Writing from the Carolina Coffee House, in London, John informed his father of the “shocking Intelligence…. I fear that all the lurking Traitors in every Province will not collect themselves, and exert their utmost Powers, to disunite us.”¹ John had read that morning’s Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser (London) that revealed that the New York Assembly voted to continue their trade with Great Britain.

John referred to those “base Dastards [who] bow a willing Neck to Slavery; and set a proper Mark upon them,” adding, “Oh how I shall glory to be an American.”² The firebrand warned that failure to rise to this challenge and “act like Men deservg that Freedom … our Name will be recorded with Infamy.”

Perhaps foreshadowing Thomas Paine, John argued that it was time “Now [for] brave Patriots [to] stand forth and shew yourselves,” but he feared the recent actions by the New York Assembly would lead “our Tyrants [to] now Exult.” These indeed were “the times that try men’s souls.”³

1. John Laurens to Henry Laurens, London, March 1, 1775, Papers of Henry Laurens, 10:81-83. ↩︎
2. Greg Massey, John Laurens and the American Revolution (Columbia, 2000). ↩︎
3. Daniel Edwin Wheeler, ed., Life and Writings of Thomas Paine (New York, 1908), 1 and Eric Foner, Tom Paine and Revolutionary America (New York, 2005), 139. ↩︎