Pittsburgh has a good fortune to be named after a great English statesman, William Pitt

Pittsburgh has a good fortune to be named after a great English statesman, William Pitt.  Though he was a Prime Minister for only two years (1766-1768), he was quite influential for his long political career.  When Pitt first joined the Ministry as Secretary of State in 1756 Frederick the Great declared, “England has long been a labour, but at last she has brought forth a man.”

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

Churchill wrote that William Pitt ranks with Marlborough [John Churchill, Winston’s ancestor] as the greatest English man in the century between 1689 and 1789.  William Pitt saw the beginning of the British Empire.

Americans should be forever grateful to this great Englishman who was quite sympathetic to the cause and struggle of the colonists/patriots.

Dumping the tea cargoes into the sea at Boston Harbor in December 1773 was, as John Adams wrote, “so bold, so daring, so firm, intrepid, and inflexible, and it must have so important consequences, and so lasting, that I cannot but consider it as an epoch in history.”

When the news reached London the cry went up for coercion and many harsh laws passed to punish Boston.  William Pitt pleaded for conciliation.

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William Pitt became the first Earl of Chatham.  This is why Pittsburgh has Chatham University and Chatham Center, part of which is Marriott Hotel.

In his last speech in the House of Lords (April 7, 1778) he warned the nation of the dangers of French intervention and the use of German mercenaries, “My lords, if I were an American as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country I never would lay down my arms—never, never, never.”  He asked the recall of English troops sent to America.

On May 11 he died as his son William was reading to him from Homer the solemn scene of Hector’s funeral and the deep despair of Troy.