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Special Report
Searching For Paul Revere
A patriot’s story for the Fourth of July.
Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
Other than recalling a fragment of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s wonderful, if historically inaccurate poem, many Americans, myself included, do not know much more about Paul Revere, the man, and his ride through Middlesex county to alert the countryside on the movement, in force, of British Regulars in the direction of Lexington.
The British aimed to snatch John Hancock and Sam Adams before moving on to Concord to seize a large cache of munitions on that consequential night in April 1775.
John Singleton Copley’s portrait of Paul Revere, circa 1771, presents a picture of a confident, accomplished artisan or “mechanic” as silversmiths and other craftsmen were called in that era. In this image, Revere is 35 years old, confident, casual and prosperous, with his tools about him, holding a silver teapot.
David Hackett Fischer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and author of the indispensable book, Paul Revere’s Ride (1994), describes Copley’s Revere: “His shirt is plain and simple, but it is handsomely cut from fine linen.” He is “of middling height, neither tall nor short. He is strong and stocky, with broad shoulders, a thick neck, muscular arms and powerful wrists…His eyes are deep chestnut brown, and their high-arched brows give the face a permanently quizzical expression.”
“The gaze is clear and very direct.” It is “the steady look of an independent man,” writes Fischer.
The coming of the Fourth of July, 2010, seemed like an appropriate occasion to rectify my ignorance of Revere, given his iconic status in the founding of our country.
I had once taken a brief stroll on a section of the Freedom Trail in Boston during a hurried business trip but was unable to take one of the fine guided tours offered by the National Park Service which runs the Boston National Historical Park.
The Freedom Trail is a 2.5 mile red-brick walking path through 16 historic sites, including the Old North Church and Paul Revere House. In 1951 public-spirited citizens in Boston were able to convince city leaders to formally establish the Trail. In 1964 the Freedom Trail Foundation was established to market and preserve it. By 1974 the National Park Service also came into the picture. As many as 3 to 4 million visitors come every year.
Paul Revere was the son of Apollos Rivoire, a Huguenot or French Calvinist who fled religious persecution to come to New England as an apprentice to an elderly silversmith. Paul, however, did not speak a word of French.
Paul Revere, as described by Fischer, was a successful artisan and businessman, connected to all the various revolutionary cells active in the Massachusetts of 1775. In fact, he belonged to more groups and knew more operatives and political leaders than almost anyone, certainly in Boston. Moreover, he developed a significant intelligence and communications network for which he was one of the central nodes.
Fischer observes that “Paul Revere’s primary mission was not to alarm the countryside. His specific purpose was to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock, who were thought to be the objects of the expedition.” The military stores at Concord were of secondary concern. Still, by morning thousands of fully-armed militia had arrived on the field at both Lexington and Concord ready for closed formation fighting.
“Paul Revere and the other messengers did not spread the alarm merely by knocking on individual farmhouse doors,” says David Hackett Fischer. “They also awakened the institutions of New England. The midnight riders went systematically about the task of engaging town leaders and militia commanders of their region. They enlisted its churches and ministers, its physicians and lawyers, its family networks and voluntary associations.…They knew from long experience that successful efforts requires sustained planning and careful organization.”
A hurry of hoofs in a village street
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet;
That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light
The fate of a nation was riding that night;
And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,
Kindled the land into flame with its heat.
By the way, Fischer notes that Paul Revere did not say, “The British are coming.” New Englanders all considered themselves to be British. This is why they were so outraged at the loss of what they considered to be their traditional rights as such. Revere and his countryman would have called the advancing forces Regulars, Redcoats, the King’s men or “Ministerial Troops.” The split in national identity had not yet happened.
About the Author
G. Tracy Mehan, III served at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the administrations of both Presidents Bush. He is a consultant in Arlington, Virginia, and an adjunct professor at George Mason University School of Law.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (50) | Leave a comment
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Brian Mc| 7.2.10 @ 8:06AM
As democracy goes, if we listen quite carefully, isn't that the sound of Jefferson starting to roll over?
With the installation of that last verse I found goose bumps.
Mob rule fostered by the MSM is destroying this country. Aboloshing the 17th Amendment would be a great and momentous start to the righting of this ship we call Liberty.
I'm mad as hell and can't take 'The Alien' anymore.
Cabermon| 7.2.10 @ 2:15PM
As a libertarian Republican, I am puzzled by the recent hue and cry to return selection of Senators to the state legislatures. It strikes me that even more corrupt cronyist professional politicians and bureaucrats would become Senators since our state legislatures are already full of them.
The composition of the legislatures worries me, too.
Today 27 are Democrat controlled, 14 are Republican controlled, and 9 are either split or non-partisan. I haven't gone back 6 years to compare the breakdown, but if they appointed all 100 Senators today and each of the 9 split or non-partisan legislatures split 1 Dem and 1 Republican, there would be 63 Democrats and 37 Republicans in the US Senate. Not good.
So I don't understand this push to repeal the 17th amendment.
Would some one please enlighten me?
Thanks!
Alan Brooks| 7.2.10 @ 11:04PM
"As a libertarian Republican"
Libertarian Republican is the worst of both worlds.
AMENBRO| 7.4.10 @ 8:54AM
Multimillion dollar NITE's Out for "Wide Load" Michelle & "Panty W. Ball Tossin" Barry. Course he also needs to play more golf than all previous presidents combined during the deepest shit the country has endured in decades.
Course that's Bush's fault too! BUSH could throw a pitch making it unfair for AFFIRMATIVE ACTION PITCHED ALONG BARRY to have to live up to or surpass BUSH's pitching prowess, much less Bush's pledge to not play golf while OUR NATION's FINEST's LIVES EXPIRED ON THE BATTLEFIELD.
Office space that cost more in a month than a significant portion of the population make in a year for SPEAKERSHIP ENTITLED, "Unemployment Checks Create JObS"
Nancy PEEE-LOUSY.
YOU DAMN RIGHT JEFFERSON IS ROLLIN OVER IN HIS GRAVE.
Paul is pounding on more than precious metals in his.
Time to get off our comfortable asses and hit the streets. THe SOCIALISTS, PROGRESSIVES, ANARCHISTs & COMMUNIST SURE ARE.
Libertarian Republicans are the worst of both worlds? You got the ATTENTION SPAN OF A GNAT'S ASS ALAN.
AMENBRO| 7.4.10 @ 9:39AM
In your world ALAN does any of this sound like what the HAIL is going on RIGHT NOW???
Excerpts from the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE :
To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of.... CONTRACT LAW ALAN
...large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. ARIZONA ALAN
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. UN ALAN
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. CZARS ALAN
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. ARIZONA ALAN
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. THE ENTIRE BORDER LANDS ALAN
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers. SOTOMAYOR & SLAB HAID KAGAN
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. KAGAN
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. TAKE YOUR PICK ALAN
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. DOMESTIC SECURITY FORCES, ARMING THE IRS
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
OUR TROOPS ARE RENDERED TARGETS IN AFGHANISTAN
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
THE UN ALAN
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: A DOMESTIC SECURITY FORCES AS LARGE & WELL EQUIPPED AS OUR MILITARY ALAN
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
BLACK PANTHERS AT THE POLLING PLACES
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: UNIONS ALAN
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
COERCED HEALTH CARE REFORM
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury: THE SHAREHOLDERS OF GM
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences: CONTINUED RENDITION ALAN
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
ARIZONA SOVEREIGN ABILITY TO PASS ITS OWN LAWS GIVING MEXICO MORE MONEY THAN ARIZONA TO NOT ENFORCE MEXICAN BORDERS.
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: Just insert DEMOCRAT of OFFENSE if any of it RINGS A BELL YAWL
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
DEEEEMING HEALTH CARE PASSED & FY2011 BUDGET
WAKE UP PEOPLE
chester arthur| 7.4.10 @ 10:21AM
How could libertarian republican be worse than contrarian regressive liberal?
Tim*| 7.4.10 @ 9:31PM
Actually, a Keynesian Taxpayer Democrat is.
potkas7| 7.4.10 @ 8:01AM
"...I am puzzled by the recent hue and cry to return selection of Senators to the state legislatures...So I don't understand this push to repeal the 17th amendment. Would some one please enlighten me?..."
I can try...The presumption is that the citizen has a closer relationship to his state representative, and can exert more influence since that rep lives and works locally. It is also assumed that it is easier to change the makeup of a statehouse than it is a national body. Interestingly, for fans of term limits, under the Articles of Confederation - the document that saw us through the Revolution - state legislatures had the right to recall members of the congressional delegation if they weren't satisfied with their performance.
"...It strikes me that even more corrupt cronyist professional politicians and bureaucrats would become Senators since our state legislatures are already full of them..."
Whose fault is that? What you seem to be saying is that you want someone else to be responsible for telling legislators what to do. The term for such a person is "King." We tried that and didn't like it much.
Jeffrey| 7.8.10 @ 4:45PM
Cabermon,
You make a valid point that returning the Senators to state control might be dangerous from a partisan standpoint. However, most who would like to see the 17th amendment repealed aren't driven by a partisan desire. Rather the belief is that state's interests would be better served as a Senator who didn't act in the best interests of his/her state could be fired. Also, most believe that the growth in Federal government exploded after the 17th amendment. Thus, the belief that returning Senators to state control would help to shrink the size of the Federal government. I haven't done the research so I'm not sure if history is in agreement with that line of thought.
Faffnir| 7.2.10 @ 8:24AM
A glass raised to Paul Revere and all those who brought forth this shining land of Liberty! Let those who would drown us in pettifogging regulation, Beware! We have overthrown tyrants before and we shall not hesitate to do so again.
Gentlemen, To Liberty!!
Ken (Old Texican)| 7.2.10 @ 9:44AM
Mr. Mehan,
I guess I'm a wuss. I got misty eyed, both with your fascinating, article, and the poem as well.
What a delightful 4th of July gift to us.
In my own small way, I have been riding and yelling a warning to patriots.
http://judgeroy.wordpress.com
I often fear I shall be caught up by the "red-coats", and the only way many patriots will know is my silence here at TAS.
Thank you guys for giving us a voice...and a lantern.
Nancy in NC| 7.2.10 @ 12:58PM
And none of us know which act or statement will be the turning point for our country. Would the revolution have failed without Paul Revere? Will the new revolution (not the evolution of the progressives) fail because one of us fails to do what needs to be done?
I know many of you are involved, but it's not enough just to sing to the choir, typing away in our pajamas. There's work to be done. We must rally the vote for November, and put our money where our mouth is. I send out several hundred of dollars a month to conservative candidates all over the US, in hope that it will make a difference. Today I have checks going to Mark Rubio and Alan West in Florida. I AM NOT rich. I own a small business that is struggling, but I have grandchildren, and I have made the decision to spend the money from their inheritance to assure there is a future for the boys.
We must achieve gridlock in Congress in order to limit the power of this administration.
Thank you Paul Revere and Jack Jouett.
KyMouse| 7.2.10 @ 11:33AM
I'll join y'all in a drink to Paul Revere--but I'll also raise a glass to Captain Jack Jouett (pronounced "Jewett"), a Virginian whose nighttime ride in 1781 was even more harrowing and served just as great a purpose. All he lacked was a Longfellow to immortalize him.
When Jouett found out that British troops were heading toward rebel leaders who were meeting in Charlottesville, he rode 40 miles over treacherous terrain in the dead of night to warn them (more than twice as along a ride as Revere's, who traveled by road).
Jouett galloped to Monticello and awoke Thomas Jefferson and his guests, who were legislators, with the news. If I remember correctly, Jefferson escaped just as the British troops arrived at his house.
Although Jouett was bone-tired (as was his horse, of course), he rode on to Charlottesville to spread the alarm. His dangerous ride saved the lives of many leading colonists, a feat for which he was awarded two fine pistols and a jeweled sword.
In 1926, the president of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation praised Jouett this way: "But for Captain Jack Jouett's heroic ride, there would have been no Yorktown, and the Revolutionists would have been only unsuccessful rebels."
Margie| 7.2.10 @ 11:44AM
What a wonderful piece of history I had not known. Thank you so much for writing it here!
KyMouse| 7.2.10 @ 1:01PM
Thanks for your kind words, Margie! Another reason for a Kentuckian like me to admire him is the fact that in 1782, not long after his famous ride, he and his family moved to Harrodsburg, Ky., which is about a hour's drive from my house. (Kentucky was part of Virginia until 1792.)
I think my parents took me to visit his home when I was a kid. I seem to remember being disappointed that he wasn't there. Probably out on another long ride.
CharlieEcho| 7.3.10 @ 4:37PM
Aye a note worthy bit of history. I hadn't heard of Mr Jouett before, or if I had, I'd forgotten.
Thank you.
chester arthur| 7.4.10 @ 10:24AM
I remember reading that Jouett's ride through the brush and thorns of the Virginia countryside scarred his face for life.He truly bore the marks of his sacrifice for all to see.
bob ross| 7.2.10 @ 11:39AM
Tracy, enjoyed as always I do. my fear is that the effort of so many will fall bt the wayside. bob
KyMouse| 7.2.10 @ 11:42AM
I enjoyed your article, Mr. Mehan, but please wish us a happy Independence Day, not a happy Fourth of July.
People all around the world have the fourth of July on their calendars, but many have no Independence Day to celebrate. Thank God, we do.
Lord Thomas Frank| 7.2.10 @ 11:51AM
This article is Whiggish balderdash. Revere was a malcontent who never learned to appreciate his sovereign lord, King George III. When will you peasants, obsessed with your precious "liberty," cease extolling rebellion, and learn to submit quietly to your betters?
ShortNSweet| 7.2.10 @ 12:26PM
"Better"!?!?!? And that would be who? You?!?!?
Get used to it we will never quit "obsessing" with our preicous "Liberty! How 'bout you find somewhere else to live!
George True| 7.2.10 @ 12:50PM
Uh, Shorty, we appreciate your fervor on behalf of individual liberty, but Lord Frank's comment was tongue in cheek humor. Satire, in other words. As Rush would say, speaking absurdity in order to illustrate absurdity (on the part of the left).
ShortNSweet| 7.2.10 @ 12:55PM
Oh - Thank God!
Bilwick1| 7.2.10 @ 1:57PM
Ha ha! "Shorty" totally taken in! Damn, I'm good!
Cabermon| 7.2.10 @ 2:19PM
Yup, he GOTCHA! :-) Note the nom de plume: Stolen from the lefty Thomas "What's the Matter with Kansas" Frank. N1ce job!
ShortNSweet| 7.2.10 @ 4:58PM
:) got me good....I was infuriated to think. I guess that was obvious. huh.
ShortNSweet| 7.2.10 @ 12:22PM
In the light of the stands taken by so many to found the greatest country in the history of this world, I can not express the despair in my heart that it is my generation that could likely be it's undoing. It is the duty of us who still believe in the rights and liberties given by our Creator, and the Constitution of the United States to busy ourselves with the greatest of devotion to see to it that that Constitution still stands, and that there will be another 234 Independence Days for the great United States of America!!!!!
God Bless American!
prestonsbrooks| 7.2.10 @ 12:35PM
We need a modern day Revere and a Washington.
Al Adab| 7.2.10 @ 1:58PM
prestonbrooks:
Now there is a moniker that brings a name out of history.
Maddox| 7.2.10 @ 3:54PM
"The steady gaze of an independent man" is something every American should have. It is indicative of the determination to succeed and remain free.
Everyone here knows how tenuous our freedom is with the daily assault from our government and its adoring media. We are often ridiculed but we must continue to spread the warning.
Thank you for an inspiring reminder of what we have and what that it took for brave men to achieve it.
It will take brave men to keep it.
Blackwatch| 7.2.10 @ 5:43PM
A modern Revere/Jouette would warn us that the MSM is near with the SEIU purple cloaks.
Let us not shirk from our Duty to fight them tooth and nail--until their very last breath.
In the immortal words of "The Patriot" --AIM SMALL...MISS SMALL.
DaveS| 7.2.10 @ 6:32PM
Nice article; wish there was more. I think William Dawes was one of the primary horseback riders.
Lady Patriot| 7.2.10 @ 8:28PM
absolutely beautiful- brought tears to my eyes, a smile to my face and HOPE to my heart. We must all become patriots. wishing all a very moment-filled 4th. God bless America.
Paul Reverer| 7.2.10 @ 9:59PM
Obama himself has claimed that his birth status was governed by the British Nationality Act of 1948 which reads: Subject to the provisions of this section, a person born after the commencement of this Act shall be a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies by descent if his father is a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies at the time of the birth. In the Supreme Court Case--Tuan Anh Nguyen v. INS--Justice Ginsberg made the following statements ... affirming that the world recognizes "birthrights" of the Father (not the mother), and bloodline rather than birth place as the foundation for inherited citizenship by birthright. It's irrefutable, Obama is a legal subject of the Crown just like former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Sir Paul McCartney and no more eligible to be President of the U.S. than either.
BHO's time is almost over. Justice will not be denied dozens of Constitutional Tribunals have formed.
Have you sworn an oath, will the noose find your neck or will you do the right thing before it's too late for you?
arlo price| 7.3.10 @ 10:03PM
Everyone has the opportunity to be a modern day Paul Revere.......BUMPER STICKERS reach the masses!!
Freddie| 7.4.10 @ 2:14PM
Just a picky comment, that the fourth line of the poem is missing from the quotation at the top of your article:
"Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year."
Dacron Mather| 7.5.10 @ 7:25AM
While Paul Revere's silver
Deserves just applause,
Up here at Harvard
We annually pause
To thank God almighty
For good Reverend Dawes
G. Tracy Mehan, III| 7.5.10 @ 10:42AM
Freddie, good catch. We will rectify the error.
Thanks.
D. Smith| 7.5.10 @ 12:39PM
Mr, Meeham - In Searching for Paul Revere did you stumble onto an old American Heritage hard-cover magazine?
Your article is disturbingly reminiscent?
G. Tracy Mehan, III| 7.5.10 @ 2:03PM
D. Smith, I have not seen the American Heritage article you reference. I have never subscribed to that publication. Thanks.
D. Smith| 7.6.10 @ 6:36AM
Mr. Mehan, I apologize for mis-spelling your name and even more for seeming to imply and for you to infer that I was suggesting you might have used the AH, article for a quick reference. That was not my intent.
The American Heritage aarticle was a hardcover magazine in April 1977 - I have kept about 40 years of them for my grandchildren to learn about our country.
The same Copley portrait illustrates the article. which begins with Longfellow's:
A hurry of hoofs in a village street,
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet,
That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the
light
The fate of a nation was riding that night.. .
And, so the story goes, that night Revere forgot his spurs, but his little dog had followed him and he attached a note to its collar and sent it back . And shortly the dog returned with the spurs. They also forgot rags to muffle oars and were given a lady's petticoats "warm from the wearing" for the purpose.
DAVE S. is correct about William Dawes being one of the riders. The account I read says he was thrown from his horse and could not finish the ride A Dr.Samuel Prescott had joined them to give the alarm.
How indebted we are today for these brave, ordinary citizens who risked their lives and those of their families to fight for our independence.
How different today - that if citizens take up arms to attempt to control borders in Arizona because of Obamaa's refusal to send adequate troops, they are called vigilantes, "Minutemen" in an insulting way - as though, they are loose cannons bent on killing illegals. "Bitter clingers", as our leader says.
The Whiskey Rebellion in 1791- another little dustup about federal taxes - also offers some interesting rules of engagement for getting it done.
G. Tracy Mehan, III| 7.6.10 @ 7:15AM
D. Smith, no offense taken. Dawes and Prescott are definitely part of this amazing story, great patriots both. Historian Fishcer does note, though, that most of the units who were first on the field of battle the following morning were from communities reached by Paul Revere, who, again, being so well connected with the Whig network, knew who the primary organizers, political leaders and militia commanders were. Thanks, again.
D.Smith| 7.7.10 @ 12:46AM
One last Fourth of July anecdote - - have been "entertaining" 8 year old grandson with little known Independence Day lore - - as he edges back to TV and Scooby Doo.
In an obscure article entitled, THE FIRST FOURTH, I learned that John Adams was so sure the second of July would be celebrated "by succeeding generations as the great anniversary Festival" he wrote to wife, Abigail on July 3, 1776, the day after the Continental Congress had voted for independence and said (of July 2):
"It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews (sic), Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forevermore."
He had a pretty good game plan in every way except the date. Can you imagine Jimmy Cagney singing,
"I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy, . . .
A real live nephew of my Uncle Sam
Born on the Second of July
Doesn't scan.
I was impressed by John Adams' reference to "solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty" - - that was before we were so intent on separation of church and state.