Remembering the Revolution: Memory, History, and Nation-Making from Independence to the Civil War

Public Memories, Private Lives: The First Greatest Generation Remembers the Revolutionary War

110 PublicMemories,Privatelives The First Greatest Generation Remembers the Revolutionary War = Caroline Cox On July 4, 1837, a large crowd gathered in Newburyport, Massachusetts , to hear John Quincy Adams, Congressman and former president, give a speech at the town’s Independence Day festivities. He encouraged those in the audience to reflect on evil British “usurpations” before the war and celebrated “the good name, the sufferings, and the services of that [Revolutionary] age.” Then Adams invited those gathered to “look . . . forward” and consider the political problems of their own time as the Revolutionary generation passed away.1 By the time Adams delivered his speech in Newburyport, orations by prominent figures on the Fourth of July and on the anniversaries of battles or other significant events were regular features of the national calendar. Crowds gathered to watch parades and listen to orators in towns great and small. Such days created a national memory of the Revolutionary era. They celebrated the collective sacrifice, emphasized shared political ideals , and were a central component of an emerging American national 111 Public Memories, Private Lives identity. These festive occasions also took on a crucial unifying role as people argued about the kind of society they hoped to create from the bloodshed and upheaval of that critical time.2 The formula for these celebrations changed over the years. Immediately after the war, orators honored only the great figures of the era: the commander in chief George Washington and such men as General Richard Montgomery and Joseph Warren, two famous patriots killed in action early in the conflict. But as the Revolutionary generation aged and died, ordinary soldiers—men rarely respected at the time of their service or in the intervening years—became celebrated heroes and were toasted at public gatherings and invited to lead the parades. As in the political structures of the society at large, the events and public memory of the Revolution became more democratic.3 Despite this change, other parts of the festivities followed a familiar pattern. Orators reminded audiences of prewar grievances and Revolutionary heroism and then introduced present-day concerns. In 1790, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Robert Duncan had recalled “tyrannical [British] laws and legislation”; paid tribute to the living, “the heroes and patriots who have nobly distinguished themselves”; acknowledged the fallen, “who devoted their lives to the salvation of their country”; and tackled problems of the present, speaking of commerce and education. In 1808, in his Fourth of July speech, Nathaniel Cogswell similarly honored the past, then defended President Thomas Jefferson’s trade embargo. But such opinions never interfered with the mission of the day: honoring the “heroes and patriots” of the Revolutionary generation. Such reverence befitted men who had participated in what Edwin Forrest, speaking in New York in 1838, called “the most august event . . . in the political annals of mankind.” The participants in the events may have changed, but the celebratory public rhetoric remained the same.4 But ordinary veterans, the now-celebrated heroes and patriots of the Revolutionary era, used very different language to tell their stories when they recalled those years. Many of their personal accounts were devoid of rhetorical flourishes. They did not share the circumstances or purpose of public orators. Writing at kitchen tables, recording their experiences for the benefit of family members, friends, and neighbors, they reflected in a language more measured and personal. If applying to a court for a veterans ’ pension, they also had reason to speak or write plainly. Neither of 112 CAROLINE COX these occasions had cheering audiences, parades, or picnics to inspire stylistic embellishment. Contrasting the recollections that veterans set down in pension applications and memoirs with the public oratory of the Fourth of July and related occasions reveals the differences between public and personal memories of the Revolution. Public speeches, with their rhetorical flourishes , created what J. H. Plumb called a “purposeful past,” in which key wartime events led directly and inevitably to greatness. Veterans may have enjoyed listening to these. Those present when the printer and founder of the Vermont Gazette, Anthony Haswell, gave the oration at the 1799 anniversary of the patriot victory at the Battle of Bennington probably cheered lustily when he paraphrased Julius Caesar and exclaimed of the militia, “They came, they saw, they conquered.” When, years later, Haswell’s son-in-law, Darius Clark, who had taken over the newspaper, continued the tradition of delivering a stirring anniversary speech, they probably still...