Gregory Bodenhamer Lexington and Concord. General Thomas Gage, the military governor of Massachusetts, began fortifying Boston in the fall of 1774; colonists meanwhile prepared militias, organizing small, armed groups ready for quick action as Minute Men. In the spring, Gage was ordered to arrest radical leaders and put down what was considered to be an open rebellion in the colony, despite the discussions underway in Parliament. To warn of the impending movement of British troops, William Dawes and Paul Revere rode out to alert the local townspeople and farmers. On April 19, colonials and British soldiers faced each other on the town green at Lexington. Shots were fired, leaving eight colonists dead. The British continued on to Concord, where militia supplies were stored, and confronted another group of Americans, exchanging fire. Colonists continued to harass the British as they marched backed to Boston, killing or wounding 273 by the end of the engagement.

Lexington and Concord. General Thomas Gage, the military governor of Massachusetts, began fortifying Boston in the fall of 1774; colonists meanwhile prepared militias, organizing small, armed groups ready for quick action as Minute Men. In the spring, Gage was ordered to arrest radical leaders and put down what was considered to be an open rebellion in the colony, despite the discussions underway in Parliament. To warn of the impending movement of British troops, William Dawes and Paul Revere rode out to alert the local townspeople and farmers. On April 19, colonials and British soldiers faced each other on the town green at Lexington. Shots were fired, leaving eight colonists dead. The British continued on to Concord, where militia supplies were stored, and confronted another group of Americans, exchanging fire. Colonists continued to harass the British as they marched backed to Boston, killing or wounding 273 by the end of the engagement.

The rebellion quickly spread. The British garrison in Boston was besieged, and the Green Mountain Boys of Vermont, led by Ethan Allen, captured Fort Ticonderoga with the intention of using its cannon in Boston. The Battle of Bunker Hill (June 17, 1775), the first major confrontation of the American Revolution, was a British victory but at the cost of more than a thousand men. The Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia as the fighting raged.

The Second Continental Congress. The outbreak of hostilities still did not mean the colonies were prepared to declare their independence. Indeed, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Olive Branch Petition, professing loyalty to the Crown and appealing to George III to end the bloodshed so outstanding issues between the colonies and Great Britain could be worked out. Even the statement justifying the taking up of arms rejected independence as a solution, though it underscored the colonists' commitment to fight for their rights. Nevertheless, circumstances dictated that the Congress assume governmental responsibilities: a letter was sent to Canada asking for its support, or at least neutrality, in the fighting; the troops around Boston were declared a Continental Army, and George Washington was named commander; approval was given for the appointment of commissioners to negotiate treaties with the Indians and for the establishment of a postal service.

By the time the Second Continental Congress reopened in September, George III had rejected the Olive Branch Petition, and New England was proclaimed in a state of rebellion. In December, Parliament closed the colonies to all trade. For its part, the Congress created a navy and sounded out the European powers on their position toward the colonies. France, not surprisingly, eventually became a critical ally for the Americans.

The balance of forces. At first glance, Great Britain appeared to have enormous advantages over the colonies. The British had a professional army, eventually putting more than one hundred thousand men in the field along with thirty thousand German (Hessian) mercenaries. These troops were well armed, supplied, and trained. Britain could draw on vast economic resources and had the largest navy in the world, but it did face serious problems. Supplying their forces in the colonies and communicating effectively with commanders across an ocean were difficult. The cost of war meant still higher taxes for a country saddled with debts from previous conflicts. It was an open question just how long the British would continue paying to keep the colonies in the empire.

The Americans were fighting on their soil for their own liberties and, in short order, their independence, all advantages to their side. George Washington, in spite of his limited military experience, proved to be an adept leader. Compromising his ability to lead the more than two hundred thousand men who fought in the war were the poorly trained and undisciplined militias. In addition, food, medicine, and ammunition were often in short supply because the Continental Congress had no power to compel the colonies to provide what was needed. Nor did the colonies fulfill their quotas for troops for the Continental Army. Perhaps the most serious handicap was the significant number of Americans who not only opposed the war but sided with the British.

Loyalists versus Patriots. British sympathizers were called Loyalists or Tories; backers of the fight against England were known as Whigs or Patriots. An estimated twenty percent of Americans, unevenly distributed throughout the colonies, supported Great Britain. The Loyalists included government officials whose positions and livelihoods were tied to the empire, merchants who were dependent on British trade (New York City was a Loyalist stronghold), and those who believed that a break with Britain would lead to instability or chaos. Among the last group were people who had actively opposed the Stamp Act and signed nonimportation agreements but felt that revolution was going too far. About twenty-one thousand Loyalists fought with the British, and five times that number decided to leave the country at the end of hostilities. In a very real sense, the American Revolution was a civil war.

Native Americans, including most of the powerful Iroquois nation, supported the British, for obvious reasons. During the longstanding dispute over western lands, it was Great Britain that had issued the protective Proclamation of 1763, while the Americans increasingly moved onto Indian lands. Slaves also joined the British because they were promised their freedom; escaped slaves served in the British army as soldiers and laborers.

War for Independence

Although the Second Continental Congress increasingly assumed the powers of an independent government, the decision to formally declare independence was not made until more than a year after the fighting had begun. Indeed, colonial officers toasted the good health of the king at dinners. Throughout the crisis that led to the revolution, it was not the king but Parliament and the king's ministers who were blamed for causing the rift between the colonies and Great Britain. In time, though, a dramatic change in attitude toward George III transformed the American Revolution into a war for independence.

In January 1776, Thomas Paine, who had come to America from England hardly more than a year earlier, published a pamphlet titled Common Sense, which was a clear call for independence. Paine's theme was not corrupt politics but the struggle between liberty and monarchy in the person of George III. The pamphlet was a huge success—more than one hundred thousand copies were quickly in circulation—and provided the impetus needed for most Americans to favor independence. In the months that followed its publication, the colonial legislatures were replaced with new state governments that approved a final break with Great Britain.

The Declaration of Independence. In June 1776, a committee appointed by the Continental Congress took up the task of drafting a declaration of independence. Its members included Thomas Jefferson (the principal author), John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin. The Congress first voted for independence on July 2 and then discussed the document Jefferson had prepared, making a significant change during the debates. Jefferson's attack on slavery and the slave trade was stricken from the draft at the insistence of South Carolina, Georgia, and some of the representatives from the northern states. The notion that “all men are created equal” clearly did not apply to blacks. The Declaration of Independence, as amended, was adopted on July 4, 1776, affirming the vote taken two days earlier.

The Declaration of Independence is an itemized list of grievances against the misrule and abuses of George III; Parliament is not mentioned. Jefferson drew heavily on the political philosophy of the Enlightenment, particularly John Locke's contract theory of government. His main points were that people have natural rights—the “unalienable rights” of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”—and that governments are created to protect those rights; when a government, whose authority stems from the consent of the people, attempts to destroy those rights, the people can and should abolish it.

Fighting the war. The main theaters of fighting shifted during the course of the war from New England (1775–76) to the middle states (1776–78) to the southern states (1778–82). In the spring of 1776, the British left Boston and moved their military headquarters to New York City, where they had the advantages of an excellent harbor, ample food supplies, and Loyalist support. George Washington also moved his forces south but was defeated in major engagements on Long Island and Manhattan. He retreated from New York in the fall, convinced he needed to adopt more innovative tactics. During the eighteenth century, armies usually retired to winter quarters and resumed their campaigns in the spring. On Christmas in 1776, however, the Americans surprised the Hessian garrison at Trenton by crossing the Delaware River in a daring night raid. This victory was quickly followed by a successful attack on Princeton on January 3. Both battles were important in raising American morale.

Another major victory occurred in October 1777 at Saratoga in upper New York state. Taking advantage of a series of blunders, the Continental Army defeated the British forces under General Burgoyne, which included significant numbers of Loyalists and Indians, and took more than five thousand prisoners. Burgoyne and American General Horatio Gates agreed that the British troops would lay down their arms and return to England, pledging not to serve in the war again, but this compact was never implemented. The true significance of the Battle of Saratoga is that France was persuaded to become an ally of the Americans.

Diplomacy during the war. The Americans realized that the war for independence would be lost without the support of other nations. Indeed, they had looked to France as a potential ally in the struggle with Great Britain as early as 1774. In late 1776, with both France and Spain already secretly providing munitions and money for the war, a delegation led by Benjamin Franklin went to Paris hoping to negotiate a formal alliance.

Franklin was a popular figure at the French court, but it took news of Saratoga before France recognized the United States as a sovereign nation. A commercial agreement and a formal alliance, which actually became effective when France and England went to war in June, were concluded. French aid ultimately tipped the balance in favor of the Americans. In addition to providing direct assistance in the form of men and ships, the French alliance forced Britain to bolster its troops in other parts of the empire, spreading its forces even more thinly.

Spain declared war on Britain in 1779 but did not recognize the United States; the Dutch Republic did the same in 1780. The combined French, Spanish, and Dutch fleets outnumbered the British warships. Catherine the Great of Russia created the League of Armed Neutrality, a coalition of European states that followed a policy of passive hostility toward Great Britain. The British had to deal with Russia and Sweden in 1780 and Prussia and Portugal in 1782. These diversions were costly and helped make the American war increasingly impractical in both economic and political terms.

Winning the war. By enduring several major defeats and surviving the harsh winter encampments at Valley Forge (1777–78), the Continental Army matured into a disciplined fighting force. The British no longer won easy victories over poorly trained American troops. In 1778, when the war expanded to the west and south, George Rogers Clark moved into the Ohio Valley and fought several battles against the British and their Loyalist and Indian allies. Hoping to take advantage of Loyalist sentiment, the British turned their attention south in late 1778. The strategy was to take Georgia and South Carolina and then move north to Virginia, but after capturing Savannah and Charleston, major port cities, the British found controlling the interior much more difficult. Then, in 1781, the British made a fatal strategic mistake. General Lord Cornwallis set up a base at Yorktown in Virginia, intending to press the campaign into Virginia and Pennsylvania. Yorktown was located on a peninsula; when the French fleet blockaded by sea and a combined force of American and French troops laid siege to the city, Cornwallis was cut off. While skirmishes continued, the war was effectively over when Cornwallis and his eight thousand soldiers laid down their arms on October 19, 1781.

The Peace of Paris. In June 1782, an American delegation led by Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay opened peace talks with British and French diplomats in Paris. Several issues complicated the peace conference. France wanted all the parties involved to sign the treaty, and, indeed, the Americans had been instructed by Congress not to sign a separate agreement. Jay ignored his instructions when it became clear that France wanted to limit the United States to the territory east of the Appalachians.

Through the Peace of Paris, Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States with the Mississippi River as its western boundary. Americans were granted fishing rights off Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, and British troops and ships were to depart from American territory “with all convenient speed.” Left unresolved, however, were issues that damaged Anglo-American relations for years. The United States agreed to compensate Loyalists for property confiscated during the war, but the new government lacked the power to compel the states to do so; the British refused to leave several military outposts until this matter was resolved. The fate of the tribes that had fought with the British was omitted from the treaty; Native Americans in the Ohio Valley refused to recognize the sovereignty of the United States, leaving open the potential for further conflict. The British also did nothing for the luckless slaves who had sided with them.

Governing the New Nation

After eight years of war preceded by more than a decade of political uncertainty and crisis, the United States had won its independence. With peace, it faced the challenge of working out the most effective and practical means of governing itself and the proper relationship between the national government and the states, a task that had begun while the war was still being fought.

New state governments. The colonial governments collapsed when the war broke out. The royal governors fled, and in eleven of the thirteen states, revolutionary conventions took it upon themselves to write new constitutions. Almost all provided for a strong two-house legislature that, in most of the states, could elect the state's governor. A general distrust of executive authority made for weak governors; frequently, they might serve only a one-year term, could not veto laws, and were not free to make appointments without the approval of the legislature. Property qualifications for both voting and holding an office were the rule, meaning the franchise was limited to a portion of each state's white males. The new state governments were not democratic in the modern sense because “democracy” in the eighteenth century was associated with mob rule, something that was feared just as much as oppressive monarchy. On the other hand, many of the states included a bill of rights in their constitution to protect basic liberties.

The Articles of Confederation. The first national government was created through the Articles of Confederation, a document adopted by the Second Continental Congress in November 1777. It went into effect when ratified by all the states in March 1781. During the intervening period, the business of government and the conducting of war were carried out by the Continental Congress. The delay in moving from a provisional to a permanent government was caused by a dispute among the states over western lands. Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia claimed their western boundaries were the Mississippi River, which was disputed by other states. Maryland in particular feared the potential size and power of New York and Virginia and did not ratify the Articles until 1781, when the claims were relinquished.

Under the Articles of Confederation, the national government consisted of a unicameral (one-house) legislature, often called the Confederation Congress. There was no national executive or judiciary. Delegates to Congress were appointed by the state legislatures, and each state had one vote, regardless of the number of its delegates. Nine votes were needed to pass a law, or ordinance, as it was called then. Amending the Articles required a unanimous vote. Congress had the power to declare war, develop foreign policy, coin money, regulate Native-American affairs in the territories, run the post office, borrow money, and appoint officers to the army and navy. Quite significantly, all powers not specifically given to Congress belonged to the states.

The Articles had several weaknesses. Congress could not tax the states; when funds were needed for whatever purpose, it could ask the states for money but could not compel them to pay. Nor could Congress regulate interstate or foreign trade, and the states, in fact, had the right to impose their own duties on imports, which played havoc with commerce. And although Congress could declare war, it had no authority to raise an army on its own; it had to requisition troops from the states.

Finance and Shays's Rebellion. When the war ended, the United States was $160 million in debt. To meet the need for a national currency, Congress printed paper money backed by European loans. More money was printed than the value of the loans, however, and its worth plunged while inflation shot up. The problem of paying off its debts plagued the new nation. Army officers even threatened to mutiny unless they were given their back pay.

Inflation was also a serious problem for the states, which printed their own money. High taxes along with the refusal of creditors to accept paper money led to an increasing number of farm foreclosures, triggering social unrest. Daniel Shays, a captain during the American Revolution and a farmer who had fallen on hard times himself, led two thousand men on a campaign to shut down courthouses (where foreclosure documents were issued) in several Massachusetts counties. Concern mounted when Shays marched on Springfield, the site of an arsenal, but the farmers and veterans that joined him were easily dispersed by the militia. Shays's Rebellion caused the Massachusetts legislature to reduce taxes and exempt personal items, such as household goods and tools, from seizure in a foreclosure.

Achievements of the Confederation Congress. Despite its political and economic shortcomings, the Confederation Congress achieved some notable successes, especially in the administration of western lands. The Ordinance of 1785 created a basic system for surveying land. Surveys established townships of six square miles and divided them into thirty-six sections of 640 acres. In turn, each section was divided into half sections (320 acres) or quarter sections (160 acres). The government calculated that a family of four could live independently on a 160-acre farm, a concept that endured well into the twentieth century. One of the thirty-six sections in each township was reserved to be a source of income for public education.

The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 established the Northwest Territory (eventually the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan) and outlined the process by which almost all territories have become states. When a territory was organized, Congress first appointed a territorial governor and judges. When five thousand adult males lived in the territory, a territorial legislature was elected and a temporary constitution written. When the total population reached sixty thousand, a state constitution was prepared, and the territorial residents petitioned Congress for admission to the union as a state.

Frontier and foreign policy problems. The Northwest Ordinance pledged that Native Americans' land and property would not be taken without their consent. In fact, the treaties by which the United States acquired Indian lands were often negotiated under duress. U.S. commissioners, for example, refused to recognize the Six Nations and insisted on dealing with individual Iroquois tribes. Most of the tribes repudiated the treaties and openly resisted the expansion of settlements. By 1786, fighting was common along the Ohio River frontier, involving the Shawnee, Delaware, Wyandotte, and Miami tribes, and had broken out in Georgia with the Creek. Spain added to the problems in the southeast by encouraging the Creek. Alexander Mc-Gillivray, the Creek leader, won some concessions by playing one country against the other. The inability of the Confederation Congress to maintain peace on the frontier added to calls for a stronger national government.

As its reward for joining with France against Great Britain, Spain regained East and West Florida, which it had lost to the British after the Seven Years' War. The Spanish claimed that the boundary of West Florida extended to the Mississippi River, so it was able to close the port of New Orleans to American shipping in 1784. The shutdown was a severe blow to farmers in the trans-Appalachian territory. Lacking roads across the mountains, they could get their crops to market only by traveling down the Mississippi. The attempt to work out the problem through the Jay-Gardoqui Treaty, which would have denied the United States navigation rights on the lower Mississippi for twenty-five years but opened Spanish markets to East Coast merchants, failed completely. Pressure from southern and western farmers made it unlikely that Congress would have ratified the agreement. The issue was not resolved until 1789 when access to New Orleans was finally achieved.

Drafting the Constitution

A combination of factors underscored the need for a stronger national government than the Articles of Confederation provided. American manufacturing was stunted because Congress had no power to impose high tariffs to protect domestic industry from foreign competition. Settlers in the west demanded a more aggressive policy on land cessions and that more be done to protect them from Indian attacks. Merchants were looking for a government that could negotiate favorable international trade agreements. While modifying the Articles was not considered particularly urgent among the southern and mid-Atlantic states, even their leaders appreciated that free navigation of the Mississippi River and a resolution of the dispute with Spain required a response from a stronger government.

The Constitutional Convention. In May 1787, fifty-five delegates from twelve of the thirteen states (Rhode Island did not attend) met in Philadelphia. Among them were George Washington (chosen as the chair), Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton. As a group, the delegates were men in their thirties and forties, many were lawyers, and most had served in Congress. Although the stated purpose of the Convention was to “revise” the Articles of Confederation, the participants quickly moved to develop a new structure of government.

The Virginia and New Jersey plans. The early constitutional debates focused on a proposal submitted by James Madison that became known as the Virginia plan, or “ large-state” plan. It called for a bicameral legislature empowered to make laws and levy taxes with the representation in both houses based on population. Members of the lower house would be elected by voters in each state, and members of the upper house would be chosen by the lower house from candidates nominated by the state legislatures. The plan had no provision for electing an executive; the president would be chosen by the national legislature to serve for one term and was responsible for executing all laws. The legislature would also appoint judges to one or more supreme courts and lower national courts.