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I Am An American

In the 1770’s there was a growing movement toward independence across the thirteen American colonies. Angry at Mother England for imperial legislation that they deemed the heavy hand of tyranny, certain of the colonies formed Committees of Correspondence. Virginia formed her Committee on March 12, 1773. Others of the colonies followed suit.

“Men on these committees wrote to each other to express ideas, to confirm mutual assistance, and to debate and coordinate resistance to British imperial policy. The network created by committees of correspondence organized and mobilized hundreds of communities across the British North American colonies.”

Then in December 1773, in protest of British taxation, Samuel Adams and a group of revolutionaries dumped 342 chests of valuable tea into Boston Harbor. In response, England passed the Intolerable Acts, intended to force Boston into submission. This action by Parliament against the lone colony of Massachusetts spurred the Committees into action. And in 1774, delegates were selected by these Committees and sent to Philadelphia for a congress that would become known as the First Continental Congress. The Congress met in Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia from September 5, 1774, to October 26, 1774.

Notwithstanding the common cause that drew them together they were not united. Only 12 of the 13 colonies sent representatives. John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail of the assemblage:

“Fifty gentlemen meeting together, all strangers, are not acquainted with each others language, ideas, views, designs. They are therefore, jealous, of each other — fearful, timid, skittish…”

And of those who attended some desired reconciliation with England—peace at any cost, some wanted independence, even at the price of war. Some wanted to back down entirely, and others wanted strong measures of protest against England.

John Adams from Massachusetts was there at the First Continental Congress and noted the presence of Patrick Henry of Virginia. Of Henry, Adams noted:

“There was not one member, except Patrick Henry, who appeared … sensible of the precipice or rather the pinnacle on which we stood, and had candor and courage enough to acknowledge it.”

On September 6, 1774, the second day of the Congress, a debate ensued about how the voting of the Congress should be conducted—by individuals or by states? In other words, the larger question was for them, ‘Why are we here? Whose interests are we here to represent?’ It was in answer that question that Patrick Henry stated:

“Government is dissolved….Where are your Land Marks? Your Boundaries of Colonies. We are in a State of Nature, Sir, the Distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers and New Englanders, are no more. I am not a Virginian, but an American….I go upon the supposition, that government is at an end. All distinctions are thrown down. All America is all thrown into one mass.”

And so it happened. The Thirteen Colonies came together to fight Boston’s war. It changed from a regional skirmish in Massachusetts to the cause of all Americans and the American Revolution was born.

Now, over 245 years later we have divided again along a multitude of manmade lines—race, religion, color, cash, politics, sexual preferences and so much more. If Americans do not throw down their distinctions and become again ‘one mass’ we will cease to be “One nation under God.”

Sources:

https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/henry-patrick-1736-1799/

https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/committees-of-correspondence/#:~:text=Committees%20of%20correspondence%20were%20longstanding,their%20own%20committees%20of%20correspondence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Continental_Congress

https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/first-continental-congress-meeting-september-5-1774/

https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/henry-patrick-1736-1799/

https://americanfounding.org/entries/act-i-tuesday-september-6-1774/