55. Washington, The Mad King (George III) & Newenham - Part II
As per the previous post that had ties to "Hamilton" the musical, new information or should I say a new perspective, has been found, about Sir Edward Newenham's dealings in Politics. Many of these blogs have very similar tie-ins to each other, but with Newenham & his vast communications, whilst the blog post may sound the same, they have different aspects or different points of view to them.
On many occasions, that I researched in the past few years, I just couldn't find the story on why Newenham was the way he was. He was chanting & raving on one hand, but quite the opposite on the other hand.
"Hamilton" the musical, helped visualise the dealings with people at that time. In particular, the "Mad King" George III & the way he dealt with the American Independence (Separation from England).
Newenham was part of the political "Irish Patriot Party" culture of the mid to late 1700's.
At first, I didn't understand the Party's mantra, but it is explained easily by "wikipedia" :
"primarily supportive of Whig concepts of personal liberty combined with an Irish identity that rejected full independence, but advocated strong self-government within the British Empire".
James Kelly's book on Newenham & various sources easily attainable, show that Newenham was going a little bit more than just "wanting Ireland to self govern under English rule". He was advocating instances of wanting to separate England & Ireland, in a somewhat political way. But in understanding this, Newenham was a bit more vocal about it, in particular with total separation, than his Patriot Party was willing to go along with, particularly from the very late 1770s & 1780's on.
It was here I understood, that Newenham most possibly was in the wrong Political Party, because Grattan & Flood, were all about "Irish identity" & did not take the view of becoming fully independent from England, they seemed to quash any sort of full independent talks - it was only done in a political/legislative way.
Newenham was quite outspoken & went a bit further outside his Party's mantra, whereby it seems that he was the only one doing the talking, some felt he was "silly" when he spoke outside his party's views. I felt that he had become separated from his fellow party members, because no-one backed him up or atleast showed interest in it. His party stood their ground & Newenham his. As I noted in the previous post, this type of rhetoric was picked by John Adams & Marquis Lafayette, who made commentary on Newenham's motives. James Kelly highlights that Lafayette did offer a base of substance by saying that King George's "tyrannical" ruling did offer such a response from Newenham's views, but the Irish revolution for Independency "was not ripe" to be had. The irony of Lafayette's wording, was just a few years before, the events of '98.
It was around the time of 1780-1783, that I believe the "knight in shining amour" had arrived & inspired a vision for Newenham.
It was George Washington - Chief Commander of the Continental Army & his big white valiant horse named "Independence".
Newenham was all over George, like a rock band groupie of the 1960's. He wrote very spirited letters of gratitude / daily life / farming & poetry aimed at England's woes & America's rising up to be a superpower. When Washington responded to Newenham's letters, Newenham glowed like nuclear reactor on high, with nothing but admiration for the General. I suppose, "puppy love" at it's foremost part.
It was when I saw this style of friendship form, along with other Founding Fathers of America, I had seen a shift in how the British saw Newenham, on a personal level & political level.
Case in point, those who know the "Benedict Arnold / Major Peter Andre" affair, would also understand how the British would see an Irish MP who, communicates with American Founding Fathers showering them with glowing admiration, along with motives to separate Ireland from England.
As in the previous post, I noted that the Duke of Rutland noticed Newenham conversing with the Founding Fathers, in what could be claimed as "treasonous behaviour" against England. That is, "treasonous" being said from the English side, not the Irish. Rutland noted Newenham's correspondence & fowarded his views to William Pitt (Prime Minister). Pitt then told King George III & they placed Newenham on a watch list.
Newenham had also personally written to King George III & also was very vocal about when King George was "going mad", that a Prince Regent should be appointed in Ireland, whereby it would be in Ireland's favour to do so.
Next post will be about the Washington Letter to Newenham, discussing the "Montgomery Introduction" & the letter's ramifications 150-200 years later.
It's taken 10 years to get a story out of this 1 piece of paper & I feel that I've finally got to the deep core, of how this letter came about. The last few months has opened quite the deep story, something that I did not expect to find. Literally blew my mind.
