Happy Birthday to U.S.: Moylan Names the United States, Jan. 2, 1776

The Declaration of Independence was issued on July 4, 1776, which is the standard day of the United States. However, a Patriot Revolutionary and British immigrant who was one of George Washington’s most trusted officers for the first time ever on record called our society by its title.

Stephen Moylan addressed a notice to Joseph Reed, the secretary of state for Washington, on January 2, 1776, detailing his difficulties obtaining supplies and the requirements of the soldiers and sailors under his control. Only a few weeks before, Moylan’s conversation had referred to the” United Colonies”. Because he used a new name, the” United States of America,” in the new year, he used a new brand, either he only or he and his own officials and Washington thought it was time to stop referring to Americans as colonists.

Moylan, like his fellow officer John Fitzgerald ( Washington’s “favorite” aide from the Revolution ), was not born in the country he is now credited with naming. Despite his undeniable historic significance, there is far too much information about Moylan; in truth, I have not been able to locate a single historical portrait of him. &nbsp,

So what do we understand? Moylan was an Irish Catholic immigrant to America, a vendor who early in the war joined George Washington’s” secret” Navy. Washington was unable to establish a military at the time because the need was more urgent than the bureaucratic process would allow, and he strongly believed that the American war effort required one. He began building one in the later 1775 period. &nbsp,

Historian Patrick K.O’Donnell describes Moylan while discussing Washington’s Navy in” The Indispensables”:

As the enterprise expanded, Washington brought in the army’s muster-master general, Stephen Moylan, to assist]John ] Glover in managing the burgeoning navy. The muster-master standard had to take on the difficult task of keeping track of the people in each of the Continental Army’s divisions. Moylan, a strong, husky British immigrant, was born into a well-known Irish trading family, sending him to Paris and then Lisbon to pursue his education. The intelligent, intelligent man with a twang had a strong interest in international business and trade. Elected before the battle as the first president of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, an institution of rich merchants, Moylan is credited with coining the phrase ‘ the United States of America’ in a January 2, 1776, statement to Joseph Reed, Washington’s director and aide-de-camp.

Stephen Moylan is the first people to use the name” United States of America” on this day in 1776.

Above is my illustration of the Moylan photo. twitter.com/g9EKS8xRIS

— Catherine Salgado (@CatSalgado32 ) January 2, 2025

We’re not sure if the name was fully Moylan’s original invention, as I previously mentioned, or whether he and Washington or he and his fellow commanders co-founded it. The key is that Moylan’s Jan. 2 email appears to be the earliest instance of the name” United States of America.” And Moylan excelled both during the Revolution that led to their freedom and afterwards as properly:” Moylan was close to George Washington, appointed Commissioner of Loans in Philadelphia in 1793, and is the nickname of Moylan, an unincorporated area in east Pennsylvania.

Connected: &nbsp, Washington Crossing the Delaware and American Principles in One Decoration

In his ancient 1776 email, Moylan wrote to Reed about the “full and enough power from the United States of America”. A New Year often inspires people with a desire for greater achievements and new roots, and that New Year’s Day was the first example of the increasing of the” Grand Union” symbol, America’s first official symbol. While at the same time, King George III of England delivered an insulting and threatening speech to Parliament that angered American freedom-loving patriots. It made it clear that those who hoped for a diplomatic solution to England’s tyrannical actions were deceiving themselves. With a new flag and a new aspect to the conflict, Moylan might have thought it was time for a new country with a brand-new name.

Indeed, Moylan referred to George II I’s letter in his own missive,” Look at the King’s speech – it is enclosed in this, or in the General’s letter to you … – will they]Congress ] not declare what his Most Gracious Majesty insists on they have already done”? King George said the Americans wanted to be independent, did he? Well, perhaps that was not such a bad idea. Indeed, perhaps it was the only option for those who loved liberty. The” General’s letter” ( Washington’s ) had reportedly also indicated this would be the new direction taken by the Americans. Moylan was already eagerly anticipating it.

Thus, sometime between Christmas Day 1775 and Jan. 2, 1776, Moylan had ceased to think of the land and people he had adopted and fought for as” United Colonies” and begun to think of them as” United States”. The term” state” inherently carries with it implications of national sovereignty. Because he uses the term” United States” when referring to a foreign nation as Spain, Moylan clearly understood the term. &nbsp,

An independent body would take this action, not just a band of rebels within a larger empire. The Revolutionary Army wasn’t a disgruntled rabble of American colonists trying to win concessions from their ruler. It was a rebellious rabble. They now hoped to fight a foreign tyrant for their own country and their right to self-determination.

]NYHistory. org] Here, on January 2, 1776, seven months before the Declaration of Independence and a week before the publication of]Thomas ] Paine’s Common Sense, Stephen Moylan, an acting secretary to General George Washington, spells it out,’ I should like vastly to go with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain’ to seek foreign assistance for the cause.

As I said, Moylan wrote his letter to Col. Joseph Reed, aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington, who at the time was in Philadelphia on leave. Moylan was at the Continental Army’s Cambridge, Mass., headquarters.

The Irish Catholic Moylan did have appropriate European contacts for his proposed Spanish mission since he had established himself in Lisbon as a merchant before settling in 1768 in Philadelphia …Moylan served in various capacities during the revolution, including quartermaster-general and cavalry colonel, but not without the vicissitudes—forced resignations, limited supplies, courts-martial—of a Continental officer in the protracted struggle. In a slim 1909 biography, he is depicted as a true hothead for independence (quite unlike his counterpart Joseph Reed )…

Byron DeLear follows up on his discovery ]of the letter] with the speculation that Moylan and Reed, as secretaries, would not likely be throwing around the term’ United States of America ‘ without the approval of their boss, Commander-in-Chief George Washington.”

This is speculation, of course, and we may never know for certain why Moylan used the term. As I said above, however, the most important thing is that Moylan first said, or rather wrote”, United States of America. ” As a soldier, officer, merchant, immigrant, patriot, and public servant, Stephen Moylan played an important role in helping Washington during the Revolution and he must be credited with titling this great nation of ours the” United States of America. ” &nbsp,

Names have power. They influence people’s and nations ‘ identities, which is why woke Marxists constantly rename people, places, and ideas to alter our perceptions. America can only thrive and prosper so long as it is united and sees itself as a unique nation, sovereign, free, historically original, not a mere member of a global cohort. This year, a new president is coming into office, and we have the chance to ensure that America is again strengthened and flourishing, free and great. The ideal moment is now to rediscover the forgotten American hero, Stephen Moylan.

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