On this date, September 9, exactly 250 years ago, the Continental Congress officially adopted the name “United States,” rejecting the label of “United Colonies” and thus solidifying the independence movement.
We are so accustomed after two and a half centuries to living in the U.S. that we forget what a massive step it was for the Patriot colonists to stop calling themselves colonists and adopt a new national identity. When the Revolution began, even many Patriots — who were a minority in the colonies — were not sure if they were fighting for independence or for greater recognition of English subjects' rights. What's in a name? A great deal, when colonial "rebels" are using a name to announce the foundation of a new nation.
Great Hearts Institute explains that Sept. 9, 1776, was a busy day for the Continental Congress, from petitions to military payments to committee creations. But the most important of all was the vote on the resolution below:
Resolved, That in all continental commissions, and other instruments, where, heretofore, the words “United Colonies” have been used, the stile [sic] be altered, for the future, to the “United States.”
We don't know for certain who invented the title, although we do know who used it first in a written document. At the very beginning of this year, on January 2, I marked the 250th anniversary of the first recorded use of the name "United States of America." Stephen Moylan, an Irish immigrant who became an enthusiastic Patriot and trusted aide of George Washington, earned himself the unofficial title of the man who named the U.S. by referring to the "United States of America" earlier than anyone else, so far as we know.
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On Christmas Day 1775, Moylan wrote an official document with the term "United Colonies." On New Year's Day 1776, Gen. George Washington raised the Grand Union Flag — the first distinctly American flag — on Prospect Hill. The next day, Moylan wrote to his friend Joseph Reed, "I should vastly like to go with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain." Between Christmas and New Year's, something had changed. Months before the Declaration of Independence, the men fighting the British in the field knew they were struggling for their own nation, not just colonial privileges. By July 1776, the Continental Congress approved a Declaration "of the thirteen united States of America." That style of writing "united" with a small "u" showed up numerous times until September of that year, as it seems the Congress was using "united" as a descriptive adjective rather than as part of a title.
And it was not until September 1776 that the Congress decided to reject the term "United Colonies" officially and permanently, while consistently capitalizing "United." Most of the Patriots and Founders were religious and all of them were familiar with the Bible, so they knew how a person's name or title change in Scripture could herald a new mission. Thus, for instance, Abram and Sarai become Abraham and Sarah, Jacob becomes Israel, Simon becomes Peter, and Mary is addressed as Kecharitomene (Luke 1:28), often rendered "full of grace." Likewise, the Founding Fathers understood that every time they established a new name or title either for their coalition of colonies or for individual officials, they were marking a new era and a new mission.
The United Colonies were just one coalition of rebels in a vast British Empire that spanned the globe. But the United States of America was a fledgling nation with a unique identity and political aspirations, founded on liberty, and about to change world history.
Editor's Note: President Trump is fighting to renew America in this 250th birthday year.
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