Outline of US History by U.S. Department of State - HTML preview

CHAPTER 3: THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE

it had suffered more than 250 killed would fight for the British . Instead,

and wounded . The Americans lost his proclamation drove to the rebel

93 men .

side many Virginians who would

The Second Continental Con- otherwise have remained Loyalist .

gress met in Philadelphia, Penn-

The governor of North Caroli-

sylvania, on May 10 . The Congress na, Josiah Martin, also urged North

voted to go to war, inducting the co- Carolinians to remain loyal to the

lonial militias into continental ser- Crown . When 1,500 men answered

vice . It appointed Colonel George Martin’s call, they were defeated by

Washington of Virginia as their revolutionary armies before British

commander-in-chief on June 15 . troops could arrive to help .

Within two days, the Americans had

British warships continued down

incurred high casualties at Bunker the coast to Charleston, South Car-

Hill just outside Boston . Congress olina, and opened fire on the city

also ordered American expeditions in early June 1776 . But South Car-

to march northward into Canada by olinians had time to prepare, and

fall . Capturing Montreal, they failed repulsed the British by the end of

in a winter assault on Quebec, and the month . They would not return

eventually retreated to New York .

South for more than two years .

Despite the outbreak of armed

conflict, the idea of complete sep-

COMMON SENSE AND

aration from England was still

INDEPENDENCE

repugnant to many members of the

Continental Congress . In July, it In January 1776, Thomas Paine,

adopted the Olive Branch Petition, a radical political theorist and

begging the king to prevent fur- writer who had come to America

ther hostile actions until some sort from England in 1774, published a

of agreement could be worked out . 50-page pamphlet, Common Sense .

King George rejected it; instead, on Within three months, it sold 100,000

August 23, 1775, he issued a procla- copies . Paine attacked the idea of a

mation declaring the colonies to be hereditary monarchy, declaring that

in a state of rebellion .

one honest man was worth more to

Britain had expected the South- society than “all the crowned ruf-

ern colonies to remain loyal, in part fians that ever lived .” He presented

because of their reliance on slav- the alternatives — continued sub-

ery . Many in the Southern colonies mission to a tyrannical king and

feared that a rebellion against the an outworn government, or liberty

mother country would also trigger and happiness as a self-sufficient,

a slave uprising . In November 1775, independent republic . Circulated

Lord Dunmore, the governor of Vir- throughout the colonies, Common

ginia, tried to capitalize on that fear Sense helped to crystallize a decision by offering freedom to all slaves who for separation .

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OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY

There still remained the task,

the consent of the governed, —

however, of gaining each colony’s

That whenever any Form of

approval of a formal declaration . On

Government becomes destructive

June 7, Richard Henry Lee of Vir-

of these ends, it is the Right of the

ginia introduced a resolution in the

People to alter or to abolish it,

Second Continental Congress, de-

and to institute new Government,

claring, “That these United Colonies

laying its foundation on such

are, and of right ought to be, free

principles and organizing its

and independent states . . .” Immedi-

powers in such form, as to them

ately, a committee of five, headed by

shall seem most likely to effect

Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, was

their Safety and Happiness.

appointed to draft a document for

Jefferson linked Locke’s princi-

a vote .

ples directly to the situation in the

Largely Jefferson’s work, the Dec- colonies . To fight for American in-

laration of Independence, adopted dependence was to fight for a gov-

July 4, 1776, not only announced the ernment based on popular consent

birth of a new nation, but also set in place of a government by a king

forth a philosophy of human free- who had “combined with others to

dom that would become a dynamic subject us to a jurisdiction foreign

force throughout the entire world . to our constitution, and unacknowl-

The Declaration drew upon French edged by our laws . . .” Only a gov-

and English Enlightenment political ernment based on popular consent

philosophy, but one influence in par- could secure natural rights to life,

ticular stands out: John Locke’s Sec- liberty, and the pursuit of happiness .

ond Treatise on Government . Locke Thus, to fight for American inde-

took conceptions of the traditional pendence was to fight on behalf of

rights of Englishmen and universal- one’s own natural rights .

ized them into the natural rights of

all humankind . The Declaration’s

DEFEATS AND VICTORIES

familiar opening passage echoes

Locke’s social-contract theory of Although the Americans suffered

government:

severe setbacks for months after

We hold these truths to be self-

independence was declared, their

evident, that all men are created

tenacity and perseverance eventu-

equal, that they are endowed

ally paid off . During August 1776,

by their Creator with certain

in the Battle of Long Island in New

unalienable Rights, that among

York, Washington’s position be-

these are Life, Liberty and the

came untenable, and he executed a

pursuit of Happiness. — That to

masterly retreat in small boats from

secure these rights, Governments

Brooklyn to the Manhattan shore .

are instituted among Men,

British General William Howe twice

deriving their just powers from

hesitated and allowed the Americans

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