Whistleblower

In 1776, the Continental Congress ordered Esek Hopkins, the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Navy, to treat prisoners "well and humanely." In 1777, ten sailors and marines reported Hopkins for mistreating British prisoners. Congress dismissed the commodore.

Well-connected in Rhode Island, Hopkins had two whistleblowers, Richard Marven and Samuel Shaw, arrested there for libel. Congress stood by the whistleblowers.

Allison Stanger wrote in 2019, " Congress ruled that Marven and Shaw should be released. Bit the legislators went even further; on July 30, 1778, they passed the world's first whistle-blower-protection law." A professor at Middlebury College, Stanger is also a technology and human values senior fellow Harvard University's Edmund J. Safra Center for Ethics.

Stephen M. Kohn of the National Whistleblower Center wrote in a 2011 Op-Ed for The New York Times, "Armed with Congress's support, the whistle-blowers put on a strong defense, and won their case in court. And true to its word, Congress on May 22, 1779, provided $1,418 to cover costs associated with the whistle-blowers' defense."

🌟Allison Stanger maintains the Continental Congress was taking a stand against torturing enemy captives and also a stand against corruption. The American Revolution gives us an example of opposing torture and corruption--and protecting whistleblowers! 

Sept 11 Anniversary

With our recollection of the dead and compassion for the grieving, we should make room for remembering what America should continue to be.

🌟 George Washington and Thomas Jefferson's idea of America and freedom included Muslims and Jews.

🌟For the most part, American revolutionaries considered the mistreatment of prisoners a disgrace to the nation that committed it.

Rev. John Witherspoon remarked, "The barbarous treatment of the American prisoners ... is a melancholy subject indeed, and will be a stain upon the British name to future ages." Link here.

🌟As Noah Feldman wrote in The Three Lives of James Madison, President James Madison protected civil liberties during the War of 1812. "Madison wanted to demonstrate that the Constitution could preserve freedom no matter what challenges it faced."

Toleration

Check out my recent article in the Journal of the American Revolution, entitled "America's Revolution Against Toleration: The Rise of True Religious Liberty."

Welsh economist and Nonconformist clergyman Richard Price explained, "Toleration can take place only where ... a predominant sect enjoys exclusive advantages ... but at the same time thinks fit to suffer the exercise of other modes of faith and worship."

Price delivered sermons in London defending the American Revolution. Americans loved Richard Price. When Price said he disapproved of religious qualifications for public office, Americans opposed religious tests for office.

I believe Richard Price directly influenced a landmark feature of the Constitution.

As I mentioned in the article, "Even before the Bill of Rights, Article 6 of the Constitution opened federal office to people of any religious persuasion. Article 6 eliminated the insult of exclusion that was often a hallmark of toleration."

Despite Price's popularity at the time of the Revolution (1775-1783) and the Constitutional Convention (1787), we modern Americans rarely hear of this philosopher and friend of liberty.

See also
"The Debate Over Religious Tests," Center for the Study of the American Constitution, University of Wisconson-Madison.
The Founders Constitution, Volume 4, Article 6, Clause 3, The University of Chicago Press.

under God

Thank you also to anyone who read my article "'Under God:' Understanding Its Revolutionary Usage," Journal of the American Revolution. 
The phrase was meant to avert misfortune by piously making praise conditional and making confidence humble. It functioned like the Arabic phrase inshallah, "God willing." Only in the 1950s did Americans radically change the meaning of the phrase. 
My thanks also to everyone who has taken a look at my ebook, The Founding Fathers versus Tucker Carlson.  Where the Fox News opinion show host wants viewers to fear "demographic chance," George Washington wanted America to welcome the poor and oppressed "of all nations and religions."

You can find the book on
Kobo
Apple Books
Amazon Kindle
Barnes & Noble Nook
and other sites selling ebooks.

Murdered

On December 1, 1777, James Lovell, a Massachusetts delegate to the Continental Congress, informed fellow-New Englander John Adams, "Genl. Howe will not exchange prisoners till those murthered at New York are paid for with fresh and good Soldiers."

Robert J. Taylor, editor of that volume of the John Adams Papers, was puzzled by the reference to murdered prisoners.  "The allusion here remains obscure," Taylor wrote.

The prisoners "murthered" in British-occupied New York City were prisoners of British commander military Sir William Howe in the winter of 1776-77.  

Howe's forces captured 4,114 Continental soldiers in the last half of 1776.  About 1,000 died in Howe's prisons and prison ships in New York.  Another 2,000 or so of the prisoners died in the first months of 1777, after Howe released them.  Please check the post, "2000 Corpses."

In the words of Continental Private William Darlington, his fellow-prisoners "began to die like rotten sheep" from "cold, hunger, and dirt."

The massive prisoner die-off at the end of 1776, and the prisoner exchange dispute that followed between Howe and George Washington, remains obscure to many researchers.  For more information, please consult my article for Journal of the American Revolution, "1776--The Horror Show."

JAR: Journal of the American Revolution

The Journal of the American Revolution chose haunting artwork to accompany the article I wrote, "1776--The Horror Show." 

The art includes a heart-rending detail from a sketch of Continental personnel held prisoner on board the prison ship Jersey.  The illustration is by John Trumbull of Connecticut, a state deeply affected by prisoner abuse in nearby British-occupied New York City. 

The artist John Trumbull was the son of Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull Sr and the first cousin of poet John Trumbull.  Click these initials to visit the homepage of the JAR.