“Victory or Death” ~ George Washington’s 1776 Christmas Day Message

Reviewing Richard Hanser’s The Glorious Hour of Lt. Monroe (1976) for its revolutionary zeal, a new essay by Bryan W. Brickner finds traces of such spirit in General Washington and a lieutenant named Monroe. Brickner has a 1997 political science doctorate from Purdue University and is the author of several political theory books, to include The Promise Keepers (1999), Article the first of the Bill of Rights (2006), and The Book of the Is (2013).

Brickner notes in the posting, “‘Victory or Death’ ~ George Washington’s 1776 Christmas Day Message,” that Washington and the Continental Army: “spent Christmas in preparation and anticipation of the next day’s assault.”

On 26 December 1776, after crossing the icy Delaware River, the Continental Army attacked the British camp in Trenton: the battle became a turning point for the early rebellion.

Richard Hanser (1909-81) was a Peabody Award winner and newspaper and television writer; his NY Times obituary notes he joined NBC after World War II and collaborated in writing “Victory at Sea,” a naval history of the war.

“Hanser was a talent,” offered Brickner, “and I had thought the story of Trenton was fairly well-known – until reviewing his book. Hanser, in his Lt. Monroe’s 1776 – from Williamsburg, Virginia to Trenton, New Jersey via New York – showcases an awake teenage spirit: our Lt. Monroe is an 18 year-old … revolutionary.”

The Bryan William Brickner Blog is a collection of published works and press coverage and an ongoing resource for the political science of constitutions and the biological science of cannabinoids.