“Huzza!” Toasting a New Nation, 1760-1815 by Timothy Symington #History #RevolutionaryWar #AmericanRevolution

“Huzza!”  Toasting a New Nation, 1760-1815Timothy Symington
Genre:  Nonfiction/HistoryPublisher:  McFarland BooksDate of Publication:  September 29, 2023ISBN: 978-1-4766-9315-6 PrintISBN: 978-1-4766-5056-2 ebookASIN: BOCK62JP5LNumber of pages: 273Word Count: 125,000. 
Tagline: Drinking toasts to the American Revolution and beyond!
Book Description:
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.

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Excerpt:
     Israel Putnam of Connecticut, who led the rebels at BunkerHill in June, was one of the first to be singled out for honors when the warbegan. The Connecticut Gazette printed toasts from a July 25 dinner in Londonattended by the Freeholders of Middlesex. General Putnam was toasted “and allthose American Heroes, who, like men, nobly prefer death to slavery andchains.” Sons of Liberty leader Dr. Joseph Warren, who was killed on thebattlefield, received the following toast from the Field Officers of the SixthBrigade in Cambridge: “Immortal Honor to that Patriot and Hero Doctor JosephWarren, and the Brave American troops, who fought the Battle of Charlestown onthe 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 theContinental Congress instead of to the British monarch. The officers raisedtheir glasses instead to all the colonies, the Stamp Act riots, Lexington andConcord, and an end to the “present unhappy Disputes.” Dr. Warren would be aconsistently toasted figure into the early 1800s.
     George Washington replaced George III as the main recipientof toasts, becoming the most toasted individual in the new nation. The King wasnow the enemy. Even English supporters of colonial rights, such as John Wilkesand Edmund Burke, were replaced by American military heroes. English supportfor the rights of the colonists, however, had not disappeared. The VirginiaGazette printed toasts the London Association made in October 1775. Associationmembers wished for “axes and halters, at public expence, to all those whoattempt to trample on the liberties of their fellow subjects, either in GreatBritain or America,” and that “kings remember that they were made for theirsubjects, and not their subjects for them.”
     The former British corset-maker Thomas Paine brilliantlyexplained why the colonists should no longer rely on the King to protect theirliberties. His pamphlet, Common Sense, demanded that Americans free themselvesof Britain’s control. Paine wrote that “One of the strongest natural proofs ofthe folly of hereditary right in Kings, is that nature disapproves it, otherwiseshe would not so frequently turn it into ridicule, by giving mankind an Ass fora Lion.” His words reached everyone in the colonies, and so he and his workwere toasted: “May the INDEPENDENT principles of COMMON SENSE be confirmedthroughout the United Colonies.”
     Most colonies had already taken Paine’s advice to heart anddeclared themselves to be independent states. Members of the Virginiaconvention calling for a resolution for national independence gave toasts inMay: “The American independent states” and “The Grand Congress of the UnitedStates, and their respected legislatures.” Washington attended a feast at theQueen’s Head Tavern in New York City, where toasts were given to theContinental Congress and the American army, and to the memory of GeneralRichard Montgomery, killed in the disastrous invasion of Quebec in December1775. The final toast was “to ‘Civil and religious liberty to allmankind’—mankind, that is, except Tories.” Tories, the conservative supportersof the Crown, received extra abuse in the Patriots’ toasts: “Sore Eyes to allTories, and a Chestnut Burr for an Eye Stone.”

About the Author:
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.
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ToastFab4
Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/tim.symington/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Toastmaster-yu9eq