George Washington and the Irish by Niall O'Dowd

Author:Niall O'Dowd
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781510769403
Publisher: Skyhorse
Published: 2022-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

The Irish Orphan Who Became a Founding Father and Informed Washington He Was Elected President

If there is a more unlikely success story than that of Irish emigrant Charles Thomson in Revolutionary-era America, it has yet to be told. From homeless orphan to Founding Father, to secretary of the Continental Congress (essentially the speaker), the Maghera, Derry native defied his homeless history to be the man chosen to proudly and personally inform George Washington that he had been elected president.

No Irish-born person in America has achieved the stature and rank he did. He is on the back of the two dollar bill, standing beside John Hancock as he signs the Declaration of Independence. He created the Great Seal of the United States which is so familiar to us today on every important federal document; he was the first to inform Washington of his election as president; and he was among the leaders in Philadelphia of the resistance to the British Army.

As secretary of the Continental Congress, he kept every record of every major speech with meticulous accuracy so future generations would be able to access the all-important archive.

He was a confidant of Washington, Jefferson, and especially Franklin and decried slavery to all of them.

Originally, he was one of only two signatories to the Declaration of Independence, the other being printer and fellow Ulster Irishman John Dunlop. The rest of the signatures came later.

No Irish person was regarded as highly by George Washington, a fact the commander-in-chief made clear.

Thomson was a fierce American nationalist who trumpeted the need to go to war with the despised British. Unlike most of the Founding Fathers, he despised slavery. He paid his farmworkers the going rate, even dividing some of that land for them so they could build homes.

He argued with Jefferson and told him slavery was like a cancer on the new country.

Incredibly, he is mostly a forgotten figure, though often designated as one of the Founding Fathers, which assuredly he was.

Anonymity became inevitable when he destroyed his magnum opus, his inside account of the insurrection and the events leading up to and away from it. He had allegedly written a thousand-page diary which was apparently unflattering to many of the great names. But he burned it.

He knew the realities of how the great men of the time were filled with jealousy, greed, and ambition along with their renowned qualities.

Doctor Benjamin Rush, who signed the Declaration of Independence, rated Thomson “a man of great learning and general knowledge. He was an intimate friend of John Dickinson the man who helped lead the original protest against the Stamp Act.”

Once in Rush’s company, Thomson explained his reluctance to publish his memoir:

No . . . I ought not, for I should contradict all the histories of the great events of the revolution, and show by my account of men, motives and measures, that we are wholly indebted to . . . Providence for its successful issue.

Let the world admire the supposed wisdom and valor of our great men.

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