Colonial Resistance and Rebellion - Welcome to Mr....

46 CHAPTER 2 Revolution and the Early Republic

One American's Story

Colonial Resistanceand Rebellion

Crispus Attucks was a sailor of African and Native-American ances-try. On the night of March 5, 1770, he was part of a large andangry crowd that had gathered at the Boston Customs House toharass the British soldiers stationed there. More soldiers soonarrived, and the mob began hurling stones and snowballs atthem. Attucks then stepped forward.

A PERSONAL VOICE JOHN ADAMS

“ This Attucks . . . appears to have undertaken to be the hero of thenight; and to lead this army with banners . . . up to King street withtheir clubs . . . . This man with his party cried, ‘Do not be afraid ofthem,’ . . . He had hardiness enough to fall in upon them, and with onehand took hold of a bayonet, and with the other knocked the man down.”

—quoted in The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution

Attucks’s action ignited the troops. Ignoring orders not to shoot civilians, onesoldier and then others fired on the crowd. Five people were killed; several werewounded. Crispus Attucks was, according to a newspaper account, the first to die.

The Colonies Organize to Resist BritainBecause the Proclamation of 1763 sought to halt expansion by the colonists westof the Appalachian Mountains, it convinced the colonists that the British gov-ernment did not care about their needs. A second result of the French and IndianWar—Britain’s financial crisis—brought about new laws that reinforced thecolonists’ opinion.

THE SUGAR ACT Great Britain had borrowed so much money during the warthat it nearly doubled its national debt. King George III, who had succeeded hisgrandfather in 1760, hoped to lower that debt. To do so, in 1763 the king chosea financial expert, George Grenville, to serve as prime minister.

Terms & NamesTerms & NamesMAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA WHY IT MATTERS NOWWHY IT MATTERS NOW

•King George III•Sugar Act•Stamp Act•Samuel Adams•Boston Massacre•Boston Tea Party

•John Locke•Common Sense•Thomas Jefferson•Declaration ofIndependence

Conflicts between GreatBritain and the Americancolonies escalated, until thecolonists finally declaredtheir independence.

The ideas put forth by thecolonists in the Declarationof Independence remain theguiding principles of theUnited States today.

▼

Crispus Attucks

A

B

By the time Grenville took over, tensions betweenBritain and one colony, Massachusetts, were on the rise.During the French and Indian War, the British had crackeddown on colonial smuggling to ensure that merchants werenot doing business in any French-held territories. In 1761,the royal governor of Massachusetts authorized the use of thewrits of assistance, a general search warrant that allowedBritish customs officials to search any colonial ship or build-ing they believed to be holding smuggled goods. Becausemany merchants worked out of their residences, the writsenabled British officials to enter and search colonial homeswhether there was evidence of smuggling or not. The mer-chants of Boston were outraged.

Grenville’s actions, however, soon angered merchantsthroughout the colonies. The new prime minister noticedthat the American customs service, which collected duties, ortaxes on imports, was losing money. Grenville concludedthat the colonists were smuggling goods into the countrywithout paying duties. In 1764 he prompted Parliament toenact a law known as the Sugar Act.

The Sugar Act did three things. It halved the duty onforeign-made molasses in the hopes that colonists would paya lower tax rather than risk arrest by smuggling. It placedduties on certain imports that had not been taxed before.Most important, it provided that colonists accused of violat-ing the act would be tried in a vice-admiralty court ratherthan a colonial court. There, each case would be decided by asingle judge rather than by a jury of sympathetic colonists.

Colonial merchants complained that the Sugar Actwould reduce their profits. Merchants and traders furtherclaimed that Parliament had no right to tax the colonistsbecause the colonists had not elected representatives to thebody. The new regulations, however, had little effect oncolonists besides merchants and traders.

THE STAMP ACT In March 1765 Parliament passed the Stamp Act. This actimposed a tax on documents and printed items such as wills, newspapers, and play-ing cards. A stamp would be placed on the items to prove that the tax had beenpaid. It was the first tax that affected colonists directly because it was levied ongoods and services. Previous taxes had been indirect, involving duties on imports.

In May of 1765, the colonists united to defy the law. Boston shopkeepers, arti-sans, and laborers organized a secret resistance group called the Sons of Liberty toprotest the law. Meanwhile, the colonial assemblies declared that Parliament lackedthe power to impose taxes on the colonies because the colonists were not repre-sented in Parliament. In October 1765, merchants in New York, Boston, andPhiladelphia agreed to a boycott of British goods until the Stamp Act was repealed.The widespread boycott worked, and in March 1766 Parliament repealed the law.

But on the same day that it repealed the Stamp Act, Parliament passed theDeclaratory Act, which asserted Parliament’s full right “to bind the colonies andpeople of America in all cases whatsoever.” Then, in 1767, Parliament passed theTownshend Acts, named after Charles Townshend, the leading government minis-ter. The Townshend Acts taxed goods that were imported into the colony fromBritain, such as lead, glass, paint, and paper. The Acts also imposed a tax on tea, themost popular drink in the colonies. Led by men such as Samuel Adams, one ofthe founders of the Sons of Liberty, the colonists again boycotted British goods.

REVIEW UNIT 47

NOWNOW THENTHEN

PROPOSITION 13A more recent tax revolt occurredin California on June 6, 1978,when residents voted in a taxreform law known as Proposition13. By the late 1970s, taxes inCalifornia were among the high-est in the nation. The propertytax alone was fifty-two percentabove the national norm.

Proposition 13, initiated by ordi-nary citizens, limited the tax onreal property to one percent of itsassessed value in 1975–1976. Itpassed with sixty-five percent ofthe vote.

Because of the resulting loss ofrevenue, many state agencieswere scaled down or cut. In1984, California voters approveda state lottery that provides sup-plemental funds for education.But Proposition 13 still remains atopic of heated debate, asCalifornians—like otherAmericans across the country—struggle with conflicting desires:more government services vs.less taxes.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

A

AnalyzingIssues

How did theSugar Act causetension betweenthe colonists and Britain?

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

BSummarizing

How did thecolonists respondto the Stamp Actand theTownshend Acts?

Tension Mounts in MassachusettsAs hostilities between the colonists and the British mounted, the atmosphere inBoston grew increasingly tense. The city soon erupted in bloody clashes and laterin a daring tax protest, all of which pushed the colonists and Britain closer to war.

VIOLENCE ERUPTS IN BOSTON On March 5, 1770, a mob gathered in frontof the Boston Customs House and taunted the British soldiers standing guardthere. Shots were fired and five colonists, including Crispus Attucks, were killedor mortally wounded. Colonial leaders quickly labeled the confrontation theBoston Massacre.

Despite strong feelings on both sides, the political atmosphere relaxed some-what during the next three years. Lord Frederick North, who later followedGrenville as the prime minister, realized that the Townshend Acts were costingmore to enforce than they would ever bring in: in their first year, for example, thetaxes raised only 295 pounds, while the cost of sending British troops to Boston

1765 STAMP ACTBritish ActionBritain passes theStamp Act, a tax lawrequiring colonists to purchase specialstamps to provepayment of tax.

Colonial ReactionColonists harassstamp distributors,boycott British goods,and prepare aDeclaration of Rightsand Grievances.

British Actions and Colonial Reactions, 1765–1775

British ActionBritain taxescertain colonialimports andstations troops at major colonialports to protectcustoms officers.

Colonial ReactionColonists protest“taxation withoutrepresentation”and organize anew boycott ofimported goods.

1767 TOWNSHEND ACTSBritish ActionTaunted by anangry mob, Britishtroops fire into thecrowd, killing fivecolonists.

Colonial ReactionColonial agitatorslabel the conflict a massacre andpublish a dramaticengraving depictingthe violence.

1770 BOSTON MASSACRE

▼

This colonialengraving wasmeant to warn ofthe effects of theStamp Act.

BackgroundPounds are thebasic monetaryunit of Britishcurrency.

History ThroughHistory Through

THE BOSTON MASSACRE (1770)Paul Revere was not only a patriot, but a silversmith and an engraver aswell. One of the best known of his engravings, depicting the BostonMassacre, is a masterful piece of anti-British propaganda. Widely circulat-ed, Revere’s engraving played a key role in rallying revolutionary fervor.

• The sign above the soldiers reads “Butcher’s Hall.”• The British commander, Captain Preston (standing at the far

right of the engraving) appears to be inciting the troops to fire.In fact, he tried to calm the situation.

• At the center foreground is a small dog, a detail that gave credence to the rumor that, following the shootings, dogslicked the blood of the victims from the street.

SKILLBUILDER Interpreting Visual Sources1. According to the details of the engraving, what advantages

do the soldiers have that the colonists do not? What point does the artist make through this contrast?

2. What do you think is the intended message behind the artist’s use of smoke spreading out from the soldiers’ rifles?

SEE SKILLBUILDER HANDBOOK, PAGE R23.


C

was over 170,000 pounds. North persuaded Parliament to repeal theTownshend Acts, except for the tax on tea.

Tensions rose again in 1772 when a group of Rhode Island colonistsattacked a British customs schooner that patrolled the coast for smugglers.The colonists boarded the vessel, which had accidentally run aground nearProvidence, and burned it to the waterline. In response, King Georgenamed a special commission to seek out the suspects and bring them toEngland for trial.

The plan to haul Americans to England for trial ignited widespreadalarm. The assemblies of Massachusetts and Virginia set up committees ofcorrespondence to communicate with other colonies about this and otherthreats to American liberties. By 1774, such committees formed a buzzingcommunication network linking leaders in nearly all the colonies.

THE BOSTON TEA PARTY In 1773, Lord North devised the Tea Act inorder to save the nearly bankrupt British East India Company. The act

granted the company the right to sell tea to the colonies free of the taxes thatcolonial tea sellers had to pay. This action would have cut colonial merchants outof the tea trade by enabling the East India Company to sell its tea directly to con-sumers for less. North hoped the American colonists would simply buy the cheap-er tea; instead, they protested dramatically.

On the moonlit evening of December 16, 1773, a large group of Boston rebelsdisguised themselves as Native Americans and proceeded to take action againstthree British tea ships anchored in the harbor. In this incident, later known as theBoston Tea Party, the “Indians” dumped 18,000 pounds of the East IndiaCompany’s tea into the waters of Boston harbor.

THE INTOLERABLE ACTS An infuriated King George III pressed Parliament toact. In 1774, Parliament responded by passing a series of measures that colonistscalled the Intolerable Acts. One law shut down Boston harbor. Another, theQuartering Act, authorized British commanders to house soldiers in vacant pri-vate homes and other buildings. In addition to these measures, General ThomasGage, commander-in-chief of British forces in North America, was appointed thenew governor of Massachusetts. To keep the peace, he placed Boston under mar-tial law, or rule imposed by military forces.

In response to Britain’s actions, the committees of correspondence assembledthe First Continental Congress. In September 1774, 56 delegates met inPhiladelphia and drew up a declaration of colonial rights. They defended thecolonies’ right to run their own affairs and stated that, if the British used forceagainst the colonies, the colonies should fight back.

REVIEW UNIT 49

1773 TEA ACTBritish ActionBritain gives the EastIndia Company specialconcessions in thecolonial tea businessand shuts out colonialtea merchants.

Colonial ReactionColonists in Bostonrebel, dumping18,000 pounds ofEast India Companytea into Bostonharbor.

British ActionKing George IIItightens controlover Massachusettsby closing BostonHarbor andquartering troops.

Colonial ReactionColonial leadersform the FirstContinentalCongress and draw up a declaration of colonial rights.

1774 INTOLERABLE ACTSBritish ActionGeneral Gageorders troops tomarch to Concord, Massachusetts,and seize colonialweapons.

Colonial ReactionMinutemen inter-cept the British andengage in battle—first at Lexington,and then atConcord.

1775 LEXINGTON AND CONCORD

SKILLBUILDER Interpreting ChartsIn what ways did colonial reaction to Britishrule intensify between 1765 and 1775?

▼

This bottle contains tea that colonists threw intoBoston harbor during theBoston Tea Party.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

C

AnalyzingMotives

What do youthink King Georgeset out to achievewhen hedisciplinedMassachusetts?

The Road to RevolutionAfter the First Continental Congress met, colonists in many eastern New Englandtowns stepped up military preparations. Minutemen—civilian soldiers whopledged to be ready to fight against the British on a minute’s notice—quietlystockpiled firearms and gunpowder. General Thomas Gage soon learned aboutthese activities. In the spring of 1775, he ordered troops to march from Boston tonearby Concord, Massachusetts, and to seize illegal weapons.

FIGHTING AT LEXINGTON AND CONCORD Colonists in Boston were watching,and on the night of April 18, 1775, Paul Revere, William Dawes, and SamuelPrescott rode out to spread word that 700 British troops were headed for Concord.The darkened countryside rang with church bells and gunshots—prearranged sig-nals, sent from town to town, that the British were coming.

The king’s troops, known as “redcoats” because of their uniforms, reachedLexington, Massachusetts, five miles short of Concord, on the cold, windy dawnof April 19. As they neared the town, they saw 70 minutemen drawn up in lineson the village green. The British commander ordered the minutemen to lay downtheir arms and leave, and the colonists began to move out without laying downtheir muskets. Then someone fired, and the British soldiers sent a volley of shotsinto the departing militia. Eight minutemen were killed and ten more werewounded, but only one British soldier was injured. The Battle of Lexington, thefirst battle of the Revolutionary War, lasted only 15 minutes.

The British marched on to Concord, where they found an empty arsenal.After a brief skirmish with minutemen, the British soldiers lined up to march backto Boston, but the march quickly became a slaughter. Between 3,000 and 4,000minutemen had assembled by now, and they fired on the marching troops frombehind stone walls and trees. British soldiers fell by the dozen. Bloodied andhumiliated, the remaining British soldiers made their way back to Boston thatnight. Colonists had become enemies of Britain and now held Boston and itsencampment of British troops under siege.


▼

The Battle ofLexington, asdepicted in a mid-nineteenth-century painting.

D

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

DEvaluating

Do you think the Britishunderestimatedthe colonists in1770–1775?

▼

This painting shows “Bunker’s Hill” before the battle, as shells from Boston set nearby Charles Townablaze. At the battle, the British employed a formation they used throughout the war. They massedtogether, were visible for miles, and failed to take advantage of ground cover.

THE SECOND CONTINENTAL CONGRESS In May of 1775, colonial leaderscalled the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia to debate their nextmove. The loyalties that divided colonists sparked endless debates at the SecondContinental Congress. Some delegates called for independence, while othersargued for reconciliation with Great Britain. Despite such differences, theCongress agreed to recognize the colonial militia as the Continental Army andappointed George Washington as its commander.

THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL Cooped up in Boston, British general ThomasGage decided to strike at militiamen on Breed’s Hill, north of the city and nearBunker Hill. On June 17, 1775, Gage sent 2,400 British soldiers up the hill. Thecolonists held their fire until the last minute and then began to mow down theadvancing redcoats before finally retreating. By the time the smoke cleared, thecolonists had lost 450 men, while the British had suffered over 1,000 casualties.The misnamed Battle of Bunker Hill would prove to be the deadliest battle ofthe war.

By July, the Second Continental Congress was readying the colonies for warthough still hoping for peace. Most of the delegates, like most colonists, feltdeep loyalty to George III and blamed the bloodshed on the king’s ministers.On July 8, Congress sent the king the so-called Olive Branch Petition, urging areturn to “the former harmony” between Britain and the colonies.

King George flatly rejected the petition. Furthermore, he issued a procla-mation stating that the colonies were in rebellion and urged Parliament to ordera naval blockade to isolate a line of ships meant for the American coast.

E

REVIEW UNIT 51

Vocabularyreconciliation: therestoration of aformer state ofharmony orfriendship

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

E

DevelopingHistoricalPerspective

Do you thinkthat the OliveBranch Petitionwas too little too late?

F

The Patriots Declare Independence Despite the growing crisis, many colonists were uncertain about the idea of inde-pendence. Following the Olive Branch Petition, public opinion began to shift.

THE IDEAS BEHIND THE REVOLUTION This shift in public opinion occurredin large part because of the Enlightenment ideas that had spread throughout thecolonies in the 1760s and 1770s. One of the key Enlightenment thinkers wasEnglish philosopher John Locke. Locke maintained that people have naturalrights to life, liberty, and property. Furthermore, he contended, every society isbased on a social contract—an agreement in which the people consent to chooseand obey a government so long as it safeguards their natural rights. If the gov-ernment violates that social contract by taking away or interfering with thoserights, people have the right to resist and even overthrow the government.

Other influences on colonial leaders who favored independence were reli-gious traditions that supported the cause of liberty. One preacher of the time,Jonathan Mayhew, wrote that he had learned from the holy scriptures that wise,brave, and virtuous men were always friends of liberty. Some ministers even spokefrom their pulpits in favor of liberty.

Yet the ideas of limited government and civil rights had been basic to Englishlaw since even before A.D. 1215, when the English nobility had forced King John tosign Magna Carta, or the Great Charter. Magna Carta acknowledged certain specif-ic rights of the barons against the king, including some rights to due process, aspeedy trial, and trial by a jury of one’s peers. Its main significance, though, was torecognize that the sovereign did not have absolute authority, but was subject likeall men and women to the rule of law. This principle was reaffirmed by the EnglishBill of Rights, accepted by King William and Queen Mary in 1689. To the colonists,however, various Acts of Parliament between 1763 and 1775 had clearly violatedtheir rights as Englishmen. In addition to due process, a speedy trial, and trial bya jury of one’s peers, those rights included taxation only by consent of propertyowners, a presumption of innocence, no standing army in peacetime without con-sent, no quartering of troops in private homes, freedom of travel in peacetime, andthe guarantee of regular legislative sessions.

THOMAS PAINE’S COMMON SENSE Just as important were the ideas ofThomas Paine. In a widely read 50-page pamphlet titled Common Sense,Paine attacked King George and the monarchy. Paine, a recent immigrant,argued that responsibility for British tyranny lay with “the royal brute ofBritain.” Paine explained that his own revolt against the king had begunwith Lexington and Concord.

A PERSONAL VOICE THOMAS PAINE

“ No man was a warmer wisher for a reconciliation than myself, beforethe fatal nineteenth of April, 1775, but the moment the event of thatday was made known, I rejected the hardened, sullen temperedPharaoh of England for ever . . . the wretch, that with the pretendedtitle of Father of his people can unfeelingly hear of their slaughter,and composedly sleep with their blood upon his soul.”

—Common Sense

Paine declared that independence would allow America to trade more freely. Healso stated that independence would give American colonists the chance to createa better society—one free from tyranny, with equal social and economic opportu-nities for all. Common Sense sold nearly 500,000 copies in 1776 and was widelyapplauded. In April 1776, George Washington wrote, “I find Common Sense is work-ing a powerful change in the minds of many men.”

▼

Thomas Paine’spamphlet CommonSense helped toovercome manycolonists’ doubtsabout separatingfrom Britain.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

F

MakingInferences

Why might the ideals of theEnlightenmentappeal to thecolonists?


G

DECLARING INDEPENDENCE By the early summer of 1776, the waveringContinental Congress finally decided to urge each colony to form its own gov-ernment. On June 7, Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee moved that “theseUnited Colonies are, and of a right ought to be, free and independent States.”

While talks on this fateful motion were under way, the Congress appointed acommittee to prepare a formal Declaration of Independence. Virginia lawyerThomas Jefferson was chosen to prepare the final draft.

Drawing on Locke’s ideas of natural rights, Jefferson’s document declared therights of “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” to be “unalienable” rights—ones that can never be taken away. Jefferson then asserted that a government’slegitimate power can only come from the consent of the governed, and that whena government denies their unalienable rights, the people have the right to “alteror abolish” that government. Jefferson provided a long list of violations commit-ted by the king and Parliament against the colonists’ unalienable rights. On thatbasis, the American colonies declared their independence from Britain.

The Declaration states flatly that “all men are created equal.” When thisphrase was written, it expressed the common belief that free citizens were polit-ical equals. It did not claim that all people had the same ability or ought to haveequal wealth. It was not meant to embrace women, Native Americans, orAfrican-American slaves—a large number of Americans. However, Jefferson’swords presented ideals that would later help these groups challenge traditionalattitudes. In his first draft, Jefferson included an eloquent attack on the crueltyand injustice of the slave trade. However, South Carolina and Georgia, the twocolonies most dependent on slavery, objected. In order to gain the votes ofthose two states, Jefferson dropped the offending passage.

On July 2, 1776, the delegates voted unanimously that the Americancolonies were free, and on July 4, 1776, they adopted the Declaration ofIndependence. The colonists had declared their freedom from Britain. Theywould now have to fight for it.

•King George III•Sugar Act•Stamp Act

•Samuel Adams•Boston Massacre•Boston Tea Party

•John Locke•Common Sense•Thomas Jefferson

•Declaration ofIndependence

1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.

MAIN IDEA 2. TAKING NOTES

Create a cluster diagram like theone shown and fill it with eventsthat demonstrate the conflictbetween Great Britain and theAmerican colonies.

Choose one event to further explainin a paragraph.

CRITICAL THINKING3. EVALUATING

Explain whether you think theBritish government acted wisely in its dealings with the coloniesbetween 1765 and 1775. Supportyour explanation with examplesfrom the text. Think About:

• the reasons for British action• the reactions of colonists• the results of British actions

4. ANALYZING EFFECTSWhile Jefferson borrowed JohnLocke’s ideas, he changed Locke’sdefinition of the rights of men from“life, liberty, and property” to “life,liberty, and the pursuit ofhappiness.” How do you thinkJefferson’s rewording of Locke’swords has affected American life? Think About:

• the experience of immigrantsseeking new lives

• the experience of AfricanAmericans and Native Americans

• the socioeconomic groups living in America

REVIEW UNIT 53

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

GSummarizing

What reasonsdid Jefferson giveto justify revolt bythe colonies?

Conflict Grows

In Congress, July 4, 1776.A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America, in

General Congress assembled. When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one peo-

ple to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another,and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal stationto which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decentrespect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare thecauses which impel them to the separation.

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, thatamong these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness; that, to securethese rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just pow-ers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any Form ofGovernment becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the Peopleto alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its founda-tion on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to themshall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed,will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed forlight and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn thatmankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to rightthemselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But whena long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object,evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, itis their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards fortheir future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is nowthe necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems ofGovernment. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history ofrepeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establish-ment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be sub-mitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary forthe public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressingimportance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should beobtained; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districtsof people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation inthe Legislature, a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only.

Jefferson begins the Declaration by attempting to legally andphilosophically justify the revolutionthat was already underway. HereJefferson is saying that, now thatthe colonists have begun toseparate themselves from Britishrule, it is time to explain why thecolonists have taken this course of action.

These passages reveal the influence of the English philosopher John Locke. In Two Treatises of Government(1690), Locke argued that if agovernment does not allow itscitizens to enjoy certain rights and freedoms, the people have aright to replace that government.

Here begins the section in whichJefferson condemns the behavior ofKing George, listing the king’s manytyrannical actions that have forcedhis American subjects to rebel.

The Declaration of IndependenceThe Declaration of Independence

54 CHAPTER 2

Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence is one of the mostThomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence is one of the mostimportant and influential legal documents of modern times. Although theimportant and influential legal documents of modern times. Although thetext frequently refers to eighteenth-century events, its Enlightenmenttext frequently refers to eighteenth-century events, its Enlightenmentphilosophy and politics have continuing relevance today. For philosophy and politics have continuing relevance today. For more than200 years the Declaration of Independence has inspired leaders of otherindependence movements and has remained a crucial document in the

struggle for civil rights and human rights.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable,and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purposeof fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing withmanly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others tobe elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, havereturned to the people at large for their exercise; the State remaining in themean time exposed to all the dangers of invasions from without, and convul-sions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for thatpurpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to passothers to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of newAppropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent toLaws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of theiroffices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms ofOfficers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies, without theConsent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to theCivil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to ourconstitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Actsof pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us;For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders

which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States;For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world; For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent;For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury;For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses;For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring Province,

establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries soas to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the sameabsolute rule into these Colonies;

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, andaltering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments;

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invest-ed with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

This is a reference to the 10,000troops that the British governmentstationed in North America after theFrench and Indian War. Although theBritish government saw the troopsas protection for the colonists, thecolonists themselves viewed thetroops as a standing army thatthreatened their freedom.

Here Jefferson condemns both theking and Parliament for passing theIntolerable Acts. Most of these lawswere intended to punish the peopleof Massachusetts for the BostonTea Party. For example, theQuartering Act of 1765 forcedcolonists to provide lodging forBritish troops. Another act allowedBritish soldiers accused of murderto be sent back to England for trial.The Boston Port Bill closed the portof Boston, “cutting off our Tradewith all parts of the world.”

Here Jefferson refers to the QuebecAct, which extended the boundariesof the province. He then refers toanother act that changed thecharter of Massachusetts andrestricted town meetings.

REVIEW UNIT 55

SPOTLIGHTSPOTLIGHTHISTORICALHISTORICAL

INDEPENDENCE ANDSLAVERY

The Declaration of Independencewent through many revisionsbefore the final draft. Jefferson, a slaveholder himself, regrettedhaving to eliminate one passagein particular—a condemnation ofslavery and the slave trade.However, in the face of opposi-tion of delegates from Southernstates, the anti-slavery passagewas deleted.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protectionand waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, anddestroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to com-pleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with cir-cumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarousages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens, taken Captive on the high Seas,to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of theirfriends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavouredto bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian Savages,whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages,sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in themost humble terms; Our repeated Petitions have been answered only byrepeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act whichmay define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We havewarned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend anunwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circum-stances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to theirnative justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of ourcommon kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitablyinterrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf tothe voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in thenecessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold therest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, inGeneral Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the worldfor the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the Authority ofthe good People of these Colonies solemnly publish and declare, That theseUnited Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, Free and Independent States;that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that allpolitical connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, andought to be, totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, theyhave full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establishCommerce, and do all other Acts and Things which Independent States mayof right do.

Here Jefferson turns his attentionaway from the king and toward theBritish people. Calling the Britishthe "common kindred" of thecolonists, Jefferson reminds themhow often the Americans haveappealed to their sense of justice.Reluctantly the colonists are nowforced to break their politicalconnections with their British kin.

In this passage, the delegatesdeclare independence.

56 CHAPTER 2

“ALL MEN WOULD BETYRANTS IF THEY COULD.”

Although the Declaration dealt withissues of equality, justice, andindependence, it did not addressconditions of inequality within thecolonies themselves. Husbandsdominated their wives, for exam-ple, and slaves lived under com-plete control of their owners.Speaking on behalf of women,Abigail Adams (above) had this tosay to her husband John, whoserved in the ContinentalCongress:

“Remember the Ladies, and bemore generous and favourableto them than your ancestors.Do not put such unimited powerinto the hands of theHusbands. Remember all Menwould be tyrants if they could. Ifparticular care . . . is not paidto the Ladies, we are deter-mined to foment a Rebellion.”

ANOTHER

PERSPECTIVEPERSPECTIVE

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the pro-tection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, ourFortunes, and our sacred Honor.

[Signed by]

John Hancock [President of the Continental Congress]

[Georgia]Button GwinnettLyman HallGeorge Walton

[Rhode Island]Stephen HopkinsWilliam Ellery

[Connecticut]Roger ShermanSamuel HuntingtonWilliam WilliamsOliver Wolcott

[North Carolina]William HooperJoseph HewesJohn Penn

[South Carolina]Edward RutledgeThomas Heyward, Jr.Thomas Lynch, Jr.Arthur Middleton

[Maryland]Samuel ChaseWilliam PacaThomas StoneCharles Carroll

[Virginia]George WytheRichard Henry LeeThomas JeffersonBenjamin HarrisonThomas Nelson, Jr.Francis Lightfoot LeeCarter Braxton

[Pennsylvania]Robert MorrisBenjamin RushBenjamin FranklinJohn MortonGeorge ClymerJames SmithGeorge TaylorJames WilsonGeorge Ross

[Delaware]Caesar RodneyGeorge ReadThomas McKean

[New York]William FloydPhilip LivingstonFrancis LewisLewis Morris

[New Jersey]Richard StocktonJohn WitherspoonFrancis HopkinsonJohn HartAbraham Clark

[New Hampshire]Josiah BartlettWilliam WhippleMatthew Thornton

[Massachusetts]Samuel AdamsJohn AdamsRobert Treat PaineElbridge Gerry

The Declaration ends with thedelegates’ pledge, or pact. Thedelegates at the Second ContinentalCongress knew that, in declaringtheir independence from GreatBritain, they were committingtreason—a crime punishable bydeath. "We must all hang together,"Benjamin Franklin reportedly said,as the delegates prepared to signthe Declaration, "or most assuredlywe shall all hang separately."

REVIEW UNIT 57

KEY PLAYERKEY PLAYER

JOHN HANCOCK1737–1793

Born in Braintree, Massachusetts,and raised by a wealthy uncle,John Hancock became one of therichest men in the colonies. Hetraveled around Boston in a luxu-rious carriage and dressed onlyin the finest clothing. “He lookedevery inch an aristocrat,” notedone acquaintance, “from hisdress and powdered wig to hissmart pumps of grained leather.”

Beneath Hancock’s refinedappearance, however, burned theheart of a patriot. He was onlytoo glad to lead the SecondContinental Congress. When the time came to sign theDeclaration of Independence,Hancock scrawled his name inbig, bold letters. “There,” hereportedly said, “I guess KingGeorge will be able to read that.”



The War forIndependence

Benjamin Franklin, the famous American writer, scientist, statesman, and diplo-mat, represented the colonies in London throughout the growing feud withBritain. As resistance in the colonies turned to bloodshed, however, Franklin fledLondon in 1775 and sailed home to Philadelphia.

Ironically, the issue of loyalty versus independence that wasdividing the American colonies from their mother country wasalso dividing Franklin’s own family. Franklin’s son William,the royal governor of New Jersey, was stubbornly loyal toKing George and opposed the rebellious atmosphere inthe colonies. In one of his many letters to Britishauthorities regarding the conflict in the colonies,William stated his position and that of others whoresisted revolutionary views.

A PERSONAL VOICE WILLIAM FRANKLIN

“ There is indeed a dread in the minds of many herethat some of the leaders of the people are aiming toestablish a republic. Rather than submit . . . we havethousands who will risk the loss of their lives in defense ofthe old Constitution. [They] are ready to declare themselveswhenever they see a chance of its being of any avail.”

—quoted in A Little Revenge: Benjamin Franklin and His Son

Because of William’s stand on colonial issues, commu-nication between him and his father virtually ceased. Thebreak between Benjamin Franklin and his son mirrored thechasm that now divided the colonies from Britain. Thenotion of fighting Britain frightened and horrified somecolonists even as it inspired others. Both sides believed thatthey were fighting for their country and being loyal to whatwas best for America.

Terms & NamesTerms & NamesMAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA WHY IT MATTERS NOWWHY IT MATTERS NOW

•Loyalists•Patriots•Saratoga•Valley Forge•inflation•Marquis deLafayette

•CharlesCornwallis

•Yorktown•Treaty of Paris•egalitarianism

Key American victoriesreversed British advancesduring the AmericanRevolutionary War.

The American Revolution is todaya national, even international,symbol of the fight for freedom.

William Franklin

PATRIOT FATHER, LOYALIST SONThe Divided House of Benjamin and William Franklin

35°N

40°N

75°W 70°W 65°W

Admiral Howe

Colonel Arnold

General Burgoyne

General Gates

General Washington

ATLANTICOCEAN

Hudson

R.

St. L

awre

nc

eR.

Delaware

R.

MO

UN

TAIN

S

AP

PAL

AC

HIA

N

LakeH

uron

LakeErie

Lake Ontario

LakeChamplain

Fort Ticonderoga,1775,1777 Lexington,

1775Saratoga,1777Concord, 1775Bunker Hill, 1775

Long Island, 1776Trenton, 1776

Brandywine,1777

Ouébec, 1775

Boston

New York

Philadelphia

Valley Forge

Albany

Montréal

N.H.

MAINE(MASS.)

MASS.

N.Y.

CANADA(British)

CONN. R.I.

N.J.

PENN.

DEL.MD.

VIRGINIA

NORTHCAROLINA

American campaign

British campaign

American victory

British victory

0

0 100 200 kilometers

100 200 miles

N

S

EW

The War BeginsAs they took on the mighty British Empire, the colonists suffered initial losses inthe Middle States, which served as the Revolutionary War’s early battleground.In time, however, the colonists would battle their way back.

LOYALISTS AND PATRIOTS As the war began, Americans found themselveson different sides of the conflict. Loyalists—those who opposed independenceand remained loyal to the British king—included judges and governors, as wellas people of more modest means. Many Loyalists thought that the British weregoing to win and wanted to avoid punishment as rebels. Still others thoughtthat the Crown would protect their rights more effectively than the new colo-nial governments would.

Patriots—the supporters of independence—drew their numbers from peo-ple who saw political and economic opportunity in an independent America.Many Americans remained neutral.

The conflict presented dilemmas for other groups as well. Many AfricanAmericans fought on the side of the Patriots, but others joined the Loyalistsbecause the British promised freedom to slaves who would fight for the Crown.Most Native Americans supported the British because they viewed colonial set-tlers as a greater threat to their lands.

EARLY VICTORIES AND DEFEATS As part of a plan to stop the rebellion byisolating New England, the British quickly attempted to seize New York City. TheBritish sailed into New York harbor in the summer of 1776 with a force of about32,000 soldiers. They included thousands ofGerman mercenaries, or hired soldiers, knownas Hessians because many of them came fromthe German region of Hesse.

A

REVIEW UNIT 59

Revolutionary War, 1775–1778

GREAT BRITAINStrengths• strong, well-

trained armyand navy

• strong centralgovernment withavailable funds

• support of colo-nial Loyalists andNative Americans

Weaknesses• large distance

separating Britainfrom battlefields

• troops unfamiliarwith terrain

• weak militaryleaders

• sympathy ofcertain Britishpoliticans for theAmerican cause

UNITED STATESStrengths• familiarity of

home ground• leadership

of GeorgeWashington andother officers

• inspiring cause—independence

Weaknesses• most soldiers

untrained andundisciplined

• shortage of foodand ammunition

• inferior navy• no central

government toenforce wartimepolicies

Military Strengthsand Weaknesses

GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER1. Location From which city did General Burgoyne

march his troops to Saratoga?2. Place What characteristic did many of the battle

sites have in common? Why do you think this was so?

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

A

FormingGeneralizations

How didthe thinking ofLoyalists differfrom that ofPatriots?

B

Although the Continental Army attempted to defend New York in lateAugust, the untrained and poorly equipped colonial troops soon retreated.By late fall, the British had pushed Washington’s army across the DelawareRiver into Pennsylvania.

Desperate for an early victory, Washington risked everything on one boldstroke set for Christmas night, 1776. In the face of a fierce storm, he led 2,400men in small rowboats across the ice-choked Delaware River. They thenmarched to their objective—Trenton, New Jersey—and defeated a garrison ofHessians in a surprise attack. The British soon regrouped, however, and inSeptember of 1777, they captured the American capital at Philadelphia.

SARATOGA AND VALLEY FORGE In the meantime, one British generalwas marching straight into the jaws of disaster. In a complex scheme,General John Burgoyne planned to lead an army down a route of lakesfrom Canada to Albany, where he would meet British troops as theyarrived from New York City. The two regiments would then join forces toisolate New England from the rest of the colonies.

As Burgoyne traveled through forested wilderness, militiamen and soldiers from the Continental Army gathered from all over New York andNew England. While he was fighting off the colonial troops, Burgoyne didn’trealize that his fellow British officers were preoccupied with holdingPhiladelphia and weren’t coming to meet him. American troops finally sur-rounded Burgoyne at Saratoga, where he surrendered on October 17, 1777.

The surrender at Saratoga turned out to be one of the most importantevents of the war. Although the French had secretly aided the Patriots since

early 1776, the Saratoga victory bolstered France’s beliefthat the Americans could win the war. As a result, theFrench signed an alliance with the Americans in February1778 and openly joined them in their fight.

While this hopeful turn of events took place in Paris,Washington and his Continental Army—desperately low onfood and supplies—fought to stay alive at winter camp inValley Forge, Pennsylvania. More than 2,000 soldiers died,yet the survivors didn’t desert. Their endurance and sufferingfilled Washington’s letters to the Congress and his friends.

A PERSONAL VOICE GEORGE WASHINGTON

“ It may be said that no history . . . can furnish an instanceof an Army’s suffering uncommon hardships as ours havedone. . . . To see the men without clothes to cover theirnakedness, without blankets to lie upon, without shoes, . . .and submitting without a murmur, is a proof of patience andobedience which in my opinion can scarcely be paralleled.”

—quoted in Ordeal at Valley Forge

Life During the RevolutionOne huge problem that the Continental Congress faced waspaying the troops. When the Congress ran out of hard cur-rency—silver and gold—it printed paper money calledContinentals (like the Revolutionary soldiers). As Congressprinted more and more money, its value plunged, causingrising prices, or inflation. The Congress also struggledagainst great odds to equip the beleaguered army.



GEORGE WASHINGTON1732–1799

During the Revolutionary War,Commander in Chief GeorgeWashington became a nationalhero. An imposing man,Washington stood six feet twoinches tall. He was broad-shoul-dered, calm, and dignified, andhe was an expert horseman. Butit was Washington’s characterthat won hearts and, ultimately,the war.

Washington persistently rouseddispirited men into a fightingforce. At Princeton, he galloped onhis white horse into the line offire, shouting and encouraging hismen. At Valley Forge, he bore thesame cold and privation as everysuffering soldier. Time and again,Washington’s tactics saved hissmaller, weaker force to fightanother day. By the end of thewar, the entire nation idolizedGeneral Washington, and adoringsoldiers crowded near him just totouch his boots when he rode by.

BackgroundSee inflation onpage R42 in theEconomicsHandbook.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

B


Why werethese earlyvictories soimportant to theContinental Army?

In 1781, the Congress appointed a rich Philadelphia merchant named RobertMorris as superintendent of finance. His associate was Haym Salomon, a Jewish polit-ical refugee from Poland. Morris and Salomon begged and borrowed on their personalcredit to raise money to provide salaries for the Continental Army. They raised fundsfrom Philadelphia’s Quakers and Jews. On September 8, 1781, a Continental majorwrote in his diary, “This day will be famous in the Annals of History for being the firston which the Troops of the United States received one Month’s Pay in Specie [coin].”

The demands of war also affected civilians. When menmarched off to fight, many wives stepped into their hus-bands’ shoes, managing farms and businesses as well ashouseholds and families. Hundreds of women also followedtheir husbands to the battlefield, where they washed andcooked for the troops—while some, including MollyPitcher, even risked their lives in combat.

The war opened some doors for African Americans.Thousands of slaves escaped to freedom in the chaos of war.About 5,000 African Americans served in the ContinentalArmy, where their courage, loyalty, and talent impressedwhite Americans. Native Americans, however, remained onthe fringes of the Revolution, preferring to remain inde-pendent and true to their own cultures.

Winning the WarIn February 1778, in the midst of the frozen winter at ValleyForge, American troops began an amazing transformation.Friedrich von Steuben, a Prussian captain and talented drill-master, helped to train the Continental Army. Other for-eign military leaders, such as the Marquis de Lafayette (mär-kCP dE lBfQC-DtP), also arrived to offer their help.Lafayette lobbied France for French reinforcements in 1779,and led a command in Virginia in the last years of the war.With the help of such European military leaders, the rawContinental Army became an effective fighting force.

C

Molly Pitcher wasthe heroine of the Battle of Monmouthin New Jersey, which was fought in1778. Afterward,General Washingtonappointed her as anoncommissionedofficer to honor herbrave deeds.

SPOTLIGHTSPOTLIGHTHISTORICALHISTORICAL

JOHN PAUL JONESAs the Revolutionary War ragedon land, Britain and the coloniesalso engaged each other at sea.The newly formed Continentalnavy was no match for the mightyBritish fleet. It was only afterFrance and Spain joined thecolonists’ cause that Britain lostits maritime supremacy.

Nonetheless, the colonistsscored several morale-boosting vic-tories over the British navy, due inlarge part to the heroics ofAmerican naval commander JohnPaul Jones. The Scottish-bornJones captured a number of Britishvessels, including the Serapis in1779. It was during his epic battleagainst this ship that Jones reject-ed the British demand that he sur-render by uttering the famous line,“I have not yet begun to fight.”

REVIEW UNIT 61

▼

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

CSummarizing

What importantcontributions didwomen make in theRevolutionary War?

D


Savannah,Dec. 29, 1778

Charles Town,May 12, 1780

Kaskaskia,July 4, 1778

Vincennes,Jan. 29, 1779

Kings Mountain,Oct. 7, 1780

Capes,Sept. 5–9, 1781

Yorktown,Oct. 19,1781

Cowpens,Jan. 17, 1781

Guilford Court House,March 15, 1781

35°N

30°N

40°N

75°W 70°W

ATLANTICOCEAN

Ohio River

AP

PA

LA

CH

I AN

MO

UN

TA

I NS

Gre

ene

Was

hing

to

n

Rochambeau

De Grasse

Clark

CampbellClinton and Cornwallis

Corn

wal

lis

Corn

wal

lis

Grav

es

Morgan

Lake Erie

Lake Ontario

LakeMichigan

LakeHuron

Newport

New York

Philadelphia

Ft. Pitt

Charlotte

Cahokia

St. Louis

Wilmington

N.H.

MASS.NEW YORK

CONN.

R.I.

N.J.

PENNSYLVANIA

DEL.MD.

VIRGINIA

N.C.

S.C.

GEORGIA

LOUISIANA(Spanish)

American/French campaign

British campaign

American/French victory

British victory

Thirteen Colonies

Other British territory


0 100 200 miles

N

S

E

W

THE BRITISH MOVE SOUTH After their devastating defeat at Saratoga, theBritish began to shift their operations to the South. At the end of 1778, a Britishexpedition easily took Savannah, Georgia. In their greatest victory of the war, theBritish under Generals Henry Clinton and Charles Cornwallis capturedCharles Town, South Carolina, in May 1780. Clinton then left for New York,while Cornwallis continued to conquer land throughout the South.

In early 1781, despite several defeats, the colonists continued to battleCornwallis—hindering his efforts to take the Carolinas. The British general thenchose to move the fight to Virginia. He led his army of 7,500 onto the peninsulabetween the James and York rivers and camped at Yorktown. Cornwallis plannedto fortify Yorktown, take Virginia, and then move north to join Clinton’s forces.

THE BRITISH SURRENDER AT YORKTOWN Shortly after learning ofCorwallis’s actions, the armies of Lafayette and Washington moved south towardYorktown. Meanwhile, a French naval force defeated a British fleet and thenblocked the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay, thereby obstructing British searoutes to the bay. By late September, about 17,000 French and American troopssurrounded the British on the Yorktown peninsula and began bombarding themday and night. Less than a month later, on October 19, 1781, Cornwallis finallysurrendered. The Americans had shocked the world and defeated the British.

Peace talks began in Paris in 1782. The American negotiating team includ-ed John Adams, John Jay of New York, and Benjamin Franklin. In September1783, the delegates signed the Treaty of Paris, which confirmed U.S. inde-pendence and set the boundaries of the new nation. The United States nowstretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River and from Canada tothe Florida border.

Vocabularypeninsula: apiece of land thatprojects into abody of water

Revolutionary War, 1778–1781

GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER1. Place Where were most of the

later Revolutionary War battlesfought?

2. Movement Why might GeneralCornwallis’s choice of Yorktown asa base have left him at a militarydisadvantage?

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

DEvaluating

What was themost importantchallenge thatfaced the newUnited States?

E

The War Becomes a Symbol of LibertyRevolutionary ideals set a new course for American society. During the war,social distinctions had begun to blur as the wealthy wore homespun clothingand as military leaders showed respect for all of their soldiers. Changes likethese stimulated the rise of egalitarianism (G-gBlQG-târPC-E-nGzQEm)—a belief inthe equality of all people. This belief fostered a new attitude: the idea that abil-ity, effort, and virtue, not wealth or family background, defined one’s worth.

The egalitarianism of the 1780s, however, applied only to white males. Itdid not bring any new political rights to women. A few states made it possiblefor women to divorce, but common law still dictated that a married woman’sproperty belonged to her husband.

Moreover, most African Americans were still enslaved, andeven those who were free usually faced discrimination andpoverty. However by 1804, many New England andMiddle states had taken steps to outlaw slavery.

For Native Americans, the Revolution broughtuncertainty. During both the French and Indian Warand the Revolution, many Native American commu-nities had been either destroyed or displaced, andthe Native American population living east of theMississippi had declined by about 50 percent.Postwar developments further threatened NativeAmerican interests, as settlers began taking tribal landsleft unprotected by the Treaty of Paris.

In the closing days of the Revolution, theContinental Congress had chosen a quotation from theworks of the Roman poet Virgil as a motto for the reverse sideof the Great Seal of the United States. The motto, Novus OrdoSeclorum, means “a new order of the ages.” Establishing a govern-ment and resolving internal problems in that new order would be atremendous challenge for citizens of the newborn United States.

▼

English potter Josiah Wedgwooddesigned this anti-slavery cameo and sent copies of it toBenjamin Franklin.

MAIN IDEA2. TAKING NOTES

On a chart like the one below, listfive significant events of theRevolutionary War in the column onthe left. Note the significance ofeach event towards the Americancause in the column on the right.


Do you think the colonists couldhave won their independencewithout aid from foreigners? Explain.Think About:

• the military needs of theAmericans and the strengths of the French

• the colonists’ military efforts in the South

• the Americans’ belief in their fight for independence

4. ANALYZING EFFECTSWhat were the effects of theRevolutionary War on the Americancolonists? Think About:

• political effects• economic effects• social effects

REVIEW UNIT 63

1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.•Loyalists•Patriots•Saratoga

•Valley Forge•inflation•Marquis de Lafayette

•Charles Cornwallis•Yorktown

•Treaty of Paris•egalitarianism

Event Significance

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

E

AnalyzingEffects

How had the AmericanRevolutionaffected the lives of NativeAmericans?


TRAC I NG

T H E MES

1770sPROTEST AGAINST BRITAIN In the tense years leading up to the Revolution,American women found ways to participate inthe protests against the British. Homemakersboycotted tea and British-made clothing. In thepainting at right, Sarah Morris Mifflin, shownwith her husband Thomas, spins her own threadrather than use British thread. Some businesswomen, such as printer Mary Goddard, whoissued the first printed copy of the Declarationof Independence to include the signers’ names,took more active roles.

1848SENECA FALLS As America grew,women becameacutely aware oftheir unequal status in society,particularly theirlack of suffrage, or the right to vote.

In 1848, two women—ElizabethCady Stanton, shown above, andLucretia Mott—launched the firstwoman suffrage movement in theUnited States at the Seneca FallsConvention in Seneca Falls, N.Y.During the convention, Stanton intro-duced her Declaration of Sentiments,in which she demanded greaterrights for women, including the rightto vote.

THE RIGHT TO VOTE More than a half-centuryafter organizing for the right to vote, women finallywon their struggle. In 1920,the United States adoptedthe Nineteenth Amendment,which granted women theright to vote.

Pictured to the right is one of the many suf-frage demonstrations of the early 1900s thathelped garner public support for the amendment.

1920

▼

▼

▼

Women and PoliticalPower

In their families and in the workplace, in speeches and in print, countless Americanwomen have worked for justice for all citizens. Throughout the history of the UnitedStates, women have played whatever roles they felt were necessary to better thiscountry. They also fought to expand their own political power, a power that through-out much of American history has been denied them.

REVIEW UNIT 65

1972–1982THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENTMOVEMENTDuring the mid-1900s, as morewomen entered the workforce, manywomen recognized their continuingunequal status, including the lack of equalpay for equal work. By passing an Equal RightsAmendment, some women hoped to obtain thesame social and economic rights as men.

Although millions supported the amend-ment, many men and women feared the meas-ure would prompt unwanted change. The ERAultimately failed to be ratified for theConstitution.

▼

2001WOMEN IN CONGRESSIn spite of the failure of the ERA, manywomen have achieved strong positionsfor themselves—politically as well associally and economically.

In the 107th Congress, 60 womenserved in the House and 13 served in the Senate. Shown above areWashington’s senators Patty Murray(left) and Maria Cantwell in 2000.

▼

THINKING CRITICALLYTHINKING CRITICALLY

IRESEARCH LINKS CLASSZONE.COM

CONNECT TO HISTORY1. Synthesizing How did women’s political status change

from 1770 to 2001?


CONNECT TO TODAY2. Researching and Reporting Think of a woman who

has played an important role in your community. Whatkinds of things did this woman do? What support didshe receive in the community? What problems did sherun into? Report your findings to the class.


Terms & NamesTerms & NamesMAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA


Confederation andthe Constitution

•republic•Articles ofConfederation

•NorthwestOrdinance of 1787

•Shays’s Rebellion•James Madison

•federalism•checks andbalances

•ratification•Federalists•Antifederalists•Bill of Rights

American leaders createdthe Constitution as a blue-print of government for theUnited States.

More than 200 years after itscreation, the Constitutionremains the nation’s guidingdocument for a workinggovernment.

WHY IT MATTERS NOWWHY IT MATTERS NOW

John Dickinson understood, perhaps better than other dele-gates to the Continental Congress, the value of compromise. In1776 Dickinson hoped for reconciliation with Britain andrefused to sign the Declaration of Independence. Yet, eightdays after the Declaration was adopted, Dickinson presentedCongress with the first draft of a plan for setting up a workablegovernment for the new states.

A PERSONAL VOICE JOHN DICKINSON

“ Two rules I have laid down for myself throughout this contest . . . first, on all occasions where I am called upon, as atrustee for my countrymen, to deliberate on questions impor-tant to their happiness, disdaining all personal advantages tobe derived from a suppression of my real sentiments . . . open-ly to avow [declare] them; and, secondly, . . . whenever thepublic resolutions are taken, to regard them though oppositeto my opinion, as sacred . . . and to join in supporting them asearnestly as if my voice had been given for them.”

—quoted in The Life and Times of John Dickinson, 1732–1808

Dickinson’s two rules became guiding principles for theleaders who faced the formidable task of forming a new nation.

Experimenting with ConfederationAs citizens of a new and independent nation, Americans had to create their ownpolitical system. Fighting the Revolutionary War gave the states a common goal,but they remained reluctant to unite under a strong central government.

John Dickinson

B

After the Revolution, many Americans favored a republic—a government inwhich citizens rule through their elected representatives. However, many alsofeared that a democracy—government directly by the people—placed power in thehands of the uneducated masses. These fears and concerns deeply affected the plan-ning of the new government.

THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION The Second Continental Congress set upa new plan of government in a set of laws called the Articles of Confederation.The plan established a form of government called a confederation, or alliance,among the thirteen states.

The Articles set up a Congress in which each statewould have one vote regardless of population. Powers weredivided between the states and the national government.The national government had the power to declare war,make peace, and sign treaties. It could borrow money, setstandards for coins and for weights and measures, andestablish a postal service. After approval by all thirteenstates, the Articles of Confederation went into effect inMarch 1781.

One of the first issues the Confederation faced had todo with the the Northwest Territory, lands west of theAppalachians, where many people settled after theRevolutionary War. To help govern these lands, Congresspassed the Land Ordinance of 1785, which established aplan for surveying the land. (See Geography Spotlight onpage 72.) In the Northwest Ordinance of 1787,Congress provided a procedure for dividing the land into nofewer than three and no more than five states. The ordi-nance also set requirements for the admission of new states,which, however, overlooked Native American land claims.

The Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 becamethe Confederation’s most significant achievements. Overshadowing such success-es, however, were the Confederation’s many problems. The most serious problemwas that each state functioned independently by pursuing its own interests ratherthan considering those of the nation as a whole. The government had no meansof raising money or enforcing its laws. Moreover, there was no national court sys-tem to settle legal disputes. The Articles of Confederation created a weak centralgovernment and little unity among the states.

SHAYS’S REBELLION The need for a stronger central government becameobvious in 1786 when many farmers in western Massachusetts rose up in protestover increased state taxes. The farmers’ discontent boiled over into mob action inJanuary of 1787 when Daniel Shays, a fellow farmer, led an army of 1,200 farm-ers toward the arsenal at Springfield, Massachusetts. State officials hurriedly calledout the militia to head off the army of farmers, killing four of the rebels and scat-tering the rest.

Shays’s Rebellion, as the farmers’ protest came to be called, caused panicand dismay throughout the nation. It was clearly time to talk about a strongernational government. Because the states had placed such severe limits on the gov-ernment to prevent abuse of power, the government was unable to solve many ofthe nation’s problems. News of the rebellion spread throughout the states. Therevolt persuaded twelve states to send delegates to a convention called byCongress in Philadelphia in May of 1787.

REVIEW UNIT 67

Weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation

• Congress could not enact andcollect taxes.

• Each state had only one vote inCongress, regardless of population.

• Nine out of thirteen states neededto agree to pass important laws.

• Articles could be amended only if all states approved.

• There was no executive branch toenforce laws of Congress.

• There was no national court system to settle legal disputes.

• There were thirteen separatestates that lacked national unity.

A

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

AContrasting

What was the differencebetween the Land Ordinance of 1785 and the NorthwestOrdinanceof 1787?

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

B

MakingInferences

Why do youthink news ofShays’s Rebellionmade states eagerto participate in the Philadelphiaconvention?

Creating a New GovernmentMost of the delegates at the Constitutional Convention recognized the need tostrengthen the central government. Within the first five days of the meeting, theygave up the idea of fixing the Articles of Confederation and decided to form anentirely new government that would replace the one created by the Articles.

CONFLICT AND COMPROMISE One major issue that the delegates faced wasgiving fair representation to both large and small states. James Madison pro-posed the Virginia Plan, which called for a bicameral, or two-house, legislature,with membership based on each state’s population. Delegates from the smallstates vigorously objected to the Virginia Plan because it gave more power tostates with large populations. Small states supported William Paterson’s NewJersey Plan, which proposed a single-house congress in which each state had anequal vote.

The debate became deadlocked and dragged on through the hot and humidsummer days. Eventually, Roger Sherman suggested the Great Compromise,which offered a two-house Congress to satisfy both small and big states. Eachstate would have equal representation in the Senate, or upper house. The size of

the population of each state would determine its represen-tation in the House of Representatives, or lower house.Voters of each state would choose members of the House.The state legislatures would choose members of the Senate.

The Great Compromise settled one major issue but ledto conflict over another. Southern delegates, whose stateshad large numbers of slaves, wanted slaves included in thepopulation count that determined the number of repre-sentatives in the House. Northern delegates, whose stateshad few slaves, disagreed. Not counting the slaves wouldgive the Northern states more representatives than theSouthern states in the House of Representatives. The dele-gates eventually agreed to the Three-Fifths Compromise,which called for three-fifths of a state’s slaves to be count-ed as part of the population.

DIVISION OF POWERS After the delegates reached agree-ment on the difficult questions of slavery and representa-tion, they dealt with other issues somewhat more easily.They divided power between the states and the nationalgovernment, and they separated the national government’spower into three branches. Thus, they created an entirelynew government.

The new system of government that the delegates werebuilding was a form of federalism, in which power isdivided between a national government and several stategovernments. The powers granted to the national govern-ment by the Constitution are known as delegated powers,or enumerated powers. These include such powers as thecontrol of foreign affairs and regulation of trade betweenthe states. Powers not specifically granted to the nationalgovernment but kept by the states are called reservedpowers. These include powers such as providing for andsupervising education. Some powers, such as the right totax and establish courts, were shared by both the nationaland the state governments.


C


JAMES MADISON1751–1836

The oldest of 12 children, JamesMadison grew up in Virginia. Hewas a sickly child who suffered allhis life from physical ailments.Because of a weak speakingvoice, he decided not to become aminister and thus entered politics.

Madison’s Virginia Plan resultedfrom extensive research that hehad done on political systemsbefore the convention. He askedEdmund Randolph, a fellow dele-gate from Virginia, to present theplan because his own voice wastoo weak to be heard throughoutthe assembly.

Besides providing brilliant politi-cal leadership, Madison kept arecord of the debates that tookplace at the convention. Becauseof his plan and his leadership,Madison is known as the Fatherof the Constitution.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

C

AnalyzingIssues

In what waysdid the GreatCompromiseresolve certainproblems even as it created new ones?

D

REVIEW UNIT 69

SEPARATION OF POWERS The delegates also limited the authority of thenational government. First, they created three branches of government:

• a legislative branch to make laws

• an executive branch to carry out laws

• a judicial branch to interpret the laws and settle disputes

Then the delegates established a system of checks and balances to pre-vent any one branch from dominating the other two. The procedure the dele-gates established for electing the president reflected their fear of placing toomuch power in the hands of the people. Instead of choosing the presidentdirectly, each state would choose a number of electors equal to the number ofsenators and representatives that the state had in Congress. This group of elec-tors chosen by the states, known as the electoral college, would then cast bal-lots for the presidential candidates.

CHANGING THE CONSTITUTION The delegates also provided a means ofchanging the Constitution through the amendment process. After four months ofdebate and compromise, the delegates succeeded in creating a Constitution thatwas an enduring document. In other words, by making the Constitution flexible,the delegates enabled it to pass the test of time.

Ratifying the ConstitutionGeorge Washington adjourned the Constitutional Convention on September 17,1787. The Convention’s work was over, but the new government could notbecome a reality until at least nine states ratified, or approved, the Constitution.Thus, the battle over ratification began.

FEDERALISTS AND ANTIFEDERALISTS Supporters of the Constitution calledthemselves Federalists, because they favored the new Constitution’s balance ofpower between the states and the national government. Their opponents becameknown as Antifederalists because they opposed having such a strong centralgovernment and thus were against the Constitution.

• Authority derives from the people.• In a new plan of government, the

central government should be strongerthan the states.

• Authority derives from the states.• Under a modified Articles of

Confederation, the states should remainstronger than the central government.

• Congress should be composed of two houses.

• The number of delegates to bothhouses of Congress should beassigned according to population.

• A Congress of one house should be preserved.

• Each state should have one vote.

LARGE STATES VS. SMALL STATES

NORTH VS. SOUTH• Slaves should not be counted when

deciding the number of congressional delegates.

• Slaves should be counted when levying taxes.

• Slaves should be counted when deter-mining congressional representation.

• Slaves should not be counted when levying taxes.

STRONG CENTRAL GOVERNMENT VS. STRONG STATES

SKILLBUILDER Interpreting Charts1. Why do you think the Southern states wanted slaves counted for determining the

number of representatives in the House of Representatives?

2. Why did the small states object to delegates being assigned according to population?

Key Conflicts in the Constitutional Convention

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

D

MakingInferences

Why did thedelegates fear thatone branch of thegovernment wouldgain too muchpower?


Both sides waged a war of words in the public debateover ratification. The Federalist, a series of 85 essaysdefending the Constitution, appeared in New York news-papers. These were essays written by three influentialsupporters of ratification: Alexander Hamilton, JamesMadison, and John Jay.

All three writers felt that there were defects in thenew Constitution, but they also felt that its strongercentral government was superior to the weak Congressprovided by the Articles of Confederation. Using thepen name “Publius,” the authors addressed those whoargued that ratification should be delayed until a moreperfect document could be written. In the followingexcerpt from one of the essays (now known to be writ-ten by Madison), the author asks his readers to com-pare the admittedly flawed Constitution with its pre-decessor, the Articles.

A PERSONAL VOICE JAMES MADISON

“ It is a matter both of wonder and regret, that thosewho raise so many objections against the newConstitution should never call to mind the defects ofthat which is to be exchanged for it [The Articles]. It is not necessary that the former should be perfect; it is sufficient that the latter is more imperfect.”

—The Federalist, Number 38, 1788

The Antifederalists’ main opposition to the new Constitution was that it con-tained no guarantee that the government would protect the rights of the peopleor of the states. Antifederalists included such notable figures as Patrick Henry,George Mason, and Richard Henry Lee. Letters from the Federal Farmer, most like-ly written by Lee, was the most widely read Antifederalist publication. Lee listedthe rights that Antifederalists believed should be protected, such as freedom ofthe press and of religion, guarantees against unreasonable searches of people andtheir homes, and the right to a trial by jury.

The Antifederalists’ demand for a bill of rights—a formal summary of citizens’rights and freedoms—stemmed from their fear of a strong central government.All state constitutions guaranteed individual rights, and seven of them included abill of rights. The states believed they would serve as protectors of the people. Yetin the end, the Federalists yielded to people’s overwhelming desire and promisedto add a bill of rights if the states would ratify the Constitution. In June 1788,New Hampshire became the ninth state to approve the Constitution, making itthe law of the land.

ADOPTION OF A BILL OF RIGHTS By December 1791, the states also had rati-fied ten amendments to the Constitution, which became known as the Bill ofRights. The first eight amendments spell out the personal liberties the states hadrequested. The First Amendment guarantees citizens’ rights to freedom of religion,speech, the press, and political activity. According to the Second and ThirdAmendments, the government cannot deny citizens the right to bear arms as mem-bers of a militia of citizen-soldiers, nor can the government house troops in privatehomes in peacetime. The Fourth Amendment prevents the search of citizens’homes without proper warrants. The Fifth through Eighth Amendments guaranteefair treatment for individuals accused of crimes. The Ninth and Tenth Amendmentsimpose general limits on the powers of the federal government.

James Madison

E

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

ESummarizing

Why did theAntifederalistsinsist that theConstitutionmust have a bill of rights?

F

The protection of rights and freedoms did not apply to all Americans at thetime the Bill of Rights was adopted. Native Americans and slaves were excluded.Women were not mentioned in the Constitution. The growing number of freeblacks did not receive adequate protection from the Constitution. Although manystates permitted free blacks to vote, the Bill of Rights offered them no protectionagainst whites’ discrimination and hostility.

Continuing Relevance of the ConstitutionThe United States Constitution is the oldest written national constitution still inuse. It is a “living” document, capable of meeting the changing needs of Americans.One reason for this capability lies in Article I, Section 8, which gives Congress thepower “To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into exe-cution” the powers that the Constitution enumerates. This clause is referred to asthe “elastic clause” because it stretches the power of the government. The framersof the Constitution included these implied powers in order to allow the authorityof the government to expand to meet unforeseen circumstances.

The Constitution also can be formally changed when necessary throughamendments. The Constitution provides ways for amendments to be proposed andto be ratified. However, the writers made the amendment process difficult in orderto avoid arbitrary changes. Through the ratification process, the writers of theConstitution have also ensured that any amendment has the overwhelming sup-port of the people.

In more than 200 years, only 27 amendments have been added to theConstitution. These amendments have helped the government meet the challengesof a changing world, while still preserving the rights of the American people.

REVIEW UNIT 71



Re-create the web below on yourpaper, and fill it in with specificissues that were debated at theConstitutional Convention.

Choose one issue and explain howthe delegates resolved that issue.


Do you think the Federalists or theAntifederalists had the more validarguments? Support your opinion withexamples from the text. Think About:

• Americans’ experience with the Articles of Confederation

• Americans’ experience with Great Britain

4. ANALYZING ISSUESSeveral states ratified theConstitution only after beingassured that a bill of rights wouldbe added to it. In your opinion, whatis the most important value of theBill of Rights? Why?

5. ANALYZING VISUAL SOURCESThe cartoon above shows a paradeheld in New York to celebrate thenew constitution. Why is Hamilton’sname displayed under the “Ship of State” float?

Issues Debated

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

F

DrawingConclusions

How did theadoption of theBill of Rights showthe flexibility of the Constitution?

•republic•Articles of Confederation•Northwest Ordinance of 1787•Shays’s Rebellion

•James Madison•federalism•checks and balances•ratification

•Federalists•Antifederalists•Bill of Rights


GEOGRAPHY

SPOTLIGHT

The Land Ordinanceof 1785

When states ceded, or gave up, their western lands to the United States, the newnation became “land rich” even though it was “money poor.” Government leaderssearched for a way to use the land to fund such services as public education.

The fastest and easiest way to raise money would have been to sell the land inhuge parcels. However, only the rich would have been able to purchase land. TheLand Ordinance of 1785 made the parcels small and affordable.

The Land Ordinance established a plan for dividing the land. The governmentwould first survey the land, dividing it into townships of 36 square miles, as shownon the map below. Then each township would be divided into 36 sections of 1square mile, or about 640 acres, each. An individual or a family could purchase a sec-tion and divide it into farms or smaller units. A typical farm of the period was equalto one-quarter section, or 160 acres. The minimum price per acre was one dollar.

Government leaders hoped the buyers would develop farms and establish com-munities. In this way settlements would spread across the western territories in anorderly way. Government surveyors repeated the process thousands of times, impos-ing frontier geometry on the land.

In 1787, the Congress further provided for the orderly development of theNorthwest Territory by passing the Northwest Ordinance, which established howstates would be created out of the territory.

Aerial photograph showing howthe Land Ordinance trans-formed the landscape into apatchwork of farms.

The map below shows how an eastern section of Ohio has beensubdivided according to the Land Ordinance of 1785.

Ohio River

MississippiRiver

ATLANTIC�OCEAN

LakeSuperior

LakeMichigan

Lake Huron

Lake Erie

S.C.GEORGIA

TENNESSEE(1796)

OHIO(1803)INDIANA

(1816)

MICHIGAN(1837)

ILLINOIS(1818)

WISCONSIN(1848)

DELAWARE

NEW YORK

PENN.

VIRGINIA

N.C.

NEW JERSEY

MD.

N.H.

MASS.

CONN. R.I.

VT.

BRITISH TERRITORY

NORTHWEST TERRITORYSPANISH

TERRITORY

N

S

EW

Established state

U.S. territory


0 100 200 miles

▼

▼

0 18 36 kilometers

0 18 36 miles

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

6miles

REVIEW UNIT 73

RELIGION To encouragethe growth of religion withinthe township, the surveyorsset aside a full section ofland. Most of the land with-in the section was sold toprovide funds for a churchand a minister’s salary.This practice was droppedafter a few years becauseof concern about the sepa-ration of church and state.

EDUCATION The ordi-nance encouraged publiceducation by setting asidesection 16 of every town-ship for school buildings.Local people used themoney raised by the sale ofland within this section tobuild a school and hire ateacher. This section wascentrally located so thatstudents could reach it with-out traveling too far.

This map shows how a township,now in Meigs County, Ohio, wasdivided in 1787 into parcels offull square-mile sections andsmaller, more affordable plots.The names of the original buyersare written on the full sections.

▼

THINKING CRITICALLYTHINKING CRITICALLY

1. Analyzing Distributions How did the Land Ordinanceof 1785 provide for the orderly development of theNorthwest Territory? How did it make land affordable?

2. Creating a Chart Create a table that organizes andsummarizes the information in the map above. To helpyou organize your thoughts, pose questions that themap suggests and that a table could help answer.


IRESEARCH LINKS CLASSZONE.COM

REVENUE Congress reserved two or three sec-tions of each township for sale at a later date. Congress planned to sell the sections then at a tidy profit. The gov-ernment soon abandoned this practice because of criticism that it should not be involved in land speculation.

WATER Rivers and streams were veryimportant to early settlers, who used them fortransportation. Of most interest, however, wasa meandering stream, which indicated flat bot-tomland that was highly prized for its fertility.


Terms & NamesTerms & NamesMAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA


Launching the New Nation

With George Washington asits first president, the UnitedStates began creating aworking government for itsnew nation.

The country’s early leadersestablished precedents fororganizing government that theUnited States still follows.

WHY IT MATTERS NOWWHY IT MATTERS NOW

As the hero of the Revolution, George Washington was theunanimous choice in the nation’s first presidential election.When the news reached him on April 14, 1789, Washingtonaccepted the call to duty—despite his uncertainty about how tolead the new country. Two days later he set out for New YorkCity to take the oath of office.

A PERSONAL VOICE GEORGE WASHINGTON

“ About ten o’clock I bade adieu [farewell] to Mount Vernon, to private life, and to domestic felicity [happiness]; and with a mindoppressed with more anxious and painful sensations than I havewords to express, set out for New York . . . with the best dispo-sitions [intentions] to render service to my country in obedienceto its call, but with less hope of answering its expectations.”

—The Diaries of George Washington

When Washington took office as the first president of theUnited States under the Constitution, he and Congress faced adaunting task to create an entirely new government. The momentous decisionsthat these early leaders made have resounded through American history.

Washington Heads the New GovernmentAlthough the Constitution provided a strong foundation, it was not a detailedblueprint for governing. To create a working government, Washington andCongress had to make many practical decisions. Perhaps James Madison put itbest: “We are in a wilderness without a single footstep to guide us.”

JUDICIARY ACT OF 1789 One of the first tasks Washington and Congress facedwas the creation of a judicial system. The Judiciary Act of 1789 provided for aSupreme Court and federal circuit and district courts. The Judiciary Act allowedstate court decisions to be appealed to a federal court when constitutional issues

•Judiciary Act of 1789

•AlexanderHamilton

•cabinet•two-party system

•Democratic-Republican

•protective tariff•XYZ Affair•Alien andSedition Acts

•nullification

George Washington

A

were raised. It also guaranteed that federal laws would remain “the supreme lawof the land.”

WASHINGTON SHAPES THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH The nation’s leaders alsofaced the task of building an executive branch. To help the president govern,Congress created three executive departments: the Department of State, to dealwith foreign affairs; the Department of War, to handle military matters; and theDepartment of the Treasury, to manage finances.

To head these departments, Washington chose capable leaders—ThomasJefferson as secretary of state, Alexander Hamilton as secretary of the treasury,Henry Knox as secretary of war. These department heads soon became the presi-dent’s chief advisers, or cabinet.

HAMILTON AND JEFFERSON: TWO CONFLICTING VISIONS Hamilton andJefferson held very different political ideas. Hamilton believed in a strong centralgovernment led by a prosperous, educated elite of upper-class citizens. Jeffersondistrusted a strong central gov-ernment and the rich. Hefavored strong state and localgovernments rooted in popularparticipation. Hamilton believedthat commerce and industrywere the keys to a strong nation;Jefferson favored a society offarmer-citizens.

HAMILTON’S ECONOMIC PLANAs secretary of the treasury,Hamilton’s job was to put thenation’s economy on a firmfooting. To do this, he called onthe nation to pay off its debts, alarge amount of which wasincurred during the Revolution.He also proposed the establish-ment of a national bank thatwould be funded by both thefederal government and wealthyprivate investors. This bankwould issue paper money andhandle taxes and other govern-ment funds.

Opponents of a nationalbank, such as James Madison,argued that since theConstitution made no provisionfor such an institution, Congresshad no right to authorize it. Thisargument began the debatebetween those, like Hamilton,who favored a loose interpreta-tion of the Constitution andthose, like Madison, who favoreda strict interpretation—a vitaldebate that has continuedthroughout U.S. history.

REVIEW UNIT 75

KEY PLAYERSKEY PLAYERS

THOMAS JEFFERSON1743–1826

The writer of the Declarationof Independence, ThomasJefferson began his politicalcareer at age 26, when hewas elected to Virginia’s colo-nial legislature. In 1779 hewas elected governor ofVirginia, and in 1785 he wasappointed minister to France.He served as secretary ofstate from 1790 to 1793.

A Southern planter, Jeffersonwas also an accomplishedscholar, the architect ofMonticello (his Virginia house),an inventor (of, among otherthings, a machine that madecopies of letters), and thefounder of the University ofVirginia in 1819. Despite hiselite background and his own-ership of slaves, he was astrong ally of the small farmerand average citizen.

ALEXANDER HAMILTON1755–1804

Born into poverty in theBritish West Indies, AlexanderHamilton was orphaned atage 13 and went to work asa shipping clerk. He latermade his way to New York,where he attended King’sCollege (now ColumbiaUniversity). He joined thearmy during the Revolutionand became an aide toGeneral Washington.

Intensely ambitious,Hamilton quickly moved up insociety. Although in his hum-ble origins Hamilton was theopposite of Jefferson, he hadlittle faith in the common citi-zen and sided with the inter-ests of upper-classAmericans. Hamilton said ofJefferson’s beloved commonpeople: “Your people, sir, yourpeople is a great beast!”

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

AContrasting

How didJefferson’s andHamilton’s viewsof governmentdiffer?

THE FIRST POLITICAL PARTIES The differences within Washington’s cabinetintensified and soon helped to give rise to a two-party system. Those who sharedHamilton’s vision of a strong central government (mostly Northerners) calledthemselves Federalists. Those who supported Jefferson’s vision of strong state gov-ernments (mostly Southerners) called themselves Democratic-Republicans.

THE WHISKEY REBELLION During Washington’s second term, an incidentoccurred that reflected the tension between federal and regional interests.Previously, Congress had passed a protective tariff, an import tax on goods pro-duced abroad meant to encourage American production. To generate even morerevenue, Secretary Hamilton pushed through an excise tax—a tax on a product’smanufacture, sale, or distribution—to be levied on the manufacture of whiskey.

In 1794, furious whiskey producers in western Pennsylvania refused to pay thetax and attacked the tax collectors. The federal government responded by sendingsome 13,000 militiamen to end the conflict. The Whiskey Rebellion, as it came tobe known, marked the first use of armed force to assert federal authority.

Challenges at Home and AbroadAt the same time, the new government facedcritical problems and challenges overseas aswell as at home along the western frontier.

ADDRESSING FOREIGN AFFAIRS In1789 a stunning revolution in France endedthe French monarchy and brought hope fora government based on the will of the peo-ple. By 1793, France was engaged in warwith Great Britain as well as with otherEuropean countries.

In the United States, reaction to theconflict tended to split along party lines.Democratic-Republicans supported France.

BackgroundIn addition topromotingAmerican goods,the Tariff of 1789,as well as tariffsthat followed,provided themajority of thefederalgovernment’srevenue until the20th century.

Frenchrevolutionariesstorm theBastille, aninfamous prison in Paris, France,on July 14, 1789.

▼

Contrasting Views of the Federal Government

HAMILTON• Concentrating power in federal

government• Fear of mob rule• Republic led by a well-educated elite

• Loose interpretation of the Constitution• National bank constitutional

(loose interpretation)• Economy based on shipping

and manufacturing • Payment of national and state debts

(favoring creditors)• Supporters: merchants, manufacturers,

landowners, investors, lawyers, clergy

JEFFERSON• Sharing power with state and local

governments; limited national government• Fear of absolute power or ruler• Democracy of virtuous farmers

and tradespeople

• Strict interpretation of the Constitution• National bank unconstitutional

(strict interpretation)• Economy based on farming

• Payment of only the national debt (favoring debtors)

• Supporters: the “plain people” (farmers, tradespeople)

SKILLBUILDER Interpreting Charts1. Whose view of the federal government was a wealthy person more likely to favor? Why?2. How do you think Jefferson differed from Hamilton in his view of people and human nature?

B

Federalists wanted to back the British. President Washington took a middle posi-tion. He issued a declaration of neutrality, a statement that the United Stateswould support neither side in the conflict. Washington remained wary of foreigninvolvement throughout his tenure in office. In his farewell address in 1796, hewarned the nation to “steer clear of permanent Alliances with any portion of theforeign World.”

In another significant foreign matter, Thomas Pinckney negotiated a treatywith Spain in 1795. According to Pinckney’s Treaty, Spain agreed to give up allclaims to land east of the Mississippi (except Florida) and recognized the 31st par-allel as the northern boundary of Florida. Spain also agreed to open theMississippi River to American traffic and allow traders to use the port of NewOrleans. The treaty was important because it helped pave the way for U.S. expan-sion west of the Appalachians.

CHALLENGES IN THE NORTHWEST Meanwhile, Americans faced trouble alongtheir western border, where the British still maintained forts and NativeAmericans continued to resist white settlers. In 1794, after numerous skirmishes,the U.S. military led by General Anthony Wayne defeated a confederacy of NativeAmericans at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, near present-day Toledo, Ohio. The vic-tory helped to establish the settlers’ supremacy in the region.

JAY’S TREATY At the time of the Battle of Fallen Timbers, John Jay, the chiefjustice of the Supreme Court, was in London to negotiate a treaty with GreatBritain. One of the disputed issues was which nation would control territorieswest of the Appalachian Mountains. When news of Wayne’s victory at FallenTimbers arrived, the British agreed to evacuate their posts in the NorthwestTerritory because they did not wish to fight both the United States and theFrench, with whom they were in conflict, at the same time.

Although Jay’s Treaty, signed on November 19, 1794, was a diplomatic victo-ry, the treaty provoked outrage at home. For one thing, it allowed the British tocontinue their fur trade on the American side of the U.S.-Canadian border. Thisangered western settlers. Also, the treaty did not resolve a dispute over neutralAmerican trade in the Caribbean. Americans believed that their ships hadthe right to free passage there. The British, however, had seized anumber of these ships, confiscating their crews and cargo. Despiteserious opposition, the treaty managed to pass the Senate.

The bitter political fight over Jay’s Treaty, along with thegrowing division between the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans, convinced Washington not to seek a third term.

Adams Provokes CriticismIn the election of 1796, the United States faced a new sit-uation: a contest between opposing parties. The Federalistsnominated Vice President John Adams for president, whilethe Democratic-Republicans chose Thomas Jefferson.

In the election, Adams received 71 electoral votes, whileJefferson received 68. Because the Constitution stated thatthe runner-up should become vice-president, the countryfound itself with a Federalist president and a Democratic-Republican vice-president.

The election also underscored the growing danger of sectionalism—placing the interests of one region over those of the nation as a whole. Almost allthe electors from the Southern states voted for Jefferson, while all the electorsfrom the Northern states voted for Adams.

REVIEW UNIT 77

Portrait of ayoung JohnAdams by Joseph Badger

▼

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

B


Why did theUnited Stateswant access tothe MississippiRiver?

C

ADAMS TRIES TO AVOID WAR Soon after taking office, President Adams facedhis first crisis: a looming war with France. The French government regarded theU.S.-British agreement over the Northwest Territory a violation of the French-American alliance. In retaliation they began to seize American ships bound forBritain. Adams sent a three-man team to Paris to negotiate a solution.

This team, which included future Chief Justice John Marshall, planned tomeet with the French foreign minister, Talleyrand. Instead, the French sent threelow-level officials, whom Adams in his report to Congress called “X, Y, and Z.”The French officials demanded a $250,000 bribe as payment for seeing Talleyrand.News of this insult, which became known as the XYZ Affair, provoked a waveof anti-French feeling at home. “Millions for defense, but not one cent for trib-ute” became the slogan of the day. In 1798, Congress created a navy departmentand authorized American ships to seize French vessels. For the next two years, anundeclared naval war raged between France and the United States.

The Federalists called for a full-scale war against France, but Adams refused totake that step. Through diplomacy, the two countries eventually smoothed overtheir differences. Adams damaged his standing among the Federalists, but he keptthe United States out of war.

THE ALIEN AND SEDITION ACTS Although Democratic-Republicans cheeredAdams for avoiding war with France, they criticized him mercilessly on manyother issues. Tensions between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans rose to afever pitch. Adams regarded Democratic-Republican ideas as dangerous to thewelfare of the nation. He and other Federalists accused the Democratic-Republicans of favoring foreign powers.

Many immigrants were active in the Democratic-Republican party. Some ofthe most vocal critics of the Adams administration were foreign-born. They includ-ed French and British radicals as well as recent Irish immigrants who lashed out atanyone who was even faintly pro-British, including the Federalist Adams.

To counter what they saw as a growing threat against the government, theFederalists pushed through Congress in 1798 four measures that became knownas the Alien and Sedition Acts. Three of these measures, the Alien Acts, raisedthe residence requirement for American citizenship from 5 years to 14 years andallowed the president to deport or jail any alien considered undesirable.


AnalyzingAnalyzing

“THE PARIS MONSTER”“Cinque-tetes, or the Paris Monster” is the title ofthis political cartoon satirizing the XYZ Affair. On theright, the five members of the French Directory, or ruling executive body, are depicted as a five-headedmonster demanding money. The three American representatives, Elbridge Gerry, Charles Pinckney,and John Marshall, are on the left, exclaiming “Ceasebawling, monster! We will not give you six-pence!”

SKILLBUILDER Analyzing Political Cartoons1. How would you contrast the cartoon’s depiction

of the U.S. representatives with its depiction ofthe French Directory?

2. What other details in the cartoon show the cartoonist’s attitude toward the French?


Vocabularyalien: belongingto or coming fromanother country;foreignsedition: rebellionagainst one’scountry; treason

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

C

AnalyzingMotives

Why did theFrench begin toseize U.S. ships?

D

The fourth measure, the Sedition Act, set fines and jail terms for anyone try-ing to hinder the operation of the government or expressing “false, scandalous,and malicious statements” against the government. Under the terms of this act,the federal government prosecuted and jailed a number of Democratic-Republicaneditors, publishers, and politicians. Outraged Democratic-Republicans called thelaws a violation of freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment.

VIRGINIA AND KENTUCKY RESOLUTIONS The two main Democratic-Republican leaders, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, saw the Alien andSedition Acts as a serious misuse of power on the part of the federal government.They decided to organize opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts by appealingto the states. Madison drew up a set of resolutions that were adopted by theVirginia Legislature, while Jefferson wrote resolutions that were approved inKentucky. The resolutions warned of the dangers that the Alien and Sedition Actsposed to a government of checks and balances guaranteed by the Constitution.

A PERSONAL VOICE

“ Let the honest advocate of confidence [in government] read the alien and seditionacts, and say if the Constitution has not been wise in fixing limits to the governmentit created, and whether we should be wise in destroying those limits.”

—8th Resolution, The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions

The Kentucky Resolutions in particular asserted the principle of nullification:the states had the right to nullify, or consider void, any act of Congress that theydeemed unconstitutional. Virginia and Kentucky viewed the Alien and SeditionActs as unconstitutional violations of the First Amendment that deprived citizensof their rights.

The resolutions also called for other states to adopt similar declarations. Noother state did so, however, and the issue died out by the next presidential elec-tion. Nevertheless, the resolutions showed that the balance of power between thestates and the federal government remained a controversial issue. In fact, the elec-tion of 1800 between Federalist John Adams and Democratic-Republican ThomasJefferson would center on this critical debate.

REVIEW UNIT 79

•Judiciary Act of 1789•Alexander Hamilton•cabinet

•two-party system•Democratic-Republican

•protective tariff•XYZ Affair

•Alien and Sedition Acts•nullification



In a chart, list the leaders, beliefs,and goals of the country’s firstpolitical parties.

If you had lived in that time, whichparty would you have favored? Why?

CRITICAL THINKING3. EVALUATING LEADERSHIP

How would you judge the leadershipqualities of President Washington inhis decision to put two suchopposed thinkers as Hamilton andJefferson in his cabinet? Who doyou think was the more significantmember of the cabinet?

4. ANALYZING EVENTSDo you agree with the Democratic-Republicans that the Alien andSedition Acts were a violation of theFirst Amendment? Were theynecessary? Support your opinionwith evidence from the text. Think About:

• the intent of the FirstAmendment

• what was happening in Europe• what was happening in the

United States

Federalists Democratic-Republicans

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

D

AnalyzingIssues

How did the KentuckyResolutionschallenge theauthority of the federalgovernment?

Colonial Resistance and Rebellion - Welcome to Mr....

Documents

Transcript of Colonial Resistance and Rebellion - Welcome to Mr....