The founding generation was fond of toasts. During public gatherings it was not uncommon to make thirteen toasts corresponding to the newly independent states. On July 4th toasts became particularly creative, including the manner of making toasts during public “entertainments.” Perhaps in the year 2024 we might learn a few things from the following examples of revolutionary era toasts. My favorites are bolded.
During the summer of 1775 the colonies girded for war following the battle of Lexington and Concord. In June Congress selected George Washington as the Commander and Chief of the Continental Army.[1] As General Washington began assembling his forces, seven companies of soldiers arrived in New York from Connecticut. General Schuyler and other New York military officers entertained their colleagues at a meal hosted by Samuel Fraunces.[2]During the celebration, eighteen patriotic toasts were made as military friendships were cemented. Newspapers across the colonies reprinted all eighteen toasts, including the raising of glasses to:
- the King, “and better counsellors for him”
- the Continental Congress
- General Washington and the army under his command
- The several Provincial Congresses and Committees in the confederated colonies
- “A speedy union, constitutional principles, between Great Britain and America”
- “Conquest and laurels to all those heroes who draw their swords in support of freedom”
- “All those worthies in both Houses of Parliament who were advocates for American and the rights of mankind”
- “May Great Britain see her error, before America ceases in affection.”[3]
John Adams wrote to Abigail on July 5, 1777 describing the celebrations in Philadelphia one year after the signing of the Declaration of Independence:
….I went on board the Delaware, with the President[4] and several gentlemen of the Marine Committee, soon after which we were saluted with a discharge of thirteen guns, which was followed by thirteen others, from each other armed vessel in the river; then the gallies followed the fire, and after them the guard boats. Then the President and company returned in the barge to the shore, and were saluted with three cheers, from every ship, galley, and boat in the river. The wharves and shores, were lined with a vast concourse of people, all shouting and huzzaing, in a manner which gave great joy to every friend to this country, and the utmost terror and dismay to every lurking tory.
At three we went to dinner, and were very agreeably entertained with excellent company, good cheer, fine music from the band of Hessians taken at Trenton, and continual vollies between every toast, from a company of soldiers drawn up in Second-street before the city tavern, where we dined. The toasts were in honour of our country, and the heroes who have fallen in their pious efforts to defend her.[5]
Benjamin Franklin spent much of the war in France securing and sustaining vital French support. On July 5th, 1779 a lavish celebration was hosted by Ben. The guests dined under a full-body portrait of George Washington shown holding the Declaration of Independence and the Franco-American Treaties of Alliance and Commerce. Multiple toasts were given including the following to:
- “The Congress and may they always govern with the same Wisdom that has hitherto distinguished them”
- “The Marquis de la Fayette and all the brave Strangers who have hazarded their Lives in our Cause”
- “Generals Washington, Gates, Arnold and all the valiant Americans who have fought in Defense of their Country”
- “The combined Fleets of France & Spain, and may Fame swell their Sails, and Victory crown all their Enterprises”[6]
In a devastating defeat for George Washington, the British captured New York City in August of 1776. Washington and the members of the Continental Army – who weren’t captured or killed during the Battle of Long Island – were fortunate to escape what was in its day the “largest and most powerful expeditionary force in world history.”[7] For the balance of the war the British held the strategic port city which served as their military headquarters.[8]
After the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783, British forces evacuated New York City at 12:00 noon on November 25, 1783. That evening a dinner was given to honor George Washington at Fraunces Tavern. Thirteen toasts were made “expressive of the esteem in which the United States of America, held the exalted Personages with whom they have formed such respectable alliance, and equally calculated to inspire a general veneration for public freedom.”[9] For over a century New York celebrated November 25th as “Evacuation Day.” The thirteen toasts were given to:
- The United States of America
- His Most Christian Majesty (France)
- The United Netherlands
- The King of Sweden
- The American Army
- The Fleet and Armies of France, which have served in American
- The memory of those Heroes who have fallen for our freedom
- May our county be grateful to her Military children
- May justice support what courage has gained
- The Vindicators of the rights of mankind in every quarter of the globe
- May America be an asylum to the persecuted of the earth
- May a close union of the States guard the Temple they have erected to liberty
- May the remembrance of this Day be a lesson to Princes.
The Constitution was written during the summer of 1787, but required ratification by nine states to become law. On July 5, 1788 John Jay wrote to his wife Sarah briefly describing the celebrations by the delegates to the New York Ratification Convention in Poughkeepsie. Even though the delegates were bitterly divided between Federalists and Anti-Federalists, Jay’s letter makes clear that they celebrated together:
Yesterday was a Day of Festivity, and both the Parties united in celebrating it. Two Tables, but in different Houses were spread for the Convention—the two Parties mingled at each Table— and the Toasts, (of which each had Copies) were communicated by sound of Drum, and accompanied by the Discharge of Cannon.[10]
Happy July 4th to all!
[1] Washington’s Commission from the Continental Congress was issued on 19 June 1775. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-01-02-0004.
[2] Pennsylvania Mercury and Universal Advertiser, 7 July 1775.
[3] It is likely that the meal was eaten at Fraunces’ Vaux Hall location “in the fields,” rather than his famous tavern on Pearl Street. The Connecticut Journal and the New Haven Post-Boy, 12 July 1775.
[4] John Hancock was elected President of the Second Continental Congress 1775.
[5] https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-02-02-0216
[6] https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-30-02-0032
[7] Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch, The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington (New York: Flatiron Books 2018), 336; Barnet Schecter, The Battle for New York: The City at the Heart of the American Revolution(New York: Walker & Co., 2002), 3-4.
[8] On August 27, 1776, British General William Howe defeated George Washington’s outnumbered forces at the Battle of Long Island, also known as the Battle of Brooklyn. Thereafter the British held New York City under a state of martial law until 25 November 1783. Both Washington and Howe considered New York a “post of infinite importance.” Rick Atkinson, The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 (New York: Henry Holt & Company, 2019), 304. They were not alone. John Adams, for example, described New York as “a kind of key to the whole continent,” for which “no effort to secure it ought to be omitted.” In a letter to Washington earlier that year, Adams reasoned that defending New York was necessary due to its “vast Importance” are “the Nexus of the Northern and Southern Colonies,” which also provided “a passage to Canada to the Great Lakes and to all the Indians Nations. John Adams to George Washington, 6 January 1776.
[9] Independent Journal, 1 December 1783.
[10] https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jay/01-05-02-0019