The first tree thus named was the great elm on Boston Common. M. C. L. of New York states that the first Liberty Pole was put up in N.Y. City, June 4, 1766, to celebrate the repeal of the Stamp Act. On it was a banner inscribed: “To his gracious Majesty George III., Mr. Pitt, and Liberty.” The pole was cut down four times by the British soldiers; but the fifth pole remained until the occupation of the City in 1776.—Notes and Queries, 10 S. xii. 371 (1909).
1766. In the morning there was a Stage erected under Liberty Tree, having two Effigies thereon, one of them representing B—e, dressed in Plaid, the other a representation of G—e; over them a Gallows, on which appeared the D—l handing a S—p A—t to B—e, and uttering these words, Force it: to which he replied, We can’t do it; but G—e says, But we will force it on the rebels.—Boston Evening Post, Feb. 24. [The passage is illustrated with a curious woodcut,—the Devil on the top of a Gallows, to which Bute and Grenville are chained, handing them a copy of the Stamp Act.]
1766. There was a great festival at the Liberty Elm on the occasion of the repeal of the Stamp Act.—A full account, id., May 26.
1770. A number of [the Inhabitants] assembled last night at Liberty Pole [in New York].—Mass. Gazette, Jan. 15.
1770. We are all in confusion in [New York]. The Soldiers have cut and blowed up the Liberty Pole.—Id., Feb. 1.
1775. Enquire of Adam Collson, a little to the southward of the Liberty Tree.—Advt., Boston Evening Post, Jan. 23.
1775. A song on the Liberty Tree, dated Phila., Sept. 16, occurs in the American Museum, vi. 332 (1789). It is 32 lines long, and commences, “In a chariot of light from the regions of day.”
1776. “The Soliloquy of the Boston Tree of Liberty, as they were cutting it down,” written on the British side, was printed in the Boston News-Letter, March 8: see J. T. Buckingham, ‘Specimens of Newspaper Literature,’ i. 38–41 (1850).
1785. [These lines] were inscribed upon a Liberty Pole, when Liberty Poles were in fashion, in a certain town.—Mass. Spy, Oct. 13.
1793. The people destroyed the monument erected by the Jacobin Club, and, transporting the fragments of it to the foot of the tree of liberty, set the whole on fire. [This was in Europe.]—Gazette of the U.S., May 22.
1795. A new Tree of Liberty, decorated in the most elegant manner, and crowned with the cap of liberty, was planted before the Town House [at Amsterdam].—Id., April 2.
1798. The erecting “poles of faction, falsely styled liberty poles, must be attributed to designing men.”—Id., Aug. 1.
1798. A parcel of Democrats, who have met in different parts and raised Liberty Poles.—The Aurora, Phila., Aug. 13.
1798. A vagabond Irishman or Scotchman, in the 3rd parish of Dedman [Dedham?] has stirred up a few people to erect a liberty pole.—Gazette of the U.S., Nov. 8.
1798. The Sedition Pole, recently erected [by French sympathizers] in Vassalborough,… was hewed in pieces by Capt. James Bracket and his company].—Id., Dec. 17.
1799. Lines on the Hackensack New-Raised Liberty Pole.—The Aurora, March 30: from the N.Y. Argus.
1799. These adventure hunting cannibals ventured only to about eighty steps within the well guarded Liberty Tree.—Id., May 13.
1799. The planting of these trees being copied in Europe, one was set up at Coire, May 12.—Id., June 1.
1799. Benjamin Fairbanks was indicted for the publication of a Libel affixed to the Pole at Dedham: he being one of the persons who assisted in erecting that symbol of sedition.—Mass. Mercury, June 21.
a. 1838. The Boston Post says, that an editor down east, in speaking of his own merits, thus concludes:—
“I’m a real catastrophe—a small creation; Mount Vesuvius at the top, with red hot lava pouring out of the crater, and routing nations—my fists are rocky mountains—arms Whig-liberty poles, with iron springs. Every step I take is an earthquake—every blow I strike is a clap of thunder—and every breath I breathe is a tornado—my disposition is Dupont’s best, and goes off at a flash—when I blast, there’ll be nothing left but a hole three feet in circumference, and no end to its depth.”—J. S. Buckingham, ‘America,’ i. 228 (1841).
a. 1848. He might as well undertake to climb a greased liberty pole with cowhide boots and buckskin mittens.—Dow, Jun., ‘Patent Sermons,’ i. 132.
1857. He would … sway backward and forward like a loose ‘liberty-pole’ in a gale of wind.—Knick. Mag., xlix. 100 (Jan.).
