The following is an installment of “On This Day,” a series celebrating America’s 250th anniversary by following the actions of Gen. George Washington, the Continental Congress, and the men and women whose bravery and sacrifice led up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Jan. 19, 1776
Cambridge, Massachusetts
At his Cambridge headquarters, Gen. George Washington finally received dispatches from the north, sent on Dec. 31, 1775, informing him for the first time that the assault on Quebec, over 20 days earlier, had failed.
Maj. Gen. Philip Schuyler carried the “melancholy account” to Washington that Gen. Richard Montgomery was dead and Col. Benedict Arnold was wounded.
Washington convened a council of war, summoning all of his generals and John Adams, and repeated his warning that the northern crisis could not wait. He got what he wanted, including new regiments and the dispatch of three of the 13 existing ones to the north without delay.
On the same day, Thomas Jefferson read the king’s October 1775 speech to Parliament for the first time in the Virginia Gazette. He then began drafting a response, particularly this paragraph of the king’s speech:
“The object is too important, the spirit of the British nation too high, the resources with which God hath blessed her too numerous, to give up so many colonies which she has planted with great industry, nursed with great tenderness, encouraged with many commercial advantages, and protected and defended at much expence and treasure.”
ON THIS DAY: WASHINGTON CONVENES A COUNCIL OF WAR
Jefferson wrote in a rough draft of notes: “We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here …: that these were effected at the expence of our own blood and treasure, unassisted by the wealth or the strength of Great Britain.”
His view of this matter was anticipated both in his summary view and his draft of the Declaration on Taking Up Arms.