During the mid 18th Century, English colonists appealed to the metropole for redress of various grievances. In this essay, I want you to consider the ethics and civics of those seeking change (later known to us as the Patriots). Who were these Patriots? What methods did they use to further their goals through civic engagement? What ethical considerations did they take into account in seeking redress of their grievances? Did the new United States (under either the Articles or Constitution) address their grievances?
Topic8
Independence Declared and Won
Second Continental Congress
• Assemblies in Philadelphia in May 1775
• Needs to legitimize the various colonial
militias gathered at Boston and organize
further resistance
• Chooses George Washington as
Commander-in-Chief
• Washington successfully brings siege of
Boston to conclusion forcing Gage to
retire to Nova Scotia
Fledgling Government
• Second Continental Congress will sit until nearly the end
of the war
• Although an ad hoc body, it assumes role of a national
government
– raising an army
– issuing money
– overseeing foreign affairs
– concluding treaties
• Congress has no power of compulsion – depends upon
the goodwill and cooperation of the various colonies
Olive Branch Petition
• Written by Thomas Jefferson
and
John Dickinson
• July 1775 – Congress approves
a petition to George III
– Proclaims the colonies enduring
allegiance to the crown
– Asks the king to break with his
ministers (who are the agents of
discord)
Declaration of the Causes and
Necessities of Taking Up Arms
• Passed by Congress, July 1775
• Written by Thomas Jefferson and
John Dickinson
• An eloquent statement of the colonial
position
Excerpt
Lest this declaration should disquiet the minds of our friends and fellow-
subjects in any part of the empire, we assure them that we mean not to
dissolve that union which has so long and so happily subsisted between us,
and which we sincerely wish to see restored. — Necessity has not yet
driven us into that desperate measure, or induced us to excite any other
nation to war against them. — We have not raised armies with ambitious
designs of separating from Great-Britain, and establishing independent
states. We fight not for glory or for conquest. We exhibit to mankind the
remarkable spectacle of a people attacked by unprovoked enemies, without
any imputation or even suspicion of offence. They boast of their privileges
and civilization, and yet proffer no milder conditions than servitude or death.
In our own native land, in defence of the freedom that is our birthright, and
which we ever enjoyed till the late violation of it — for the protection of our
property, acquired solely by the honest industry of our fore-fathers and
ourselves, against violence actually offered, we have taken up arms. We
shall lay them down when hostilities shall cease on the part of the
aggressors, and all danger of their being renewed shall be removed, and
not before.
Open Rebellion
• 23 August 1775 – George III proclaims the colonies in
open rebellion
• Denounces the leaders of the insurrection as traitors
• December 1775 – declares all American shipping subject
to seizure
On the Battlefield
• Colonels Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold seize Fort
Ticonderoga at the head of Lake Champlain
• Another Continental contingent, under command of Benedict
Arnold, badly defeated while trying to invade Canada
What to Do?
• Most members of the colonial aristocracy were conflicted
about independence in mid-1775
• No real concept of America as a separate entity – still
proud to be in the British Empire
• But continued submission to British authority was
intolerable
Concerns
• The world was a dangerous place
• 2.5 million Americans were
dispersed along the seaboard of a
huge and largely unexplored
landmass
• Elites had growing apprehension
over the increasingly powerful role
played by artisans, small farmers,
sailors and the working class in
general
Independence in Fact
• The fact (if not declaration) of
independence becoming more apparent
• Continental Army a symbol of
nationhood
• Virtually every American newspaper
favored independence
• Radicals of all social classes clamored
for independence
• Spring 1776 – Congress declares
American ports open for free trade
Common Sense
• Written by Thomas Paine, the most influential agitator for a complete break
with Britain
• Pro-Independence pamphlet published in January 1776 – aimed at the
working class
Arguments
• An independent America would be able to trade freely
with the world and would not have to fight European
imperial wars
• To know whether it be the interest of this continent to be
Independent, we need only to ask this simple question:
Is it the interest of a man to be a boy all his life?”
• Paine is the first to ridicule the concept of monarchy,
calls George III a ―royal brute‖
• Argues the king is equally responsible for the repression
of America
Congress Debates
• Spring 1776 – several colonies instruct their delegations to vote for
separation if the issue arises
• June 1776 – Virginia Richard Henry Lee moves a resolution of
separation
• Committee of Five appointed to work out the details – Sherman
(CT), Franklin (PA), Jefferson (VA), Adams (MA), Livingston (NY)
The Declaration of Independence
• 4 July 1776 – Resolution
passed
• An elegant piece of
propaganda – written by
Thomas Jefferson –
aimed at the undecided at
home and abroad
• Attempt to convince the
wavering that there were
times when revolution
was justified
Philosophical Underpinnings
• The embodiment of the Enlightenment
• Natural law and rights
• John Locke
• The declaration and the resulting American republic
were the crowning achievement of the Enlightenment
The Text
• When in the Course of human events, it
becomes necessary for one people to dissolve
the political bands which have connected them
with another, and to assume among the
powers of the earth, the separate and equal
station to which the Laws of Nature and of
Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to
the opinions of mankind requires that they
should declare the causes which impel them to
the separation.
More Enlightenment Ideals
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to
secure these rights, Governments are instituted among
Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed, –That whenever any Form of Government
becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the
People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new
Government, laying its foundation on such principles and
organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall
seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Arrival of the British Fleet
• Washington in New York City
• June-August 1776 – British
Fleet arrives carrying General
William Howe and the largest
army Britain had ever sent
overseas – a far superior force
• 34,000 British soldiers and
Hessian mercenaries vs.
10,000 troops under command
of Washington
A Herculean Task
• 12 July 1776 – Howe sends
representatives to meet with Washington –
vague offers of clemency for American
rebels – politely declined
• Late August 1776 – Continental Army
suffers defeat on Long Island, making final
stand on Manhattan Island at Harlem
Heights
• 11 September 1776 – British meet in a
peace conference with a congressional
delegation including John Adams and
Benjamin Franklin – Americans refuse to
revoke Declaration of Independence
• 16 September 1776 – Washington
evacuates New York
The Retreat
• Washington keeps losing and
retreating – he has honed his
military skills and is now a
tactician
• Howe does not effectively
capitalize on his victories
• Armies settle down into winter
encampments with Patriots barely
holding on and seeking foreign aid
A Grim Winter
• December 1776 – desperate time for the demoralized
Continental Army and militia enlistments were set to
expire at the end of the month
• British believe that they have crushed the revolution – a
simple mop-up operation in the spring
• Washington decides on a surprise attacks on British-held
New Jersey
An Act Born of Desperation
• 25 December 1776 – Washington crosses the Delaware in raging
snow/sleet/rain storm, many of his troops are without shoes
• Patriots force Hessian surrender
A Reinvigorated
Revolutionary Spirit
• Campaigns the following week added more victories
• News spread quickly
– Pulled the patriots out of the depths of despair
– Galvanized colonial support
– Shocked the British
– Convinced potential allies that we could hang on, that the
Continental army was viable
• Although not apparent at the time, this was a decisive
turning point in the Revolution
1777
• A decisive victory needed to bring in
allies – none forthcoming through
the first half of the year, but
Continental Army holds its own
• European volunteers – such as the
Marquis de Lafayette – begin to
arrive and offer services
• British General Burgoyne invades
from Canada and retakes
Ticonderoga
The Turning Point – Saratoga
• British and Iroquois allies want
to take Hudson Valley – goal
to move through NY and cut off
New England
• Americans, under Benedict
Arnold, achieve the great field
victory over the British and
force the surrender of
Burgoyne
• Proved that the Continental
Army was an effective fighting
force capable of defeating
British regulars in a major
European-style battle
Recognition
• Saratoga boosts American cause in Europe
• Parisians celebrate news of the American victory and Ben
Franklin is feted at court
• France recognizes the independence of America
The French Alliance
• 6 February 1778 – American and French representatives
sign two treaties in Paris: a Treaty of Amity and
Commerce and a Treaty of Alliance
• France becomes the major supplier of materiel to
Washington’s army and vows to continue the fight with
the Patriots until victory is achieved
The Revolution becomes an
Imperial War
• Britain and France declare war
• 1779 – Spain enters war as ally of France
• 1780 –Britain declares war on the Dutch, who are trading
with America and France
• So British have a war in America and are now fighting in
the Mediterranean, Africa, India, the West Indies, and on
the high seas while France threatens invasion of the
British Isles
The War in America – Numbers
• Around 20% of white male Americans were loyalists –
eventually 21,000 loyalists fought with the British leading
to some of the most vicious combat of the war (SC)
• French Canadians refused to make common cause, as
did the West Indian colonies
• Indians sided with the British
• Nearly 20,000 slaves ran away to enlist as soldiers or
laborers in the Royal Army
The War in America –
Patriot Advantages
• Americans had the psychological advantage – fighting to
defend their families and homes
• Despite smaller population, very efficient at mobilizing
manpower – one half of free males were enlisted in the
Continental Army (220,000)
• British forces – 162,000 including loyalists and 30,000
Hessian mercenaries
• Patriots knew the terrain
Advantages – Continued
• American navy insignificant but
American privateers captured over
2000 British vessels – hindering
supply lines
• John Paul Jones and small American
navy do raid British coastline (―I have
just begun to fight‖)
• Patriots don’t have to win outright –
they must simply survive until British
taxpayers and voters weary of
paying the increasingly burdensome
cost of the war
Spanish forces
• 1779 –Galvez named General of Spanish Colonial forces
in North America – quickly raises an army which includes
creoles (both Spanish and French), Indians, free African
militias and Spanish regulars
• 1779-81 – Attacks British forces in Florida – Baton
Rouge, Natchez, Mobile and Pensacola
• His victories dilute British strength as the main theater of
the war moves into the southern colonies
Southern Campaign
• British general, Cornwallis, hopes to
use slaves against the Patriots and
spark a civil war
• Bloody South Carolina – Nathaniel
Greene and Francis Marion harry the
British
• Lack of supply line and lack of
reinforcements from Florida (busy
with Galvez) force Cornwallis to head
for the Virginia coast
Yorktown
• August – October 1781
• Lafayette chases Cornwallis from
South Carolina as Washington
and Rochambeau rush south –
siege begins
• Cornwallis trapped in Yorktown
with reinforcement cut off by
French fleet, surrenders to
Washington on 19 October
• The World Turned Upside Down
Reaction
• Upon hearing the news, Lord
North proclaimed, ―Oh God! It’s
all over.‖
• Last straw for Britain’s overtaxed
merchants and gentry
• Time to go to the peace table
Treaty of Paris (1783)
• Very advantageous to the United
States
• Great Britain recognized American
independence
• U.S. granted astonishingly liberal
boundaries – from the Atlantic to the
Mississippi River bounded by Florida
and Canada
• Rights for Americans to fish the Grand
Banks
• All prewar colonial debts validated
• Refused to restore property seized
from loyalists
A New Nation
• The new nation was diverse, pragmatic, proud and
briefly confident
• It possessed thriving agriculture, seaborne commerce
and the beginnings of a manufacturing economy
• It possessed the largest merchant marine in the world –
but had almost no navy to protect it in a dangerous world
• The problems which plagued the British government
(western lands, political power, taxes, social issues, etc)
were now the responsibility of a weak national
government
United States, 1783
Topic8
Independence Declared and Won
Second Continental Congress
• Assemblies in Philadelphia in May 1775
• Needs to legitimize the various colonial
militias gathered at Boston and organize
further resistance
• Chooses George Washington as
Commander-in-Chief
• Washington successfully brings siege of
Boston to conclusion forcing Gage to
retire to Nova Scotia
Fledgling Government
• Second Continental Congress will sit until nearly the end
of the war
• Although an ad hoc body, it assumes role of a national
government
– raising an army
– issuing money
– overseeing foreign affairs
– concluding treaties
• Congress has no power of compulsion – depends upon
the goodwill and cooperation of the various colonies
Olive Branch Petition
• Written by Thomas Jefferson
and
John Dickinson
• July 1775 – Congress approves
a petition to George III
– Proclaims the colonies enduring
allegiance to the crown
– Asks the king to break with his
ministers (who are the agents of
discord)
Declaration of the Causes and
Necessities of Taking Up Arms
• Passed by Congress, July 1775
• Written by Thomas Jefferson and
John Dickinson
• An eloquent statement of the colonial
position
Excerpt
Lest this declaration should disquiet the minds of our friends and fellow-
subjects in any part of the empire, we assure them that we mean not to
dissolve that union which has so long and so happily subsisted between us,
and which we sincerely wish to see restored. — Necessity has not yet
driven us into that desperate measure, or induced us to excite any other
nation to war against them. — We have not raised armies with ambitious
designs of separating from Great-Britain, and establishing independent
states. We fight not for glory or for conquest. We exhibit to mankind the
remarkable spectacle of a people attacked by unprovoked enemies, without
any imputation or even suspicion of offence. They boast of their privileges
and civilization, and yet proffer no milder conditions than servitude or death.
In our own native land, in defence of the freedom that is our birthright, and
which we ever enjoyed till the late violation of it — for the protection of our
property, acquired solely by the honest industry of our fore-fathers and
ourselves, against violence actually offered, we have taken up arms. We
shall lay them down when hostilities shall cease on the part of the
aggressors, and all danger of their being renewed shall be removed, and
not before.
Open Rebellion
• 23 August 1775 – George III proclaims the colonies in
open rebellion
• Denounces the leaders of the insurrection as traitors
• December 1775 – declares all American shipping subject
to seizure
On the Battlefield
• Colonels Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold seize Fort
Ticonderoga at the head of Lake Champlain
• Another Continental contingent, under command of Benedict
Arnold, badly defeated while trying to invade Canada
What to Do?
• Most members of the colonial aristocracy were conflicted
about independence in mid-1775
• No real concept of America as a separate entity – still
proud to be in the British Empire
• But continued submission to British authority was
intolerable
Concerns
• The world was a dangerous place
• 2.5 million Americans were
dispersed along the seaboard of a
huge and largely unexplored
landmass
• Elites had growing apprehension
over the increasingly powerful role
played by artisans, small farmers,
sailors and the working class in
general
Independence in Fact
• The fact (if not declaration) of
independence becoming more apparent
• Continental Army a symbol of
nationhood
• Virtually every American newspaper
favored independence
• Radicals of all social classes clamored
for independence
• Spring 1776 – Congress declares
American ports open for free trade
Common Sense
• Written by Thomas Paine, the most influential agitator for a complete break
with Britain
• Pro-Independence pamphlet published in January 1776 – aimed at the
working class
Arguments
• An independent America would be able to trade freely
with the world and would not have to fight European
imperial wars
• To know whether it be the interest of this continent to be
Independent, we need only to ask this simple question:
Is it the interest of a man to be a boy all his life?”
• Paine is the first to ridicule the concept of monarchy,
calls George III a ―royal brute‖
• Argues the king is equally responsible for the repression
of America
Congress Debates
• Spring 1776 – several colonies instruct their delegations to vote for
separation if the issue arises
• June 1776 – Virginia Richard Henry Lee moves a resolution of
separation
• Committee of Five appointed to work out the details – Sherman
(CT), Franklin (PA), Jefferson (VA), Adams (MA), Livingston (NY)
The Declaration of Independence
• 4 July 1776 – Resolution
passed
• An elegant piece of
propaganda – written by
Thomas Jefferson –
aimed at the undecided at
home and abroad
• Attempt to convince the
wavering that there were
times when revolution
was justified
Philosophical Underpinnings
• The embodiment of the Enlightenment
• Natural law and rights
• John Locke
• The declaration and the resulting American republic
were the crowning achievement of the Enlightenment
The Text
• When in the Course of human events, it
becomes necessary for one people to dissolve
the political bands which have connected them
with another, and to assume among the
powers of the earth, the separate and equal
station to which the Laws of Nature and of
Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to
the opinions of mankind requires that they
should declare the causes which impel them to
the separation.
More Enlightenment Ideals
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to
secure these rights, Governments are instituted among
Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed, –That whenever any Form of Government
becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the
People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new
Government, laying its foundation on such principles and
organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall
seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Arrival of the British Fleet
• Washington in New York City
• June-August 1776 – British
Fleet arrives carrying General
William Howe and the largest
army Britain had ever sent
overseas – a far superior force
• 34,000 British soldiers and
Hessian mercenaries vs.
10,000 troops under command
of Washington
A Herculean Task
• 12 July 1776 – Howe sends
representatives to meet with Washington –
vague offers of clemency for American
rebels – politely declined
• Late August 1776 – Continental Army
suffers defeat on Long Island, making final
stand on Manhattan Island at Harlem
Heights
• 11 September 1776 – British meet in a
peace conference with a congressional
delegation including John Adams and
Benjamin Franklin – Americans refuse to
revoke Declaration of Independence
• 16 September 1776 – Washington
evacuates New York
The Retreat
• Washington keeps losing and
retreating – he has honed his
military skills and is now a
tactician
• Howe does not effectively
capitalize on his victories
• Armies settle down into winter
encampments with Patriots barely
holding on and seeking foreign aid
A Grim Winter
• December 1776 – desperate time for the demoralized
Continental Army and militia enlistments were set to
expire at the end of the month
• British believe that they have crushed the revolution – a
simple mop-up operation in the spring
• Washington decides on a surprise attacks on British-held
New Jersey
An Act Born of Desperation
• 25 December 1776 – Washington crosses the Delaware in raging
snow/sleet/rain storm, many of his troops are without shoes
• Patriots force Hessian surrender
A Reinvigorated
Revolutionary Spirit
• Campaigns the following week added more victories
• News spread quickly
– Pulled the patriots out of the depths of despair
– Galvanized colonial support
– Shocked the British
– Convinced potential allies that we could hang on, that the
Continental army was viable
• Although not apparent at the time, this was a decisive
turning point in the Revolution
1777
• A decisive victory needed to bring in
allies – none forthcoming through
the first half of the year, but
Continental Army holds its own
• European volunteers – such as the
Marquis de Lafayette – begin to
arrive and offer services
• British General Burgoyne invades
from Canada and retakes
Ticonderoga
The Turning Point – Saratoga
• British and Iroquois allies want
to take Hudson Valley – goal
to move through NY and cut off
New England
• Americans, under Benedict
Arnold, achieve the great field
victory over the British and
force the surrender of
Burgoyne
• Proved that the Continental
Army was an effective fighting
force capable of defeating
British regulars in a major
European-style battle
Recognition
• Saratoga boosts American cause in Europe
• Parisians celebrate news of the American victory and Ben
Franklin is feted at court
• France recognizes the independence of America
The French Alliance
• 6 February 1778 – American and French representatives
sign two treaties in Paris: a Treaty of Amity and
Commerce and a Treaty of Alliance
• France becomes the major supplier of materiel to
Washington’s army and vows to continue the fight with
the Patriots until victory is achieved
The Revolution becomes an
Imperial War
• Britain and France declare war
• 1779 – Spain enters war as ally of France
• 1780 –Britain declares war on the Dutch, who are trading
with America and France
• So British have a war in America and are now fighting in
the Mediterranean, Africa, India, the West Indies, and on
the high seas while France threatens invasion of the
British Isles
The War in America – Numbers
• Around 20% of white male Americans were loyalists –
eventually 21,000 loyalists fought with the British leading
to some of the most vicious combat of the war (SC)
• French Canadians refused to make common cause, as
did the West Indian colonies
• Indians sided with the British
• Nearly 20,000 slaves ran away to enlist as soldiers or
laborers in the Royal Army
The War in America –
Patriot Advantages
• Americans had the psychological advantage – fighting to
defend their families and homes
• Despite smaller population, very efficient at mobilizing
manpower – one half of free males were enlisted in the
Continental Army (220,000)
• British forces – 162,000 including loyalists and 30,000
Hessian mercenaries
• Patriots knew the terrain
Advantages – Continued
• American navy insignificant but
American privateers captured over
2000 British vessels – hindering
supply lines
• John Paul Jones and small American
navy do raid British coastline (―I have
just begun to fight‖)
• Patriots don’t have to win outright –
they must simply survive until British
taxpayers and voters weary of
paying the increasingly burdensome
cost of the war
Spanish forces
• 1779 –Galvez named General of Spanish Colonial forces
in North America – quickly raises an army which includes
creoles (both Spanish and French), Indians, free African
militias and Spanish regulars
• 1779-81 – Attacks British forces in Florida – Baton
Rouge, Natchez, Mobile and Pensacola
• His victories dilute British strength as the main theater of
the war moves into the southern colonies
Southern Campaign
• British general, Cornwallis, hopes to
use slaves against the Patriots and
spark a civil war
• Bloody South Carolina – Nathaniel
Greene and Francis Marion harry the
British
• Lack of supply line and lack of
reinforcements from Florida (busy
with Galvez) force Cornwallis to head
for the Virginia coast
Yorktown
• August – October 1781
• Lafayette chases Cornwallis from
South Carolina as Washington
and Rochambeau rush south –
siege begins
• Cornwallis trapped in Yorktown
with reinforcement cut off by
French fleet, surrenders to
Washington on 19 October
• The World Turned Upside Down
Reaction
• Upon hearing the news, Lord
North proclaimed, ―Oh God! It’s
all over.‖
• Last straw for Britain’s overtaxed
merchants and gentry
• Time to go to the peace table
Treaty of Paris (1783)
• Very advantageous to the United
States
• Great Britain recognized American
independence
• U.S. granted astonishingly liberal
boundaries – from the Atlantic to the
Mississippi River bounded by Florida
and Canada
• Rights for Americans to fish the Grand
Banks
• All prewar colonial debts validated
• Refused to restore property seized
from loyalists
A New Nation
• The new nation was diverse, pragmatic, proud and
briefly confident
• It possessed thriving agriculture, seaborne commerce
and the beginnings of a manufacturing economy
• It possessed the largest merchant marine in the world –
but had almost no navy to protect it in a dangerous world
• The problems which plagued the British government
(western lands, political power, taxes, social issues, etc)
were now the responsibility of a weak national
government
United States, 1783