On This Day In 1776, A Jewish Merchant Sent The Declaration To Europe

ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE

• On This Day In 1776, Adams Saw The Cost Of Independence
• On This Day In 1776, Jefferson Had A Draft And Washington Had A Crisis
• On This Day In 1776, Washington Sent A Life Guard Member To The Gallows For Betrayal
• On This Day In 1776, Jefferson’s Draft Reached Congress As War Erupted
• On This Day In 1776, Britain’s Fleet Appeared Off New York
• On This Day In 1776, Britain’s Fleet Swelled Off New York As Washington Warned ‘Delays Are Dangerous’
• On This Day In 1776, Independence Had A Majority But Not Unity
• On This Day In 1776, Congress Held The Actual Vote For Independence
• On This Day In 1776, The Vote Was Done But The Declaration Was Not
• On This Day In 1776, The Declaration Went To Print
• On This Day In 1776, The Declaration Hit The Newspapers
• On This Day In 1776, The Declaration Kept Moving As Washington Braced For Attack
• On This Day In 1776, Washington’s Army Heard The Declaration And New York Tore Down The King
• On This Day In 1776, Washington Warned His Army Independence Was Not A License For Riot
• On This Day In 1776, Washington Warned The British Could Strike At Any Moment
• On This Day In 1776, British Warships Fired Their Way Past Washington’s Guns
• On This Day In 1776, Washington Refused A British Letter That Would Not Call Him General
• On This Day In 1776, Congress Rushed Supplies As British Warships Threatened The Hudson
• On This Day In 1776, Congress Approved The Declaration. Now Read It.
• On This Day In 1776, Washington And Franklin Rejected Britain’s Pardon Offer
• On This Day In 1776, Congress Ordered The Declaration Onto Parchment As Washington Built Defenses
• On This Day In 1776, Boston Burned The King’s Arms As America Looked Beyond Britain
• On This Day In 1776, Washington Called Britain’s Peace Commission A Deception
• On This Day In 1776, Congress Told Washington To Deploy Troops As He Saw Fit
• On This Day In 1776, Washington Said British Troops Fought ‘To Enslave Us’
• On This Day In 1776, Washington Warned ‘The Sick Must Perish’ If The Market Failed
• On This Day In 1776, British Ships Closed In As Washington Waited For Nearly 7,000 Troops
• On This Day In 1776, A Jewish Merchant Sent The Declaration To Europe
• On This Day In 1776, Washington Warned Soldiers Not To Drink New York’s Water
• On This Day In 1776, Washington Tightened Password Security As British Ships Arrived
• On This Day In 1776, Washington Warned Troops Their Divisions Helped The Enemy
• On This Day In 1776, America’s Founders Signed Their Names Beneath The Declaration

It was Sunday, July 28, 1776.

Jewish merchant Jonas Phillips folded one of the first printed copies of the Declaration of Independence into a Yiddish letter bound for his cousin and business associate in Amsterdam.

“The enclosed is a declaration of the whole country. How it will end, the blessed God knows,” Phillips wrote in a published translation.

He routed the packet through St. Eustatia because the war had disrupted direct correspondence.

The British intercepted it before it reached Amsterdam, according to the published translation.

The Declaration traveled elsewhere that day. Soldiers across Lake Champlain from Fort Ticonderoga heard it read and renamed Rattlesnake Hill Mount Independence.

In New York, George Washington confronted a different threat. With sickness increasing, his July 28 General Orders established regimental hospitals, weekly patient returns and food suited to sick soldiers.

On July 28, Americans carried the Declaration abroad, placed its name on a fortress and reorganized army medicine.

The DX Brief

• Jonas Phillips enclosed a Dunlap broadside of the Declaration in a Yiddish letter bound for Amsterdam.
• He routed the packet through St. Eustatia, but the British intercepted it.
• Phillips wrote that only God knew how the conflict would end.
• Soldiers near Fort Ticonderoga renamed Rattlesnake Hill Mount Independence after hearing the Declaration.
• Washington ordered regimental hospitals, weekly sick returns and appropriate food for patients.
• He warned that negligent adjutants could be named in General Orders and placed under arrest.

A declaration of the whole country

His July 28 letter carried independence through a private commercial network rather than an official diplomatic channel.

Addressed to Gumpel Samson, a relative and merchant in Amsterdam, the message mixed family business, trade information and news of the Revolution.

Although Phillips said he could express himself more easily in English, he wrote in Judeo-German, or Yiddish.

He compared the American break from Britain to the Dutch revolt against Spain and enclosed an English-language Dunlap broadside so Samson could see the new country’s declaration for himself.

The parcel also contained a bill of exchange intended to help Phillips’ mother. Political news traveled beside family obligations and commerce.

Merchant Samuel Curson received the packet at St. Eustatia and endorsed it for forwarding. The British intercepted it and preserved the letter, broadside and financial document.

Rattlesnake Hill becomes Mount Independence

The Declaration reached the northern army by another route. American troops had begun building a fortification on Rattlesnake Hill across Lake Champlain from Fort Ticonderoga on July 11.

On July 28, the Declaration was read to the assembled troops. The position received a new name: Mount Independence.

The name tied the political decision of July 4 to a fortified hill guarding the route from Canada toward the Hudson Valley.

Washington builds a hospital system

As previously reported by The Dallas Express, Washington had warned two days earlier that mistreating civilian food sellers could make healthy troops sick and leave sick soldiers to perish.

By July 28, Washington said the number of sick was increasing. He ordered each regiment to select a nearby house for newly sick soldiers and patients whose conditions did not require transfer to the General Hospital.

A General Hospital surgeon would decide who needed more advanced care, and Washington placed hospital houses near the brigades.

Every regimental surgeon had to keep a patient register and submit weekly sick returns to the director general and commissary general.

Washington also removed sick soldiers from the regular provision return because food issued to healthy men was unsuitable for patients. Surgeons could use the ration’s value to obtain appropriate food.

Washington also warned negligent adjutants that he would name them in General Orders and place repeat offenders under arrest.

Why it mattered

Phillips sent the Declaration through a commercial network, but British interception showed that independence did not end Britain’s power over Atlantic communication.

At Lake Champlain, Mount Independence turned the Declaration into geography and tied its promise to a route the British could use to divide the states.

In New York, sickness threatened to weaken the army before the coming battle began.

The Declaration announced a country. On July 28, Americans tried to carry its message abroad, hold the ground it claimed and preserve the soldiers needed to defend it.

Tomorrow on Road to Independence

July 29, 1776: Congress read three letters from Washington and authorized another aide-de-camp, while Washington ordered a monthly paper allowance for every regiment to keep records, returns and orders moving.

Follow the full Road to Independence series here.