Essay writing with Chicago style

Topic 8

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