From The Writer’s Almanac
Today is the anniversary of the First Continental Congress, 1774, in Philadelphia. Forty-five men crowded into the main room of a brand-new building in town called Carpenter’s Hall. Most of them were lawyers and they met to debate the latest acts of Parliament, like the closing of Boston Harbor, and the Quartering Act which allowed authorities the right to evict anyone from their house in order to provide shelter for British troops. Hardly any of the delegates knew each other. John Adams wrote to a friend, “We have numberless prejudices to remove here, and are obliged to act with great delicacy and caution.” A few days later, news came from Boston that British ships were bombarding the city. A Connecticut delegate wrote in his diary “all is confusion here, every tongue pronounces revenge.” The Congress ended in October with a call for each colony to arm itself against the British, and the following April 1775, war broke out at Lexington and Concord.
Most likely due to my childhood, the first nearly 8 years growing up in the city of Philadelphia and the next 20 in its suburbs, as well as my love for New England in general and Boston in particular, I have acquired an appreciation for early United States history, particularly that of the early settlement, colonizing, and revolution.
I have always enjoyed the proximity to landmarks such as Carpenters Hall, the old Pennsylvania State House, the Liberty Bell, Elfreth’s Alley, the Betsy Ross House, Christ Church and its burial ground, Old St. Joseph’s Church, the First and Second Banks of the U.S., the U.S. Mint, the Merchant’s Exchange, and of course, City Tavern. I vividly remember our nation’s Bicentennial celebration in 1976, although I do wish that I had appreciated it more at the time (and why haven’t those Shell Bicentennial minutes been reissued yet on DVD?)
I find I appreciate these places even more now, living in the shadow of New York City, a city with very little of its hirtory preserved, always clearing away the old for the newest and the shiniest. I’ll take Philadelphia and Boston over New York anyday.