"liberty tree", 1765, 1766 (antedating 1776)

Sat Mar 6 23:35:11 UTC 2010

Ouh, boy! After the initial thought, when I saw the header, directed
at an actual tree, the second flash was to "Tree of Liberty". Sure
enough, OED does have a separate entry under tree:

> tree of liberty, a tree (or a pole) planted in celebration of a revolution or victory securing liberty (chiefly in reference to the French Revolution)

That's a rather odd statement, in my book, especially if Liberty Tree
and Tree of Liberty mean the same thing.

The citations make it more complicated too:

> 1765 Universal Mag. XXXVII. 376/2 (Amer.) Known by the name of the Tree of *Liberty ever since the memorable 14th of August. 1837 CARLYLE Fr. Rev. II. I. xii, A Tree of Liberty sixty feet high; and Phrygian Cap on it, of size enormous. 1890 LECKY Hist. Eng. xxvii. VII. 207 Trees of liberty had been planted in Antrim, and bonfires lit in consequence of French victories.

All refer to actual trees, it seems, including one that is likely the
same one that pops up the same year as "Liberty Tree".

But the literal meaning in the case of the "tree of liberty" struck me
as an odd one because I am so used to the metaphor. Maybe it's just
me, but "Liberty Tree" as a tree makes sense, but "Tree of Liberty" is
liberty.

With that in mind, [GB copy of] a volume residing at Oxford:

Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded: In a Series of Familiar Letters from a
Beautiful Young Damsel to Her Parents: and Afterwards, in Her Exalted
Condition, Between Her, and Persons of Figure and Quality, Upon the
Most Important and Entertaining Subject In Genteel Life. The Third and
Fourth Volumes, by the Editor of the Two Firsts. Printed for Samuel
Richardson; 1842, p. 191

> A Method I take it, my Dear, /turning to me/, that was of great Service to you, as it initiated you into Writing with the Freedom and Ease, which shine in your sauce Letters and Journals ; and to which my present Fetters are not a little owing : Just as Pedlars catch Monkeys in the Baboon Kingdoms, provoking the attentive Fools, by their own Example, to put on Shoes and Stockens, till the Apes of Imitation, trying to do the like, intangle their Feet, and so cannot escape upon the Boughs of the Tree of Liberty, on which before they were wont to hop arid skip about, and play a thousand puggish Tricks.

This is preceded--at least, as far as GB is concerned--by The
Craftsman No. 436, November 9, 1737.

The Craftsman, [by] Caleb D'Anvers of Gray's Inn, Esq
[A series of letters] The Dissertation upon Parties, p. 62
>If Liberty is that delicious and wholesome Fruit, on which the British Nation hath fed for so many Ages, and to which We owe our Riches, our Strength, and all the Advantages We boast of ; the British Constitution is the Tree, that bears this Fruit, and will continue to bear it, as long as We are careful to fence it in, and trench it round against the Beasts of the Field, and the Insects of the Earth.

The letters are anonymous--as is the publication of the entire set in
its /eighth/ edition in 1756, but, from external sources they are
identified with Henry St. John Bolingbroke.

Brewer blamed "the Tree of Liberty" on "American of the United States
... who planted poplars and other trees during the war of
independence" and "Jacobins". This is essentially what the OED has. No
word of metaphoric use, no mention that the phrase was used several
decades before the War of Independence. There are not many customs
that gravitate from metaphorical to the literal, but this seems to be
exactly what happened in the case of the colonists who took the idea
of a Tree of Liberty and decided to physically plant a tree. The
Boston Liberty Tree might have been the first merely by coincidence of
being one of the earliest and most aggressive riots.

The Library of [useless] Universal Knowledge, 1881 (Reprint of 1880
Chambers), is a bit broader in its description than Brewer, but also
fails to mention any Tree of Liberty used to mean, literally, Liberty.

>TREES OF LIBERTY. The custom, common to almost all the nations of Europe, of celebrating the beginning of spring and various national and ecclesiastical festivals by setting green boughs, led, during the war of independence in the United States, to the habit of planting poplars and other trees as the symbol of growing freedom. This example was imitated during the French Revolution. ...

I have no idea how much thought went into this description, but it
still seems to be missing half the context. What might be classified
as deliberate with the OED (I can't believe they were not aware of
non-literal use), certainly would not serve as an excuse here since
the description attempts to give the history of the expression.

And there can be no doubt, of course, that the infamous (and largely
abused) Jeffersonian expression relies on the metaphor that already
existed, rather than coining one based on the Boston Liberty Tree (or
its other colonial equivalents).

Finally, the orations delivered at the dedications of the Liberty Tree
in Boston and Rhode Island had been published in Boston and
Providence, respectively, in 1766 and 1768 (assuming they are
distinct). Not sure if there was more than one such tree in Rhode
Island--which is mentioned in correspondence with the home office as
one of the two major sources of Stamp Act riots--but there was a "Tree
of Liberty" in Newport. The reason I mention this is because there is
no doubt about the origin of the name in the Newport case--and, in
this case, it is not literal (or so say the people responsible for
it).

Newport Illustrated in a Series of Pen & Pencil Sketches, by George C.
Mason; Newport, RI: 1875.
p. 102

> At the head of Thames Street stood the venerable Liberty Tree, a memorial of the early resistance of Newport to British aggression. The copper plate, with names of the thirteen who joined in its restoration after the departure of the enemy, is still preserved.
> In 1766, Wm. Read, Esq., deeded to Wm. Ellery, John Collins, Robert Cooke and Samuel Fowler, the Liberty Tree lot. The instrument, drawn up by Henry Marchant, Esq., is to this effect:
> > [[Said lot and tree thereon, were conveyed to the grantees "in trust, and for ever thereafter to be known by the name of the 'Tree of Liberty,' to be set apart to, and for the use of, the Sons of Liberty ; and that the same stand as a monument of the spirited and noble opposition to the Stamp Act, in the year 1765, by the Sons of Liberty in Newport, and throughout the continent of North America, and to be considered as emblematical of Public Liberty taking deep root in English America, of her strength and spreading protection, of her against the attempts of tyranny and oppression. And furthermore, the said Tree of Liberty is destined and set apart, for exposing to public ingominy and reproach, all offenders against the liberties of the country, and the abettors and approvers of such as would enslave her. And, in general, said tree is hereby set apart, for such other purposes as they, the true born Sons of Liberty, shall, from time to time, from age to age, and in all tim!
 es and ages hereafter, apprehend, judge and resolve, may subserve the glorious cause of Public Liberty."]]

The Boston tree was initially identified as the epicenter of the local
riots because of the Andrew Oliver effigy that was hanged on the tree
and subsequently burned. According to several non-contemporaneous
accounts (I have not yet seen any that had been written by the
participants), it was named Liberty Tree /later/, although it is not
clear how much later. As the Stamp Act was enacted on March 22, and
the initial riots occurred in August--with the effigy appearing on
August 14--that leaves several months before the printed references to
the "Liberty Tree". The Newport effigies were hanged and burned on
August 27 (Maryland had a similar event on August 29). And the
colonial press was /filled/ with anti-Stamp Act rhetoric from the date
of its enactment--including, POSSIBLY, some of the rhetoric from
sources that used the Tree of Liberty metaphor. (There are several
letters in the Cadwallader Colden collection at NYHS, among others,
that have shed light on the details of the rhetoric and the
planning--perhaps they will offer linguistic details as well. Newport
Mercury, Pennsylvania Journal, Boston Gazette and New York Gazette
were likely the most aggressive sources of anti-Stamp Act propaganda
from March to December of 1765.)

In any case, it is in this sense that the Sons of Liberty are related
to the Tree of Liberty--the Boston naming appears more accidental than
prescient. But symbols tend to take on the lives of their own and
acquire their own legends along the way--hence the Brewer and Chambers
accounts, above.

I may have a couple more details to add later, but I must run now and
wanted to send this off before leaving.

VS-)

On Sat, Mar 6, 2010 at 1:30 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
> OED 2nd edition has "liberty tree" in 1776 -- and no other
> quotations, earlier or later.  The earliest I find are 1765 and 1766.
>
> (1)  [Datelined "Boston (Hanover Square) Dec 18, 1765."]
> Your inserting the following Letter sent on Monday Evening last to
> the Honorable Andrew Oliver, Esq; Commissioner for distributing
> Stamps in this Province, with the Proceedings occasioned thereon,
> will oblige THE TRUE SONS OF LIBERTY.
> ...
> SIR,
> The respectable Inhabitants of the Town of Boston ... desire that you
> would, To morrow, appear under Liberty-Tree, at 12 o'clock, to make a
> public Resignation.
>
> [He did resign.  However, Wikipedia says he publicly resigned on Aug.
> 17, and later, "On December 17, the Sons of Liberty again forced him
> to publicly swear that he would never act as stamp distributor."  I
> don't swear to Wikipedia's account.]
>
> Source:  [EAN, from download of masthead and entire issue.]  The
> Massachusetts Gazette, No. 0. [sic] Thursday, December 19,
> 1765,  page [3], col. 1.  EAN classifies the Massachusetts Gazette
> with the Boston News-Letter, for this article citing:
>      "Boston News-Letter, published as The Boston News-Letter and
> New-England Chronicle; Date: 12-19-1765; Page: Supplement [2]."
>      According to the Harvard Library catalog, "When the Stamp Act
> took effect, the Drapers changed the title of this paper to:
> Massachusetts gazette, from Nov. 7, 1765-May 15, 1766, and abandoned
> the volume numbering. With the repeal of the Act, they resumed the
> former title and numbering."
>      Note that EAN cites the page as "Supplement [2]"; I find no
> heading "Supplement", and count to the 3rd page.  There are two pages
> having the masthead, suggesting that this 6-page issue was 4 pages
> with a 2-page supplement.  Sometimes EAN does not order the pages of
> issues with supplements in the correct sequence, but I can't tell
> here (for one thing, all 6 pages are unnumbered).
>      Curiously, the 3rd of EAN's 6 pages ends with a hyphen, but no
> later (or earlier) page begins with a continued word.  If any pages
> are missing, it would be 2 (one sheet) -- but a total of 8 pages
> seems unlikely.  The hyphenated end of page seems more like a printer's error.
>
> The above is the earliest of the appearances of "liberty tree" (two
> words, hyphenated, or one word) in 6 different newspapers in 1765,
> all between Dec. 19 and Dec. 30 and all about Oliver's encounter with the tree.
>
>
> (2)  EAN claims its earliest citation for "liberty tree" is November
> 27, 1765, but this actually is December 27, and the text refers to
> the Dec. 17 event in Boston.
>      EAN says "Connecticut Gazette, published as The New-London
> Gazette; Date: 11-27-1765; Issue: 111; Page: [3]."  But the masthead
> says "Friday, December 27, 1765 ... Number 111.  The New-London
> Gazette."  And the issue contains news items dated Philadelphia,
> December 12; Boston, Dec. 16; etc.
>
>
> (3)  _A discourse: addressed to the Sons of Liberty, at a solemn
> assembly, near ..._, 1766, 8 pages.  [Google Books, no
> preview.]  This is _A Discourse, addressed to the Sons of Liberty ...
> February 14 1766_, Providence, [1766]; Evans 10286; Early American
> Imprints, First series.
>
> (4)  The above is the only instance found by Google Books for 1766
> and 1767.  In 1768, there are 4 British journals containing
> "liberty-tree" [all full view].
>
> Joel

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