Further antedatings: "liberty tree", "tree of liberty" (but still 1765)

[Joel S. Berson]

At 12/23/2013 04:04 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>Are these the liberty trees that are to be watered with the blood of
>patriots?  Or is that a particular species?

The 1765 tree of Boston was the prototype, and was propagated in
other colonies and in France.  Washington's 1787 statement -- which
used the formal name, "tree of liberty", and "refreshed", not
"watered" (a significant difference) -- probably was meant to apply
to the collection of liberty trees then existing (same species, but
scions) or to be metaphoric.

Or was the question not serious?

Joel


>LH
>
>On Dec 23, 2013, at 3:50 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>
> > A.  "liberty tree"
> >
> > 18 Dec. 1765.  In a broadside, one day earlier than the
> > "Massachusetts Gazette" of 19 Dec. 1765 I sent Jesse previously.  EAI
> > Series 1, No. 41523.
> >
> > [Heading]  "Boston, (Hanover-Square,) Dec. 18, 1765."
> >
> > [Letter, "Dec. 16, 1765."]
> >
> > "therefore [we] desire that you would, To-morrow, appear under
> > Liberty-Tree, at Twelve o'Clock, to make a public Resignation. Your
> > Non-compliance, Sir, will incur the Displeasure of / [signed] The
> > True-born Sons of Liberty."
> >
> > Antedates OED3 "liberty-tree", sense 1, same letter but Public
> > Advertiser 1766 8 Feb.
> >
> >
> > B.   "tree of liberty"
> >
> > 12 Sept. 1765.  Massachusetts Gazette and Boston News-Letter
> > Extraordinary (Supplement), 1/1.  EAN.
> >
> > [Datelined] "Boston, September 12."
> >
> > "at the South Part of the Town the Trees for which many have so great
> > a Veneration, were decorated with the Ensigns of Loyalty, and the
> > Colours embroidered with several Mottos (which we have not been able
> > to obtain---) on the Body of the largest Tree was fixed with large
> > deck Nails, that it might last (as a Poet said, like oaken Bench to
> > Perpetuity) a Copper-Plate with these Words stamped thereon, in
> > Golden Letters, THE TREE OF LIBERTY, August 14, 1765."
> >
> > Antedates OED2 "tree of liberty" under "tree, n.", 1765 Universal
> > Mag. 37 376/2 [which page is from the December issue].
> >
> > [For those interested in various other descriptions of the character
> > and employment of the Tree of Liberty, EAN has four articles from
> > three different Boston papers dated 4 Nov. 1765 (a significant date
> > because on Nov. 1 the Stamp Act had become effective and Nov. 5, the
> > next day any Boston paper published, was "Pope Day").  All EAN.
> >
> > Boston Gazette, 1/1:  Effigies were exhibited on it.
> > Boston Evening-Post, 3/1:  Called a "Great Tree"; names the persons
> > represented by the effigies.
> > Boston Post-Boy Extraordinary (Supplement), page 1 (two
> > columns):  "THE TREE OF LIBERTY" appears on the crest of a "portrait"
> > that is "distinguished with Ensigns Armorial".
> > Boston Evening-Post, 3/2:  An advertisement for a "Caricatura" having
> > a representation of the "Tree of Liberty".
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org