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Epoch Times
13-05-2025
- General
- Epoch Times
Esther de Berdt Reed: Fundraiser for the American Revolution
Esther de Berdt Reed (1746–1780) urged women to join in the Patriots' cause and support the American Revolution. Through her efforts, she raised thousands of dollars to aid American soldiers when they were in dire need. Reed was born in London in 1746 to an English merchant who traded with the colonies. When she was just 17 years old, she met and fell in love with a young American lawyer from Philadelphia named Joseph Reed. The two kept in touch but were unable to wed. Esther's father didn't want his daughter to move away to America. The couple were secretly engaged and Joseph returned to American for five years. Joseph returned to England in 1769 to find that political turmoil had disrupted the colonial trade business, leaving Esther's family on the brink of bankruptcy. Esther's father had just passed away, so Joseph and Esther married in May 1770. In October, Joseph took his wife and her widowed mother back with him to Philadelphia to save the family the embarrassment of bankruptcy. A card describing the life of Esther de Bardt Reed and her husband, Joseph Reed. The two were American patriots who tragically died early deaths. Yet, in their short lives, they accomplished much for the formation of the United States. Public Domain A New Start in the New World The Reeds built their new family in Philadelphia, and Joseph soon succeeded as a lawyer and businessman. Esther helped write letters and kept records in his law practice. Over the years, the couple had six children and grew more patriotic. They soon believed that freeing the colonies from the English government's control was the right thing to do. Joseph served as a member of the First Continental Congress in the fall of 1774, when representatives from the 13 Colonies met to discuss the issues with Britain. He was forced to leave law practice and leave his wife alone to take care of the family when he served as Gen. George Washington's military aide from July 1775 to January 1777. While Joseph was away serving his country during the Revolutionary War, Esther was forced to flee Philadelphia several times with her family to escape to safety. Related Stories 5/6/2025 5/3/2025 The First Continental Congress, 1848, by Henry Samuel Sadd. (Public Domain) Then in 1778, the Reeds' lives changed when Joseph was elected the first president of the Pennsylvania government, a position equivalent to governor. Pennsylvania was the hub of activity at this point in the revolution. As the war continued on to its fifth year in 1780, Gen. Washington wrote to congress in May stating that his troops were in dire conditions and lacked food and clothing. They were in immediate need of relief. Esther, now known as the first lady of Pennsylvania, soon got motivated to help. In June 1780, Esther wrote an anonymous essay titled 'Sentiments of an American Woman,' which was published in several newspapers. In the essay, she urged fellow women to join the Patriot cause and help the Colonies' men better fight for their freedom. She used historical examples of women's efforts in other wars around the world through history to persuade her fellow American women to give up their luxury items like jewelry. By selling precious materials, they could raise money to support the soldiers. The essay "The Sentiments of an American Woman" was published anonymously in 1780. Public Domain Soon after her essay was published, she and several women met at a church in Philadelphia and formed the Ladies Association of Philadelphia to further their cause. They took to the streets of Philadelphia and knocked door to door to collect funds. According to American President (Joseph) Reed's biographer said, 'All ranks of society seem to have joined in the liberal effort, from Phillis, the colored woman, with her humble seven shillings and six pence, to the Marchioness de La Fayette, who contributed one hundred guineas in specie, and the Countess de Luzerne, who gave six thousand dollars in continental paper.' The efforts were deemed successful. Reed wrote to Gen. Washington that she had raised over $300,000 in Continental money (in gold or coinage, it was worth $7,500, approximately $30,000 today) to aid the soldiers. The women originally wanted the money to go to each soldier for them to spend as they pleased. However, Washington told Reed in a letter that he feared some of the soldiers would use the money for things like drinking or gambling. He asked that Reed use the money to buy linen and make shirts for the soldiers since they were in need of clothing. But two weeks after the linen was purchased, tragedy struck. Reed grew sick of dysentery and passed away on Sept. 18, 1780. Benjamin Franklin's daughter Sarah Franklin Bache took the reins of the operation and the women ended up giving 2,000 shirts to soldiers that had the name of each volunteer seamstress stitched in it. Over 1,640 women either donated or sewed shirts for the Patriot men. "Sarah Franklin Bache," 1793, by John Hoppner. Oil on canvas; 30 1/12 inches by 24 4/5 inches. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Public Domain Even though she would never live to see America gain its independence, Reed was recognized posthumously as a member of the Daughters of Liberty due to her efforts during the Revolution. What arts and culture topics would you like us to cover? Please email ideas or feedback to
Epoch Times
04-05-2025
- Politics
- Epoch Times
How the Capture of Fort Ticonderoga Ended the Siege of Boston
A grand dinner was coordinated for Aug. 14, 1769, in Dorchester, a suburb of Boston, to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the Stamp Act Riots. The dinner, held under a massive tent near the 'Liberty-Tree-Tavern' (Robinson's Tavern), hosted 300 Sons of Liberty. The cause of liberty, as well as the sound of music and cannon shots, filled the air. The Sons of Liberty made 45 toasts that early evening (this after 14 toasts earlier in the day), celebrating 'All true Patriots throughout the World' and cheering the 'Speedy Removal of all Task Masters.' In spite of so many toasts, John Adams, a member of the Sons of Liberty and an attendee of the dinner, A Host of Tea Parties Angry American colonists dressed up as Mohawk Indians while they destroyed hundreds of pounds of British tea, in an event known as the Boston Tea Party. Public Domain Four years later in December 1773 and seven months after the British Parliament passed another act that infuriated the American colonists, the Sons of Liberty eyed a different beverage: tea. The first of the five tea parties during that December took place in Charleston, South Carolina. The most famous, though, was the Boston Tea Party on Dec. 16. The last Tea Party took place a year later on Dec. 22, 1774, in Greenwich, New Jersey. During the course of the 17 Tea Parties, British Parliament and American colonists continued to butt heads. In retaliation of the Tea Parties, specifically the Boston Tea Party, Parliament passed the Coercive Acts (the colonists called them the Intolerable Acts) on March 31, 1774. The Intolerable Acts included the Boston Port Act, which established a blockade of the Boston Harbor; the Massachusetts Government Act, which allowed the king to appoint the Massachusetts Council; the Administration of Justice Act, which removed the colonists' freedom of trial by a jury of one's peers; and the Quartering Act, empowering military officials to demand better accommodations at the expense of colonists. Additionally, the Quebec Act was passed, which extended the province of Quebec to the Ohio River, allowed the free exercise of Catholicism, and permitted French civil law. The First Continental Congress The legislative acts only inflamed the revolutionary fervor. In response, a congress was convened. Twelve of the 13 colonies (sans Georgia) sent 56 delegates to Philadelphia. Among the delegates from Massachusetts was John Adams, along with his firebrand cousin, Samuel Adams. The First Continental Congress began on Sept. 5, 1774, with delegates discussing and debating how to resolve the issues of taxation without representation, standing armies, the stranglehold on Boston, and the Canada problem. By Oct. 20, the delegates established its Related Stories 10/8/2024 3/30/2023 The First Continental Congress, 1848, by Henry Samuel Sadd. Public Domain On the final day of the congress, the delegates issued a petition to King George III that addressed their grievances, while being certain not to assign blame to the Crown. The delegates did Shortly after the delegates met in Philadelphia and well before Franklin presented the petition, King George III believed the crisis with the American colonies had already reached a point of no return. He Many in the colonies felt the same way, including the colonial governor of Massachusetts, Gen. Thomas Gage. He On Oct. 7, 1774, in The members of the First Continental Congress agreed to reassemble the following year, but by that time, war would have already broken out between the colonists and Great Britain, and the minutemen of Massachusetts would play the most significant role. Minutemen, Ethan Allen, and Benedict Arnold During the late night and early morning hours of April 18 and 19, 1775, three members of the Sons of Liberty would make one of the most significant contributions to the revolutionary cause. Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Dr. Samuel Prescott rode through the night alarming local villages and towns the British were coming. The 'Midnight Rides' of these three patriots enabled the militias around Boston to take up arms. On April 19 at 5 a.m. and 8 a.m., respectively, the opening battles of the Revolutionary War began at Lexington and Concord. When about 400 Minutemen faced approximately 220 British soldiers at the North Bridge in Concord, a return volley by the militia, which left three British soldiers dead and nine wounded, became known as the 'shot heard round the world.' The British began a long and bloody retreat back to Boston where they endured constant and heavy fire from local militia members. The British finally arrived in Boston, protected by the guns of the Royal Navy, but 73 had been killed and many more wounded. Thus began the 11-month Siege of Boston, where thousands of militia surrounded the city. Shortly after the battles of Lexington and Concord and the start of the siege, Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys, from what is now Vermont, were commissioned by New England colonial leaders to capture Fort Ticonderoga. The fort held a strategic position between Albany and Montreal on Lake Champlain. With a garrison of only 50 British soldiers, it seemed ripe for the taking. Allen, along with his brothers Levi and Ira, and cousins Ebenezer Allen, Seth Warner, and Remember Baker, began their march to Fort Ticonderoga. At about this same time, Col. Benedict Arnold, a member of the Sons of Liberty, presented his idea to take Fort Ticonderoga to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress's Committee of Safety. The committee commissioned Arnold to lead the capture of the strategic fort. Taking the Ticonderoga and Crown Point When Allen and Arnold finally met, the latter claimed his official orders gave him the right to lead the expedition. The Green Mountain Boys, however, were adamant they would follow orders from no one but Allen. Arnold and Allen compromised on a dual command with Arnold leading his Massachusetts and Connecticut militia members and Allen leading his men. The combined force accounted for approximately 250 soldiers—more than enough to take the fort. But on the morning of the attack, a lack of boats enabled them to only take a fraction. It was during this week in history, during the early morning hours of May 10, 1775, and with only two scow boats capable of carrying about 40 men each, that Allen and Arnold piled 83 men on the boats and sailed across Lake Champlain. Arriving about half a mile from the fort, the attacking force captured Fort Ticonderoga with only a single shot being fired by a British sentry, which missed high. An 1875 engraving depicting the capture of Fort Ticonderoga by Ethan Allen on May 10, 1775. Public Domain When British Lt. Jocelyn Feltham demanded to know by whose authority were they conducting this attack, Allen is said to have leveled his sword at Feltham's throat and Two days later on May 12, Warner, Allen's cousin, led the Green Mountain Boys who were not involved in the capture of Fort Ticonderoga on an attack to capture the nearby Crown Point fortification. The capture of these two locations was immensely important, not so much because of their strategic locations, but because of the large cache of artillery. The militia surrounding Boston were in great need of gunpowder and artillery, and the actions of the Allen and Arnold-led force would prove absolutely necessary. Washington and the Knox Expedition On the same day as the capture of Fort Ticonderoga, the delegates from the colonies reassembled in Philadelphia to begin the Second Continental Congress. A month later, on June 14, Congress established the Continental Army (three days before the costly British victory at Bunker Hill). John Adams nominated George Washington to lead the force. Washington took command on July 3 after arriving in Cambridge. As the months wore on in Boston, Washington was addressed by the young, newly commissioned colonel, Henry Knox, who had been a witness to the Boston Massacre and, as a member of the Sons of Liberty, was on guard duty during the Boston Tea Party. Knox suggested using the captured artillery from Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point against the British Army and Navy. Washington agreed and ordered Knox to lead the expedition. In 1776, Col. Henry Knox, Washington's chief of artillery brought guns and mortars from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston. Engraving by Van Ingen. MPI/Getty Images Knox and his men left Cambridge on Nov. 16 and arrived at Fort Ticonderoga on Dec. 5, gathered the 58 pieces of artillery, weighing at least 120,000 pounds, and covered 300 miles across the snow-covered Berkshire Mountains back to Boston. A number of guns were placed along the siege line at Roxbury, Cobble Hill, and Lechmere Point. A council of war was held on Feb. 16 with Washington calling for an attack on Boston. The council of officers rejected the idea, but the idea of 'drawing out the enemy' to a particular spot, as had been done at Bunker Hill was accepted. The spot would be at a familiar location: Dorchester Heights. The Guns of Dorchester Washington decided to utilize nighttime bombardments from the guns at Roxbury, Cobble Hill, and Lechmere Point, while soldiers, under the guidance of engineer Col. Richard Gridley, built up breastworks to eventually place upon Dorchester Heights. Three thousand soldiers worked to fortify the Heights, while thousands more prepared for an amphibious assault once the British made their move. Once completed, the prebuilt fortifications were scheduled to be maneuvered to the Heights on the night of March 4 and completed by early morning March 5—the anniversary of the Boston Massacre. The objective was completed with the use of more than 1,200 soldiers and volunteers, as well as 360 oxcarts. On the morning of March 5, a vast assortment of mortars and cannons loomed over the Boston Harbor pointing at the British Army and Navy. The commander of the British Army, Gen. William Howe, peered up at the guns and earthworks at Dorchester Heights and exclaimed, 'My God, these fellows have done more work in one night than I could make my army do in three months.' There would be no attack by the British on Dorchester Heights. The British evacuated Boston on March 17, thus ending the siege and claiming a momentous victory for the new Continental Army. Never miss a This Week in History story! Sign up for the American History newsletter What arts and culture topics would you like us to cover? Please email ideas or feedback to
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Boston built America's innovation engine. Now it's under attack by Trump
It's a strange time to be marking the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution. Back then, some of the main flashpoints related to Britain's tight grip on commerce in the colonies and taxation without representation. When the King got angry about the boisterous Boston Tea Party, he shut down Boston's port so that merchants couldn't import or export goods. That knee-capped the local economy, leading to business closures, high unemployment, shortages of food and other essentials and soaring prices. And it led the colonists to organize the First Continental Congress to plan their response. Now, the danger to our economy comes not from abroad, but from a president who gleefully uses phrases like 'long live the king' to refer to himself. His administration is attacking the foundations of what we have been building here since the 1630s, when Boston Latin School and Harvard College got started. That foundation tightly integrates education, smart students and professors from around the world, research and development activities, funding from the federal government and private philanthropists and experienced entrepreneurs and investors who form companies around the research projects that look most promising. What we have built on top of that foundation has been significant both societally and financially. We have cured deadly diseases in children and adults, developed surgical anesthesia, performed the first human organ transplant, helped sequence the human genome, created the field of proton therapy for cancer treatment, and we also did some of the earliest work on the GLP-1 drugs now widely prescribed for diabetes and weight loss. We developed radar systems that helped the Allies win World War II, and also the guidance computers that enabled Apollo spacecraft to land humans on the surface of the moon. We built some of the earliest hardware and software that allowed the ARPANET — the Internet's forerunner — to link computers together in the 1960s, sent the first email and ensured that the web has remained an open standard that everyone can benefit from. We created the first videogame, booting up an industry that now spins off revenues of more than $180 billion globally each year. An entrepreneur educated at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and working in Cambridge co-founded a startup called Android, now owned by Google, and is the world's most popular mobile operating system. Before that, we invented the telephone. (The Scotsman Alexander Graham Bell was a Boston University professor — but not yet a U.S. citizen — when he made the earliest phone calls.) In 2025, we're trying to do things like edit or silence the malfunctioning genes that cause diseases; help our military develop hypersonic missiles; and build a functional nuclear fusion reactor, with no carbon emissions or long-lived radioactive waste. You get the idea; this list could go on for a whiiiiiile. Just one industry that our university labs helped incubate here in the late 1970s, biotechnology, last year created more than $600 billion in economic activity in the U.S., and employed more than 300,000 people. Some of its early pioneers and current leaders — people like the late Henri Termeer of Genzyme and Noubar Afeyan of Flagship Pioneering — were foreigners who came to this country to advance their education. For its part, the Trump administration asserts that it aims to cut government research funding to help bring the deficit under control — a key mission of the Department of Government Efficiency. And the administration believes that it can get universities to address antisemitism on campuses, or increase ideological diversity on faculties, only with high-pressure tactics like withholding federal funding, rescinding their ability to enroll foreign students or revoking their tax-exempt status. Supporters of the administration may want to play out this hand of cards and see if those aims can be achieved. But I'd make the case that what we're seeing right now is a federal government that is jackhammering away at the foundations of what makes Boston work — not to mention similar ecosystems such as Seattle, New York and Silicon Valley. It seems they are rooting for the towers atop that foundation to tumble, without truly understanding the impact that that would have on America's competitiveness. They have demolition equipment, but I'm not convinced they have a blueprint or construction equipment. (As they wrangle with our great institutions, create anxiety around visas, and deny funding to cutting-edge researchers, you can already watch savvy countries swinging into action to attract those people.) There is also one possible impact of the Trump administration's war on Ivy League schools that few people understand, and it has to do with the universities' nest eggs — their endowments. If federal funding gets yanked or cut, universities may tap their endowments to fill the gap. There are also proposals in Congress to potentially increase the tax rate on wealthy universities' endowments from 1.4% to as much as 21%. Why does that matter? Endowment money often gets handed to venture capital firms so that they can fund startup companies — the next Moderna, HubSpot, Wayfair or Vertex. So increasing the pressure on university endowments could reduce the money venture capitalists have to support new company formation — a key ingredient of the U.S.' economic vitality. The 'acute issue,' says Boston venture capitalist Michael Greeley, 'is simply not knowing what endowments will be called on to fund' at universities, which could suck money out of the venture capital system. 'In 1775, the proud New Englanders stood strong, threw down their plowshares and confronted the totalitarian threat, even though they knew the battle would be long,' wrote Don Ingber, director of the Wyss Institute, a research lab at Harvard, in a recent blog post. This time, instead of taxation without representation, Ingber says one of the central issues is 'cessation [of government funding for university research] without justification.' To help highlight the role that academic research plays in the economy, the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce this month rebooted a coalition of nearly fifty other chambers that it originally started during the first Trump administration, Business for Federal Research Funding. Research, says James Rooney, CEO of the Greater Boston Chamber, 'creates jobs — blue and white collar jobs — all over the country, in every state." But aside from elected officials like Gov. Maura Healey and Senate President Karen Spilka, and university leaders like Harvard's Alan Garber and Danielle Holley of Mount Holyoke College, it's hard to find evidence of private sector leaders using their megaphones to speak out, or organizing to defend the education, research and innovation-driven economy we have been building here over nearly 400 years. It's an engine of progress that has, quite literally, won wars, cured terrible diseases and shaped the technology we use and how we communicate. 'Too many leaders in the private sector are worried about retribution that could harm their businesses,' observes John Maraganore, a longtime biotech industry executive and co-founder of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge. Understood. But in the two-and-a-half centuries since we helped spark the American Revolution, have we turned into a state populated by meek worriers? Or are we still willing to act to defend what we hold dear? This high-profile EV charging startup just left Massachusetts Mass. Gov. Healey says she's playing defense against an anti-innovation Trump administration How the CEO of CarGurus is playing the car market right now Mass. CEOs see tariffs creating 'maximum uncertainty'
Axios
16-04-2025
- General
- Axios
Carpenters' Hall is getting two rare Ben Franklin trees
A rare pair of trees named after Philadelphia's patron saint Benjamin Franklin are coming to Philly. Why it matters: Franklin is an icon — and he has a lot named after him in the region. Driving the news: The 6-foot-tall saplings are being planted outside the historic Carpenters' Hall at the Independence National Historical Park later this month. The tree is known for its large, cream-colored flowers with a bright yellowy-orange center and glossy, narrow leaves. Fun facts: Don't expect to see Franklin trees while hiking in Wissahickon Valley Park: They're extinct in the wild. Worth noting: It's fitting the trees will grow beside Carpenters' Hall, which was the site of Franklin's Library Company and the First Continental Congress, among other firsts.
New York Times
30-03-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Take It From Ben Franklin: Attempts to Annex Canada End ‘Pitifully Unwell'
President Trump's creepy remarks about Canada as 'our cherished 51st state' may seem to have descended, bafflingly, from the clear blue sky. But American designs on Canada have a long history, predating even our independence and featuring some very familiar names. 'You are a small people,' concluded one early overture, 'compared to those who with open arms invite you into a fellowship.' The approaches have changed over time, but the courtship has invariably played out with all the grace and romance of Pepé Le Pew on the trail of Penelope Pussycat. On several occasions, it has blown up in our faces. 'Alas, Canada, we have had misfortune and disgrace in that quarter,' John Adams warned some 250 years ago. As another president now hints at a northern expansion, we might care to remember the humbling earlier forays. In October 1774, the First Continental Congress resolved to dispatch an appeal to Quebec, which was then essentially a synonym for Canada. Over 18 eloquent pages, the letter enumerated the rights of a free people. Though it urged no acts of hostility, it reminded the Canadians that they could expect no better treatment from their common sovereign than did their American counterparts. Might they care to travel — 'in order to complete this highly desirable union' — to Philadelphia for the next Congress, in May? To the high-minded rhetoric was added a prod: Canada would be wise to count the rest of North America among its 'unalterable friends' rather than its 'inveterate enemies.' Though no Canadian delegates materialized in Philadelphia that May, Congress remained undeterred. A new letter went out 'to the oppressed inhabitants of Canada,' this one drafted by John Jay. British rule, the letter argued, reduced Canadians to slavery and endangered their religious freedom. 'We can never believe that the present race of Canadians are so degenerated as to possess neither the spirit, the gallantry, nor the courage of their ancestors,' the letter continued. How would they explain their cowardice to their children? It ended with a familiar threat: The Americans hoped the Canadians would not 'reduce us to the disagreeable necessity of treating you as enemies.' Before it adjourned in August 1775, Congress authorized an invasion of Canada. In a full-battalion-to-remind-you-of-my-love kind of missive, George Washington informed the Canadians that Benedict Arnold was heading their way with a detachment. 'Come then, my brethren,' he wrote, 'unite with us in an indissoluble union, and let us run together to the same goal.' Congress was sanguine about the prospects, expecting, as Thomas Jefferson put it, 'every hour to be informed that Quebec has opened its arms to Colonel Arnold.' Around the time Washington was writing his hopeful letter, Arnold and his ludicrously ill-equipped men were surviving on dead dogs and boiled cartridge belts. Though the siege of Quebec proved a disaster, Congress continued to believe the Canadians were eager to join their revolt. 'The unanimous voice of the continent is Canada must be ours, Quebec must be taken,' crowed John Adams in February. Congress that month opted for diplomacy, appointing a commission that consisted of Charles Carroll, among the wealthiest men in America and a French-speaking Catholic; his Jesuit cousin, Father John Carroll; and two members of Congress. The eldest of the group, the longtime colonial fixer and the American with the greatest experience of the wider world, was Benjamin Franklin. The commissioners were not only to persuade the Canadians that union was in their best political interest, but also to seduce their northern neighbors with dreams of glory. It was to promise freedom of religion and establish freedom of the press. Against all odds and at some expense, a printing press also made its laborious way to Montreal. It was one illustration of the American understanding of her northern neighbors: Over 90 percent of French Canada was at the time illiterate. The members of the commission traveled less comfortably than did the press, meeting with gale winds and ice floes. They slept in the woods, on a tented ship and in a pillaged cabin, amid weather that could freeze shut a sentry's eyes. Franklin's legs swelled. Boils erupted on his skin. He recognized that he had taken on an assignment that at his age — he was 70 — would likely spell his end. He wrote farewell letters to friends. In Montreal, the delegates discovered they had embarked on the original Canadian goose chase. It was difficult to convince a people that they should place themselves under American protection when the American troops were without provisions or funds, undisciplined, underdressed and unfit for duty. Nearly half had succumbed to smallpox. Shortly after British reinforcements arrived, the commissioners reported miserably to Congress: Canadians 'have suffered us to enter their country as friends' and the Americans managed to turn 'their good dispositions towards us into enmity, and makes them wish our departure.' Franklin, said to be 'pitifully unwell,' returned home, accompanied by a Montreal couple who took 'such liberties in taunting at our conduct in Canada,' he reported, 'that it came almost to a quarrel.' Congress appointed a committee to investigate the Canadian fiasco, producing a long list of causes but omitting the obvious: The Canadians had no interest in revolt. As Father Carroll noted, they did not believe themselves oppressed. Not only did their interests refuse to align, but also the Canadians entertained very different ideas about government. It was almost as if Canada were a foreign country. For all the miscalculations, neither Franklin nor Washington could relinquish the idea of annexing Canada. Nor could the Marquis de Lafayette, who was promised a command of 2,500 men and given instructions to invade. Somehow the expedition was meant to head out in February, not an ideal time for a Canadian 'irruption.' No one had bothered to supply the troops with winter clothing. Congress called off the mission, which Lafayette had described as a 'hell of blunders, madness and deception.' His second in command was left wondering if those who had cooked up the ridiculous plan had been traitors or idiots. At the end of the War of Independence, before the 1783 peace negotiations, Franklin attempted a Hail Mary pass: Should the British not offer up Canada as reparations for the many towns they had burned? Surely a gesture of good will was in order. The British did not find the idea compelling. Despite the vexed history, we seem — at least one of us seems — to be here again. It isn't easy to beat up on modern-day Canada, which hasn't offended anyone since the great Turbot War of 1995 (Spain, fishing rights). For all the early American missteps, at least in the 18th century, the motives were clear: The northern colonists felt vulnerable to British and Indian attack. As Washington had it, Canada 'would have been an important acquisition, and well worth the expenses incurred in the pursuit of it.' Today, there is no sane motive, unless mugging a sovereign nation that happens to be both your closest friend and your most trusted trading partner constitutes reasonable foreign policy. Even George Washington would be hard-pressed to write an appeal to modern Canada — the land of universal health care, universal maternity leave and affordable tuition; a country with a sense of decency, gun control and superior life expectancy; a country that still teaches cursive handwriting — that could persuade it to unite with its southern neighbor. We do not appear to be running together to the same goal. Pepé Le Pew is never going to get that cat. Already America has submitted to remedial instruction on the cost of overstepping our northern border. In 1812 U.S. generals boasted all over again about liberating Canada, still a British colony, from 'tyranny and oppression.' Brig. Gen. William Hull, glorying in the sight of the American flag flying over present-day Windsor, Ontario, demanded a cordial welcome for the invading force, there to emancipate. Two summers later, in a retaliatory raid, the White House went up in flames.
