Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1883-12-07

BEGINNING AND END o. rME xEyO.
lITu0NARY WAR.

alton Of New York. DR.. Armitass. of
that city, said
Prolonged discussions have been
held to determine AT what place the
! first blood of the American Revelation
was shed. II has been asserted tina,
Lexington. Mass. can claim that honor
With the fight Of April l9. l7.5. West,
minister. VT, claims ii with an earlier
date of the same vear King stree,
Boston. points u May ;. l71O. Il can
be successfully established that the
honor belongs to New YORK. In 1865
the Legislature of New York Was called
on for an appropriation for the supper,
OF British troops In New York. IL re-
fused. In June. 1865. some points were
conceded by the Legislature. but not
enough I" satisfy the garrison in Nav
York. OB August 18th the soldiers cut
The liberty pole on the commons where
the City Hall now stands. Il was erect
ed again, and again cut, In tue winter
OF lsG-6I the Legislature again failed
To vote supplies. and on March 18th the
liberty pole WAS cot third time. On
the 18Th 1t was erected and braced and
strapped with iron. In MAY the weak
ening Assembly voted 5000 Matters
going from bad to worse. the citizens of
the city held a public Indignation meet
ing on December -. 1863. and resolved
that the soldiers were kept in the city to
enslave and not protect the people. On
January 18th soldiers tried to bore a
hole III the pole and blow 1t to pieces
with powder. The alarm of fire was
sounded and citizens prevented the at
tempt. On the 18th there Was another
attempt, and on the l7th the pole was
thrown down. Three thousand men
gathered on the co mn sns and listened
to tiery speeches ON their rights as
American citizens the perils of their
liberties, aud the injustice of taxation
without repr sentation. Then they re-
solved that If any soldiers were found
outside of their barracks they should
be treated 50 enemies of the citizens Of
the city. The garrison resented this in
one violent step after another, until, on
January 18th, they attacked party of
citizens on Golden Hill. in John street,
between Gold and Pearl Several were
severely wounded, and one soldier was
killed. 1t was fight excited by con
sideratiOn of the vital principles which
inspired the revolution, and 1t was the
first battle of the revolution
In its editorial on the one hundredt
anniversary of the day, the San reca-
pitulated the various final excavations
of the Atlantic Coast. from which it
will be seen that New York W As not the
last port left by any means. 1t said:
What was there, it may be asked. in
the fact lat on the 25th OF November.
1888, Carleto1's 300 British and Hes
slams embarked from New York, and
knOx's few hundred Americans entered
the city, to deserve so prodlglOus Cen
tennial commemoratiOn The war for
liberty had long before been won. The
surrender of Corvallis, its browning
evs mt, had occurred on the 18th of Octo- |
Der, 1881; the true protocol of peace bad |
been agreed to by the end of 1882 the |
formal cessation OF hOstIlities had been |
ordered by Congress in April, 1888: a |
definite treaty had been signed on the |
I'd of September even the remnants of |
the Continental army that had not al |,
ready gone back to the farm and the |
ork5hop had been disbanded on the |
Sd of November. What, then, but |
mere formality was this departure of |
the British, who had held Manhattan
Island through seven years two months
and ten days and. indeed, until not
eVtu tuey uda tuc uSsutaiiSc ID stay
longer:
At best, perhaps, We may De told, this
was but on. of series Of military with
drawals from the seacoast cities, whose
dates few people care to remember.
Wilmington had been abandoned in
May, 1882; Savannah month later,
Charleston in December. The historian
may even check the ready reply that |
the evacuation of Nov mber - must be
accepted rs the greatest, because the
final one. by informing us that in reali
ty it was not the last. The British he
may say, did not leave Governors
Island. which then was and still is with
in the corporate limits of the city, until |
the ID day of December they hello |
Paulus Hook and Staten Island at least |
until the I'd; the transports and men
of-war did not sail out of the harbor un-
til the 4th and 9Th. and meanwhile held |
under their guns the city, which ey |
could have retaken with very slight |
effort. BIT beyond thls the historical |
fact is that the final evacuation of our |
coast by the British WAS that OF the |
post at the mouth of the Penobscot. and |
this was not affected until January,
1884.