Patriots and Loyalists
On the 250th anniversary of the start of the American Revolution, ask yourself on which side you would have fought.
June 14, 2025 - No Kings Day
No Kings Day was a nationwide day of defiance. Thousands of joyful protests in all 50 states and US territories opposed the Trump administration’s policies and denounced corruption, authoritarianism, and militarization.1
June 14 is Flag Day
According to legend, Betsy Ross sewed the first American flag in June of 1776. General Washington, Robert Morris, and John Ross showed her a rough design that included six-pointed stars. She suggested a five-point star because it was easier to make.2
On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress passed a resolution adopting an official flag for the Colonial forces of the United States. It contained no drawings or illustrations of what the flag should look like, just these words.
“Resolved, That the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a field of blue, representing a new Constellation.”
This led to a wide interpretation by those sewing flags. Although hundreds of flags were made, no two were exactly alike.
Betsy Ross Flag (1776)
Hopkinson Flag (~1777)
Bennington Flag (1777)
Official Navy Flag (1777-1795)
The Patriots
We are celebrating the 250th anniversary of the start of the American Revolution against the British monarchy. On April 18, 1775 Paul Revere and William Dawes made their historic rides to alert the Minutemen that the British army had left Boston to seize the colonists’ supplies and munitions at Lexington and Concord.3
On June 14, 1775, the Second Continental Congress approved the formation of the Continental Army. The legislation placed the militia forces that were fighting outside Boston under federal control. June 14 is celebrated as the founding of the U.S. Army.4
The patriots included members of every social and ethnic group in the colonies.5
The Loyalists
We learned about the Revolution as school children and admired the Patriots who sacrificed and fought for independence and freedom. We did not hear about the Loyalists, the American colonists who wanted to remain under the rule of the king across the Atlantic Ocean. Now the Loyalists are largely forgotten, perhaps like a bad family scandal.
Historian Robert Calhoon wrote about the proportions of Loyalists and Patriots in the Thirteen Colonies. “Historians' best estimates put the proportion of adult white male loyalists somewhere between 15 and 20 percent. Approximately half the colonists of European ancestry tried to avoid involvement in the struggle—some of them deliberate pacifists, others recent immigrants, and many more simple apolitical folk. The patriots received active support from perhaps 40 to 45 percent of the white populace, and at most no more than a bare majority.”6
Some Loyalists took up arms to fight the Continental Army and militias. Benjamin Franklin’s son William, who was the last colonial governor of New Jersey, was a steadfast Loyalist who organized military units to fight for the British cause.7
We know where we stand now. Where would we have stood in 1775?
When we think about the American Revolution and other past struggles for freedom and democracy, we like to think that we would have been on the right side of history had we been present during those times. It is apparent that many of our elected Representatives and Senators and their supporters would have been Loyalists, just as allegiant to King George then as they are to Donald Trump now. Representative Mike Lawler (NY-17) is among them.
Robert M. Calhoon, “Loyalism and Neutrality,” Chapter 29 in A Companion to the American Revolution