What Our Movement is About
A quick reminder, lest we forget
Four?
Six?
Seven?
Fifty-Six?
Is it the men who signed the Declaration? The Constitution?
They played a crucial role, absolutely. We would not be here without their vision, strength, and leadership. Without Morris, we would be speaking British now because the Constitution would have looked too much like the Virginia Plan. Without Franklin, our Fundamental Law document would have specified “Life, Liberty, and Property” as the inherent Rights of mankind. Without Washington, we’d have lost the war. Without Hamilton, we would have had a usurious monetary system that eats your substance year over year.1
But were they the only ones who made it all possible?
How did they get there?
What about those whose names are not Googleable?
I propose that we have thousands of founders, maybe tens of thousands; men, women, and children who played a crucial role in ordaining and establishing the greatest declaration of government on this side of heaven, along with the institutions that fulfilled the intent.
This conversation is a look into some of those institutions formed by the people of the colonies in response to and in preparation for the Revolutionary War, without which would have looked more like the French Revolution.2
“Our movement is about REPLACING a failed and corrupt political establishment with a new government controlled by you, the American People.”
How is a government REPLACED?
From Websters Dictionary 1828, two definitions for REPLACE:
To put again in the former place; as, to replace a book.
To put a competent substitute in the place of another displaced or of something lost. The paper is lost and cannot be replaced.
How has a government been REPLACED before?
What’s that?
Two things pop out to me here.
(1) The Provincial Congress was “a pro-American alternative”, as opposed to….?3
(2) If the General Assembly was “more conservative” is the Provincial Congress considered more liberal?
Let’s look at the New York General Assembly:
The General Assembly was the crown’s government! It disbanded [April 3, 1775] after the outbreak of the War. Interesting.
And then, the Provincial Congress [Founded May 22, 1775] took its place.
The Provincial Congress displaced the General Assembly.
Wow!
But did it really just get built up in 49 days?
Where did it come from?
Ok, and here you can look up what the Committee of One Hundred was.
Aside: Interestingly, the link to the Committee of One Hundred goes to the page for the Committee of Sixty.
So basically, a smaller committee became a bigger committee became an even bigger committee became the New York Provincial Congress. The smallest of those committees first called for the Continental Congress.
While the Wikipedia rabbit hole ends there, I searched for ‘Committee of Fifty-One’, and found a Letter from the New York Committee of Fifty-One to the Boston Committee of Correspondence; May 23, 1774 on a Yale website.4
In it, we find a reason for the existence of the committee:
Our citizens have thought it necessary to appoint a large committee, consisting of fifty-one persons to correspond with our sister colonies on this and every other matter of public moment, and at ten o'clock this forenoon we were first assembled.
Interesting, huh?
Note also that there was also a Boston Committee of Correspondence.
Let’s read one about the Committee of Safety.
So these committees were “panels of leading citizens” that governed during adjournments of provincial bodies.
They chose to “warn and shame" their enemies “rather than killing them,” like the crown’s government would do…?
And then, we see that the men who had served on these committees later went to the Continental Congress.
I want to review the timeline of events we have seen here.
Early 1774 - Intolerable acts passed by the British Parliament.5
May 23, 1774 - Committee of Fifty-One writes to the Boston Committee of Correspondence
September 5, 1774 - First Continental Congress convened.
April 3, 1775 - Crown’s government in New York disbanded.
In between - Committee of Safety governed.
May 22, 1775 - New York Provisional Congress founded.
We’re not at 1776 just yet. the REPLACEMENT of the GOVERNMENT in New York was completed BEFORE Independence were declared.
Makes a lot of sense to me. Especially if fraying relationship negotiations were short.
Reading on:
Ok, so the Continental Congress produced the Declaration of Independence.
Adding to the Timeline:
May 10, 1775 - Second Continental Congress convened. 12 days before the New York Provisional Congress was founded.
De facto. in fact, or in effect, whether by right or not.
You see, technically, the one with the legal Civil Rights to be there was the colonial government. Because that’s what was recognized in the world at that point. There’s a reason the war went kinetic.
Recall:
The men who had served on these committees [of safety, etc] later went to the Continental Congress.
These committees were “panels of leading citizens” that governed during adjournments of provincial bodies.
Are you getting a picture here?
“This is not simply another four-year election. This is a crossroads in the history of our civilization that will determine whether or not We the People reclaim control over our government.” — President Donald Trump
Will you reclaim control over your government?
That’s a direct question. If we do, this movement will be successful.
Whether Washington, Lincoln, JFK, or Trump, a general requires the support of the People to prevail.
Thank you for reading.
Enjoy this still-relevant video from 2016:
Footnotes.
Wait a minute…
Source: Washington's Republic: The American Revolution of 1775-1796 by Robert Ingraham
An anti-American standard?
Here’s an article about Isaac Low, the founder of the Committee of Fifty-One, who, interestingly, turned Loyalist after the Declaration of Independence.
On April 22, 1774, Prime Minister Lord North defended the programme in the House of Commons, saying:
The Americans have tarred and feathered your subjects, plundered your merchants, burnt your ships, denied all obedience to your laws and authority; yet so clement and so long forbearing has our conduct been that it is incumbent on us now to take a different course. Whatever may be the consequences, we must risk something; if we do not, all is over.[3]
Excerpt from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intolerable_Acts