Great Britain emerged from the French and Indian War victorious and broke. In an attempt to recoup some of their financial losses, George Grenville, minister of the Exchequer, looked to the colonies to help. It was only fair, in his mind and in the minds of most Britons, to tax the colonists to help pay for the war costs and for the soldiers kept in the colonies for defense. Colonists were shocked at the sudden change. British Imperial policy was lax on the enforcement of rules under the period of Salutary Neglect. The sudden imposition of taxes was not taken well by colonists since Parliament had no colonial representatives. The colonists felt taxes and actions to regulate trade were within the rights of Britain, but taxation for the purpose of revenue was not. Colonists mumbled and had anger at the Sugar Act, Currency Act, and Quartering Act. The real “fireworks” came with the passage of the Stamp Act, the first direct tax on the colonies. Colonists cried “No taxation without representation!” They claimed their basic rights as Englishmen, written in the Magna Carta and the English Bill of Rights, were being denied. This led to protests and attacks on the hated stamp tax collectors. The Stamp Act Congress was the first colonial-called meeting of representatives from the American colonies. Representatives from nine colonies met in Philadelphia to discuss the crisis. They agreed to Non-importation agreements – a boycott of British goods to draw the attention of the Crown and of Parliament. They also sent a petition to the King to repeal the act.
Parliament voted to repeal the Stamp Act, not as a result of the colonists’ petitions, but at the request of the British merchants who lost money as a result of the Non-importation agreements. There was a brief calm period until the British tried again to tax the colonists for income. This time the taxes, the Townshend Duties, were designed to look like the old “trade regulation” acts. In reality the taxes were to be used for the salaries of the Royal Governors in each colony. Each colony had been paying the salaries, and this had given them leverage over the governors. The threat of withholding salaries had led many a Royal Governor to see the colonists’ point of view. The protests started afresh, and a new round of non-importation, and non-exportation, agreements were passed.
The British sent more troops to Boston, a hotbed of colonial activity, to keep control, and stop protests and riots. The additional troops led to colonial distress, and violence broke out when a mob of colonists harassed a group of British soldiers at the Boston “Massacre.” Violence continued with the Gaspee Affair, the Boston Tea Party, and finally the start of the war at Lexington and Concord. Even after the outbreak of war at Lexington, the colonists were reluctant to declare independence and therefore, war, with Great Britain. Many still had strong ties to their British background and the lack of unity among the colonies was not confidence inspiring. With two additional meetings of representatives, The First and Second Continental Congress, discussions were held to determine the fate of the colonies. The colonists were left with few options after numerous attempts to reconcile and petition for redress. The colonists issued the Declaration of Independence 15 months after the fighting had actually begun.
The Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson. He looked to the ideas of many of the Enlightenment philosophers from the time. The Declaration of Independence became a shining example of the ideals of government of the people. The Revolutionary War that followed was used as inspiration for a number of other nations seeking to free themselves of Imperial or monarch control.
George Washington, Commander in Chief of the Continental army by the Second Continental Congress, led the patriots in their American Revolution. The battle at Lexington and Concord marked the official start to the hostilities. The continental victory over British general Johnny Burgoyne at the pivotal Battle of Saratoga led to the Alliance of 1778 in which the French finally agreed to officially enter the war on the side of the colonists. General Cornwallis was forced to surrender at the battle of Yorktown. The Treaty of Paris followed this surrender, and the British accepted American Independence.
The colonies needed to find a new system of governance after declaring Independence. The colonists were rather fearful of a strong, centralized government after 150 years under control of the British crown. Therefore, the general feeling in the newly independent states was that each individual state would be self-governing with a unified central authority of all the states working together to fight the war. The true power would reside within the state. With that in mind, each state set out to create a state constitution. They all had different constitutions, but there were similarities among them. All the states created a republican form of government where the ultimate authority resided with the people. This government hosted three branches of government: judicial, executive, and legislative. Each branches’ power was separate from the others. Both the judicial and executive branches were made deliberately weak. Only the legislative branch, representative of the people, was given greater power. And finally, to protect the people from the over-reaching power of government, the States all included Bills of Rights in their constitutions. The national government needed to direct the war against Great Britain, but did not need all the branches the states did. As a result the Second Continental Congress devised the first national government for the United States, the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, a unicameral legislature.
The spirit of independence and the ideas of equality and liberty were strong in the States. Virginia led the way for religious freedom by ending the state “established” Anglican Church. The state professed freedom of religious choice with Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia’s Statue for Religious Freedom. Massachusetts’ judiciary outlawed slavery, and many other northern states followed suit. Even in the South, there was discussion about the abolishment of slavery. Although none of the southern states took the course of those to the North. Other ideas took hold as the new republic was formed. Republican Motherhood, the idea that mothers need to educate the young citizens on the responsibilities and civic virtue necessary for living in a republic, led for a need to better educate women. A number of educational institutions sprang up in the post-Revolutionary period aimed at creating virtuous women and mothers. Voting rights expanded as property and religious restrictions were decreased or eliminated.
While many changes were taking place, the government experienced a number of problems it was ill equipped to handle. Debt and inflation were rampant. Each state dealt with their problems in a variety of manners; the national government had no control over these issues. In addition, states competed with each other for foreign trade by lowering their tariffs. States even charged each other tariffs for goods that crossed state lines. Great Britain and Spain took advantage of the situation; Great Britain restricted American trade with any British port, and sold her goods at extremely cheap prices in hopes of driving young American industries out of business. Spain restricted American use of the Mississippi River by limiting the American right of deposit at New Orleans. Both Spain and Britain attempted to gain new territory from American land along their borders. The National government had no ability to deter these actions. A rebellion among the western farmers in Massachusetts led to action. The national government could offer no help to Massachusetts in putting down Shays’ Rebellion. Fear of uncontrollable mobs led to the calling of a new Convention with the intent to revise the Articles of Confederation.
The Constitutional Convention soon made the decision to scrap the Articles and to start over. The finished product, a result of a number of compromises between North and South, large states and small states, created a federal system with a much stronger central government, but one with limited powers. The states still retained the bulk of governmental power. Supporters of the Constitution called themselves Federalists. Antifederalists were fearful of this stronger government and were not supportive of the new Constitution. Federalist leaders helped convince many to support the document in a series of articles published in New York and Virginia. These were collectively known as the Federalist Papers. The promise to add a Bill of Rights to the new Constitution allowed the document to be ratified in the needed number of states and led to the creation of the new government.
George Washington, unanimously elected as first President, helped shape the future functioning of the government. He turned to the brilliant financial mind of Alexander Hamilton to solve the financial woes of the nation. Hamilton had a very different view of the national government than other members of Washington’s cabinet, especially Thomas Jefferson. These differences in opinion were over the role of government: who should participate in the government, the strength of the government, and the role in the international world. This led to the formation of the first political parties and the start of the two party system in the United States. John Adams followed Washington as president. He held the same beliefs as Washington and Hamilton. A change in power in 1800 took place when Thomas Jefferson won the election over John Adams. This has become known as the Revolution of 1800; one political party was forced to leave office to allow another to come in. In most countries during this time a change in power resulted of bloodshed and warfare. In the United States, John Adams walked away unharmed as Thomas Jefferson was sworn in as President. The world looked on in amazement as the United States proved a republican government was possible.
Issues with foreign countries continued to plague the nation for the next decade. Great Britain and France were again at war. The United States declared neutrality, but were not allowed to trade with either nation. The continued assault on United States shipping and the impressment of United States sailors, along with the urgings of some new and young politicians, helped lead the nation to declare war with Great Britain in 1812. The War of 1812 is often referred to as the Second War for American Independence. The United States finally negotiated peace in the Treaty of Ghent, and completed the provisions of the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War.
Primary Sources for Era 3
- Stamps and materials related to the Passage of the Stamp Act, 1765
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/british/images/34uc.jpg – page of stamps for newspapers
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/british/images/34uc.jpg – actual act passed by Parliament - First person account of the Gaspee Incident
http://www.gaspee.info/history/BriggsStatement.htm - Richard Henry Lee’s resolution of Independence, adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 2, 1776.
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=1 - States Constitutions after 1776 – The US Constitution was actually the 14th such constitution to be written – after all thirteen states had created republics with three branches of government and most of which contained Bills of Rights. Look for traces of:
Massachusetts’ Constitution – 1780
http://www.nhinet.org/ccs/docs/ma-1780.htm
Virginia’s Constitution
http://www.nhinet.org/ccs/docs/va-1776.htm#1 - Image of the burning of Washington, DC by the British
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/british/brit-3.html
