IN THE CONSTITUTION:
King George III Aids the American Revolution
On July 9, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was read in
to George Washington’s troops in New York City’s Bowling Green Park in Lower
Manhattan’s waterfront district. A statue of King George stood in the
park--4000 pounds of pure lead, painted gold and standing on a marble base
surrounded by a cast iron fence. George III sat astride his prancing horse and
wore a Roman toga, symbolic of his supposed importance in world history. The
unpopular statue had generated an anti-graffiti ordinance to protect it from
those who did not wish King George well!
As the late afternoon sun played over the streets of New York
City, General Washington’s troops heard the now-famous words: When in the course of human Events, it
becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected
them with another, and to assume among
the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature
and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind
requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the
separation. We hold these Truths to be
self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain inalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and
the Pursuit of Happiness.”
As the last line was read, “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection
of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge
to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” the crowd
erupted into cheers. Within minutes, ropes had been thrown around the statue
and it had toppled to the ground in shattered pieces. The intact head was
paraded through the streets until it was recovered by Tories and returned to
England.
Several women gathered the lead pieces and took them to the
smelter in Litchfield, Connecticut, where they were recast into bullets. The smelter
owner, General Oliver Wolcott, refused payment for his efforts. He declared,
“You own me nothing. It is I who owe you…you have 42,038 musket balls in that
wagon…all to be shot back at King George’s red-coated troops. I doubt that King
George would much approve of what you did with his statue, but America will not
soon forget what you have done for freedom. God speed you on your way.”
Many versions of the toppling of King George’s statue exist.
While details vary, it is certain that patriots, fed up with tyranny and
oppression, heard the words of the Declaration of Independence with exultation.
They pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to the cause
of American liberty and kept their word. That day the citizens of New York City
stood for freedom as they resourcefully recast their emblem of despotism into
tools for liberty.
This story is told in Promises of the Constitution: Yesterday,
Today, Tomorrow, 3.3. Thanks also to Don Pendleton for his
information on this issue
