Boston Minutemen Campground, Littleton, Massachusetts
O LORD, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom have You made them all; the earth is full of Your creatures. ~ Psalm 104:24
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR SEPTEMBER FRIENDS! There are no family birthdays in September, but three friends! So again, Happy Birthday to Cara, Christa and Dr. Deb!
We began our day with another commuter train ride into town, where at some point today, we’ll pick up the Freedom Trail where we left off.
Originally, we’d planned on attending church in town, but the only whale watching cruise available was at noon, and none of the churches started before 11am, so that was out. ☹ We’ll get in our lesson with Pastor Mike on Tuesday.
There wasn’t a lot of time this morning as we had to be at the dock no later than 11:15am. Earlier if we wanted good seats on the boat.
Yesterday, there were a whole lot more cars than there are this morning. : )
So we headed over in the direction of the Old Meeting House we’d passed up yesterday . . . by way of Mike’s. We were told they had the best pastries in town, and yesterday, we saw a lot of people carrying “Mike’s” boxes around. There was sooooo much to choose from and everything was huge! We finally settled on sharing an éclair. Wow! Was it good!
It was sooo hard to decide! “I’ll take one of each, please!”
The Old Meeting House opened at 9am and we were a couple of minutes early, so we walked around the outside of the building.
You’ll never believe what we discovered! There’s a subway underneath! No. Not a sandwich shop, an actual underground train stop! That was a shocking discovery! You’d think there’d be shaking involved that they’d want to avoid with a subway running under an historic building, but what do I know about architecture?
We’re right under the Old State House!
Once we got into the museum, we discovered other interesting facts about the founding of our nation, and the men who made it happen.
A brief order of events:
- In 1760, the then governor wrote to the King of England that “There is most perfect harmony in the government of this Province.” The people of Massachusetts were subjects of the British Crown. As were other areas of what we now call the United States of America. They were not independent of England. They were subject to her and somewhat supported, as well as defended, by her.
- 1761, came the ‘Writs of Assistance’, which although argued vehemently for four hours by James Otis, was upheld by the Crown’s appointed Justice, Thomas Hutchison and their Supreme Court and granted England the right to search any private property under the guise of searching for smuggled goods. As you can imagine, this did not sit well with the Colonists.
- 1764, Parliament imposes the Sugar Act. By imposing this tax upon sugar and molasses, England felt it would not only bring in much needed revenue the Mother Country needed to fight France during the Seven Years War in their battle over control of the Ohio Valley (1754-1763), but would also put a stop to the colonists smuggling the goods from France and the Dutch West Indies. It succeeded in further raising the ire of the colonists.
- 1765, the Stamp Act. This was another tax on all paper, including everything made from paper. Now the colonists are extremely irate and even violent, including invading and vandalizing Thomas Hutchinson’s home sending his family fleeing for their lives. And so much so, that all the tax agents resigned in fear of retribution. The Stamp Act was repealed in 1766. And now the media is also involved and begins to stir up anger and dissention against England. (sound familiar??)
- 1768, there is a letter sent to all the colonial legislatures to urge the repeal of all the taxes (called Townshend Acts). When the Royal Governor heard of it, he disbanded the legislature in Massachusetts and they didn’t meet again for a year.
- October, 1768, the Governor brings in 1,000 British troops (Redcoats) to attempt to quash the violence and anger. All it did was fan the flames of insurrection.
- March 5, 1770, the tension of being ‘occupied’ erupts outside the Old Meeting House when a single Redcoat begins to be taunted and threatened by an ever-increasing number of armed colonists. He was able to increase his support to eight men, trying to hold off hundreds of angry colonists. The Redcoats fire on the crowd, killing five and wounding nine. This event was labeled by the media as “The Boston Massacre”. The eight Redcoats were put in jail, there was a trial, the Redcoats were defended by Samuel Adams (one of the leaders of the independence movement) and Josiah Quincy, Jr. stating that it was self-defense. Six were acquitted, two were found guilty of manslaughter. I don’t know what happened to those men.
- December 16, 1773, the Boston Tea Party. 116 documented members of the Sons of Liberty (aka Patriots, whose membership included men such as Paul Revere, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry and believe it or not – Benedict Arnold), disguise themselves as Native American Indians, board three ships harbored in Boston, and proceed to dump 342 chests of tea (92,000 pounds) into the water in response to England granting a monopoly on tea sales to England’s East India Trading Company. It took them three hours and the value of the tea lost was equivalent to $1M today. According to History.com, George Washington and Benjamin Franklin were not happy with the Patriots’ display, and they say that Franklin ordered The East India Company be reimbursed by the Patriots who participated and even offered to do it himself.
- 1774, the Intolerable Act. The Crown is outraged by the Patriots’ behavior and orders The Coercive Act (called Intolerable by the colonists), which severely restricted the role of elected officials in the governing of the Colony.
- 1775, the Crown sends 7,500 troops into Boston to keep order, and in response, the Colonists begin preparing their Militia for battle if necessary.
- April 18, 1775, British troops leave Boston headed for Lexington and Concord. Lexington to grab up Hancock and Adams who are hiding out there, and Concord because sources informed their General Gage that the Colonists have been stockpiling weapons. Paul Revere and William Dawes head out along different paths to warn Hancock and Adams and also the town of Concord. Paul found the men and warned them to leave town.
- April 19, 1775, The start of the Revolutionary War. The Redcoats arrived in Lexington at 5am. 700 Redcoats had been dispatched on the 18th. An advance guard of 240 are met in Lexington by a group of 70 Minute Men (Minute Men are trained men (farmers and merchants, etc.) agreeing to be ready at a moment’s notice to defend the Colony from Indians and/or the French. These men have been in place for quite a few years and are sanctioned by the Crown, because there weren’t Redcoats in the Colony.) Both sides squared off, but the colonists were ordered not to fire unless fired upon first. A shot rang out, and both sides began firing, leaving several on both sides dead. This became “The Shot Heard Round The World” according to the poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
The Redcoats (now close to 700) advance on Concord to confiscate the stockpiled weapons, but now they are met at Concord’s North Bridge by roughly 400 Militia. It was here that historians mark the beginning of the Revolutionary War because it was the first time a Militia was actually ordered to shot their compatriots. By end of day, 73 Redcoats were dead, 174 wounded and 26 were missing. Militia losses stood at 49 dead, 39 wounded and 5 missing.
13. July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress presents the Declaration of Independence to Great Britain.
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their 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 Men, deriving their just powers from 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 to abolish it, and to 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. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. 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 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.
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.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
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.
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.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
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:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
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
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew ThorntonMassachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge GerryRhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William ElleryConnecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver WolcottNew York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis MorrisNew Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham ClarkPennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George RossDelaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKeanMaryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of CarrolltonVirginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter BraxtonNorth Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John PennSouth Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur MiddletonGeorgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
There are 56 signatures on our Declaration. How many of those do you even recognize? Personally, I counted eight . . . Sad, don’t you think?
But the best name award goes to . . . . drum roll please . . . . Button Gwinnett, from Georgia! 😊
It would be another 14 years before our Constitution was accepted by all 13 states. First written September 17, 1787 and ratified by 9 of the 13 states by June 21, 1788, it wasn’t until May 29, 1790 that Rhode Island finally voted to ratify our great Constitution. Today, it’s the oldest written constitution in operation in the world.
However . . . General George Washington was voted the first President of our new nation on April 30, 1789. How does that happen?? What did he use to govern if the Constitution wasn’t ratified yet?
The dark part is the original. and all the white is man-made.
They were willing to risk it all for the sake of independence. . . .
“All (the Colonists) gave some, but some gave all.”
We spent about an hour in here, reading and learning – about as long as you’ve spent on each of these Boston posts!
Moving on, we walked by the Old South Meeting House (which is just another name for an old church). It was supposed to be open, but it was shortly after 10am and they weren’t open to the public yet.
We also passed the Old City Hall, which was actually not built until 1865. It’s now a steakhouse. At least they didn’t tear it down. . . .
He and Samuel Adams are the lawyers who defended the British soldiers
accused of manslaughter at the “Boston Massacre”.
I just thought it picture-worthy. : )
Back on our walk to the harbor, with one more quick stop along the way at another cemetery, Granary Burying Ground. There was a guy standing at the entrance with notebooks he’d made and filled with information and maps to help us find the various famous people resting here. There was a small “tip” pocket in the front. Very nice of him, but I’m not sure he can make a living at it. Who knows? Maybe he does!
Back to the walk to the harbor . . . .
We never had a chance to get any closer than this. : (
A quick and early packed lunch at ‘Cheers’ and we were soon at the harbor where we checked in, picked up our tickets and got in line. Even though we arrived about 45 minutes early, the line was already fairly long. We stood behind two couples from Oklahoma and chatted while we waited.
I was snapping nature pictures. : )
That’s the line to get on the boat!
The couple in foreground are the one’s from Oklahoma.
We thought we’d snagged pretty good seats at the back of the boat on the second deck from the top. We shared a bench with a young local couple. We were all pretty pleased with ourselves! And then the boat took off. And the breeze kicked up. And it was really cold! I was sooo glad I had my jacket!
The boat had to go about 30-35 miles out to sea to get to where the whales hang out, so it took a while. But we made it and the reward was definitely worth the 4-hour tour!
I know it doesn’t look like much, but that fin is near the base of the tail.
Humpbacks run 60′ long (that’s 1 1/2 times the length of our coach!) and weigh about 40 tons!
And that’s close to 2 1/2 times more than our 17 1/2 tons!
as their fluke is just under the surface of the water here.
But not this time. . . .
You could actually hear the collective anticipation,
followed by verbal expulsions of disappointment. : )
At one point, a stench similar to a person expelling gas from their derriere filled our area, and I imagine everyone (including us) was thinking it was their neighbor, until the naturalist informed us that it was whale breath! Hahahaha! It was pretty awful! Poor Jonah! That was a first for us and this was our fourth whale watching cruise – the others being in Hawaii, Alaska and Nova Scotia.
And they can identify each whale by their fluke – – like whale fingerprints! : )
We just don’t have a picture of all three at the same time.
I kept this picture because of the jet. : )
Once we docked, we made a spontaneous decision to check out the aquarium since we were right there and it was ‘free’. My, oh, my, where there a lot of people in there! It’s probably the shortest amount of time we ever spent in an aquarium. We can’t imagine that so many people would pay $31 to wedge themselves in the building. Maybe they all had the same pass we did. . . .
There was a giant aquarium in the center of the building
and the penguin enclosure was all aorund the outside of it.
She’s been at the aquarium since 1970, and they estimate her age at 90-95 years! She was huge!
We had a really hard time finding dinner tonight, and we began our search before 5pm! There were enormous crowds of people at every restaurant! Waiting times were 60-90 minutes if you asked, and if you just walked around, every restaurant had lines out the door and down the block! I guess that’s how 100 Italian restaurants can stay in business – in addition to all the other places! 😊
Eventually, we made our way back to Dino’s and were lucky enough to snag a 4-seater table just as someone left. But even here, lots of people were coming in and picking up take-out. Our dinner was excellent again, even though it wasn’t the seafood we’d planned.
With a sub that big, they don’t need to serve any sides. And they don’t. : )
This one’s mine, and yes. I ate it all.
Well, except for the approximately 2″ I forced Blaine to help me with. : )
As you can tell, because he’s already scarfed down just about half of it!
After dinner, we headed to Mike’s anticipating sweet deliciousness, only to discover that even here the lines were astronomical! The line was over a block long! Nothing’s that good. Believe it or not, we once again ended up by Dino’s and the pastry shop across the street. The line here was much shorter, but still more than we would’ve ever anticipated. We picked up two pieces of cheesecake and ate them in the station while we waited for our train. Unfortunately, we now know why the line at Mike’s was so long. Not that it wasn’t good, but it was just okay. Or maybe it just seemed that way because we were so full from dinner . . . .
Of course, they were closed when we walked by. . . . : )
