Evacuation Day Dinner
Washington’s Triumphal Entry into New York, Nov. 25, 1783 by Christian Inger (after F.O.C. Darley), 1860, Lithograph, 1982.01.001, Collection of Fraunces Tavern Museum
Evacuation Day marked the final British evacuation from New York City in 1783, after seven years of occupation. The evening culminated in a festive dinner given by Governor George Clinton, honoring George Washington and his officers at Samuel Fraunces‘ tavern.
Evacuation Day remained a New York City holiday into the 1910s, with celebrations rivaling those of the Fourth of July.
SRNY continues to celebrate this day annually with a dinner at Fraunces Tavern. Invited speakers address those assembled throughout the course of the dinner, offering their own interpretations of the very same thirteen toasts given at the first Evacuation Day Dinner at Fraunces Tavern on November 25, 1783:
1. To the United States of America
2. To His most Christian Majesty (Louis XVI of France)
3. To the United Netherlands
4. To the King of Sweden
5. To the American Army
6. To the Fleet and Armies of France which have served in America
7. To the Memory of those Heroes who have fallen for our Freedom
8. May our Country be grateful to her Military Children
9. May justice support what courage has gained
10. To the Vindicators of the Rights of Mankind in every Quarter
of the Globe
11. May America be an Asylum to the Persecuted of the Earth
12. May a close Union of States Guard the Temple they have erected
to Liberty
13. May the Remembrances of the Day be a lesson to Princes