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John Sullivan — news, coverage & facts — IJR

Career

Sullivan read law with Samuel Livermore of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, between 1758 and 1760. He began the practice of law in 1763 at Berwick, now in Maine, and continued in the practice when he moved to Durham, New Hampshire, in 1764. He annoyed many neighbors in his early career, when he was the only lawyer in town, with numerous suits over foreclosures and was threatened with violence at least twice in 1766. But by 1772, he was firmly established and began work to improve his relations with the community. He also expanded his interests into milling from which he made a substantial income. In 1773, Alexander Scammell joined Sullivan's law practice.

Sullivan built a friendship with the royal governor of New Hampshire, John Wentworth, who had assumed the office in 1767. In November 1772, Wentworth appointed Sullivan a major in the militia. As the American Revolution grew nearer, Sullivan turned away from Wentworth and began to side more with the Patriots. On May 28, 1773, at the urging of the Virginia House of Burgesses, the New Hampshire Assembly established a committee of correspondence. Hoping to thwart the committee, Wentworth adjourned the Assembly the next day.

On December 16, 1773, colonists in Massachusetts destroyed tea worth 15,000 pounds at the Boston Tea Party to protest taxes under the Tea Act. The British Parliament responded with the Boston Port Act, effective March 21, 1774, which closed the Port of Boston until restitution for the destroyed tea was made to the East India Company. Parliament went on to pass the Massachusetts Government Act, which removed many functions of government from local control, the Quartering Act, which permitted quartering of troops in towns where there was disorder, and the Quebec Act, which established the Catholic religion and French civil law in that province.

Wentworth called a new Assembly, which began meeting on April 7, 1774. On May 13, news of the Boston Port Act reached the Assembly. On May 27, the Assembly provided for only five men and an officer to guard Fort William and Mary at Portsmouth harbor. A new committee of correspondence was selected the next day. By the time Wentworth dissolved the Assembly on June 8, in an unsuccessful effort to prevent the Assembly from sending delegates to a Continental Congress, Sullivan was firmly in favor of supporting the Massachusetts Patriots.

Political and military actions (1774–1775)

In response to Wentworth's action dismissing the Assembly and the call for a Continental Congress to support Boston after the British sanctions against it, on July 21, 1774, the first Provincial Congress of New Hampshire met at Exeter, with Sullivan as Durham's delegate. The assembly sent him and Nathaniel Folsom as delegates to the First Continental Congress. The assembly adopted a Declaration of Rights and Grievances on October 14, 1774. By November 8, Sullivan and Folsom were back in New Hampshire to work for acceptance of the Declaration and the Association of the colonies to support economic measures to achieve their objectives.

On October 19, 1774, a royal order in council prohibited the export of powder and arms to America, and Lord Dartmouth secretly wrote to the colonial governors to secure gunpowder, arms and ammunition in the provinces. After Paul Revere was sent by the Massachusetts committee to warn the Portsmouth militia of a rumored British movement toward Fort William and Mary, the militia raided the fort and seized gunpowder on December 14. Sullivan led another militia force on a second raid on December 15, taking 16 cannon, about 60 muskets and other stores. They were prevented from returning for other cannon and supplies by the arrival of the man-of-war Canceaux, followed two days later by the frigate Scarborough. Wentworth refrained from seeking to arrest Sullivan and others because he thought he had little popular support and the militia would not act.

In January 1775, a second Provincial Congress at Exeter voted to send Sullivan and John Langdon to the Second Continental Congress. Sullivan, supported by Folsom and Langdon, persuaded the assembly to petition Wentworth to call a New Hampshire Assembly that he would not dissolve. Wentworth responded by dismissing Sullivan from the militia and further postponing the meeting of the assembly. Since Wentworth believed he had little power to arrest Sullivan and other leaders of the extra–legal assembly, Sullivan and Langdon started traveling to Philadelphia. Upon arrival in Philadelphia, Sullivan joined those who argued that war had been started by the actions at the Battles of Lexington and Concord and that the colonies should proceed with it.

Congress soon decided that it must take charge of the army forming around Boston. It appointed George Washington as commander in chief and several other generals, including Sullivan as a brigadier general. On June 27, 1775, Sullivan left Philadelphia to join the army at the siege of Boston.

Congress

At home Sullivan was seen as a hero. The New Hampshire legislature selected him as a delegate to the Continental Congress for one year to start in November 1780, against his wishes. Although most of the delegates to Congress were new, Sullivan still had opponents there. Nonetheless, he accepted the position in order that New Hampshire be represented in the controversy concerning claims to Vermont under the New Hampshire Grants. In the absence of other delegates from New Hampshire except the soon to depart Nathaniel Folsom, Sullivan was seated early, on September 11, 1780. Immediately, Sullivan and Folsom had to deal with the question of whether Vermont would be part of New York or New Hampshire or would be independent. Ultimately, since possible negotiation of Vermont with the British to become a part of Canada was threatened, on August 3, 1781, Sullivan seconded appointment of a committee to negotiate with Vermont on becoming a separate state.

Congress also had to deal with a financial crisis since the treasury was empty and the Confederation's credit was poor. Sullivan served on a committee to deal with this problem. In late 1780 or early 1781, Sullivan, who often claimed to be in financial straits, borrowed money from the French minister to Congress, probably with no intent or expectation of repayment. Sullivan already supported positions favorable to the French in Congress, but historian Charles Whittemore describes Sullivan's conduct as "ethically obtuse" and as tarnishing his reputation. Yet, Sullivan worked to help the country and government on several matters such as seeking French financial support for the United States.

Later in the year, Sullivan worked to get people appointed as peace negotiators, especially Benjamin Franklin, who were favored by the French because they might not insist on western land claims and thereby help shorten the war by eliminating that issue. Of course, Sullivan alone could not have attained results on such matters without majority support. One of Sullivan's last acts was to vote for Robert Livingston for appointment to the position of United States Secretary of Foreign Affairs. Having been seated early, and having dealt with the matters he believed he was required to deal with, Sullivan resigned from the Congress and departed from Philadelphia on August 11, 1781, a month before the expiration of a one-year term from the date he was seated.