By Elizabeth Dallam Ayoub | July 12 , 2024
As we approach the upcoming elections here in Michigan, both the primary in August as well as the general in November, Michigan Fair Elections would like to remind everyone of the privilege and the responsibility that voting is.
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Final stories in Nuggets of Patriotism series - Hard Fought Freedoms and the Right to Vote
General George Washington said to his troops: “The hour is fast approaching on which the honour and success of this army, and the safety of our bleeding country depend. Remember, officers and soldiers, that you are free men, fighting for the blessings of liberty… that slavery will be your portion… if you do not acquit [“discharge completely”] yourselves like men.” Quotations - Revolutionary War (alphahistory.com)
Colonel Richard Dallam, Ebenezer Smith, Stephen DeMaranville
Richard Dallam, ancestor patriot of DAR member E.A., returned to his home in the colony of Maryland, after having served in The Flying Camp, a militia of able-bodied free men between the ages of 16 and 50, who served with the Continental forces. This militia was a home guard to be called out if the British threatened the area. Indeed, The Flying Camp was called into action in Southern Maryland at St. George Island/Piney Point. British forces attempted to invade the mainland and were repulsed by The Flying Camp. (Maryland State Archives - Guide to Government Records). Richard served as quartermaster, and letters he wrote to General George Washington are archived in Washington, D.C.
Richard was reared in the home of his uncle, William Paca, one of the 56 signatories of the Declaration of Independence, and was most likely inculcated into political life at an early age. He signed the Bush Declaration, a resolution adopted about a year before the Declaration of Independence, a resolution which expressed support for the cause of freedom for the colonies.
When he was only thirty years old, he was appointed to serve as commissioner of Harford County, and was a delegate to the Maryland convention in 1774-1776.
Perhaps what General George Washington said to the troops inspired Colonel Dallam to do what he did upon returning to his home. He did not want to remain what George Washington called a "slave" to British rule and the king of England. But on the way back to Harford County, Maryland, he must have thought about those who had to remain in Harford County while he had the freedom to fight for independence.
While his service to the new nation is important and noteworthy, it is what he did upon returning home that set him apart from other patriots who fought for independence - he freed his own slaves. His descendants were taught from the time they were young, that Richard “upon returning home from the War for Independence, believed that all men should be free and freed his own slaves.”
When Richard died, Bishop Robert Cloud led Dallam’s eulogy. Cloud said, “Another evidence which he [Colonel Richard] gave, of the sincerity of his profession, was the emancipation of his slaves, which he was led to do, purely from a principal of conscience; there being no rule of society, at that time existing, to require it.” (A Funeral Sermon Preached in the Death of Col. Richard Dallam, Cloud, Rev. Robert. Lexington, Kentucky: Daniel Bradford, 1820)
Freedom for me, and freedom for thee. It was accomplished during the 1700s by a revolution which upset the world. Today freedom must be equally hard-fought. Hard-fought by casting votes in honest, secure, free, and transparent elections. Patriot Dallam would concur.
Equality under the law for federal elections means one citizen casting
one legal vote. And that is precisely why Michigan Fair Elections’
volunteers do what they do, and it is precisely what they strive for.
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There is a story about S.N.’s patriot, Ebenezer Smith, which reminds us of the humanity of all of these patriots. They lived two to three hundred years before us, but they were not much different from us.
Ebenezer Smith was born in 1741 in Windham, Connecticut. Windham County has records of the colonists there gathering, the reason for their concerns, and their reasons for being willing to bear arms and fight for the right to self-govern:
“In spite of petitions and remonstrances from [the colonies] and earnest protestations from her friends in Parliament, the British government persisted in its purpose, and on March 22, 1765, the famous Stamp Act received the sanction of the King.”
To the colonists, enough was enough. They needed to have a say in how they were being governed.
While Ebenezer was serving in the Revolutionary War, his wife gave birth to triplet sons. General George Washington, learning of this, wanted to see the triplets and family lore is that George Washington himself named these three boys: Daniel Green Smith, Jonathan Trumble Smith, and George Washington Smith. Family history also records that Washington gave each of the infant boys a gold sovereign. After the war that gold sovereign might not have been worth much in the colonies, but it was - as all patriots in the colonies would agree - “worth its weight in gold,” as was the right to vote and self-govern.
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G. B., another proud Daughter of the American Revolution, descends from Stephen DeMaranville, a patriot who was born in Massachusetts of a French father and an English mother.
When the Revolutionary War broke out in 1775, Stephen was 25 years old and served the colonies as a Minute Man. Minutemen were a small hand-picked elite force, required to be highly mobile and able to assemble quickly. Minutemen were selected from militia muster rolls by their commanding officers. Typically 25 years of age or younger, they were chosen for their enthusiasm, reliability, and physical strength. Usually about one quarter of the militia served as Minutemen, and were the first armed militia to arrive or await a battle. Stephen rendered important aid as a bearer of dispatches from one point to another in Massachusetts.
His father’s country of origin, France, was still ruled by a king; the people did not elect the ruler of France. His mother’s country of origin, Britain, was also ruled by a non-elected king. Stephen fought in the Revolutionary War to eschew being ruled by a king in the colonies.
In 1788, the United States held its first election. The people of what had been known as “the colonies,” were now a united country, with voting rights to decide who would govern them. The Constitution, drafted by elected delegates, resolved that the governing executive would only serve a four-year term, unlike the countries of Britain and France whose kings ruled for life.
Stephen died at the age of seventy-eight, but the last 50 years of his life, he suffered from inflammatory rheumatism and eventually became an invalid. Stephen realized the importance of the first United States election, and took that sacred duty seriously. Walk he could not do, but he could still cast a vote. His request to his family and friends is noteworthy: “Carry me to the election.”
From the Declaration of Independence: “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.”
If you are pleased with the way you are being governed, cast your vote to show that. If you are displeased, cast your vote to show that. Do this in the spirit of the invalid patriot, Stephen DeMaranville, who realized how important it was to
alter or support the government through his vote.
Remember: whether by absentee ballot, early voting, or voting on election day,
KEEP ALIVE THE PREVIOUS RIGHT FOR WHICH ALL THESE PATRIOTS
WORKED AND SACRIFICED. DO YOUR PART, YOUR “NUGGET”.
VOTE!!!
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Just as Reveille is played daily at United States military bases across the world, so also is Taps, Taps at West Point (youtube.com) a reminder of all who have served this country, who have worked hard for freedom.
Tulsi Gabbard, former vice chair of the Democratic Party and a former House Representative from Hawaii, speaks of both Reveille and Taps: “Stop and reflect-every single day. [It is] our opportunity to reflect on all who have given for our country.”
They served, they gave, they fought for the foundation of this country: freedom. One of the pillars of that foundation is safe, free, transparent and honest elections.
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Elizabeth Dallam Ayoub serves on MFE’s Communications Team. She started her career working for an international company, transitioned into teaching French and Latin while her children were young, and then became a Michigan attorney.
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