Item: i112972

Authentic Medal of:

United States of America
Bicentennial – Council of the Thirteen Original States – Richard Stockton
1972 Proof Silver Medal 38mm (32.00 grams) Sterling Silver
Reference: Franklin Mint
Richard Stockton facing 1/2 right in government building.
RICHARD STOCKTON LAWYER NEW JERSEY, Feather pen and ink well, signature below.
Edge Lettering:
OFFICIAL MEDAL OF THE BICENTENNIAL COUNCIL OF THE 13 ORIGINAL STATES 72 P STERLING

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The Thirteen American Colonies formed the United States of America in July 1776. Their groupings were: New England (New Hampshire; Massachusetts; Rhode Island; Connecticut); Middle (New York; New Jersey; Pennsylvania; Delaware); Southern (Maryland; Virginia; North Carolina; South Carolina; and Georgia).

Richard Stockton (October 1, 1730 – February 28, 1781) was an American Founding Father, lawyer, jurist, legislator, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Stockton served the college, afterwards known as Princeton University, as a trustee 26 years. In 1766 and 1767, he gave up his law practice for the purpose of visiting England, Scotland, and Ireland. His fame preceded him, and he was received by the most eminent men of the kingdom. Stockton had the honor of personally presenting to King George III an address of the trustees of the College of New Jersey, acknowledging the repeal of the Stamp Act, and his address was favorably received by the king. He was consulted on the state of American affairs by such notable men as the Marquess of Rockingham with whom he spent a week at his country estate. He met with Edmund Burke, the Earl of Chatham, and many other distinguished members of Parliament who were friendly to the American colonies.

In Scotland, his personal efforts resulted in the acceptance of the presidency of the college by the Reverend John Witherspoon. Witherspoon’s wife had opposed her husband’s taking the position, but her objections were overcome with the aid of his future son-in-law Benjamin Rush, who was a medical student in Edinburgh. This was an exceedingly important event in the history of higher education in America. One night in Edinburgh, Stockton was attacked by a robber and he defended himself skillfully with a small sword; the surprised and wounded robber fled.

Stockton returned to America in August 1767. In 1768, Stockton had his first taste of government service when he was elevated to a seat in the New Jersey Provincial Council; in 1774 he was appointed to the provincial New Jersey Supreme Court. In 1768 he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.

He first took a moderate stance in the troubles between the American colonies and Great Britain. In 1774 he drafted and sent to Lord Dartmouth “a plan of self-government for America, independent of Parliament, without renouncing the Crown.” This Commonwealth approach was not acceptable to the king. When Parliament resolved to raise revenue in the colonies in 1775, Stockton declared the colonies “must each of them send one or two of their most ingenious fellows, and enable them to get into the House of Commons, maintain them there till they can maintain themselves, or else we shall be fleeced to some purpose.”

In 1776, Stockton was elected to the Second Continental Congress, where he took a very active role. That August, when elections were held for the state governments of the new nation, Stockton and William Livingston each received the same number of votes to be the governor of New Jersey on the first ballot. Although Livingston later won the election by one vote, Stockton was unanimously elected to serve as the chief justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, but he turned down that position to remain in Congress. Stockton was the first person from New Jersey to sign the Declaration of Independence.

Stockton was sent by Congress, along with fellow signer George Clymer, on an exhausting two-month journey to Fort Ticonderoga in New York to assist the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War. On his return to Princeton, he traveled 30 miles east to the home of a friend, John Covenhoven, to evacuate his family to safety. While there, on November 30, 1776, he and Covenhoven were captured in the middle of the night, dragged from their beds by Loyalists, stripped of their property and marched to Perth Amboy and turned over to the British. The day Stockton was captured, General William Howe had written a proclamation offering protection papers and a full and free pardon to those willing to remain in peaceable obedience to the king. As many took the pardon, Stockton eventually did but first was placed in irons and treated as a criminal.

He was then moved to Provost Prison in New York, where he was intentionally starved and subjected to freezing cold weather. After nearly five weeks of brutal treatment, Stockton was released on parole, his health ruined. His estate, Morven, in Princeton was occupied by General Charles Cornwallis during Stockton’s imprisonment. American historian William Stryker had written that “Morven home of the Hon. Richard Stockton, was denuded of its library and furniture.” Stockton’s treatment in the New York prisons prompted the Continental Congress to pass a resolution directing General George Washington to inquire into the circumstances; not long afterward, Stockton was paroled on January 13, 1777. The U.S. National Archives contains other messages showing that Washington duly contacted General Howe in New York regarding the exchange or release of Stockton and others.

Dr. Benjamin Rush wrote, “At Princeton I met my wife’s father who had been plundered of all his household furniture and stock by the British army, and carried a prisoner to New York, from whence he was permitted to return to his family upon parole.” Howe’s document that Stockton signed, giving his word of honor not to meddle in the American affairs during the war, was the parole Dr. Rush said Stockton was given when he was released from prison in New York. On March 25, 1777, General Howe and his brother Lord Howe wrote to Lord George Germain, secretary of state for the Colonies, “My Lord, We have the honor to enclose to your Lordship a state of the Declarations subscribed in consequence of our Proclamation of the 30th of November. ‘Although none of the Leaders, nor principal Instigators and Abettors of the Rebellion, thought fit to avail themselves of the opportunity given them to return to their Duty’, we have some satisfaction in observing that so considerable a number of His Majesty’s deluded Subjects, of inferior Rank, in those Provinces where the Proclamation could be expect to have Effect, were disposed to relinquish the unjust Cause they had been once induced to support.” 4,836 declarations were subscribed but Stockton, as a Signer of the Declaration of Independence and a leading rebel, never did, according to General Howe.

In 1777, all members of Congress and Washington’s Continental Army were required to take the oath of allegiance to the United States. Stockton as a prisoner of war and taken behind enemy lines was also required to take the oath. He was called before the Board, took the oath and was dismissed. Stockton did not turn in any protection papers as was required if one signed Howe’s proclamation and were given a pardon. Because of the parole document Stockton signed with General Howe to gain his freedom, and giving his word of honor not to meddle in the war (required to be given a parole), Stockton resigned from Congress. It took nearly two years to regain his health, according to Dr. Rush. ^] In Princeton a rumor started by Mr. Cochran, a Tory, claiming Stockton had taken General Howe’s protection, caused Stockton to be spoken against for a short time, but “Mr. Cochran’s known quarrel with him makes it very doubtful to candid persons,” Rev. John Witherspoon wrote in a letter to his son David. “Common report, moreover, may be attributed to Judge Stockton some of the exploits of a distant cousin, Major Richard Stockton an obnoxious Tory, who did take Howe’s protection and went over to the British until he was captured in Feb. 1777.” The Major Richard Stockton referenced was, in fact, the first cousin of Richard “the Signer” Stockton, Major Richard Witham Stockton of Princeton, New Jersey, a commissioned officer in the British Army. Major Richard Witham Stockton remained loyal to the crown, and at the conclusion of hostilities, emigrated, along with members of his family and other United Empire Loyalist, to what would become New Brunswick, Canada.

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles (9.8 million km²), the United States is the world’s third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe’s 3.9 million square miles (10.1 million km²). With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital’s federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world’s 17 megadiverse countries.

Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the North American mainland at least 12,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century. The United States emerged from the thirteen British colonies established along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies following the French and Indian War led to the American Revolution, which began in 1775, and the subsequent Declaration of Independence in 1776. The war ended in 1783 with the United States becoming the first country to gain independence from a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, with the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, being ratified in 1791 to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. The United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century, acquiring new territories, displacing Native American tribes, and gradually admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848.

During the second half of the 19th century, the Civil War led to the abolition of slavery. By the end of the century, the United States had extended into the Pacific Ocean, and its economy, driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution, began to soar. The Spanish-American War and World War I confirmed the country’s status as a global military power. The United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. The Rights Acts of 1964, 1965 and 1968 outlaws discrimination based on race or color. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in the Space Race, culminating with the 1969 U.S. Moon landing. The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the world’s sole superpower.

The United States is the world’s oldest surviving federation. It is a federal republic and a representative democracy. The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States (OAS), and other international organizations. The United States is a highly developed country, with the world’s largest economy by nominal GDP and second-largest economy by PPP, accounting for approximately a quarter of global GDP. The U.S. economy is largely post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge-based activities, although the manufacturing sector remains the second-largest in the world. The United States is the world’s largest importer and the second largest exporter of goods, by value. Although its population is only 4.3% of the world total, the U.S. holds 31% of the total wealth in the world, the largest share of global wealth concentrated in a single country.

Despite wide income and wealth disparities, the United States continues to rank very high in measures of socioeconomic performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP, and worker productivity. The United States is the foremost military power in the world, making up a third of global military spending, and is a leading political, cultural, and scientific force internationally.