While Your Kids Are Home, Ask What They Know About Christmas 1776

by Seth Grossman

While Your Kids and Grandkids Are Home, Tell Them How George Washington Saved America and Changed The World on Christmas Day, 1776.

There was no re-enactment of Washington's crossing of the Delaware River this Christmas Day. It was another casualty of the Wuhan Virus and government's response to it.

During normal times, several thousand visitors gather at noon each Christmas Day at the Washington Crossing Historic Park just north of Trenton, New Jersey.  There they stand for hours to watch dozens of re-enactors dressed as George Washington and his soldiers of the state militias and Continental Army of 1776 board large wooden boats and row from Bucks County, Pennsylvania to the New Jersey side. This is done to remember what George Washington and his 2400 American volunteers did on that remarkable Christmas night of 1776.

That original crossing is depicted in the iconic 1851 painting by German artist Emanuel Leutze. That crossing began ten fateful days in New Jersey that saved America and changed the world.

German artist, Emanuel Leutze -1851 painting

German artist Emanuel Leutze had no idea what the Delaware River looked like when he painted this. However, he brilliantly captured the spirit of Americans fighting for and winning their freedom and inspiring Europeans to do the same. Unfortunately, Germans, Poles and others who fought to establish an American-style constitutional republic in Europe in 1848, were crushed by the German, Russian, and French armies of kings and princes.  Many of these defeated German and other European rebels  fled to the United States, where they actively opposed slavery and supported  efforts by Abraham Lincoln and the the new Republican Party to end it.

Just over six months before that crossing, on July 4, 1776, representatives of thirteen British colonies in North America met in Philadelphia, and approved a document known as our Declaration of Independence .  As President Abraham Lincoln later explained, that Declaration was about far more than the mere matter of the separation of the Colonies from the motherland".

It also declared that our new nation would be guided by these “self-evident” truths:

"Each of us is created equal. Each of us is endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among us, deriving their just powers with the consent of the governed-- That whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness".

Abraham Lincoln at Independence Hall in Philadelphia on 2/22/1861: “I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence”. Lincoln’s strongest political feelings were that slavery in America was an evil sin that must be eliminated, and that most authors of our Constitution intended and expected its “ultimate extinction” in the near future.

Five months later, American independence and those words that inspired it seemed as dead as thousands of patriots in Ireland, Scotland, and India who fought and died in previous failed rebellions against corrupt and dictatorial British aristocrats.

One week after the Declaration of Independence was signed and published in Philadelphia, a massive British invasion fleet arrived in New York Harbor. Its 300 warships and 400 transports brought 30,000 well paid, trained, and disciplined British and German soldiers to Staten Island New York.  The German soldiers were rented to the British by Hesse and other small German states to fund their governments while reducing taxes.  These German soldiers, often called Hessians, were well paid, equipped, and trained, and considered among the bravest and most effective soldiers in Europe.

During the next three months, British soldiers and their German, or Hessian auxiliaries overwhelmed George Washington’s 10,000 poorly trained volunteers defending Long Island and Manhattan, They killed or captured half of the Americans. The German Hessians were especially brutal. They used bayonets to execute hundreds of Americans after they dropped their weapons, raised their hands and surrendered at Brooklyn Heights.

In November, 1776, George Washington and his 5,000 remaining soldiers crossed the Hudson River. They tried to make a stand in Hackensack with support from New Jersey militias. However, those militias failed to appear.  Without their support, Washington’s men were badly outnumbered. They had to quickly flee towards Philadelphia to avoid capture. They didn’t stop retreating until after they crossed the Delaware River into Pennsylvania.  They seized every boat on the Jersey side of the river so that the British could not pursue them.

That December, a disgusted George Washington wrote a letter to his brother saying:

“The conduct of the Jerseys has been most infamous. Instead of turning out to defend their country. . . they are making their submissions as fast as they can. . . The few militias that were in arms disbanded themselves. . . and left the poor remains of our army to make the best we could of it”.

Patriot journalist Thomas Paine was with Washington’s army and was just as angry. He said the British left Massachusetts and the rest of New England alone and chose to invade and occupy New York and New Jersey because “New England was not infested with Tories (British sympathizers), and we are!”

Thomas Paine was particularly angry at one “noted Tory who kept a tavern in Amboy, New Jersey”.  According to Paine, that Tory agreed that Americans would sooner or later have to fight for independence from the British Empire. However, as he stood next to his 8 year old child, the Tory said he would not help George Washington’s soldiers because he wanted “peace in my day”.

This infuriated Thomas Paine, who wrote,

“A generous parent should have said, ‘If there must be trouble, let it be in my day so that my child may have peace!’ Paine continued “This single reflection, well applied is sufficient to awaken every man to his duty”.

Thomas Paine’s experience in New Jersey inspired him to write and publish a pamphlet called The American Crisis on December 23, 1776. It began with these words:

These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it NOW, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

While Thomas Paine was writing, George Washington’s battered soldiers got help from a most unlikely source–  Quaker farmers from South Jersey who were known to be pacifists! Quakers came to America because they opposed the wars Britain was fighting against Spain, France, and Holland.  Those pacifist Quakers included William Penn who established Philadelphia. They also included the Smith, Somers, Risley, Scull, Conover, and Leeds families who settled near what is now Atlantic City.

However, once in America, these Quakers slowly changed their thinking.  They still still believed that God did not permit them to fight wars of conquest or aggression.   However, Benjamin Franklin wrote that many of these American Quakers in and around Philadelphia came to believe that God permitted them to build and buy weapons for self-defense.  They believed God permitted them to kill if necessary to defend themselves, their families, their towns  and villages against anyone who attacked them.  Later, these Quakers became known as “fighting Quakers”.

When German soldiers hired by the British occupied Central Jersey, they began stealing food, destroying property, and abusing women in the Quaker towns and farms they occupied.

Companies of militias with “fighting Quakers” throughout southern and central Jersey began to fight back. One of them was the Gloucester County Militia led by Colonel Richard Somers of Somers Point. Colonel Somers was the father of the future Barbary Wars/Tripoli navy hero with his same name. At that time, Gloucester County included what are now Camden and Atlantic Counties.

The words of Thomas Paine and the actions of these “fighting Quakers” persuaded Washington to return to New Jersey and attack the 1,200 Germans (Hessian) troops who had occupied Trenton.

On Christmas Day, 1776, Washington’s George Washington assembled a force of 2,400 soldiers, 200 horses, and 18 cannons in the woods near the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River just north of Trenton.  When it got dark, they began crossing the river in large wooden rowboats.

At that time, it began to rain.  During the night it got colder, the winds picked up, and the rain changed to sleet, then snow, then freezing rain.  Washington hoped to complete the crossing by midnight, and attack Trenton while it was still dark.  However, the bad weather delayed the crossing by three hours. Daylight came while Washington’s men were still marching south towards Trenton.  Two of Washington’s exhausted soldiers fell and died from the cold.

When the Americans arrived at Trenton, Henry Knox and his assistant, 21 year old Alexander Hamilton, skillfully deployed their 18 cannons. At 8 am, George Washington personally led the attack. The Hessians came out, formed a line, and fired a the Americans. However, the Germans were mowed down by American cannon fire.

Henry Knox was a bookseller from Boston with no military training. He learned to operate cannons by reading books. The previous year, Knox helped George Washington drive the British out of Boston by transporting 59 captured British cannons from Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York 300 miles away.  Knox surprised the Hessians at Trenton a year later at Trenton by “keeping his powder dry” in a windy, freezing rainstorm.  Knox did it by using the same wax seals and packaging he used to keep books dry when he shipped them to customers.

The Americans killed 22 Hessians,  including their commander. Another 83 were wounded, and roughly 900 more were taken prisoners.  The Americans suffered no deaths other than the two who died from the cold.  Five more Americans were wounded.  News of this lopsided victory by the Americans against the most feared soldiers of Europe quickly spread throughout America and the world.

The British tried to minimize the impact of their defeat by inventing fake news about the battle. The British falsely claimed that their German auxiliaries were defeated because they were half drunk or asleep from a late night Christmas party.  The truth was that the Germans were very prepared.  Their sentries quickly spotted the Americans and sounded the alarm.  The Hessians quickly grabbed their weapons and lined up for battle.  They were tired because smaller groups of Americans had been attacking them for weeks, including the night before.  The Germans did not have patrols out the night before only because nobody thought an entire army could assemble, march, and “keep its powder dry” in such horrible weather.

The Americans did not punish the captured Germans for their brutality against surrendering Americans three months before in Brooklyn, New York.  George Washington specifically ordered his soldiers to “treat them with humanity”. It was a propaganda coup. The German prisoners wrote letters home to Germany praising the Americans.  This caused widespread opposition in Germany to the renting of more of their soldiers to the British.  It also persuaded many Hessian soldiers to desert to the Americans.  After the war, about 5,000 Hessian soldiers settled in America rather than return to Germany.  Many sent for their families in Germany to join them.

After learning of Washington’s attack, General Charles Cornwallis, the British commander, quickly marched his main British Army of 8,000 men to Trenton.  At first, it looked like most of George Washington’s army would disappear before the British got there.  The enlistments for most of the American soldiers expired on December 31.   However, George Washington persuaded most of them to stay for another month by making an emotional personal appeal, and by persuading Congress to supply a $10 hard money bonus for each man.

On January 2, 1777, Washington’s outnumbered forces stood their ground in the Battle of Assunpink Creek, often known as the Second Battle of Trenton.   The British then prepared to overwhelm the Americans the following day.  However, Washington instead quietly marched his army out of Trenton that night, and attacked the British from behind at nearby Princeton the next day, January 3.

News of these three victories, and the inspiring words of Thomas Paine, quickly spread throughout the American colonies. Thousands of young Americans volunteered to join Washington’s army. There would be five more years of hardship and struggle. However, American independence, liberty and prosperity were all saved during those ten fateful days in New Jersey that began with Washington’s Crossing of the Delaware on Christmas night in 1776.

Years later, in 1941, America ended the Holocaust and saved Europe from Hitler and Communism. America also saved China and East Asia from mass murder and brutal invasion and occupation by Imperial Japan. Without the America that was saved during those ten days in New Jersey that began on Christmas, 1776, today’s world would be a much darker place.

Seth Grossman, Executive Director 
info@libertyandprosperity.com
(609) 927-7333
info@libertyandprosperity.com

Yes Alan Steinberg, once upon a time America did send people “back to where they came from”

What is a “Congresswoman of color”?  How does she differ from a plain old “Congresswoman”?  Are the duties, rights, and responsibilities different?

Terms like “Congresswoman of color” are generally used by people who come from mono-chromatic worlds – whether that world is an all Somali-neighborhood in Minnesota or a Palestinian enclave in Michigan.  You can tell such places by the flags they fly.  If a neighborhood flies a flag other than the American flag it’s a good chance you have wandered into a mono-chromatic world.

See, Americans are a mixed people.  Ethnically and racially – as was often pointed out by the great Harlem Renaissance poet Jean Toomer.  A Quaker, Toomer knew that Americans were a “people of the word” – what sets us apart are the words in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.  Our freedoms make us who we are.  After spending many years traveling, Toomer lived and mentored in Doylestown, Bucks County, where he died in 1967. 

Those who think in terms of “people of color” and who are obsessed by the tint of one’s skin are almost always themselves racialists.  Wikipedia notes that “Racialism is the belief that the human species is naturally divided into races, that are ostensibly distinct biological categories.”

The philosopher W.E.B. DuBois argued that racialism was merely the philosophical position that races existed, and that collective differences existed among such categories.  DuBois held that racialism was a value-neutral term and differed from racism in that the latter required advancing the argument that one race is superior to other races of human beings.

Of course, science has largely erased such arguments.  Aside from some genetic correlations in the incidence of diseases in this subset or that, the idea of “racial identity” that is forced down every American child’s throat, that haunts our society in everything from census forms to employment applications, is entirely a political construct.  The American idea of “race” is nonsense and calling people “racist” is a nonsense game.  The actor Morgan Freeman got it right…

Enter Alan Steinberg, house “Republican” for a far-Left insider blog financed by some rather unsavory government vendors.  Steinberg longs for the days when the NJGOP was run by rich, so called “blue-bloods” (a mixed caste that claimed it could trace some measure of its history back to America’s colonial masters).  Unfortunately for Steinberg, all the rich “blue-bloods” are today Democrats, which is why Steinberg is such a decidedly anti-Republican “Republican”.  Like the writer Stefan Zweig, he longs for a lost monarchy, his queen, in exile. 

Alan Steinberg is a racialist.  He embraces the concept of race as central to our political, academic, economic, and cultural discourse in America.  He wants to elevate it to the center of all things, a thing that does not exist.  In some ways, Steinberg is like Donald Trump, who is also a racialist, albeit a tongue-in-cheek one.  Who can take half of what he tweets seriously?  How much of it is designed to arouse – like the comedic entertainer – simply for the pleasure of it.  Steinberg however, is very serious.  He applies heavy meaning to his racialism.

So do his allies in the Democrat Party.  As do those radical Democrats he claims he doesn’t like – Ms. A.O.C. and her posse.  They are racialists all. 

Alan Steinberg is deeply troubled by President Trump’s most recent taunt to Congresswoman A.O.C. and her… wait for it… fellow congresswomen of color, that they “go back to where you came from”.  Of course, they all came from here, from the America of made-up racial and ethnic “identities”.  All from mono-chromatic worlds.  Fake worlds, with flags from other places that are meant to impart some sense of false nationality, irrelevant to the place in which they actually live.  But fly them they do, in these make-pretend “colonies” that unwind and break-up as those within them meet, fall-in-love with, and are absorbed by the real place, by the nation that is, by America.

But as Steinberg fumes and pouts, it is funny to remember that – once upon a time – America really did send people “back where you came from”.  And for the most part, they could in no way be described as “people of color”.  Most of these people where Nazis, war criminals, and America was more than happy to use the words “go back to where you came from”.  Wikipedia notes:   

“According to a February 2, 2011 release from the United States Department of Justice, since 1979, the federal government has stripped 107 people of citizenship for alleged involvement in war crimes committed during World War II through the efforts of the Office of Special Investigations (OSI).  An unabridged 600-page Justice Department report obtained by The New York Times in 2010 stated, ‘More than 300 Nazi persecutors have been deported, stripped of citizenship or blocked from entering the United States since the creation of the O.S.I.’ The Los Angeles Times reported in 2008 that five such denaturalized men could not be deported as no country would accept them, and that four others had died while in the same situation.”

One wonders:  With Governor Murphy’s Sanctuary State directives and the unwillingness by many Democrats to in any way question an asylum seeker’s claims, how many sometime war criminals (or just plain violent criminals) will we be holding similar proceedings on some decades from now?  Stay tuned…

Tucker Carlson: Do Republicans know who their base is?

Tucker Carlson had author J.D. Vance on last evening…

Closer to home, New Jersey Republicans are searching for a winning message with which to build a defensive wall around their remaining legislative districts – and as a springboard for taking back some of what has been lost. While those professionals with experience running campaigns appear to be no closer to coming up with an umbrella message under which they can unify the party, activists like John Robert Carman of the New Jersey Constitutional Republicans (NJCR), are taking a stab at it…

John Robert Carman writes:

Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting with NJGOP Chairman Doug Steinhart, NJGOP Executive Director, Therese Winegar and GOP State Director, Ron Filan. I shared with them the 5 Point Plan the New Jersey Constitutional Republicans could help initiate with NJGOP to lead Republicans, “On to Victory” in New Jersey.

The 5-Point Plan consists of Point 1: Restoration- The historical circumstances that existed in the 1850’s leading to Civil War are uncannily like our present situation in NJ, and the nation. As Lincoln restored the initial principles of the Declaration of Independence being, the equality of all mankind before the law; natural rights (life, liberty & the environment from which to pursuit happiness); protecting the right of each person to own and keep property and the legitimacy of government by consent of the people.

Lincoln incorporated the necessity of preserving the Constitution in protecting the principles of the Declaration of Independence and thereby, assuring the preservation of our Union which is precisely what is needed in our fractured state and nation today. In restoring these initial Republican principles, we return to the solid foundation of our founding documents and incorporate these ideals and values into every sphere of public policy. Republican voters and those who want to vote Republican are looking for a distinct contrast from the Democrats in philosophy and ideology. A return to initial Republican principles will clearly demonstrate the difference and strengthen our Party.

Point 2: Education-The Key to Republican Resurgence in NJ! This is NJCR’s forte and encompasses many areas of study that positively starts with history; knowing the founding documents and the spirit of their intent. Educating citizens on constitutional republican government, limited government and the proper role of representative government. Educating citizens on the initial values of the Republican Party; equality under law; liberty and justice for all, due process, and individual accountability and responsibility. Educating our citizens on the necessity of civics and the forgotten , yet indispensable role the citizens plays in forming fair and just public policy. Educating citizens on the Laws of Nature and Natures’ God which are perpetual and remain constant throughout time and place. Educating also includes the negative impact progressivism and marxism and their significant role in marginalizing our constitutional republic leading to the great dilemma and division in our state and nation today. NJCR looks to participate with NJGOP in offering educational presentations throughout the state with County GOP organizations and Young Republican organizations that equip our citizens with the knowledge and encouragement they will need to enthusiastically nurture Republican voters and assure Republican representation at the local, state and national stages.

Point 3: Preservation: The Republican Party is the last, best hope for the preservation of the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution protecting those principles. Republicans are the only entity standing between a tyrannical mobocracy and the natural rights of individual liberty and justice the Constitution assures. The Democrats are determined to eliminate the principles of the DOI and the Constitution. Republicans must proclaim the message that we are the sole defenders of our Constitution and the only Party with the desire, ability and facility to protect it.

Point 4: Participation: Self Governance. Having people actively engaged with public policy and making their voices heard in the legislative process. Establishing relationships with their elected representatives, holding them accountable to securing the rights of all citizens they represent, not just those who vote for them, calling them, meeting them, writing them, emailing them. Mobilizing blast calls and immediate calls to action when potential legislation is brought to the State House floor for a vote. Encouraging a consistent dialogue with representatives and our responsibility as leaders of the Republican Party in equipping citizens to be successful in effectively participating in Self-Governance.

Point 5: Unification: Initially the Republican Party was made up of several parties and entities, the Whigs, the Know Nothings, Free Soilers, Union Democrats and Radical Republicans. It was a constant struggle for Lincoln to maintain the unity amongst these factions to abolish slavery; preserve the Union and win the Civil War. Today we must Incorporate all the factions that share our initial values which NJGOP has begun with Grassroots21 initiatives along with the necessity of incorporating fiscal and social conservatives; 2nd Amendment Defenders; Tea Partiers; Right to Lifers; Constitutionalist; MAGA’s; Independents; Unaffiliated, and Blue Dog Democrats all into one unified Republican Party. Give candidates that may come from these factions an opportunity to battle it out in primaries and give them all a sense of ownership within the Party and the belief they can win as Republicans. Go into urban areas and other Democratic strongholds with the initial principles of our Republican Party, promoting new, consistent and lasting relationships within the Black and Latino communities. Meet with Republicans and conservatives within these communities and empower them with all the tools, education and support they would need to reach their communities. This 5 Point Plan can work but only with the participation of thousands of like minded citizens determined to restore Republican principles and values; teaching truth and justice; preserving our constitution and our constitutional republic; participating in public policy making and unifying freedom and liberty motivated citizens all determined to reinstate our sovereignty, We the Peoples sovereignty within government in New Jersey and our nation.  

Join NJGOP and the New Jersey Constitutional Republicans today and may we march “On to Victory.”

Does this message get the job done? Is it motivational, concise, and easy to understand? Can you envision this as the basis for campaign mail, social media, broadcast, cable, and radio ads? In any case, it is a start, so be thankful for that.