American Minute with Bill Federer
"AN APPEAL TO HEAVEN" -Origins of U.S. Navy, Marines, & Coast Guard
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In June of 1775,
citizens
acting as
merchant mariners
captured the British schooner
HMS Margaretta
around
Machias, Massachusetts
(present-day Maine).
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That same month,
General George Washington,
with the help of merchant ship owner
Colonel John Glover of Marblehead, Massachusetts,
chartered and outfitted several ships to interrupt the British supplies.
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The marker at the base of
John Glover's statue
in Boston states:
"John Glover of Marblehead - A Soldier of the Revolution.
He commanded a regiment of one thousand men raised in that town known as
the marine regiment,
and enlisted to serve throughout the war.
He joined the camp at Cambridge, June 22, 1775, and rendered distinguished service in
transporting the army."
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On September 2, 1775,
George Washington
personally financed
America's first armed naval vessel,
the
USS Hannah,
named for
John Glover's daughter.
Less than a week later, on September 7, 1775, the
USS Hannah
captured the British ship
HMS Unity,
the first prize taken by a U.S. naval vessel.
Other ships were outfitted by
John Glover:
- Franklin,
- Warren,
- Hancock, and
- Lee.
These ships had crews mostly of experienced
Massachusetts fisherman
who defended American ports and raided British ships transporting ammunition and supplies.
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This
original American flotilla,
sometimes referred to as
Washington's fleet,
captured 55 British ships.
The American schooner
Lee
captured the British brig
HMS Nancy
on November 29, 1775, with its cargo of 2,000 Brown Bess muskets, 100,000 flints, 30,000 of artillery ammunition, 30 tons of musket ammunition, and a 13 inch brass mortar.
This was a tremendous benefit to the new
Continental Army
stationed near Boston.
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After the
Battle of Brooklyn
Heights, August 27, 1776,
John Glover
and his
Marblehead fisherman
saved the day by
evacuating Washington
and the
entire Continental Army,
under cover of fog, in their
miraculous escape
across the East River to Manhattan Island.
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Glover's
large Durham rowboats also ferried
Washington
and the
Continental Army
across the ice packed
Delaware River
for the surprise attack on the German Hessian troops at the
Battle of Trenton,
December 26, 1776.
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A
Continental Congress
resolution to create a navy was introduced October 13, 1775, but was tabled.
On December 22, 1775, the resolution passed, and the
Continental Congress
authorized a
Continental Navy,
consisting of:
- two 24-gun frigates, Alfred and Columbus;
- two 14-gun brigs, Andrew Doria and Cabot;
- three schooners, Hornet, Wasp, and Fly..
The
Continental Navy
was put under the command of Esek Hopkins, Esq., and four captains, Dudley Saltonstall, Abraham Whipple, Nicholas Biddle and John Burrows Hopkins.
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Congress
also commissioned five first lieutenants, one of whom was the future naval hero,
John Paul Jones.
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On November 10, 1775, The
Continental Congress
passed a resolution creating two battalions of
Continental Marines,
to sail with the Navy and fight battles on sea and land, as an infantry invasion force.
The first marines were recruited at Tun Tavern in Philadelphia, and served under the command of Captain Samuel Nicholas.
Their
first Marine amphibious assault
was on March 3, 1776, when they sailed to the
Bahamas
and captured a British ammunition depot and naval port,
Fort Montagu
and
Fort Nassau.
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A flag flown by early American ships was the
Pine Tree Flag,
designed by General Washington's secretary,
Colonel Joseph Reed,
who wrote in a letter, October 20, 1775:
"... flag with a white ground and a tree in the middle, the motto AN APPEAL TO HEAVEN."
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The
Pine Tree Flag
was also flown in towns, churches, riverbanks, and at the nation's capital in Philadelphia.
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Eastern White Pine Trees
grew to a height of over 150 feet and were ideal for use as
masts on British ships.
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These pines
contributed to the British navy becoming
the most powerful navy in the world.
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In 1734, there was a
Mast Tree Riot where men disguised as Indians chased away the King's forest surveyor.
In 1772, New Hampshire had another show of resistance, the
Pine Tree Riot.
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The King sent agents to enforce
his claim to every tree
in New England over 12 inches in diameter.
In 1772, the sheriff came to South Weare,
New Hampshire,
to arrest those who had cut down some of
the King's trees.
In retaliation, 30 men burst into the sheriff's room at the inn at night, with their faces blackened with soot in disguise, and
beat the sheriff sore with switches made from pine branches.
The men were later arrested and forced to pay a fine.
It was a test of the King's authority and
considered by some as the beginnings of the revolution.
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The Pine Tree Flag's
phrase,
"An Appeal to Heaven,"
was first used by John Locke in his
Second Treatise on Civil Government,
1690, regarding the right of citizens who have been denied justice
to go above the king's head:
"Where the body of the people ... is deprived of their right ... and have no appeal on earth, then they have a liberty
to appeal to heaven ...
Where there lies no appeal on earth ... they have just cause to make their
appeal to heaven ...
Where there is no judicature (justice) on earth, to decide controversies amongst men,
God in heaven is judge.
He alone, it is true, is judge of the right ...
So in this ... he should
appeal to the Supreme Judge."
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Patrick Henry
stated at the Second Virginia Convention, March 23, 1775:
"An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts
is all that is left us! ... We shall not fight our battles alone. There is
a just God who presides over the destinies of nations."
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Massachusetts Provincial Congress
stated April 26, 1775, following the
Battles of Lexington and Concord:
"Appealing to Heaven
for the justice of our cause, we determine to die or be free."
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The Massachusetts Navy
flew a similar
Liberty Tree Flag,
with the line
"An Appeal to God."
The
Massachusetts Navy
was later
incorporated into the U.S. Navy.
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The Declaration of Causes and Necessity for Taking Up Arms,
July 6, 1775, stated:
"We most solemnly, before God and the world ... resolved to die freemen rather than to live slaves ... With an
humble confidence
in the mercies of the
Supreme and Impartial Judge and Ruler of the Universe."
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The Declaration of Independence,
July 4, 1776, stated:
"We, therefore ...
appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world
for the rectitude of our intentions, do ... declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States."
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America's first navy grew to
over 40 vessels.
The
Navy
and
Marines
were disbanded after the Revolutionary War.
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On AUGUST 4, 1790, the
Revenue Marine,
later called
Revenue Cutter Service,
was created by the recommendation of
Alexander Hamilton,
the Secretary of the Treasury.
It consisted of 10 ships charged with stopping smuggling and French privateers from operating in American waters.
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The
Revenue Marine's
first seven masters (captains) were commissioned by
President George Washington
on March 12, 1791.
The
Revenue-Marine
was the only armed maritime service of the United States till the
Department of the Navy
was created in 1798.
During the
U.S.-French Quasi War of 1798-1801,
eight
Revenue Cutter vessels
were among the 45 American ships that served in combat.
The
Marines
were also resurrected at this time, July 11, 1798.
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The
Marines
fought in the
Barbary Wars, "to the shores of Tripoli,"
against the Muslim pirates of North Africa, 1801-1805, 1815.
Marines
fought courageously in future American conflicts, as in the
War of 1812,
where they firmly held the center line of defense at the
Battle of New Orleans,
under the command of General Andrew Jackson.
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The United States Revenue-Marine ships
began intercepting
slave ships
from North Africa after the U.S. Government passed the
Slave Trade Act of 1794.
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Captured
Africans
had been sold at
Arab Muslim slave markets
since the 7th century, notably in
Morocco, Algiers, Tripoli, Cairo
and
Zanzibar.
Beginning in the 15th century,
Arabs sold African slaves
to
Portuguese merchants,
followed by
Spanish, Dutch, French
and
English
merchants.
Arabs
made slaves of European captured at sea or coastal towns. The
Ottoman Empire
captured and sold about 2 million
Russians and Polish-Lithuanians
as
slaves,
most notably at slave markets in
Caffa
(Feodosia)
on the Black Sea.
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A 19th century account of the
Arab-African slave trade
was given by missionary
David Livingstone.
"We passed a slave woman shot or stabbed through the body and lying on the path ... an
Arab
who passed early that morning had done it in anger at losing the price he had given for her, because she was unable to walk any longer.
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... We passed a woman tied by the neck to a tree and dead ... We came upon a man dead from starvation ...
The strangest disease I have seen in this country seems really to be broken heartedness, and it attacks free men who have been captured and made slaves."
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David Livingstone
estimated that each year
over 80,000 Africans died
before reaching the
Muslim slave markets,
writing to the editor of the
New York Herald:
"If my disclosures regarding
the terrible Ujijian slavery
should lead to the suppression of the
East Coast slave trade,
I shall regard that as a greater matter by far than the discovery of all the Nile sources together."
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On
January 1, 1808
, exactly 55 years before
Republican President Abraham Lincoln
issued the Emancipation Proclamation,
Congress closed all U.S. ports to the importation of slaves.
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The
U.S. Revenue Cutter Service
intercepted
slave ships
coming from
Africa
and
freed nearly 500 slaves.
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One such
slave ship,
the
Antelope,
was captured by the
U.S. Revenue-Marines
on June 29, 1820, off the coast of Florida.
To free the slaves, Francis Scott Key
fought legal battles in their defense, spending his own time and money for seven years,
arguing for the slaves' freedom
all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Francis Scott Key
also gave legal help to
John Quincy Adams
in his 1841 fight to free slaves from the ship
La Amistad.
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The
U.S. Revenue Cutter Service
defended the United States in every major conflict, including the:
- War of 1812,
- Counter-Piracy operations,
- Mexican-American War,
- Civil War,
- Spanish-American War,
- World Wars I and II.
In 1915, the
U.S. Revenue Cutter Service
was merged with the
U.S. Lifesaving Service
to form the
U.S. Coast Guard.
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The
original anthem
of the
U.S. Coast Guard
was:
"To sink the foe or save the maimed,
Our mission and our pride,
We'll carry on 'til Kingdom Come,
Ideals for which we've died."
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In 1939, the
U.S. Lighthouse Service
was merged into the
U.S. Coast Guard,
as was the
Steamboat Inspection Service
and
Bureau of Navigatio
n in 1946.
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In 1967, the
U.S. Coast Guard
was transferred to the
Department of Transportation.
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President John F. Kennedy
remarked aboard the
U.S. Coast Guard Training Barque
"Eagle,"
August 15, 1962:
"This is a very ancient service in our country's history.
Its first father ...
Alexander Hamilton, began the Coast Guard
as a
revenue collecting service,
asked the Congress of the United States for appropriations for 10 vessels ...
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... The first
Eagle
was one of our most distinguished warships, and in
actions against privateers of France,
captured over five vessels, and recaptured seven American vessels ..."
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Kennedy
ended:
"This is the oldest continuous seagoing service in the United States, stretching back to the beginning of our country."
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President Herbert Hoover
suggested December 27, 1929:
"A further proposal ... is the definite expansion of the
Coast Guard
... in the matter of border patrol."
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Included in the list of casualties at the WWII Battle of Okinawa,
President Truman
stated, June 1, 1945:
"Navy and Coast Guard losses were 4,729 killed and 4,640 wounded."
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At the
U.S. Coast Guard Academy
in New London, September 20, 1952,
President Truman
stated:
"I was just reading ... about the Coast Guard's icebreaker that has been closer to the North Pole than any other ship in delivering food and supplies to a station up there ...
That, my young friends, is what makes this country great."
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President John F. Kennedy
continued his address aboard the
U.S. Coast Guard Training Barque
"Eagle,
" August 15, 1962:
"You serve our country in peacetime, on ice patrols and weather patrols, in protecting the standards of the merchant marine, in protecting safety at sea ... and in time of war you, with the American Navy, as you did in World War II and at the time of Korea."
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At the
U.S. Coast Guard
commencement in New London, June 3, 1964,
President Lyndon Johnson
remarked:
"Winston Churchill once said: 'Civilization will not last, freedom will not survive, peace will not be kept, unless mankind unites together to defend them and show themselves possessed of a power before which barbaric forces will stand in awe' ...
In every area of national strength America today is stronger than it has ever been before ...
It is stronger than the combined might of all the nations in the history of the world. And I confidently predict that strength will continue to grow ..."
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President Johnson
continued:
"No one can live daily, as I must do, with the dark realities of nuclear ruin, without seeking the guidance of God to find the path of peace.
We have built this staggering strength not to destroy but to save, not to put an end to civilization but rather to try to put an end to conflict."
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At a
U.S. Coast Guard
commencement, May 18, 1988,
President Reagan
stated:
"It's our prayer to serve America in peace. It's our commitment to defend her in war."
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Schedule Bill Federer for informative interviews & captivating PowerPoint presentations: 314-502-8924
[email protected]
American Minute is a registered trademark of William J. Federer. Permission is granted to forward, reprint, or duplicate, with acknowledgment.
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