The Leaden George
What do you think about pulling down statues? That and similar things happened during the American Revolution. Sometimes it was done by mobs, sometimes by the civil authorities. In New York City, for example, a mob pulled down a statue of King George III. Symbols of royal authority in government buildings were taken down and destroyed. A tavern in Worcester, Massachusetts, called the King’s Arms, used the royal coat of arms for its sign; the sign was taken down (and I’m guessing that the owner changed the name of the tavern thereafter). Many of these things happened just after the Declaration of Independence, which makes sense.
The statue in New York was of the king, dressed like a Roman emperor, seated on a horse. It was made of lead and covered with gold leaf. The Declaration of Independence was read to the American army on July 9, 1776, and that evening a mob that included American soldiers went and pulled the statue down. Here’s how one American lieutenant described it in his journal the next day:
Last Night the Statue on the Bowling Green representing George Ghwelph alias George Rex…was pulled down by the populace. In it were 4,000 Pounds of Lead, & a Man undertook to take of 10 oz of Gold from the Superficies, as both Man & Horse were covered with Gold Leaf. The Lead, we hear, is to be run up into Musquet Balls for the use of the Yankies, when it is hoped that the Emanations of the Leaden George will make as deep impressions in the Bodies of some of his red Coated & Torie Subjects, & that they will do the same execution in poisoning & destroying them, as the superabundant Emanations of the Folly & pretended Goodness of the real George have made upon their Minds, which have effectually poisoned & destroyed their Souls…
(Note: The king’s last name was Guelph. “George Rex” means King George.)
It’s rather ironic that the king’s statue was made into bullets for fighting the king’s troops.
When General George Washington heard about the statue being pulled down, he disapproved of it, and the army was told:
‘Tho the General doubts not the persons, who pulled down and mutilated the Statue, in the Broadway, last night, were actuated by Zeal in the public cause; yet it has so much the appearance of riot and want of order, in the Army, that he disapproves the manner, and directs that in future these things shall be avoided by the Soldiery, and left to be executed by proper authority.
Like Washington, I don’t approve of riots and mobs. There’s always a need for change in society, but mob violence is not the way to solve real problems. The fact that there’s been plenty of it in American history doesn’t make it right.
Sources
- Journal of Lieutenant Isaac Bangs, April 1 to July 29, 1776, pp. 58-59.
- “General Orders, 10 July 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-05-02-0185. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 5, 16 June 1776 – 12 August 1776, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1993, pp. 256–257.]