Gazette of the United States
Unmasking the Hidden Authors and the Mysterious Deaths of the Early Republic
The Republicus Mission Goes Anonymous on July 3, 1776, to Warn New York and New Jersey to Bear Arms and "Gird" for the British Invasion
After publishing the "Republicus" letter on June 29, 1776, Thomas Paine left Philadelphia on the King's Highway to meet with General George Washington, John Anderson, and John Holt, in New York.
By Michael Chamberlin and Patricia Blum
July 22, 2026 at 5:20 PM
On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was printed as a broadside, by printer John Dunlap. But should the fourth of July have been designated "Independence Day" for the United States of America? [1]
Not according to John Adams, who was there, and had written about it in his famous letter to his wife Abigail, just the day before, on July the 3rd. Adams tells Abigail that the "Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America." [2]
Who do we think tasked Paine with this super-secret mission to New York? We believe that it was a collaborative effort between John Hancock, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams.
Hancock was the President of Congress, and it is unlikely that this mission was kept secret from him.
Franklin was the Postmaster General, with a network of mail riders and stables that allowed for one day dispatch delivery between Philadelphia and New York.
Adams, as Chairman of the Board of War and Ordinance, was tasked, by Congress, with these responsibilities:
Track Personnel & Officer Roster: Compile and maintain a master registry of all Continental Army officers, checking troop returns and documenting active enlistments.
Manage All Military Supplies: Oversee the purchase and distribution of all provisions, ranging from clothing, food, and horses to artillery, guns, and ammunition.
Direct Prisoners of War: Dictate policies for the treatment, placement, security, and potential exchanges of captured British troops.
Supervise Public Monies: Manage the funding, army pay for soldiers, and audit accounts to ensure funds transmitted by Congress for public service were accurately distributed.
Secure & Forward Intelligence: Function as the central communications hub for forwarding all official dispatches and records from Congress to colonies and various field armies.[3]
Adams was clearly holding the weight of the nation on his shoulders. Keep that highlighted task in the back of your mind, as we explore what Adams was facing.
It was Adams' responsibility to keep the Army volunteers armed, disciplined, fed, and warm. Along with that, he had to try to keep their ordinance levels stocked. They would need lead – tons of it – thousands of tons of it.
Paine must have written that first Republicus letter on the evening of June 28th, or the morning of the 29th, for Benjamin Towne to be able to set the type for his June 29th issue.
On Monday, July 1, 1776, John Hancock received a dispatch from General Washington in New York, dated the 29th of June. It had been written on the same day that the Republicus letter appeared in Towne's, Pennsylvania Evening Post.
Washington described the situation as urgent, and warned Congress that British ships were anchoring in the Lower Bay between New York and New Jersey, writing:
For two or three days past, three or four Ships have been dropping in, & I just now received an Express from an Officer appointed to keep a look out on Staten Island, that forty five arrived at the Hook to day—some say more and I suppose the whole Fleet will be in, within a day or two.[4]
Hancock had Washington's dispatch read to Congress on the night of July 1, 1776. Congress, and the Board of War, led by Adams, had to be absolutely panicked that night.
Congress, and the Board of War, led by Adams, had to be absolutely panicked that day.
The Declaration of Independence would not be ready for passage, printing, and the mail rider network, for several days, and this call to action could not afford to be delayed.
But who could they send to New York, to convince the New York printing network, that it was time to tell every able bodied person to arm themselves?
There was only one obvious answer: the author of Common Sense. Paine was as good a horseman as your typical mail courier; his bestselling pamphlet was the talk of the nation; and he was being a pain in neck when it came to forming a governmental framework for the new nation.
Handing Paine Hancock's June 30th dispatch, Adams likely said something like,
To save this Republic, the patriots of New York must arm themselves. Write a new call to action and ride it down the King's Highway to Anderson and Holt. You are the only person in this country that they would put on their front pages without batting an eye. And, here, take these dispatches to General Washington. God Speed!
For Paine, it was both an incredible challenge, and the excellent opportunity that he had been seeking. We will explain his opportunity further in our next number.
Paine could easily have been on a fast horse, headed east, on the King's Highway, before dawn on June 30, 1776.
So, if Adams sent Paine on this super-secret mission, where does Paine surface next? He pops back to the surface on July 2, 1776, the same day Congress voted to pass the Declaration of Independence.
Think about it. If Paine had been in Philadelphia on the 2nd, wouldn't we have seen a fiery piece from him about the Declaration's passage? Not so much as a peep. Not in the Philadelphia papers.
Why are we so convinced that Paine was at John Anderson's print shop on June 2, 1776? Because on June 3, 1776, the front page contained this letter "To the PRINTER," taking up more than half of the front page.
Read the letter. It sounds exactly like Paine. And it perfectly explains Paine's silence, in the Philadelphia newspapers, beginning on June 30th, and lasting through July 13th. A transcription appears below the image.
![Constitutional_Gazette_1776-07-03_[1].png](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/2bcc48_a3edf191a494405fbe765d2cc8209c8d~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_49,h_60,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,blur_2,enc_avif,quality_auto/Constitutional_Gazette_1776-07-03_%5B1%5D.png)
To the PRINTER.
THE whole strength of the Britain and her allies is now employed in the destruction of America. Fleets and armies, and every engine of fraud and violence, that sophistry of hell can invent, are prepared to execute the horrid plan. The work is already begun, and in a few days will unfold the infernal design, to the weakest fight. The ____ of England delights in blood, yea, thirsteth for the blood of America. Hessians, Hanoverians, Brunswickers, Canadians, Indians, Negroes, Regulars, and Tores are invited to the carnage. This is no fiction, but an awful reality, not the production of delirium, but substantial matter of fact. The tyrant of Britain[5] hath sold himself to work wickedness, and the blood of a Naboth must be shed that the vineyard may be peaceably possessed.[6] The plan is ripe for execution and begin to operate. Lift up your eyes, my countrymen, see destruction, like a flood, pouring in upon you from every quarter, even from the north and the south, and from the east and the west. The decree is gone forth, and as sure as you now exist, death is the portion of all that Britain can overcome. Rouse up therefore, and arm yourselves for the encounter, gird on the harness and let him that hath no sword sell his garment and buy one. Remember that the salvation of your country depends on your present exertion; and that this summer will decide the fate of America. Don't boggle at the expence when your all is at stake, if we conquer the vant lands and confiscations will abundantly repay the expence of the war, and if we are overcome our all is gone, and it matters not how much we expend in the contest. [7] Let us therefore give every encouragement to those who go forth to battle and jeopardy their lives in the high places of the field, being assured, that the ardor of the soldiery is suppressed the cause will inevitably sick, and that he who, at the season, cavils at the charge, and wastes the precious time in the harangues, on trivial matters, betrays a very weak or wicked mind, and like Nero, would have fiddled while Rome was burning.
What is our proof that Paine was in John Anderson's office, in New York, on July 2nd or 3rd, 1776? Glad you asked. This was just the tip of the evidence iceberg. Our next number will contain the crucial piece of literary evidence that ties this essay to the pen of Thomas Paine. Zero doubt.
Before reading the next essay in our Republicus series, it would probably do the scholar well, to read, or revisit the evidence that proves Thomas Paine authored the play, The Fall of British Tyranny. We presented that unassailable mountain of evidence, in the Preface of our website.
[1] III. Jefferson’s “original Rough draught” of the Declaration of Independence, 11 June–4 July 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-01-02-0176-0004. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 1, 1760–1776, ed. Julian P. Boyd. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950, pp. 423–428.]
[2] John Adams to Abigail Adams, 3 July 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-02-02-0016. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Adams Family Correspondence, vol. 2, June 1776 – March 1778, ed. L. H. Butterfield. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963, pp. 29–33.]
[3] “Board of War to George Washington, 21 June 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-05-02-0034. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 5, 16 June 1776 – 12 August 1776, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1993, pp. 62–63.]
[4] “George Washington to John Hancock, 29 June 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-05-02-0098. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 5, 16 June 1776 – 12 August 1776, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1993, pp. 147–149.]
[5] [Editor's note: Paine explicitly refers to King George III as "The tyrant of Britain." This echoes Common Sense, where he famously stripped away the divine right of kings to call George the "Royal Brute of Great Britain."]
[6] [Editor's note: Framing King George III as "Ahab" stealing America (the vineyard) and spilling the blood of "Naboth" (the colonists) fits his established polemical strategy perfectly. By bringing that specific phrase to the front page of John Anderson's paper on July 3, Paine was signaling to the inner circle of radical Whigs that George III had crossed the line from a bad ruler to an illegitimate tyrant who deserved Ahab's fate.
[7] [Editor's note: Anderson didn't just give half his front page to a good writer; he gave it to a master propagandist who knew how to turn a specific Old Testament murder into a national rallying cry for immediate armed revolution.]
