Tampa Chapter

Sons of the American Revolution

November 2021

 

 Contents

          Meeting announcements

          Dues are Due

          Revolution History note

          Program Schedule

Wreaths Across America 

Color Guard Events & Opportunities       

          Misc. reminders and information

 

Meeting Announcements

November

Tampa Chapter S.A.R. will have our next meeting on Saturday, November 20th at 12:00 noon at the Mission BBQ at 5602 WEST WATERS AVENUE, Tampa 33634.  We have the room beginning at 11:00AM so come early, get your food, and join us in the private meeting room for fellowship before we start at noon.  Dress is casual.  Our program this month will be our annual recognition of Law Enforcement.  This year we will be recognizing one officer from each TPD, FHP and HCSO.  We are expecting several guests so consider eating in the main restaurant then going into the meeting room. 

 

Two reminders. Elections are this month (see below) and dues are due. 

Dues are $80 as they have been for the past few years.  Of that $35 goes to National, $20 to Florida SAR and $25 stays in Tampa.  Send your check or money order to

Paul Ergler, Treasurer

                                                          503 Surrey Lane 

                                                          Lutz, FL  33549

Paul says he can take PayPal, too, but you will need to contact him for that one at paulergler@hotmail.com. 

 

October

Our October meeting included a presentation by new member Calvin Ramsey who told us about his search for his African American patriot ancestor who served as a free man of color.  

 

American Revolution Notes

Lilburne, Cooper, Locke, Trenchard and Gordon: 

Who should get credit for colonial America’s enthusiasm for Natural law and Natural rights?

 

          Last month we traced the ideas that ended up in the Declaration of Independence and in the minds of many colonial Americans from Lilburne to Locke. This month we turn to the question of how those ideas got from Locke to the colonial Americans.

          In 1959 Caroline Robbins, a British historian, published her book The Eighteenth-Century Commonwealthman: Studies in the Transmission, Development and Circumstances of English Liberal Thought from the Restoration of Charles II until the War with the Thirteen Colonies.   In doing her research on Eighteenth Century England she found that a group of writers, most notably John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon, wrote about the natural rights and individual liberty ideas of John Locke.  They published a series of letters, the Cato letters, in British newspapers explaining their views.

          In 1967, Bernard Bailyn’s book, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution appeared.  He added to what Robbin’s had done.  He discovered that Trenchard and Gordon’s Cato letters were widely reprinted and circulated in the American colonies. Trenchard and Gordon took Locke’s abstract ideas and mad[i]e them more concrete.  They emphasized that government power was always the great enemy of liberty.  Bailyn asserted that the colonists read these pamphlets and essays and thus, the revolution was about ideas of liberty and individual freedom.  As Bailyn puts it “more than any other single group of writers, they shaped the mind of the Revolutionary generation.”

          While he agreed partially with the view that the British authorities were indeed conspiring to take away American liberties, he added the layer of a well-read populace influenced by the ideas of Locke, the Scottish Enlightenment and the Levelers to provide the main reason and impetus for the break with England.

So, who should get credit for colonial American’s enthusiasm for Natural law and Natural rights?  Where does Locke fit?  Locke is in the middle.  Taking the ideas that Lilburne and the Levelers shared with Cooper, he developed a system of political philosophy.  Trenchard and Gordon simplified those ideas, made them more concrete and that is how so many colonial Americans became conversant with the ideas attributed to John Locke.

 

To wrap this up, next month I am going to add some additional information to further explain and connect all of this.  For newer members reading some previous columns from Oct/Nov 2016 and Oct/Nov 2018 would help. And for members who were around in 2016/2018, re-reading them will refresh your memory.

To access previous columns, go to the chapter webpage TampaSAR.org. Click on Chapter history.  Then click on newsletters. On the newsletter page, at the end of the first line click “here” and a list of previous columns will come up organized by topic.  You can either just click on the month of the newsletter or go to the column page.

 The first section next month will refer to the two parts on John Dickinson (Oct/Nov 2016) and the debate over whether the colonists should have “justified the separation” based upon traditional “rights of Englishmen” or on natural law/natural rights.

The second will refer to the two parts on Revolutionary war historiography (Oct/Nov 2018) and where Bailyn’s book fits.

 

Bibliography

              Bernard Bailyn             The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

             Arthur Herman             How the Scots Invented the Modern World

   Murray Rothbard            Conceived in Liberty

   Murray Rothbard            Liberty and Property: The Levellers and Locke

 

Election of 2022 Chapter Officers

The November meeting will include our annual elections, with Office Installation at the January Installation Luncheon at the Bahama Breeze Restaurant.  You must be present to vote, but you do not need to be present to be elected. 

 

Nominations for Office

President                        Charles Klug

1st Vice President            to be determined (see below)

2nd Vice President            to be determined (see below)

Secretary                       Robert Yarnell

Treasurer                       Will Wagner-Hart

Registrar                        Dick Young

Chaplain                          Matthew Balancie (after approval)

Sgt At Arms                   need a volunteer

 

Vice Presidents – we have two candidates for Vice President.  We will provide you with a short bio and qualifications.  Those members present at the Nov 20 meeting will vote for Vice President. 

The top vote getter will be named 1st Vice President.  He will be assistant to President, help with meetings, make sure room is set, make award/certificate presentations, be available to fill in for President, etc.

The #2 vote getter will serve as our 2nd VP and will focus on membership, assist Secretary in dues collections, greet members and guests, perhaps assist Registrar in first contact or follow-up contact of prospective members, be available to fill in for 1st VP, etc. 

Both will assist with finding programs.

 

Program Schedule

Dates for the fall are below. Feel free to pass along any program/speaker suggestions to either Pres. D. Brant or VP Bob Yarnell.

 

Nov. 20                 Law Enforcement Recognition

Dec. 18                  Wreaths Across America

Jan 15                   Annual Installation Luncheon – Bahama Breeze Restaurant

 

 

Wreaths Across America

       The nation-wide annual Wreaths Across America Ceremony will be held on Saturday, December 18, at over 2500 locations.  For those of you not familiar with WAA, please visit their website at www.wreathsacrossamerica.org for more information.  The Tampa Chapter will again be a sponsor for the Veterans Cemetery at the American Legion Post #5 on Kennedy Blvd. in Tampa.  We also expect to be part of the noon-time ceremony, again. 

 

Color Guard Events and Opportunities

Our Chapter Color Guard did not participate in any events during the past month; however, Robbie Robinson joined the Saramana Chapter in the Sarasota Veterans Day parade and Dick Young joined the Withlacoochee Chapter in the Inverness Veterans Day parade, both on November 11.   

 

Future Opportunities

December 4           Christmas Parade             Safety Harbor

December 18         Wreaths Across America Tampa

February 16           DAR Chapter Luncheon    Sun City Center

 

We can never have enough Color Guardsmen.  If any of you have any interest in joining the Color Guard, please contact Dick Young, Chapter Commander or any of the members of the Tampa Chapter Color Guard.  If you do not want to start with the full Continental Line uniform, we can show you how to start with a militia “uniform” with much less cost. 

 

Miscellaneous Reminders

The face book page for the Tampa Sons of the American Revolution is

Tampa Sar. The password to add anything is American1776.

Please feel free to upload pictures or comments. Invite all your friends to look.

 

Chapter Website—remember you can find information about the chapter and programs on the chapter website.   http://www.tampasar.org/

 

One of the duties of the Chapter Chaplain is to send cards to our members that are sick. Another is to send a sympathy card to the family of a member who has passed away. If you know of anyone that should be the recipient of these cards, please mention it to Chaplain Sessums or one of the other officers at our next meeting.