250 and Counting

Please forgive Mike’s pronunciation of “Natick”; he’s a Left Coast guy. And, he took his wife to Hawai’i this week. I never did that for my wife, though I did buy her a beach condo, so I guess we’re even. Plus, if I’m butchering any West Coast pronunciations, he’s keeping quiet about it. For the […]

The post Natick Makes It Official–June 20, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Let’s start with the truth: Francis Johnson was not in office when the building in today’s cover art opened. This is the Old State Capitol in Frankfort, Kentucky, which opened in 1827, just after he left the US Congress. But while this is the Old State Capitol, there are two buildings even older which were […]

The post Francis Johnson–June 19, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

As Mike notes, marking today as the day that the first draft of the Declaration of Independence was presented to Congress is largely a matter of interpoloation on the part of historians working from incomplete information. But who are we to argue? The writing you see in today’s cover art is, in fact, Thomas Jefferson’s, […]

The post The First Draft–June 18, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Joseph Joachin Moraga along with a party of colonists and soldiers first set forth from Monterey to the future site of San Francisco, along with supplies for beginning a new community. He supervised the selection of a location for the presidio (fortress), then managed its construction and provided leadership. He also ensured that a ramada—a […]

The post The San Francisco Journey–June 17, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Loyalty oaths are a peculiar thing. They ask a person to commit in writing a thing they may–or may not–have done already. Look, if you’re an undercover spy staring at children from across the street, you’re already raising more questions than answers. But if—IF—you’re an undercover spy and you want to lay low, for goodness’ […]

The post A Test In Rhode Island–June 16, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Separation Day is a genuine holiday in Delaware, during which the day is marked with parades and historical reenactments, though of course they (like the rest of the world) took a couple of years off because we had that little global pandemic thing. And like most good niche holidays, there’s a small faction of people […]

The post Delaware, The First State–June 15, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

It’s not a misspelling; it’s a pun—oh, forget it. Connecticut had already been fighting the war for independence since Bunker Hill, but that’s not the same thing as separating politically from Great Britain. In retrospect, we made it look relatively easy, but once again, remember: something like this hadn’t been done before, and sending instructions […]

The post Connecticut Goes Fourth–June 14, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

The life of Elizabeth Scott is an open book and is still quite mysterious. It’s not 100% clear when she was born, other than it was “probably” in 1708. Her personal life isn’t very well known, and her work as a hymnist is still a matter of speculation, since so many of her pieces didn’t […]

The post Elizabeth Scott–June 13, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

While the Virginia Declaration of Rights wasn’t adopted until today, and Thomas Jefferson only got started on writing the Declaration of Independence yesterday, it’s known that the Virginia document was one of the few references that Jefferson had with him when he first began writing. The other one we know about for sure is the […]

The post The Virginia Declaration of Rights–June 12, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

After temporarily tabling the Lee Resolution, which called for our independence from Great Britain, the Second Continental Congress identified its Declaration Committee. Five men were chosen to articulate why we were asking King George to go screw himself in the politest possible terms. While the Committee involved five men—John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Roger […]

The post The Declaration Begins–June 11, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.