CONSTITUTION DAY | 233rd Anniversary Celebration

September 17, 2020. On this day in 1787 the United States Constitution was signed by delegates at the final meeting of the Constitutional Convention. 

The Signing of the United States Constitution by Louis S. Glanzman, 1987. 

Commissioned by State Societies of the Daughters of the American 

Revolution. Independence National Historical Park Collection.

We may forget that the Constitutional Convention was created to raise money for the central government so it could maintain a military to stop piracy. The central government was supposed to provide such services but it didn't have the money to pay for them. It didn't have an effective means of collecting its debts.

The war with Britain had officially ended four years before, but the Articles of Confederation created by the Second Continental Congress were weak. After overthrowing an imperious monarch, George III, the Americans had no taste for another strong central authority. The United States had no real executive, just a president of the Congress. The Second Continental Congress had thrown the government-creating job back to each of the 13 colonies. They did their job, and took on what they could, but some things could only be done centrally, like maintaining an Army and a Navy.

By 1787, not one of the states was up-to-date on its federal taxes. The central government had no way to force collection. Meanwhile, pirates were attacking American ships, and the central government could afford neither to pay them off nor defend the ships. Troops were deserting, and the national military was unable to come to the aid of states when they needed it.

James Madison and other leaders organized the Constitutional Convention to enable the central government to collect taxes and provide reliable services. In May 1787, delegates arrived in Philadelphia and there spent the next four months rewriting the Articles of Confederation. It was hot and buggy. The 55 highly educated, and by-now politically seasoned, delegates averaged 42 years of age:

• George Washington was elected president and rarely spoke. 
• Alexander Hamilton was absent from much of the deliberations but emerged as the principal author of the Federalist Papers, arguing why the Constitution should be ratified. 
• Governor Morris was a witty man with a peg leg who wrote the famous preamble to the Constitution. 
• Benjamin Franklin, 81, could no longer walk and had to be carried around Philadelphia in a sedan chair.
• James Madison was constantly in attendance, taking notes and arguing strenuously for a more powerful central government. A small man, 5'6" and weighing 120 pounds, he became known as "the Father of the Constitution.” On the final day of the Constitutional Convention, he wrote: "“Franklin, looking towards the President's Chair, at the back of which a rising sun happened to be painted, observed to a few members near him, that painters had found it difficult to distinguish in their art a rising from a setting sun. I have, said he, often … looked at that behind the President without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting: But now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting Sun.”

Today, the National Archives is celebrating the 233rd anniversary of the signing of the Constitution with special virtual programs for all ages, including book talks,  public programs, and interactive webinars. The National Archives is the permanent home of the original Constitution. See the Archives special Celebrating Constitution Day page for information about its public programs, family activities, and online resources.

BIRTHDAY | John F. Karl

John Karl gets ready to blow out the
candle on his cake.

Yesterday I attended the birthday party of a great lawyer and good friend, John F. Karl.

The crowd of well-wishers, many of them from the extended Karl family, assembled in Washington, D.C.

There were several of us from the New York City area and some from as far away as California.

He succeeds.

The birthday cake featured John as a young man destined for success. 

His handsome portrait also appeared on a tee shirt that he spread out proudly over his tuxedo and red bow tie.

John as a handsome youth.

Mrs. Karl, the effervescent  Tyna Coles, cut the cake with energy and dispatch. Everyone had enough, and more, of tasty food and quality beverages.

Tyna cuts the cake.

I met some interesting new people. We talked about the Civil War and related battlefields, the Spy Museum in Washington and George Washington's under- appreciated role as spymaster of the American Revolution, the return of subprime housing paper to the marketplace, the worrisome growth of the value of cryptocurrency and other signs of a bubble, the problems facing Federal Reserve supervisors and policymakers, the Borgia family in Italy and the Mexican Riviera.

The tasty desserts included éclairs. I got to discussing the origin of the word éclair as the name of a pastry.

The 70th birthday tee shirt.

An éclair pastry is of course a hot-dog-roll-sized pastry filled with custard or whipped cream and usually covered on the top with chocolate or coffee icing. 

But why is it named after the French word for a flash of lightning?

The consensus of people with whom I spoke at the party supported my derivation:

"An éclair is French for a 'lightning flash'. A hot-dog-roll size pastry filled with custard or cream is called an éclair because, if left on a table, a lightning flash is its expected half-life."

Alice and I were grateful for being invited to this heart-warming event in honor of a man who has done more effective advocacy for individual workers than anyone else we know.

AMERICAN REVOLUTION | Oct. 19 – Washington Defeats Cornwallis

Redcoats Surrender to George Washington.

October 19, 2017 – At 2 a.m. on this day in 1781, 8,000 British troops and Hessian mercenaries under Charles (Lord) Cornwallis started filtering out of their Yorktown base to surrender to George Washington.

He had scored, with French allies, a decisive victory over the British, who two days before surrendered and sued for peace. Besides giving up troops and seamen, Cornwallis abandoned 144 cannons and nearly 50 naval vessels. 

It had not been going so well before that. Washington’s troops were wearing rags and food was short. Desertions were frequent. During the summer, only a few thousand troops were left at their camp at West Point, New York. 

The British had a large force in New York City under General Henry Clinton, well entrenched and prepared for an attack. But Washington learned that the British forces under the control of Lord Cornwallis were building a naval base at Yorktown in Virginia. He decided on a faking an attack on New York City, then marching his army past toward Virginia, to trap Cornwallis and his army at Yorktown. 

Washington’s 2,500 troops crossed the Hudson River on August 21, united with a French army of 4,000 men under Count de Rochambeau, and headed south to join up with the Marquis de Lafayette in Virginia, who was leading an American army of about 5,000 men. The combined force of 11,500 would attack Cornwallis. 

Washington's army and their French allies covered 200 miles in 15 days, marching every day from 2 a.m. until the troops were too exhausted by the heat to continue. They reached the head of Chesapeake Bay in early September. Few armies in history had ever moved with this speed so far.

Cornwallis got word of Washington's approach, but foolishly decided  that his troops could hold out till the British Navy arrived. To his dismay, he discovered that the large French fleet under Count de Grasse routed the British fleet under Admiral Thomas Graves at the Battle of Virginia Capes on September 5, denying Cornwallis his rescue and exit.

Meanwhile, de Grasse sailed many of Washington and Rochambeau’s men down the Chesapeake to Virginia. They joined Lafayette on September 28 and cut off Cornwallis. De Grasse landed another 3,000 French troops on his ships. During the first two weeks of October, the 14,000 French and American troops overcame the fortified British positions with the aid of de Grasse’s warships... a British fleet carrying 7,000 men was on its way but was too slow in getting there to be of any help.

In the early weeks of October, Washington's troops began their siege, bombarding Corwallis with gun and cannon fire. He sent word of his surrender. Washington required the British to march out of the city, giving up their arms. But Cornwallis didn't show up for the surrender ceremony, pleading illness. He gave his sword to his second-in-command, to be offered to the French general, letting everyone know that Cornwallis considered himself beaten not by the American rebels but by the French. There was truth to that, surely, since half the troops and all the naval force was French. 

Whatever the mix of credit for Washington's victory, England took the defeat of Cornwallis with despair and lost the taste for teaching the colonials a lesson. The government decided not to invest in another army and appealed to Washington for peace. The eight-year Revolutionary War was officially over two years later, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783.

KENYA | Aug. 21 – Kenyatta Freed

Mzee Jomo Kenyatta was the George Washington of Kenya.

This day in 1961 he was freed by the British colonial government.

Kenyatta governed Kenya as its Prime Minister from 1963 to 1964 and then as its first President from 1964 to 1978. He was the country's first black head of government and was a key player in transforming Kenya from a colony of the British Empire into an independent republic.

Kenya was an economic powerhouse  relative to its neighbors during his 15 years as Kenyan leader.

As the leader of the Kenyan independence movement, Kenyatta was in prison while the British worried about the independence movement. A member of the largest, Kikuyu, tribe, he was ideologically an African nationalist and conservative and he led the Kenya African National Union (KANU) party from 1961 until his death.

Kenyatta was born to Kikuyu farmers in Kiambu, British East Africa, southwest of Mount Kenya. Educated at a Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) mission, he worked in various jobs before becoming politically engaged through the Kikuyu Central Association.

In 1920, Kenya formally became a British colony, and as of 1921 Kenyatta had moved to the colonial capital of Nairobi. He became involved in African nationalism and by 1928 had risen to the post of general secretary of the Kikuyu Central Association, an organization opposed to the seizure of tribal land by European settlers. In 1929, he travelled to London to lobby for Kikuyu tribal land affairs.

During the 1930s he studied intensely: (1) political tactics at Moscow's Communist University of the Toilers of the East, (2) phonetics at University College London, and (3) anthropology at the London School of Economics. At the end of the decade, in 1938, he published Facing Mount Kenya, which was an anthropological analysis, and celebration, of traditional Kikuyu society. He discussed its plight under colonial rule.

During World War II, he lived in England, lecturing and writing. In 1946, he returned to Kenya and in 1947 became president of the newly formed Kenya African Union (KAU). He pushed for majority rule, recruiting both Kikuyus and non-Kikuyus into the nonviolent movement.

In 1952, an extremist Kikuyu group, the Mau Mau, began a guerrilla war against the settlers and colonial government, leading to bloodshed, political turmoil, and the rounding up of tens of thousands of Kikuyus in detainment camps. Although he was not directly involved, Kenyatta was put on trial in 1952 with five other KAU leaders for "managing" the Mau Mau. An advocate of nonviolence and conservatism, Kenyatta pleaded innocent. After a politicized trial, he was found guilty and sentenced to seven years in prison. He spent six years in jail and was then sent to an internal exile at Lodwar, where he lived under house arrest.

Meanwhile, the British government saw the Swahili script on the wall and decided to prepare Kenya for black majority rule, allowing the nationalist groups to organize openly. In 1960, the Kenya African National Union (KANU) was created, and Kenyatta was elected president in absentia. The party announced it would not take part in any government until Kenyatta was freed.

Kenyatta pledged the protection of settlers’ rights in an independent Kenya, and on August 14, 1961, he was allowed to return to Kikuyu territory. He was formally released on August 21 and the following year he went to London to negotiate Kenyan independence. In May 1963 he led the KANU to victory in pre-independence elections. On December 12, 1963, Kenya celebrated its independence, and Kenyatta became prime minister. The next year, a new constitution made Kenya a republic, and Kenyatta was elected president.

As Kenya’s leader until his death in 1978, Kenyatta encouraged racial cooperation, promoted capitalist economic policies, and adopted a pro-Western foreign policy. He also consolidated his authority, suppressing opposition groups deemed radical. Kenya's stability attracted foreign investment in Kenya and Mzee ("elder" in Swahili) Kenyatta was influential throughout Africa. After he died on August 22, 1978, Daniel arap Moi continued most of Kenyatta's policies.

STARS AND STRIPES | Sept. 3–Flown First Time in Battle (Comment)

The "Betsy Ross" flag with a circle of five-
pointed stars in the canton. Hopkinson's
proposed flag had used six-pointed stars.

September 3, 2016–In 1877 the Stars and Stripes are flown in battle for the first time, during a skirmish at Cooch’s Bridge, Maryland.

They were in the form many years later attributed to Betsy Ross – a circle of 13 five-pointed stars on a blue canton, on a field of 13 red-and-white stripes.

The Continental Army's General William Maxwell ordered the stars and stripes raised as a detachment of his infantry and cavalry met an advance guard of British and Hessian troops. Maxwell's troops were forced to retreat to General George Washington’s main force near Brandywine Creek in Pennsylvania.

Three months before, on June 14, General Washington brought to the Continental Congress a resolution:

[T]he flag of the United States be thirteen alternate stripes red and white [and]... the Union [canton] be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation.

This national flag became known as the “Stars and Stripes". The stripes were based on the Grand Union flag, a banner carried by the Continental Army in 1776 that also consisted of 13 alternating red and white stripes with a Union Jack in the canton. After Lexington and Concord, the colonies were determined to eject the Union Jack from their flag.

Hopkinson Flag, with six-
pointed stars in the canton.

Francis Hopkinson is credited with having designed a stars-and-stripes flag before Betsy Ross. His flag, however, had six-pointed stars, based on a surviving sketch of his flag using asopetrisks with six points. This followed his designs for the Great Seal of the United States and his design for the Admiralty Board Seal, which used six-pointed stars.

The five-pointed stars are credited by legend to Philadelphia seamstress Betsy Ross, who argued for the five-pointed star as easier to cut. She is also credited with designing the canton as a circle of 13 stars on a blue background, at the request of General Washington. The legend of Betsy Ross as the designer of the first flag appeared at the time of the 1876 centennial celebrations through the work of her grandson, William Canby.  Historians have been unable to prove or disprove the legend, so it persists.

On June 14, 1877, the first Flag Day was held on the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the Stars and Stripes.

Comment

My suspicion is that the Betsy Ross legend, which pivots around the idea that it is easier to cut a five-pointed star than a six-pointed star, was used as misdirection to avoid focus on the real reason for using five-pointed stars on the American flag rather than six-pointed ones. The excruciating details of folding fabric in such a way as to cut a five-pointed star with a single cut make it hard to believe that this was a determining factor. My educated guess is that the fans of George Washington wanted to reflect his family arms (three red five-pointed stars above three red-and-white stripes, as in the flag of the District of Columbia) in the national flag, and the Betsy Ross story was useful in explaining why five-pointed stars were used instead of the more usual six-pointed stars. Washington himself made a great effort to avoid the cult of personality, but at the same time he took huge pride in his family's ancestry and its coat of arms dating back to the Battle of Crécy (1346), in Normandy. See my earlier post: https://nyctimetraveler.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-origins-of-us-flag-francis-hopkinson.html.

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HERALDRY | Lord Dunmore, Gov. of Virginia (Updated Aug. 11, 2017)

Arms of John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, Governor
of the Colony of Virginia. Defeated by the rebels/patriots
in 1775. Note stars in two quarters, pierced and unpierced.

Dec. 9, 2015–This day in 1775, the Virginia and North Carolina militias defeated 200 British troops and some 800 slaves serving John Murray, fourth Earl of Dunmore and Virginia's governor.

The history of the American Revolution focuses on Yankee fighting at Lexington and Concord–not so much on Virginia.

But the most decisive battle may have been fought 240 years ago today, more than one year before the Declaration of Independence. Two reasons for the importance of the battle:

• The Fight Was Ambiguous. The greatest number of victims in Virginia's skirmishes were slaves seeking their freedom, not free rebels. The British Crown had declared that slaves who joined the army would be emancipated. (The Crown was looking for troops in a hurry and they offered emancipation only to the slaves of rebel slaveholders.)
• The Crown Was Quickly Defeated. The Virginia battles were one-sided. They were over quickly. They were tragic for the slaves who signed up looking for their freedom, most of whom were killed, with few losses on the rebel side. This emboldened the rebels.

The main battle in Virginia occurred at Great Bridge outside of Norfolk, a British Crown-controlled town in the colony of Virginia. Gov. Dunmore had retreated to Norfolk after the rebels drove him from the capital of Virginia, Williamsburg, in June 1775.

In November, Dunmore offered emancipation to any slave of a rebel master willing to join his forces.

• In the short term, it worked well. His emancipation promise attracted many slaves to Gov. Dunmore's army. By November 30, Dunmore’s military ranks had swelled and he was convinced of his ability to regain control of the colony via the promise of emancipation of slaves to rebels. The Continental Army's General George Washington feared Dunmore was correct. He wrote to the Continental Congress from New England, warning that they needed to defeat Dunmore ASAP. Dunmore’s forces won overwhelmingly at Kemp’s Landing. It looked as though Dunmore’s slave troops, which he called the Ethiopian Regiment, would ensure continued British rule in Virginia. 
• On the other hand, Dunmore's emancipation promise angered slaveholders on both sides, not just the rebel owners – the slaveholders loyal to the Crown worried about the precedent Gov. Dunmore might set. His promise of emancipation was publicized in the Carolinas and prompted at least 150 men to march north to help defeat Dunmore. Dunmore did not appreciate the number and determination of the Carolina troops and sent only a few sailors and 60 troops from Norfolk to meet them, along with many slave troops. They got within 15 feet of the disciplined and determined rebels before being shot dead. Within 30 minutes, 150 of the Crown troops were killed, with only one rebel fatality. 

With the news of the defeat of his southern force, Dunmore set about defending Great Bridge. He built a stockade, disabling the main bridge and defending the smaller ones with cannon. However, his severe underestimation of the strength of the rebel militias, who were now calling themselves the Patriots, meant that his defenses were overrun. 

Of  800 slaves who signed up in anticipation of being freed, only 300 survived the battle. They retreated for safety to the British ship (the Otter), and the majority then contracted smallpox and died from it. 

Comment

Douglas coat of arms (L)–argent azure 
in chief three stars argent, and Moray
 (Murray) coat of arms (R)–azure three 
stars argent two and one. This shield
is incorporated in the Murray shield.

This is a little-told tale, because of its ironies and ambiguous lessons:

• The high moral ground of the American Revolution –  rebellion of colonies against an unjust King –  is clouded over with the decimation of the slaves who were seeking only what the rebels wanted, their freedom.
• The Murray family's heroic history in Scotland was that of a leading rebel family. The Scots successfully battled the English Crown under Edward I and Edward II, and negotiated a peace under Edward III. Now the Murrays were defending the Crown against colonial rebels.

The story shows unambiguously that George Washington, being a Virginian, would have had the Murray shield of the governor of his state fresh in his mind in 1775 and 1776. Before 1775, he and Governor Dunmore very likely met on friendly terms. They may have talked about the similarity between the Washington coat of arms with its red stars (mullets in English heraldry) and the Scottish Douglas and Murray shields with their silver stars on a blue field.

This is another piece of evidence that the stars in the Stars and Stripes flag could have originated from the Murray arms, with the blue field from the cross of St. Andrew. The would have been picked up by the Washington family, which lived just south of the border with Scotland, for the coats of arms of George Washington's first knighted ancestor. He used the five-pointed stars but in red, the color of the English St. George cross.

I have corresponded with the Scottish heraldic authorities and they raised the question – why would  a sworn enemy mimic an opponent's arms? My thesis is that the Washington family adopted the Murray shield and altered the tincture from blue to red (azure to gules). Yet the United States adopted the East India Company stripes and the Continental Army initially flew stripes with the Union Jack in the canton...

YOUNG AMERICA | Oct. 19 - British Army Surrenders to Geo. Washington

Admiral de Grasse defeats the British Navy in early 

September. General Washington opts to march 400 miles

to defeat Lord Cornwallis.

This day in 1781 was the surrender that ended the  fighting in the American Revolutionary War.

As in the winter of the march on Trenton, George Washington's troops were in tatters. Food and other supplies were scarce.

What Washington had was good intelligence. He learned that the British army under Lord Cornwallis were building a naval base on the Yorktown Peninsula in Virginia.

Washington decided impulsively to march his army from NY to Virginia to try to trap the Brits.

He feinted toward New York to tie down the Brits there, then undertook the bold and risky 400-mile march to Washington.

The mid-October siege of Yorktown lasts just a few days.

Even though Lord Cornwallis had advance word of Washington's march, he stayed put because he did not know what had been happening on the naval side. He assumed he had time to wait to be evacuated by the British navy.

In fact the British navy had been dispersed by a French fleet from the south under Admiral de Grasse and would not be coming to anyone's rescue while the French were in the York River.

So Washington, and an allied French army under General Rochambeau that came via Newport, R.I., surrounded Yorktown and bombarded the city with siege cannons brought by the French.

Washington accepts surrender of Brits.

After several days of this with no naval relief, Cornwallis sent word he would surrender. Washington told the British to march out and give up their arms, and the surrender began at 2 am today in 1781, five years after the Declaration of Independence.

Cornwallis sent his sword to Rochambeau, signalling that the British had been defeated by the French, not the Americans.

Back in London, the British Parliament at that time did not feel like paying for another army. They appealed to the United States for peace. The Treaty of Paris was signed two years later, and the Revolutionary War was won.

BENEDICT ARNOLD | Sept. 21–How Treason Was Unmasked in New York

Benedict Arnold in Colonial
blue uniform, hero of Saratoga.

September 21–This day in 1780, George Washington's trusted General Benedict Arnold met with British Major John André to propose handing over West Point in return for cash and a high position in the British army.

The treasonous deal was uncovered by a Long Island-based group that became known as the Culper Spy Ring, part of Washington's secret service.

Arnold was born on January 14, 1741 to a respected family in Norwich, Connecticut Colony. He was a member of the British militia during the French and Indian War (1754-1763), when British troops defeated French and hostile Indian allies. It was during this war that then-Colonel George Washington made his name, serving under General Braddock.

Arnold after the French and Indian War became a successful trader. In 1775 he joined the Continental Army and distinguished himself during the next five years, helping Ethan Allen’s troops capture Fort Ticonderoga in 1775 and then participating in the unsuccessful attack on British Quebec, rising to the rank of Brigadier General.

Arnold in British red, post 1780,
traitor.

Arnold excelled in campaigns at Lake Champlain, Ridgefield and Saratoga, and gained the support of George Washington. He was wounded in one leg.

However, Arnold was not happy with his treatment by the Army leadership. In 1777, five men of lower rank were promoted over him. He had been counting on the extra pay because his second wife was spending extravagantly in Philadelphia.

He was appointed commander of West Point, and saw an opportunity for a deal that would take care of both his debts and his envy.

His plan was to trade his command of West Point for money  and safe passage from the British to England.  Arnold met with British Major John André and made his treasonous deal. When he realized that the plan had been discovered, Arnold fled to the British and led redcoats against Washington's troops in Virginia and Connecticut.

Meanwhile, when the deal between Benedict Arnold and John André was relayed to George Washington, he ordered the capture of Major André, who was then hanged as a spy in October 1780.

Arnold moved with returning troops to England. However, he was not happy with the choice he had made to betray his country for money and a higher military grade:

• He complained that he never received everything that he had been promised by the British.
• He regretted that he could never return to the United States. Arnold asked a captured captain from the Colonial Army: "What do you think would be my fate if my misguided countrymen were to take me prisoner?" The captain replied: "They would cut off the leg that was wounded at Saratoga and bury it with the honors of war, and the rest of you they would hang on a gibbet."
• On his deathbed in London in 1801, he asked to be dressed in the uniform of the Colonial Army from before his defection to the British, saying: "Let me die in this old uniform in which I fought my battles. May God forgive me for ever having put on another." (Source: Clifton Johnson, The Picturesque Hudson, 1915.)

How Washington's Culper Spy Ring Exposed the Treason

Benedict Arnold's planned deal was reportedly uncovered by the first U.S. spy network, created by General Washington and led by Benjamin Tallmadge. The spy network operated in taverns frequented by sailors and others who traveled across Long Island Sound and were privy to activities on both sides of the Sound.

From the time that British forces occupied New York in August 1776, New York City and Long Island were key British strongholds and naval bases for the duration of the Revolutionary War. Getting information from New York on British troop movements and other plans was critical to General Washington, commander of the Continental Army, encamped west of New York City.

In 1778, Benjamin Tallmadge established a small ring of trustworthy men and women from his hometown of Setauket, Long Island. He was a young cavalry officer. Known as the Culper Spy Ring, Tallmadge’s network became the most effective of any intelligence-gathering operation on either side of the Revolutionary War, and Tallmadge can be considered the first head of what was a combination of today's FBI and CIA.

Tallmadge had enlisted in the Continental Army when the American Revolution began in 1775. He soon rose to the rank of major. In mid-1778, General Washington appointed Tallmadge head of the Continental Army’s spy network, to operate behind enemy lines on Long Island, the equivalent of Bill Donovan as head of the OSS in World War 2. In addition to serving as head of Washington's secret service, Major Tallmadge participated in many of the fiercest battles of the Continental Army in the northern states. Fellow spy Caleb Brewster served under Tallmadge in the capture of Fort St. George at Mastic, Long Island in November 1780.

Tallmadge, who went by the code name John Bolton, sought out only people he could absolutely trust, beginning with his childhood friends, the farmer Abraham Woodhull, and Caleb Brewster, whose main task during the Revolution was commanding a fleet of whaleboats against British (including American Tory) shipping on Long Island Sound. Brewster was the only member of the ring that the British had definitely identified as a spy.

Woodhull went by the name of Samuel Culper, and his code name became the name of the ring. He ran the group’s day-to-day operations on Long Island. He personally traveled back and forth to New York City collecting information and observing naval maneuvers there. He would evaluate reports and determine what information would be taken to General Washington. Dispatches would then be given to Brewster, who would carry them across the Sound to Fairfield, Connecticut; Tallmadge would then pass them on to Washington.

By summer 1779 the well-connected New York merchant Robert Townsend was serving as the ring’s primary source in New York City. Townsend wrote his reports as “Samuel Culper, Jr.” and Woodhull went by “Samuel Culper, Sr.” Austin Roe, a tavernkeeper in Setauket, acted as a courier for the Culper ring.

A local Setauket woman and Woodhull’s neighbor, Anna Smith Strong, aided in the spy ring’s activities. Her husband, the local Patriot judge Selah Strong, had been confined on the British prison ship HMS Jersey in 1778, and Anna Strong lived alone for much of the war. She used the laundry on her clothesline to leave signals regarding Brewster’s location for meetings with Woodhull.

Despite occasionally strained relations within the group and constant pressure from Washington to send more information, the Culper Spy Ring achieved more than any other American or British intelligence network during the war. They collected and passed on information in 1773-83  concerning key British troop movements, fortifications and plans in the New York area.

The group’s greatest achievement may have been in 1780, when it uncovered British plans to ambush the newly arrived French army in Rhode Island. Without the spy ring’s warnings to Washington, the Franco-American alliance may have been damaged or destroyed.

Related Posts: U.S. Naval Academy Created . Gen. Edgar Jadwin, #1 at West Point, Chief of the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1920s

PEACE | Sept. 3–Treaty with Brits; GW Goes Home

George Washington thought he was done.
When Yorktown got the Brits on the run.
But wise folk flew out to his residence,
And begged him to be first of our Presidents.
(Clerihew by JT Marlin.)

This day in 1783 was signed the second Treaty of Paris, between Britain and the newly independent American colonies, supposedly ending the Revolutionary War. The text is here.

It was 20 years after the first Treaty of Paris, signed between the British and the French, which wound up the French and Indian Wars and made the independence of the colonies possible.

Following the signing of the Treaty of Paris by representatives of the American colonies, General Washington resigned as commander in chief of the Continental Army and like Cincinnati's, retired to his home–Mount Vernon, Va.

Washington's return to civilian life was significant. It said to history -- "This was not just a war, it was a revolution." 

The Continental Congress had given him dictatorial powers. Some wanted Washington to become king. 

But he did not want this. He wanted a Republic - and land in the western territories for his veteran officers (as well as honoring of existing titles of property-owners in the region). 

Washington's farewells to the nation and to his officers were short-lived. Five years later he was elected as the first President of the United States... and the Brits came back until they were expelled a second time.

Time Travel Blog Reaches 40,000 Page Views -Top Ten Posts

Thank you for reading this blog, which just passed 40,000 page views. The following are the most-viewed posts during June 2015. Click on title to open any  posts.
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