250 and Counting

This day in American History, 250 years ago.

  • Jean-Guillaume Hyde–January 24, 1776

    Cover art for January 24, 1776: Detail of an 1830 lithograph by Ducarme after a portrait by Legrand.
    Detail of an 1830 lithograph by Ducarme after a portrait by Legrand.

    While the United States has had its share of international mishaps, not all of them have been created by Americans. Jean-Guillaume Hyde, more properly known as “Jean-Guillaume, baron Hyde de Neuville”, would be an early example of this.

    Hyde was probably a textbook case of failing upward, as he appears to have suffered multiple setbacks and still managed to come out ahead later on. As early as 1793, when he was 17, Hyde liked to work behind the scenes, trying to nudge people into saying and doing things that would benefit France, and oftentimes failing. This eventually led to his being made to move to the United States in 1800. In 1814 when the Bourbons returned to power in France, he was allowed to return.

    That’s where his diplomatic career began, and he spent six years as the ambassador to the US, where he was rather universally despised. From there he went to Portugal, where he was again a disaster as a diplomat. This time it only took about three years to kick him out.

    In 1828 Hyde became Minister of the Navy and the Colonies where he did appear to have some luck improving the way the French Colonial Empire was organized and run, but he eventually resigned from the position as a symbol of protest.

    Hyde was involved with the internal discussions to decide whether a new commercial treaty with the US was a worthy idea, though we don’t think he did any of the actual negotiating with America.

    Hyde died in Paris in 1857 and the book of his “memoirs” is actually a collection of letters and notes compiled by his nieces.

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  • A Most Dreadful Voyage–January 23, 1776

    Cover art for January 23, 1776: "An English Ship at Sea Lying-To in a Gale," painted by Willem van de Velde the Younger, late 17th century.
    “An English Ship at Sea Lying-To in a Gale,” painted by Willem van de Velde the Younger, late 17th century.

    The HMS Blue Mountain Valley—which probably got its name from the place in eastern Jamaica—had rather a rough trip to America from London in late 1775 and early 1776.

    They left London in mid-October 1775 and ran into multiple storms before arriving somewhere near Boston nine or ten weeks later. Damage to the ship was such that it was judged unsafe to enter the Massachusetts Bay because safe navigation there couldn’t be guaranteed. They decided to head further south, arriving near Egg Harbor, NJ on January 18.

    Given that they were under orders not to approach the coast without an escorting warship (or reassurance from a warship that a given harbor was safe), they chose to take the Blue Mountain Valley a few miles north to Sandy Hook, where they could get a refit to navigate the ship safely. Bad luck for them; Patriot forces knew they were coming and laid a trap, capturing them easily. By that point, the sailors were hungry and thirsty, much of their cargo had died or gone rotten, and it’s entirely possible that the crew actually viewed capture as a kind of rescue. The ship was moved to Elizabethtown (now known as just Elizabeth, just south of modern-day Newark Airport) and the crew given parole in the town.

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    PS: much of my research for this episode came from Eric Wiser’s Journal of the American Revolution article “Blue Mountain Valley and the Rise of Lord Stirling,” which goes into much greater depth than I could provide either here or in the episode. It’s a pretty fascinating read.

  • “Which Will Be Your Choice?”–January 22, 1776

    Cover art for January 22, 1776: portrait of Francis Lightfoot Lee. Artist and date unknown, however the original painting is thought to have been created during his lifetime. This is the basis for many images of Lee.
    Portrait of Francis Lightfoot Lee. Artist and date unknown, however the original painting is thought to have been created during his lifetime. This is the basis for many images of Lee.

    Francis Lightfoot Lee is another one of those Founding Fathers who was there for much of the main action, but who doesn’t seem to get as much press as Jefferson, Franklin, Adams and a few others. That’s not to say he didn’t have any influence.

    In fact, as we learn today, he was one of the first to suggest the inevitability of a clean break with Britain. At least, one of the first to actually put it in writing, which was pretty brave considering the British habit of reading people’s mail.

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  • Elisha Haley–January 21, 1776

    Cover art for January 21, 1776: Portrait of Elisha Haley, artist unknown, created approximately 1860.
    Portrait of Elisha Haley, artist unknown, created approximately 1860.

    Elisha Haley wasn’t necessarily a lawmaker at either the State or the Federal level who made such a huge mark that he’s become a kind of household name, but he appears to have been solid enough that he could get elected multiple times at both levels.

    I did discover, after recording the episode, that Haley is not, in fact, buried in Crary Cemetery but rather in the Wightman Cemetery, which is also in Groton. His wife and four of his children are also buried there.

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  • Charles Pinckney Sumner–January 20, 1776

    Cover art for January 20, 1776: Sumner's grave in Cambridge, Massachusetts. via Find-a-Grave.com.

    Charles Pinckney Sumner was a man ahead of his time, in the sense that he knew not only that slavery was wrong, but that slaves need not only to be freed, but to be treated as equal citizens.

    He also carried a rather Utopian view of what society should be like, that Nature was at least as important as Nurture, if not more so.

    Although he and his wife Relief Jacob had at least nine children, they were considered to be not especially demonstrative with one another, even described by some as “formal.”

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  • Busy Day In Congress–January 19, 1776

    Cover art for January 19, 1776: painting of the Continental Congress by John Trumbull, created around 1819. This painting depicts a date several months after today.
    Painting of the Continental Congress by John Trumbull, created around 1819. This painting depicts a date several months after today. Trumbull was especially insistent on painting subjects from life whenever he could.

    The Second Continental Congress Committees, several of them anyway, reported out on this day in 1776 and it was starting to become clear that the individual colonies had some needs when it came to defense.

    There were issues with prisoners possibly being mistreated, word had gotten back regarding what had happened in Quebec on New Year’s Day, South Carolina had some need for sailors to defend the Charleston Bay…there was a lot going on, and while we view the large number of committees, with names that are either too obvious or a little silly, to be a bit much, we’re also viewing it through a modern-day lens.

    Not that life was simpler—though it was, in a sense—but that the Congress was quite pragmatic and direct in the way they operated.

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  • Church Gets Out–January 18, 1776

    Cover art for January 18, 1776: a posthumous portrait of Benjamin Church based on "contemporary information." No life portrait of Church is known to exist.

    Given that Benjamin Church was discovered to be a traitor long before Benedict Arnold was, it’s a little peculiar that Arnold’s name has carried down through history much more than Church’s was.

    Maybe it’s because Church was a little less prominent in the Revolution before he was caught. Maybe “Benedict Arnold” has a better ring to it as something to hurl at someone who’s broken your trust.

    It’s also possible that, at that time, nobody really knew the extent of the damage Benjamin Church had done, while Arnold’s treachery was immediately apparent.

    (For what it’s worth, it’s been postulated that Benedict Arnold’s traitorous activities were pushed on him by his wife, but nobody gets called a “Peggy Shippen,” so in the end, who knows?)

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  • Many Letters to George–January 17, 1776

    Cover art for January 17, 1776: copy of a letter send in April 1776 by Washington to the Continental Congress. via Library of Congress.
    Copy of a letter sent in April 1776 by Washington to the Continental Congress. via Library of Congress.

    George Washington was a prolific letter writer, and as such he also tended to receive a great number of letters.

    We have to day three missives sent to George Washington on this day in 1776.

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    (Pardon my brevity for this episode; as I write this my wife has spent the better part of the day in the hospital for a surgical procedure, and I’m too exhausted to be my usual clever self.)

  • A Council of War–January 16, 1776

    Cover art for January 16, 1776: This appears to be a colorized print taken from a monument relief. This is actually Washington's Council of War from shortly before the Battle at Monmouth.
    This appears to be a colorized print taken from a monument relief. This is actually Washington’s Council of War from shortly before the Battle at Monmouth.

    George Washington was a good leader in the sense that he knew what his troops needed, but he was also a good leader because he sought the counsel of others before making decisions. Washington would call a Council of War before he made big movements, and the Boston Council of War was no exception.

    Washington knew that the Siege of Boston wasn’t going to last forever. Before much more time would pass, the weather was going to break and it would start to get warmer, and in his eyes, that’s when there’d be a huge infusion of British soldiers to come in from the harbor side and bust the whole thing wide open.

    And this is one of the things he discussed with his Boston Council of War. (To be fair, I don’t think that’s what he actually called it; I’m just using that phrase to make a distinction between this group and other Councils he called.)

    In addition, Washington changed his mind about recruiting soldiers who’d previously been banned.

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  • Sam Adams Also Has Concerns–January 15, 1776

    Cover art for January 15, 1776: Samuel Adams in 1772, painted by John Singleton Copley. via Wikimedia Commons and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
    Samuel Adams in 1772, painted by John Singleton Copley. via Wikimedia Commons and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

    Samuel Adams made a point of telling his second cousin John Adams that he didn’t have a lot of time to write. Then he cranked out 570 words of worries about the language in the New Hampshire constitution, which had been ratified ten days earlier.

    Then the next day he tacked on another 250 words. If he’d typed all 820 words out, it would be about three pages (double-spaced). The script for this episode is 219 words; even when Adams was in a hurry he was verbose.

    But Samuel Adams kinda-sorta had a point, in that the New Hampshire constitution hedged its bets a little bit. Clearly he had this in mind when he worked on the original Articles of Confederation (the document that preceded the US Constitution), and when he joined the Constitutional Convention for Massachusetts a couple of years later.

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