There were nineteen, count them, nineteen original American colonies not fifteen as you reported in The Changing Face of Georgia Saturday 18 December 1993, Athens Daily News/ATHENS BANNER-HERALD p1A, col.3. You are to be congratulated on your discovery of East and West Florida. West Florida is particularly interesting as it was once an independent Republic.

On September 23, 1810, Brigadier General Philemon Thomas, Commandant of the West Florida forces and a battle hardened veteran of King's Mountain, Eutaw Springs and Guilford Courthouse, raised the Bonnie Blue Lone Star Flag over the Spanish Fort at Baton Rouge and a new Republic was born.

Seventy four days later on December 7, 1810, the Lone Star was lowered when the Republic of West Florida was crushed under the heel of Washington and stripped of all territory west of the Perdido. The Lone Star was raised again briefly on Sunday March 17, 1811, at St. Francisville.

General Hampton declared the Lone Star an insult to the United States Government and threatened to remove it by military force if not removed immediately by civil authority.

The General was informed that the Flag was private property and not subject to civil authority. Hampton repeated his threats of military force and stated that he would have enough troops on hand to enforce his orders by morning.

The civil magistrate then ordered the staff, which was sixty feet tall, cut down in order to remove Old Bonnie Blue.

The veterans of the storming of Baton Rouge buried their beloved Flag at 3 o'clock p.m. on Monday, March 18, 1811, in a coffin with great ceremony including a procession around the stump of the flag-staff and three volleys of rifle fire over the grave. General Hampton and his Imperial Masters in Washington were not amused.

Bonnie Blue rose from the grave, much to the annoyance of the Yankee Government in Washington, on January 6, 1861, as the Banner of the Sovereign State of Mississippi. Today Old Bonnie Blue is eking out a living as the flag of the Somali Democratic Republic or what is left of it.

So much for Political Correctness where vexillology is concerned.

However, enough of this and back to nineteen original American colonies. Very simply we have the customary thirteen, your wonderful discoveries, East and West Florida and in addition we have Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island and Canada. That makes nineteen.

Prince Edward Island became a separate colony in 1769 and joined the Canadian federation in 1873. Newfoundland did not join the Canadian federation until April 1, 1949. Nova Scotia has had its own assembly since 1758 and was a charter member of the Dominion of Canada on July 1, 1867.

Canada became a crown colony in 1763. It was divided into Upper and Lower Canada on June 10, 1791, and reunited as Canada East and Canada West by the 1840 act of union. Canada East and Canada West became Quebec and Ontario on July 1, 1867, when they joined with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in a federal union that took the name Canada.

These are only the continental colonies. Off shore colonies included Bermuda, Barbados and Jamaica mon.

Quebec in particular declined pressing invitations to attend the Continental Congress.

Four delegates from Cumberland County, Nova Scotia attended the first continental congress and the sovereign state of Georgia did not attend. However, the Nova Scotia delegates did not sign the Association.

St. Johns Parish, Georgia ratified the acts of the Continental Congress and attempted to secede from Georgia and join South Carolina. St. Johns elected its own delegate, Lyman Hall, to the Continental Congress. The Continental Congress then banned all intercourse with Georgia except for St. Johns Parish.

Henry Ellis, Georgia's royal governor, requested to be relieved of his duties in 1760. His request was granted but he was appointed governor of Nova Scotia. Having been traumatized by his service in Georgia he did not check in at Government House in Nova Scotia but had his paycheck forwarded to his club in London.

Ten & one half original states;

Ten states participated in the first presidental election.

Rhode Island & North Carolina had not ratified the constitution.

New York was unable to decide on a slate of electors and did not vote.