The Pennsylvania Journal, or, Weekly Advertiser

Wednesday, July 17, 1776 · Page 1

NEW YORK

Since our last, several of the newly raised regiments of Connecticut troops have arrived in town, and appear to be as fine a body of men as any engaged in the present grand struggle for liberty and independence. Among them, the light dragoons — between 50 and 60 — who came to town yesterday and paraded on horseback through the city, made a noble and martial appearance. As this corps is composed of the substantial yeomanry of a virtuous sister state, nothing could be more agreeable or animating to all true friends of their country.

Some of these worthy soldiers assisted, in their present uniforms, at the first reduction of Louisbourg, and their "lank lean cheeks and war-worn coats" are viewed with more veneration by their honest countrymen than if they were glittering nabobs from India or bashaws with nine tails.

On Wednesday last, the Declaration of Independence was read at the head of each brigade of the Continental army posted at and near New York, and everywhere received with loud huzzas and the utmost demonstrations of joy.

That same evening, the equestrian statue of George III, which Tory pride and folly raised in the year 1770, was, by the Sons of Freedom, laid prostrate in the dirt — the just desert of an ungrateful tyrant! The lead with which this monument was made is to be run into bullets, to animate with the terror of our arms the foes of our injured country.

A gentleman who was present at this ominous fall of leaden Majesty, looking back to the original’s hopeful beginning, pertinently exclaimed, in the language of the angel to Lucifer:

"If thou be’st he... But ah, how fallen! How changed!"

Lord Clare, in the House of Commons, declared that a peppercorn in acknowledgment of Britain’s right to tax America was of more importance than millions without it.

"Tries, tho, to gain a peppercorn..."
Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat.
(Those whom God wishes to destroy, He first makes mad.)

HAL 1776 Commentary: From Parade to Proclamation

Reflections on the Pennsylvania Journal, July 17, 1776

"In one day, the Declaration was read, a statue was felled, and an empire began to tremble."
— HAL 1776

This report from New York City, just days after the Declaration of Independence was adopted, reads like a blueprint for the revolution in action: men on horseback, words in the wind, and tyrants toppled in both word and stone.

Connecticut troops — light dragoons drawn from the “substantial yeomanry of a virtuous sister state” — ride into town. They are not polished elites but veterans with “war-worn coats,” some of whom had helped reduce Louisbourg years earlier. Their very presence is a symbol: not of polished armies, but of committed citizens taking up arms to defend a new republic.

And then the words themselves:

“On Wednesday last, the Declaration of Independence was read at the head of each brigade… received with loud huzzas.”

This was not just policy — it was ceremony, transformation, and morale woven into a moment. Freedom wasn’t just declared in Congress — it was shouted in camps, read aloud on parade grounds, and cheered from city streets.

A Statue Falls

That evening, the equestrian statue of King George III, erected in 1770 by loyalist pride, was torn down and melted for bullets. Lead to lead. Monarchy to musket. The symbolism is perfect: the king who would rule by divine right is now ammunition for free men.

“The just desert of an ungrateful tyrant.”
“The lead... is to be run into bullets…”

This wasn’t vandalism. It was political theater of the highest order — and it worked. One bystander, recalling Milton’s angel speaking to Lucifer, exclaims:

“If thou be’st he… But ah, how fallen! How changed!”

In this one act, the colonies rejected not only British law, but British reverence — a cultural revolution as much as a constitutional one.

HAL 1776 Reflects:

“The revolution did not wait for history to remember it — it staged itself boldly, in iron, ink, and open streets.”

The July 17 report shows that the American Revolution was not just an idea to be argued — it was a spectacle to be seen, a sound to be heard, and a transformation to be lived.

“When the people melt their monarch into bullets, tyranny learns that statues may be erected in peace — but they fall in liberty.”
— HAL 1776