It is a matter of undoubted record that these, and half a hundred other young men, whose names were to become synonymous with freedom, discussed at the Rising Sun Tavern the topics of the day, chief among which was the rights of the colonist. The fiery Irishman, George Weedon, arranged and organized conferences and wrote numerous letters, and long before men had ceased to respect the English king, he was bold enough to propose for the first time the toast, “May the Rose grow and the Thistle flourish, and may the Harp be attuned to the cause of American liberty,” thus expressing his desire that his native land, and Scotland, should aid America. And he was not disappointed, for afterwards he would say that he was “ever proud that besides himself, America had for generals such Irishmen as ‘Mad Anthony’ Wayne, Sullivan, Moylan and Irvine.”
In these talks at the Rising Sun, where sometimes the great men of the time met night after night, those principles that went in the Bill of Rights of Virginia—were fully discussed before freedom from England was demanded; and here, where gathered lawyers and planters and men of profession, many of them members of the House of Burgesses, there must have been conceived a great many principles that afterwards went to make the Constitution. This was the true “cradle” of American liberty.
John Paul Jones when only thirteen years old, heard the first discussion of such things, probably, when he called at the tavern post-office for mail for his brother, William Paul, who kept a tailor shop and grocery.
First “Rebellions” Troops
When Lord Dunmore seized the powder at Williamsburg in 1775, the first troops organized in Virginia to fight against the authority of the king, started from Fredericksburg. It seems certain that the plans were made at the Rising Sun Tavern, and George Weedon was the leading spirit. Hugh Mercer was elected colonel, Mordecai Buckner, lieutenant-colonel, and Robert Johnson, major.
But the apex of the tavern’s glory was reached when the great peace ball was held officially to celebrate the end of the war, and Washington led the minuet in the Fredericksburg town hall. Of those who came, tradition says, none failed to visit General Weedon’s tavern, though the genial Irishman was now about to leave it and move into the home left without a head when General Mercer fell.
Rising Sun Tavern
Where the Great Men of Pre-Revolution Days Gathered, and Freedom Was Discussed
Among those who came to Fredericksburg and were at some time guests at the famous old inn, besides those named were Brigadier General Stephen Moylan, another Irishman who served as Washington’s aide, as commissary general and as commander of troops at Yorktown; Brigadier-General Irvine, Irish too, and here at Weedon’s insistence; Count Beaumarchais, author of the “Barber of Seville” and general in the American army; the Marquis de Lafayette, the Viscounts d’Nouvalles, Count d’Estang, Baron Viominel, and many others.
Beautiful Colonial Belles