“Huzza!” Toasting a New Nation, 1760-1815
by Timothy Symington
Date of Publication: September 29th 2023
Publisher: McFarland Books
Genre: Nonfiction/History
ISBN: 978-1-4766-9315-6 Print
ISBN: 978-1-4766-5056-2 ebook
ASIN: BOCK62JP5L
Number of pages: 273
Word Count: 125,000
Tagline: Drinking toasts to the American Revolution and beyond!
BLURB
During the early years of the United States, toasts captured popular sentiments regarding people and events. Sometimes they were used to spread national ideology and partisan political views. They could even be “weaponized” against political opponents, such as during the bitter election between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson in 1800. “Huzza!” Toasting a New Nation, 1760-1815 is a retelling of the familiar historical narrative, but toasts are used to tell the story of the events and people between the American Revolution and the War of 1812.
Excerpt:
Israel Putnam of Connecticut, who led the rebels at Bunker Hill in June, was one of the first to be singled out for honors when the war began. The Connecticut Gazette printed toasts from a July 25 dinner in London attended by the Freeholders of Middlesex. General Putnam was toasted “and all those American Heroes, who, like men, nobly prefer death to slavery and chains.” Sons of Liberty leader Dr. Joseph Warren, who was killed on the battlefield, received the following toast from the Field Officers of the Sixth Brigade in Cambridge: “Immortal Honor to that Patriot and Hero Doctor Joseph Warren, and the Brave American troops, who fought the Battle of Charlestown on the 17th of June 1775.” This list of toasts, appearing in the August 21, 1775, issue of the Boston Gazette, or Country Journal started with a toast to the Continental Congress instead of to the British monarch. The officers raised their glasses instead to all the colonies, the Stamp Act riots, Lexington and Concord, and an end to the “present unhappy Disputes.” Dr. Warren would be a consistently toasted figure into the early 1800s.
George Washington replaced George III as the main recipient of toasts, becoming the most toasted individual in the new nation. The King was now the enemy. Even English supporters of colonial rights, such as John Wilkes and Edmund Burke, were replaced by American military heroes. English support for the rights of the colonists, however, had not disappeared. The Virginia Gazette printed toasts the London Association made in October 1775. Association members wished for “axes and halters, at public expence, to all those who attempt to trample on the liberties of their fellow subjects, either in Great Britain or America,” and that “kings remember that they were made for their subjects, and not their subjects for them.”
The former British corset-maker Thomas Paine brilliantly explained why the colonists should no longer rely on the King to protect their liberties. His pamphlet, Common Sense, demanded that Americans free themselves of Britain’s control. Paine wrote that “One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right in Kings, is that nature disapproves it, otherwise she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule, by giving mankind an Ass for a Lion.” His words reached everyone in the colonies, and so he and his work were toasted: “May the INDEPENDENT principles of COMMON SENSE be confirmed throughout the United Colonies.”
Most colonies had already taken Paine’s advice to heart and declared themselves to be independent states. Members of the Virginia convention calling for a resolution for national independence gave toasts in May: “The American independent states” and “The Grand Congress of the United States, and their respected legislatures.” Washington attended a feast at the Queen’s Head Tavern in New York City, where toasts were given to the Continental Congress and the American army, and to the memory of General Richard Montgomery, killed in the disastrous invasion of Quebec in December 1775. The final toast was “to ‘Civil and religious liberty to all mankind’—mankind, that is, except Tories.” Tories, the conservative supporters of the Crown, received extra abuse in the Patriots’ toasts: “Sore Eyes to all Tories, and a Chestnut Burr for an Eye Stone.”
Author Info
Timothy Symington received his Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Saint Anselm College and his Master of Arts degree in American History from Adams State University. A former educator, he now contributes to the Journal of the American Revolution. “Huzza!” Toasting a New Nation, 1760-1815 is his first book.
The Book Junkie Reads . . . Interview with . . . Timothy Symington . . .
Do you feel that writing is an ingrained process or just something that flows naturally for you?
I have been writing in some capacity for many years, as an educator, an editor and a book reviewer. I generally try to write as if I am speaking, and I speak as if I am writing. Basically, my writing “persona” is no different from my real self. It was a little difficult to write a historical narrative without adding my own personal opinions and sentiments at first, but once I got the hang of it, it became easier with each chapter. Now I look through the finished product and I am still flabbergasted that I accomplished it.
What mindset or routine do you feel the need to set when preparing to write (in general whether you are working on a project or just free writing)?
I am an avid notetaker, so when I am getting ready to write, I arrange all my notes first in front of me (being old-fashioned, I spread out the post-its and other pieces of paper out). Then I try to figure out if there is some sensical pattern to follow. Once that is done, I rearrange the notes in whatever order I discovered and then write out an outline. The rough draft comes next, and after taking a break I will reread the draft and either throw it away or start heavily dissecting it. The finished version is never truly “finished,” I have discovered. I still read through parts of my book, now published, and make mental notes about what needs to be improved on.
Can you share your next creative project(s)? If yes, can you give a few details?
I am trying some difficulty trying to settle on one topic right now. Luckily for me, I have several ideas to choose from. I am not sweating it out trying to think of a topic for the next book.
The first and most promising topic is to write a book that is a “Part 2” of my first book, “Huzza!” Toasting a New Nation, 1760-1815. My book covers the early years of the United States at its founding, ending with the War of 1812. I would like to continue studying published and private toasts that would cover the years between the Era of Good Feelings to the end of the Civil War. There was so much happening during that time: industrialization, women’s suffrage movement, abolitionists, the war with Mexico, and the division of the nation into the Union and the Confederacy. I can only imagine that the toasts will demonstrate the various sentiments of all Americans, and they will probably be even more divisive than the ones I found during the presidential election of 1800.
I am also toying with the idea of writing a book about the relationship between John Adams and George Washington. This relationship is referred to in many books, but there is no stand-alone work on it. What were their feelings about each other? How did they get along and work together? They were instrumental in each other’s lives for many years.
One final idea is to write a book about the movie Spirit of ’76. The movie was made in 1917 and was censored because it showed the British in an unfavorable light, and they were our allies during the Great War of 1917-1918. But the nation fought Great Britain in the Revolution, right? So why hide history? Should the idea of national security overshadow the portrayal of history? The Supreme Court thought so, and the film no longer exists in any form other than a few photographs. I think that the topic is timely, with so many Republican-controlled legislatures trying to white-wash history.
What are some of your writing/publishing goals for this year?
I am hoping that the new year will bring more opportunities to research and write. I finished my book a year ago, and I sorely miss the search for information and creating a narrative. I will be writing more book reviews for the Journal of the American Revolution, and maybe turning my book into an article for the Journal to publish.
Where would you spend one full year, if you could go ANYWhere, money is not a concern? What would you do with this time?
I would like to be secluded on a beach in a very warm place. I obviously would need access for food and water, but the only thing I would want to do would be to read every day. That’s all: read, eat, walk, nap, read. That would be my idea of an eternal afterlife.
Thank you Timothy Symington for joining and giving a little insight to you and your process. Your work is appreciated.
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