

John Hancock, President in Congress, wrote to the Commissioners to Canada, "In Obedience to a Resolve of Congress I herewith transmit the Sum of Sixteen Hundred and sixty two Pounds, one Shilling & three pence in three Bags.... This is all the hard Money that was in the Treasury."

Paul Herbert Smith, ed., Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789: Vol. 4: May 16-August 14, 1776 (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1979), page 66.

May 23, 1776: Public Spirit

John Hancock, President of Congress, wrote to Abraham Livingston.

The Congress having been pleased to accept your Resignation of the Contract for supplying the Forces in the Colony of New York, I am extremely happy in conveying to you the Sense they entertain of your Conduct on the Occasion.

In thus voluntarily resigning so profitable a Contract, it is their Opinion which I am commanded to signify to you, That you have exhibited an Example of Public Spirit.


Paul Herbert Smith, ed., Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789: Vol. 4: May 16-August 14, 1776 (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1979), pages 63-64.

Hancock enclosed a notice of a May 10, 1776 resolution of Congress, "Resolved, That Mr. Abraham Livingston, in voluntarily resigning a contract which might have been so profitable to him, has exhibited an example of publick spirit, and Congress accept the resignation of his Contract."

Livingston's resignation allowed Carpenter Wharton, already supplying Continental troops in Pennsylvania, to easily assume responsibilities Livingston could not as easily undertake. Livignston also freed New York's Convention and Committee of Safety from having to honor a contract with Livingston, at the expense of full cooperation with Wharton. See James Duane to the New York Provincial Convention, 21 March 1776, in Paul Herbert Smith, ed., Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789: Vol. 3: January 1, 1776 - May 15, 1776
(Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1978), page 423, note 2.

May 22, 1776

Ceasar Rodney of Delaware wrote to his brother Thomas Rodney to explain why he thought the people of Philadelphia had "Acted rather unwisely."

Ceasar Rodney wrote, "They have Called a Town Meeting--by which they have determined to apply to the Committees of Inspection of the Several Counties throughout the province, to depute a Certain number of each of those Committees to meet together at Philadelphia, And there agree on, and order What number of Members Shall be Elected by the people in Each County within the province, to meet in Convention at Philadelphia, The Whole number for the Province to be One hundred. This Convention is to be Chose for the Special purpose of Laying the plan of Government-and when that is Done, and an Assembly Chose and Returned agreable to Such plan the Convention is to be disolved."

Rodney conceded, "This mode for Establishing a Government appears to be, and really is verry fair. Yet I think they are unwise, Because we are Certain that a verry powerfull force is Expected from England against us, some are Come, the rest will undoubtedly Arrive before Midsummer."

Expressing a common concern, Rodney explained, "We shall be Oblidged to Exert every Nerve, at every point, and we well know how necessary Regular Government is to this End--and by their Mode it will be impossible for them to have any Government for three months to Come, and during that time much Confusion." Paul Herbert Smith, ed., Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789: Vol. 4: May 16-August 14, 1776 (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1979), page 61.

The fear that a temporary lack of government might lead to chaos was not uncommon. In a May 17 sermon, Rev. John Witherspoon observed, to "the honour of this country," that "though government in the ancient forms has been so long unhinged, yet in some colonies not sufficient care taken to sibstitute another in its place, yet has there been, by common consent, a much greater degree of order and public peace, than men of reflexion and experience foretold or expected."

May 21, 1776: Fast into Independency

Francis Lightfoot Lee, representing Virginia in the Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, wrote to Landon Carter, "This & the adjoining Colonies are going fast into Independency & constituting new Governmts. convinced of the necessity of it, both for the security of internal peace & good order; and for the vigorous exertion of their whole force against the common Enemy."

May 20, 1776: John Adams to James Warren

John Adams was glad to meet Button Gwinnett and Lyman Hall, Esquires, delegates from Georgia, and glad to learn that their colony authorized them to vote as seemed proper to them. Adams wrote, "Every Post and every Day rolls in upon Us Independance like a Torrent. The Delegates from Georgia made their Appearance, this Day, in Congress, with unlimited Powers, and these Gentlemen themselves are very firm."

Despite the vulnerability of Georgia, to potential British allies like the Creek and Cherokee Nations, the Georgia Provincial Congress reminded the delegates "to keep in view the general Utility, remembering that the Great and Righteous Cause in which we are engaged is not Provincial but Continental."

The Georgia Congress credentials for the delegates to the "Grand Continental Congress" concluded, "We therefore, Gentlemen, shall rely upon your Patriotism, Abilities, Firmness and Integrity, to propose, join and concur in all such measures as you shall think calculated for the common good...."

Paul Herbert Smith, ed., Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789: Vol. 4: May 16-August 14, 1776 (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1979), page 40; Worthington Chauncey Ford, ed.,Journals of the Continental Congress 1774-1789: Vol. 4: January 1-June 4, 1776 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1906), page 367, note 1.

March 19, 1776: "Independance" a "delicate Subject"

On March 19, 1776, James Duane of New York is still mulling over the implications of a Congressional resolution (and its revolutionary preamble) composed by John Adams.

In another letter to John Jay, Duane tries to gauge the sentiments in the colonies: "You knwo the Maryland Instructions and those of Pennsylvania. I am greatly in doubt whether either of their Assemblies or Conventions will listen to a Recommendation the preamble of which so openly avows Independance & Separation. The lower Counties [the Lower Counties on the Delaware, that is, the colony of Delaware] will probably adhere to Pensylvania. New Jersey you can form a good Judgment of from the Reception this important Resolution has met with."

Duane added, "The orators of Virginia with Col. [Patrick] Henry at their Head are against a Change of Government. The Body of the People, Col. Nelson...thinks are for it. The late election of Deputies for the Convention of New York sufficiently proves that those who assumed clandestine power & gave Laws even to the Convention & Committees were ussupported by the people. There seems therefore no Reason that our Colony shou'd be too precipitate in changing the present mode of Government."

Duane wrote, "I would wish first to be well assured of the Opinion of the Inhabitants at large. Let them be rather followed than driver on an Occasion of momentuous Concern. But, above all, let us see the Conduct of the middle Colonies before we come to a Decision. It cannot injure us to wait a few weeks...for this trying Question will clearly discover the true principals & the Extent of the Union of the Colonies. This, my dear Sir, is a delicate Subject on which I cannot enlarge at present."

Duane asked Jay to hurry at least one of the other delegates back to Congress, hopefully more acquainted with prevailing sentiment of New Yorkers.

Paul Herbert Smith, ed., Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789: Vol. 4: May-August 1776 (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1979), 34-35.

May 18, 1776: Supporting efforts in Canada

Journals of the Continental Congress, May 18, 1776:

“The Secret Committee having informed Congress of the arrival of one of the vessels fitted out at the expence of the continent, with a quantity of cash,
“Resolved, That the Secret Committee be directed to give orders for sending the cash, with all convenient dispatch, to the commissioners of Congress in Canada:
“That the hard money in the treasury be immediately forwarded to General Schuyler.”
Worthington Chauncey Ford, ed., Journals of the Continental Congress 1774-1789: Vol. 4: January 1-June 4, 1776 (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1906),365-6.

Even as American invasion of Canada becomes a withdrawal, the Continental Congress attempts to support the beleaguered forces.

May 17, 1776: Rev. John Witherspoon

In Princeton, New Jersey on May 17, 1776, Rev. John Witherspoon delivered the sermon "The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men," based on Psalm 76: 10: "Surely the Wrath of Man shall praise thee; the remainder of Wrath shalt thou restrain."

Witherspoon maintained that "the ambition of mistaken princes...and even the inhumanity of brutal soldiers, however dreadful, shall finally promote the glory of God...." In fact, the misconduct of British soldiers alienated many Americans, turning Americans against the Crown. Witherspoon added, "...in the mean time, while the storm continues, his mercy and kindness shall appear in prescribing bounds to their rage and fury."

Born in Scotland, John Witherspoon came to Princeton in 1768 to serve as the sixth president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). As a delegate from New Jersey in the Continental Congress, Witherspoon signed the Declaration of Independence. Witherspoon also served in the New Jersey Ratifying Convention (1787), which ratified the federal Constitution.

Witherspoon's prominance and activism energized the clergy, especially his fellow-Presbyterian clergymen, as promoters of American independence. Witherspoon authored "A Pastoral Letter from the Synod of New York and Philadelphia," to be read from the pulpits of the churches of the synod on June 29, 1775. Thomas Miller writes that the letter "changed the role of the Presbyterian clergy from uncommitted observers to active supporters of the revolution."

Jeffrey H. Morrison, John Witherspoon and the Founding of the American Republic (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame, 2005), 2; Thomas Miller, ed., The Selected Writings of John Witherspoon (Carbondale: Southern Illinoi University Press, 1990), 29.

May 16, 1776

It was a clever maneuver by John Adams. First, Adams served on the committee of the Continental Congress drafting a resolution recommending that any colonies with "no government sufficient to the exigencies of their affairs" should "adopt such government as shall, in the opinion of the representatives of the people, best conduce to the happiness and safety of their constituents in particular, and America in general."

Congress passes the mild and reasonable resolution on May 10, 1776. Then Adams served on the committee drafting a preamble for publication with the resolution. Congress passed the preamble on May 15, 1776.

While the resolution recommended new governments only for those colonies without adequate governmental services, the preamble recommended that all crown authority "be totally suppressed" and that all colonies implement government "under the authority of the people of the colonies...."

The implications of the preamble were not lost on Congressman James Duane of New York. Adams wrote in his Diary, May 14, "Mr. Duane called it to me, a machine for the fabrication of independence. I said, smiling, I thought it was independence itself, but we must have it with more formality yet."

In May 1776, however, Duane thought the idea of independence nearly unmentionable. In a May 16 letter to fellow-New Yorker John Jay, Duane wrote, "The Resolution itself first passed and then a Committee was appointed to fit it with a preamble. Compare them with each other and it will probably lead you into Reflections which I dare not point out."

My thanks to Lester J. Cappon for calling attention to the episode. Lester J. Cappon, ed., The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson & Abigail & John Adams (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1987 [1959]), 336-337 and 337 note 77.

Adams wrote the resolution and preamble, but this did not prevent him from observing on May 15, "This Day the Congress has passed the most important Resolution, that ever was taken in America."

Worthington Chauncey Ford, ed., Journals of the Continental Congress 1774-1789: Vol. 4: January 1-June 4, 1776 (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1906), 342, 357, 358.

Paul Herbert Smith, ed., Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789: Vol. 4: May-August 1776 (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1979), 5.

Charles Francis Adams, ed., The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States... 10 vols. (Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1851)3:5.

May 15, 1776: "one thing after another seem gradually to lead" to Independence

On this date, Stephen Hopkins, a representative of Rhode Island and Provindence Plantation in the Continental Congress, wrote to the governor of the colony, Nicholas Cooke, "I suppose that it will not be long before the Congress will throw off all connection as well in name as in substance with Great Britain, as one thing after another seem gradually to lead them to such a step, they having, within a few days, past a resolve, earnestly to recommend to all the Colonies who, at present are not under a perfect form of Government to take up and form such, each Colony for themselves which I make no Doubt most of them will very soon do."

Referring to the same legislation, and the Preamble to it passed on May 15, Congressman John Adams from Massachusetts wrote to James Warren, "This Day the Congress has passed the most important Resolution, that ever was taken in America."

Paul Herbert Smith, ed., Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789: Vol. 3: January 1-May 15, 1776 (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1978), 676, 681.

January 26, 1776

"The prisoners will be treated with kindness, and will be sent forward to-morrow."--William Watson to George Washington, 26 January 1776

Watson, the Continental agent at Plymouth, Massachusetts, was not the only agent who understood General Washington's expectation that prisoners should receive kind treatment.