250 and Counting

Category: US History

  • March 27, 1775: Thomas Jefferson Gets an Important Appointment

    Cover art for March 27, 1775: Portrait of Thomas Jefferson, 1791, by Charles Willson Peale.

    We hate to say it, but Thomas Jefferson was kind of a nepo baby.

    Jefferson was part of the Second Virginia Convention, and no doubt he got there honestly, as a man who had lots of property and was well-regarded, even at the tender age of 32. But when Peyton Randolph needed someone to replace him in the Second Continental Congress, he called on Jefferson—who was his cousin.

    On the positive side, Jefferson acquitted himself well in both the Virginia House of Burgesses, where he represented Albemarle County, and simultaneously at the Second Continental Congress. So while he probably didn’t need the familial boost, it surely didn’t hurt.

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  • March 26, 1775: Thomas Monteagle Bayly

    Cover art for March 26, 1775: B&W detail of a (c. 1820) painting by George Catlin of the Virginia House of Delegates.

    Never let it be said that we can’t find the less-obvious folks in American History. Thomas Bayly was definitely one of them.

    Bayly was a one-term congressman to the US House of Representatives as part of the 13th Congress (as this is written, we’re in the 118th). By most accounts he wasn’t especially distinguished, but only serving for the one term didn’t mean that he was politically finished. A few years after he left Congress, he was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates, and he was part of the Virginia Constitutional Convention.

    Bayly was “minor” enough in history that we were only able to find a single image of him—the one in the cover artwork. And it’s actually a black-and-white rendering of a color painting that’s been zoomed in to the point where you can see the texture on the canvas. It’s a detail from a painting of the entire House of Delegates around 1820.

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  • March 24, 1775: The Massachusetts Provincial Congress Steps Up

    Cover art for March 24, 1775: John Hancock, oil on canvas by John Singleton Copley, 1765; in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

    We’ve spent a lot of time talking about events in Virginia lately, but that doesn’t mean that the folks in Massachusetts weren’t getting things done. It just means that they weren’t making a big deal about it.

    For the past several weeks, they’d been working on the down-low to make plans in case the British took any action that they might find too intrusive, from simple confiscations to an all-out shooting offense. (Of course that was still on the table; nobody had forgotten the Boston Massacre.)

    It wasn’t until this day in history that they made their resolution publicly known. And in the wake of Patrick Henry’s very recent proclamation, nobody would be surprised if things escalated sooner rather than later.

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  • March 23, 1775: A Wedding Announcement and a Birthday Celebration

    Cover art for March 23, 1775: Portrait of Dr. William Foushee, ca. 1820 (public domain image; attribution on the image is to someone named "Eugene")

    This show isn’t just about the big moments in American history, though we’ve been giving you those. We also take the time to look at some of the smaller things, which may have an effect later on down the line. And today we can mark two of those events.

    First up is a wedding taking place in Southampton County in Virginia, across the bay from Williamsburg. The bride was an educated woman who carried on that tradition afterward, and the groom was a future mayor of Richmond, the city’s first, in fact.

    Meanwhile, up in Pennsylvania, America’s first botanist was celebrating a birthday. Unfortunately it was one of his last.

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  • March 22, 1775: Edmund Burke Gives Parliament His Thoughts

    Cover art for March 22, 1775: Edmund Burke addresses the House of Commons, by CJ Staniland, date unknown

    A quick note on the cover art: this may be the first time I (Claude) happened to match the side banner with the background of the webpage exactly.

    As we’ve noted in the past, Benjamin Franklin and Edmund Burke were good friends who worked together to come up with a solution that would get the Colonies and the Crown back into each others’ good graces.

    Now that we think about it, Franklin was good friends with many people on both sides of the Atlantic, and now we’re wondering if he was just one of those guys to whom you take an instant liking without knowing quite why.

    At any rate, by this point the two men had to concede that it was far too late to prevent further escalation, and they were right. Burke took the time to address Parliament on this day, and let them all know just what a mistake they’d made.

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  • March 21, 1775: Franklin Departs London Forever

    Cover art for March 21, 1775: The house where Benjamin Franklin stayed while on his final trip to London.

    Benjamin Franklin was pretty good at diplomacy, but even when given several years to try, he was unable to bring about peace between England and the Thirteen Colonies.

    From December 1774 through February 1775, he and some of his British friends tried to put together a map to peace, but unfortunately both sides were too entrenched to even consider compromise. Franklin finally went home on this day in 1775, but he left one final impression that we’ll learn about tomorrow.

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  • March 20, 1775: The Second Virginia Convention

    Cover art for March 20, 1775: portrait of Peyton Randolph by John Wollaston, circa early 1770s

    The people in Virginia were getting pretty upset about what was going on between the Colonies and the British Parliament. They called a convention and, as we’ve noted over the past several days, each county sent delegates with specific instructions, many of which recommended that the colony commit itself to resisting the British and supporting any efforts made by other American entities in that respect.

    The Second Virginia Convention finally met on this day in 1775, and they elected Peyton Randolph as its president. This was no surprise to anyone, as Randolph had been the president of the First Virginia Convention, and of the First Continental Congress.

    Randolph was also briefly the president of the Second Continental Congress but had to return to Virginia and was replaced by John Hancock. Shortly thereafter he had a fit of apoplexy (what we now call a hemorrhagic stroke) and died in October 1775.

    So even though he didn’t live to learn of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Randolph is frequently considered to be one of our Founding Fathers.

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  • March 19, 1775: The Watauga Purchase

    Cover art for March 19, 1775: Historical marker in Elizabethtown, Tennessee, commemorating the Watauga Purchase.

    The Watauga Purchase was one of several land purchases in the area of the Watauga River made around the same time. But this one was first, and we know this because it’s literally on Page One of the deed book, which still exists in the Archives of two different states (one is a copy, of course).

    Interestingly, while this territory is sometimes considered by historians to be a self-governing area, the residents actually considered themselves to be British subjects, even after the war began, and to a certain extent even for a short period after the Declaration of Independence was signed. That likely ended when the Cherokees (who were aligned with the British) attacked several settlements, although they were badly beaten in the attempt.

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  • March 18, 1775: Ben Franklin Confides in Edmund Burke

    Cover art for March 18, 1775: Portrait of Edmund Burke. 1771 by Joshua Reynolds

    Among the casualties of the early days of American History are all the friendships that were damaged by people being on opposite sides of the political fence. Good thing we’re all past that sort of petty nonsense nowadays, amirite?

    Sigh.

    We’ve talked in the past about John Adams and his former friend Daniel Leonard, who sparred in print under pen names and never quite repaired their relationship. Today we talk about Benjamin Franklin and Edmund Burke, a member of the British Parliament who was good friends with Franklin, though perhaps not publicly. Today marks the likely last day that the two men ever saw each other, as Franklin was on the final trip to England of his lifetime. Sadder still, Burke was actually sympathetic to the Colonist cause, though he wasn’t entirely convinced that they’d win a war.

    On the other hand, hardly anyone was convinced that Britain would be defeated, so there’s that.

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  • March 17, 1775: Ninian Edwards and His Illinois Doings

    Cover art for March 17, 1775: Portrait of Ninian Edwards, artist unknown, currently hanging in the Illinois State Capitol's Hall of Governors.

    (Yeah, we couldn’t fit all that on the title card and have the artwork still visible.)

    Happy St. Patrick’s Day, if you’re the type to celebrate! We have a little Easter Egg (shamrock?) in this episode for you.

    Ninian Edwards was an interesting character in that he tried very hard to make the best choices for the people he represented, and while he succeeded in some respects, in others it seems he left a trail of hard feelings and broken plans.

    But with a single exception he doesn’t seem to have acted out of malice, or greed. It’s just that most of the things he’s known for didn’t quite work out the way he hoped. And yet, he still remains in the record book for a job he held in his youth, and for being one of Illinois’ first senators.

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