Jim Kaplan's July 4 Walking Tour of Lower Manhattan

Jim Kaplan writes in the July 1 Wall Street Journal:

Early American History: My 2 a.m. Walking Tour

By JAMES S. KAPLAN

NEW YORK—While many of you are snug in your beds in the wee hours of July 4, dreaming, perhaps, of your day to come at the beach, the golf club, or your home barbecue, I will be leading a 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. tour of Revolutionary War sites in Lower Manhattan.

Massachusetts and Virginia quickly come to mind as places rich in Revolutionary War history, but two of the most significant battles (of Long Island and of Saratoga) were fought in New York state. Furthermore, three of the most important Revolutionary War generals—Richard Montgomery (the Battle of Quebec), Alexander Hamilton (the Battle of Yorktown) and Horatio Gates (the Battle of Saratoga)—are buried in Lower Manhattan.

I begin the tour on the west side of City Hall Park, rich in July 4 tradition. Not only is it where George Washington on July 9, 1776, had the Declaration of Independence first read in the city, but it is where, on July 6, 1774, Hamilton, then a young student at King’s College (now Columbia), gave a spellbinding speech in support of resistance to the king. In addition, it is the area where, in the 1790s, Revolutionary War veterans would hold elaborate July 4 ceremonies celebrating their victory and the Declaration of Independence. These ceremonies would become a form of protest against the increasingly aristocratic policies of Hamilton’s ruling Federalist Party and lead to the formation of the Democratic Party. . . .

Why do we take our walk so early in the morning? The short answer is that the tour was begun by the 92nd Street YMHA more than a quarter-century ago, and when I took over the leader’s duties in 1999, I inherited the 2 a.m. start time. When the Y discontinued its walking tour after 9/11, I asked the Fraunces Tavern Museum (whose mission is to foster interest in the American Revolution in New York City) to permit me to continue it under their auspices and with the same hours.

You wouldn’t believe the number of participants who tell me that 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. is perfect for them because that is the only time they have nothing else scheduled. More important, however, is the fact that Lower Manhattan’s revolutionary past is more easily accessible at that time. With the city’s sodium -vapor lamps, there are no problems seeing monuments and statues that are obscured by traffic and pedestrians during the day. . . .

For tickets to the walking tour, call the Fraunces Tavern Museum at 212-425-1778 or visit the museum’s website at www.frauncestavernmuseum.org.

To read the full article online, click here or visit www.wsj.com. For a pdf version, click this link: Early American History.