Untold Stories: Stephen Moylan, the Irish-American Who Named the U.S.

“I should like vastly to go with full and ample powers from the United States of America.” —Stephen Moylan

Moylan, from Ireland Calling

There are so many inspiring, beautiful stories about the great heroes of American history which are scarcely ever told. One happens on them accidentally—buried in a thick, out-of-print biography, in small print on a museum sign, casually and fleetingly mentioned in an obscure educational video. America cannot return to greatness in the future if we do not truly understand the greatness of our past. That is why I am writing an article series to tell a few of these little-known but moving or illustrative “untold stories” of American greatness. Previous articles in this series include John Fitzgerald, Irishman, Revolutionary, and friend of George Washington; how the citizens of Greencastle, PA, saved their fellow black Pennsylvanians from Confederate enslavers; Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, the first Native American Indian university graduate; heroes of the Vietnam War; and local, little-known heroes who remind us that we have always been a nation of heroes.

On this day in 1776, March 7, George Washington made a man named Stephen Moylan his aide-de-camp and a lieutenant colonel in the Continental Army. Moylan went on to serve various roles in the Revolutionary Army, from quartermaster general to commander of a dragoon regiment to head of cavalry to brigadier general. But what makes this Irish Catholic immigrant so important in the history of the United States is that Moylan is the first person on record to use the term “United States of America,” in a Jan. 2, 1776, letter from Washington’s headquarters.

The New England Historical Society explains:

“On Jan. 1, 1776, Washington paraded the newly reorganized Continental Army in Charlestown, now Somerville. He raised the first American flag, called the Grand Union Flag, on Prospect Hill. It had 13 stripes, though it didn’t have stars yet – just the crosses of England and Scotland in the canton. Some people call that New Year’s Day flag-raising the first real Declaration of Independence.

The next day, Moylan wrote a letter to his friend Joseph Reed. He thought the colonies could use an ambassador to Spain. He knew the country and thought he could do the job. And so he wrote to Reed in Philadelphia.

‘I should like vastly to go with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain.’”

No one has yet found an earlier use of that term than Moylan’s letter. It’s speculated that Washington and his officers used the term in their conversations, but it is interesting that only days before, Moylan had “inscribed on the flap of a document: ‘On the service of the United Colonies.’” Yet on Jan. 2, he wrote of the “full and ample powers from the United States of America” in his letter to Reed.

Within a week’s time, Moylan, one of Washington’s close aides, went from thinking of the Revolutionaries as living in Britain’s colonies to thinking of them as the “United States of America,” months before the Declaration of Independence was penned and signed. Perhaps as he watched that first flag raising on New Year’s Day, Moylan was inspired to recognize the Revolutionary cause not as a group of discontented British subjects trying to gain concessions from their government, but history-makers fighting for independence and the start of a new, unique project.

Who was Stephen Moylan? We don’t know as much about him as we could wish given his historical importance. Moylan was an Irish Catholic immigrant to America, a merchant who early in the war joined George Washington’s “secret” Navy. Washington did not have authority to create a Navy from Congress, but believed a Navy was essential to the Americans’ war effort and began outfitting one in late 1775. Historian Patrick K. O’Donnell describes Moylan while discussing Washington’s Navy in The Indispensables:

“As the enterprise expanded, Washington brought in the army’s muster-master general, Stephen Moylan, to assist [John] Glover in managing the burgeoning navy. The muster-master general had the arduous task of accounting for the men in each of the Continental Army’s units. A tough, husky Irish immigrant, Moylan hailed from a prominent Irish trading family who sent him to Paris and later Lisbon for his education. The well-spoken gentleman with a brogue had a keen mind for international trade and business. Elected before the war as the first president of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, an organization of prosperous merchants, Moylan is credited with coining the term ‘the United States of America’ in a January 2, 1776, missive to Joseph Reed, Washington’s secretary and aide-de-camp.”

Moylan served those United States well, both in the Revolution that ensured their independence and afterwards, as well. He also had three brothers who joined the Revolutionary cause.

“Moylan remained close to George Washington, was appointed Commissioner of Loans in Philadelphia in 1793, and is the namesake of Moylan, an unincorporated community in southeast Pennsylvania.”

Moylan was writing the famous letter to talk about his difficulties getting supplies—he also analyzed the qualifications of fellow soldiers/sailors serving with him. As noted above, he also mentioned his willingness to be an ambassador to Spain, which did not happen, although Spain did assist the Americans during the Revolution with vital supplies.

“Moylan served in various capacities during the revolution, including quartermaster-general and cavalry colonel, but not without the vicissitudes—forced resignations, limited supplies, courts-martial—of a Continental officer in the protracted struggle,” says NYHistory.org, noting that Moylan was “a true hothead for independence.” He had a double grievance against the British, as an Irishman and an American. He had left his ancestral home of Ireland, then under truly tyrannical and impoverishing British rule, only to find British tyranny followed him across the ocean to America, where he fought it with such zeal all the way through Yorktown. Moylan certainly kept in touch with his heritage as the first president of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick.

So today we remember Stephen Moylan, an Irish-American Patriot who named the United States of America and then risked everything he had, even his life, to ensure the new nation’s birth and success.