#american loyalist

[bantarleton]

What better way than to start your week with a new Don Troiani artwork? Depicted is a private of the United Corps of Pennsylvania & Maryland Loyalists at Pensacola, West Florida.

Both the Pennsylvania and the Maryland Loyalists were raised as separate regiments in Philadelphia 1777, during the British occupation of the city. They were combined, rather unhappily it seems, into one outfit of six companies in 1778. Under the command of Lieutenant Colonel William Allen they were and sent first to Jamaica and then, from December 1779, to Pensacola in West Florida, to aid in operations against the Spanish.

They took part in the failed relief of Mobile in March 1780 and the assault on Mobile Village on January 7 1781. They were then part of the garrison of Pensacola when it was besieged and captured by the Spanish later that year.

The prisoners were taken to Havana and then repatriated to New York a few months later, and formally returned to duty – as two separate units once more – in July 1782. The Pennsylvanian and Maryland Loyalists spent the last year of the war garrisoning New York. The Maryland Loyalists were last mustered in December 1783, while the Pennsylvanians were disbanded on October 10 1783.

Provincial Loyalist corps are often depicted as wearing green, but by the mid point of the war and beyond most wore red coats, with only a few notable exceptions, such as the British Legion and the Queen’s Rangers. This was for ease of supply, and likely also helped make the Loyalists feel more thoroughly incorporated into the British military, while also causing opponents to believe they were facing British regulars.

The Pennsylvania-Maryland corps appears to have had green or olive facings with white lace plus yellow and green threads based on the lace of the Loyal Irish Regiment. I think the black leatherwork here (usually reserved for light infantry) is because the belts are store-issued from a “stand of arms.”

Also note how high on the torso the cartridge pouch and bayonet frog and scabbard are worn, in contrast to how low-down many reenactors wear them – an accurate historical touch, as befits Troiani’s work!

[alwaysbewoke]

x

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Overkill. http://Newsday.com/matt :: Matt Davies

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

November 13, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Nov 14, 2024

Republican senators today elected John Thune of South Dakota to be the next Senate majority leader. Trump and MAGA Republicans had put a great deal of pressure on the senators to back Florida senator Rick Scott, but he marshaled fewer votes than either Thune or John Cornyn of Texas, both of whom were seen as establishment figures in the mold of the Republican senators’ current leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Scott lost on the first vote. The fact that the vote was secret likely helped Thune’s candidacy. Senators could vote without fear of retaliation. 

The rift between the pre-2016 leaders of the Republican Party and the MAGA Republicans is still obvious, and Trump’s reliance on Elon Musk and his stated goal of deconstructing the American government could make it wider. 

Republican establishment leaders have always wanted to dismantle the New Deal state that began under Democratic president Franklin Delano Roosevelt and continued under Republican president Dwight D. Eisenhower and presidents of both parties until 1981. But they have never wanted to dismantle the rule of law on which the United States is founded or the international rules-based order on which foreign trade depends. Aside from moral and intellectual principles, the rule of law is the foundation on which the security of property rests: there is a reason that foreign oligarchs park their money in democracies. And it is the international rules-based order that protects the freedom of the seas on which the movement of container ships, for example, depends.

Trump has made it clear that his goal for a second term is to toss overboard the rule of law and the international rules-based order, instead turning the U.S. government into a vehicle for his own revenge and forging individual alliances with autocratic rulers like Russian president Vladimir Putin. 

He has begun moving to  put into power individuals whose qualifications are their willingness to do as Trump demands, like New York representative Elise Stefanik, whom he has tapped to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, or Florida senator Marco Rubio, who Trump said today would be his nominee for secretary of state. 

Alongside his choice of loyalists who will do as he says, Trump has also tapped people who will push his war on his cultural enemies forward, like anti-immigrant ideologue Stephen Miller, who will become his deputy chief of staff and a homeland security advisor. Today, Trump added to that list by saying he plans to nominate Florida representative Matt Gaetz, who has been an attack dog for Trump, to become attorney general.

Trump’s statement tapping Gaetz for attorney general came after Senate Republicans rejected Scott, and appears to be a deliberate challenge to Republican senators that they get in line. In his announcement, Trump highlighted that Gaetz had played “a key role in defeating the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax.” 

But establishment Republican leaders understand that some of our core institutions cannot survive MAGA’s desire to turn the government into a vehicle for culture war vengeance. 

Gaetz is a deeply problematic pick for AG. A report from the House Ethics Committee investigating allegations of drug use and sex with a minor was due to be released in days. Although he was reelected just last week, Gaetz resigned immediately after Trump said he would nominate him, thus short-circuiting the release of the report. Last year, Republican senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma told CNN that “we had all seen the videos he was showing on the House floor, that all of us had walked away, of the girls that he had slept with. He would brag about how he would crush [erectile dysfunction] medicine and chase it with an energy drink so he could go all night." 

While South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham said he would be willing to agree to the appointment, other Republican senators drew a line. “I was shocked by the announcement —that shows why the advise and consent process is so important,” Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) said. “I’m sure that there will be a lot of questions raised at his hearing.” Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) was blunt: “I don’t think he’s a serious candidate.”

If the idea of putting Gaetz in charge of the country’s laws alarmed Republicans concerned about domestic affairs, Trump’s pick of the inexperienced and extremist Fox & Friends host Pete Hegseth to take over the Department of Defense was a clarion call for anyone concerned about perpetuating the global strength of the U.S. The secretary of defense oversees a budget of more than $800 billion and about 1.3 million active-duty troops, with another 1.4 million in the National Guard and employed in Reserves and civilian positions.

The secretary of defense also has access to the nuclear command-and-control procedure. Over his nomination, too, Republican senators expressed concern.

While Trump is claiming a mandate to do as he wishes with the government, Republicans interested in their own political future are likely noting that he actually won the election by a smaller margin than President Joe Biden won in 2020, despite a global rejection of incumbents this year. And he won not by picking up large numbers of new voters—it appears he lost voters—but because Democratic voters of color dropped out, perhaps reflecting the new voter suppression laws put into place since 2021.

Then, too, Trump remains old and mentally slipping, and he is increasingly isolated as people fight over the power he has brought within their grasp. Today his wife, Melania, declined the traditional invitation from First Lady Jill Biden for tea at the White House and suggested she will not be returning to the presidential mansion with her husband. It is not clear either that Trump will be able to control the scrabbling for power over the party by those he has brought into the executive branch, or that he has much to offer elected Republicans who no longer need his voters, suggesting that Congress could reassert its power.  

Falling into line behind Trump at this point is not necessarily a good move for a Republican interested in a future political career. 

Today the Republicans are projected to take control of the House of Representatives, giving the party control of the House, the Senate, and the presidency, as well as the Supreme Court. But as the downballot races last week show, MAGA policies remain unpopular, and the Republican margin in the House will be small. In the last Congress, MAGA loyalists were unable to get the votes they needed from other Republicans to impose Trump’s culture war policies, creating gridlock and a deeply divided Republican conference. 

The gulf between Trump’s promises to slash the government and voters’ actual support for government programs is not going to make the Republicans’ job easier. Conservative pundit George Will wrote today that “the world’s richest person is about to receive a free public education,” suggesting Elon Musk, who has emerged as the shadow president, will find his plans to cut the government difficult to enact as elected officials reject cuts to programs their constituents like. 

Musk’s vow to cut “at least” $2 trillion from federal spending, Will notes, will run up against reality in a hurry. Of the $6.75 trillion fiscal 2024 spending, debt service makes up 13.1%; defense—which Trump wants to increase—is 12.9%. Entitlements, primarily Social Security and Medicare, account for 34.6%, and while the Republican Study Group has called for cuts to them, Trump said during the campaign, at least, that they would not be cut. 

So Musk has said he would cut about 30% of the total budget from about 40% of it. Will points out that Trump is hardly the first president to vow dramatic cuts. Notably, Ronald Reagan appointed J. Peter Grace, an entrepreneur, to make government “more responsive to the wishes of the people” after voters had elected Reagan on a platform of cutting government. Grace’s commission made 2,478 recommendations but quickly found that every lawmaker liked cuts to someone else’s district but not their own.  

Will notes that a possible outcome of the Trump chaos might be to check the modern movement toward executive power, inducing Congress to recapture some of the power it has ceded to the president in order to restore the stability businessmen prefer.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was himself a wealthy man, and in the 1930s he tried to explain to angry critics on the right that his efforts to address the nation’s inequalities were not an attack on American capitalism, but rather an attempt to save it from the communism or fascism that would destroy the rule of law. 

“I want to save our system, the capitalistic system,” FDR wrote to a friend in 1935. “[T]o save it is to give some heed to world thought of today.” 

The protections of the system FDR ushered in—the banking and equities regulation that killed crony finance, for example—are now under attack by the very sort of movement he warned against. Whether today’s lawmakers are as willing as their predecessors were to stand against that movement remains unclear, especially as Trump tries to bring lawmakers to heel, but Thune’s victory in the Senate today and the widespread Republican outrage over Trump’s appointment of Gaetz and Hegseth are hopeful signs. 

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[ms-march]

TURN Week: Loyalist

to the surprise of no one I’m going to have to go with loyalist this week! I am happy to admit I’m way too much of a rule follower that I would’ve been on the other side of the revolution 🥲

[mossbiin]

turn week day one: favorite loyalist: hewlett (he’s literally my wife)

hi turn fandom i am new here and have only watched season one and a bit of season two cause my bf loves amrev,,,

[willwriteforruns]

Okay, I'm sorry, but something that bothers me every year...

A little history:

British officers/soldiers were NOT loyalists.

A loyalist was the term given to American colonists who stayed loyal to the crown.

Happy 4th.

🌈The More You Know🌈

[vox-anglosphere]

Over 40,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the American Revolution to remain loyal to King George III and keep the British Empire united.

[ohifonlyx33]

What I should be doing: sleeping

What I am actually doing: thinking 'bout them (Sarah and James from Liberty's Kids)

[werewolfetone]

The duality of man

[zersk]

sorry but as a muslim in north america, if you vote for biden i dont trust you lol

[iloveschiaparelli]

I'm proud to be a descendant of someone who incited a New Hampshire town to revolution:

[bantarleton]

Tag yourself with your Loyalist American Associators gang, I'm the Maryland Royal Retaliators.

[streetsofsalem]

One Hero and 17 Rescinders

I am staying in my family’s house in York Harbor for the month of June, mostly writing with occasional breaks for gardening and sightseeing. But you know me: I can never really get away from Salem! On this past Saturday, a single word was uttered which provided me with a connecting link between my hometown and my principal place of residence: rescinders. This is not a word you come across often,…

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"HIGH PURPOSE OF LOYALISTS IS RECOGNIZED," Kingston Whig-Standard. May 9, 1933. Page 5. ---- Contribution to Canadian Nationhood Seen as Secure ---- SAINT JOHN, N. B. - When Saint John in particular, and New Brunswick generally, pay tribute to the United Empire Loyalists on May 18 next, the Sequicentennial aniversary of their landing here, the occasion will recall a people whose decencants excercised a powerful influence on the political, material, and intellectual development of Canada.

The Loyalists, whose continued allegiance to the Crown made life unbearable for them in the new United States, comprised a great many of the cultured and wealthy men and women in the old colonies. When the revolution broke out they represented at least a third of the population. Their honesty of purpose, and integrity, now acknowledged by historians, were among qualities resulting in firm foundations during Canada's early growth.

Loyality Steadfast College graduates and former high officials were included in the migration to British territory. In New England, the Episcopal clergy were steadfast in their loyalty to the King. There was also a large loyal element in the humbler walks of life. It was found in the farmers of New England, the Quakers of Pennsylvania and the negroes of South Carolina and Georgia.

Those occupying official positions at the beginning of war naturally took the side of authority. Their indignation increased as they found their places filled by men of inferior social position and less wealth, education. and culture. Despite their ideas of prerogative however, the old Loyalists in general are conceded to have been men of upright character, staunchly adhearing to their principles and willing to make great sacrifices for the preservation of a united British Empire.

Impress Is Deep "On the Canadian body politic the impress of the Loyalist migration is so deep that it would be difficult to overestimate it," wrote W. Stewart Wallace, historian. "It is no exaggeration to say that the United Empire Loyalists changed the course of the current Canadian history. Before 1783 the clearest observers saw no future before Canada, but that of a French colony under the British crown. Barring a catastrophe shocking to think of wrote Sir Guy Carleton in 1767, 'this country must, to the end of time, be peopled by the Canadian race, who have already taken such firm root and got to so great a height that any new stock transplanted will be totally hid, except in the towns of Quebec and Montreal.' Just how discerning this prophecy was may be judged from the fact that even today it holds true with regard to the districts that were settled at the time it was written. What rendered it void was the unexpected influx of the refugees of the revolution....Before 1783 the continuance of Canada in the British Empire was by no means assured; after 1783 the imperial tie was well-knit.

Even in the adjoining republic, history has begun to do the Loyalists justice. Their merits and self-sacrifice are acknowledged.

The late Professor Coit Tyler, University of Cornell, said his opinion was "That the side of the Loyalists, as they called themselves, of the Tories as they were scornfully nicknamed by their opponents was even in argument not a weak one, and in devotion and self-sacrifice not an unheroic one."

[maxbegone]

information:

John Oliver clip

tumblr post with sources

post with a video breakdown

via nowthisimpact on Instagram

breakdown post

All In With Chris Hayes clip via MSNBC

*Please add any additional sources you may have and find useful*

I encourage everyone to not only be aware of Project 2025, but educate yourself on exactly what is — a nearly one thousand page document by Conservatives that describes the creation of an authoritarian state and dismantling of major necessary agencies (EPA, Department of Education, etc), as well as including a plan to remove those who hold high government seats and replace them with loyalists who have little to no experience in that field.

An estimated 41 million Gen Z teens will turn eighteen before this election. Please make sure you are registered to vote by November, and be sure to get to the polls on November 5th.

[theredhairing40]

OXMC escapes

Red Caps: Free Donald Now! Red Caps: Free Donald Now! Strange Boy: What's going on? Ditto: I dunno... what could it be? The Blogger: -__- SOB! Ditto: Dude... what happened? Yoshi D'Osaka: He escaped from the Penalty box :( The Blogger: That's because he won the election. Yoshi D'Osaka: WTAF!!! How!?!? Red Caps: MAGA now! MAGA forever! Thaddeus: We knew it was bad to switch out a candidate without the general public's acknowledgment. Switching to Harris mid-election was beyond stupid. Moriarty: The Democrats just shot themselves in the foot with this. Now the Americans have to suffer under the watch of a useful idiot. The Blogger: Is this the beginning of the end? Thaddeus: If the rumor about the dissidents within the Republican Party is true, this should be handled carefully. Moriarty: Plus you need a unison of both parties to work together to handle this appropriately. The Blogger: :( Ditto Transforms Into LOTOR MEME: *SWISH* LOTOR guy: So it begins