Brinkley, Chapter 5 Notes - Marlington Local Chapter 5...Brinkley, Chapter 5 Notes Winning %e Peace Conwa,is’s defeat provoked outcries in England Lord Nor% resigned as Prime Minis!r

Brinkley, Chapter 5 Notes


The American Revolution

Defining American War Aims

When the Second Continental Congress met they agreed to support the war but disagreed about its purpose.

The Adams Cousins - Favored Independence

Moderates - Quick reconciliation with Britain (John Dickinson) Most Americans believed at first that they were fighting not for independence but for a redress of grievances within the British Empire, but they changed their minds as the fighting spread to their backyards.

Thomas Paine, author of Common Sense argued that the greatest problem facing the colonists was the English Constitution and getting rid of it was worth fighting for.

Declaration of Independence

“That these United 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 all political connexion between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.”

Launched a period of energetic political innovation, as one colony after another considered itself as a “state.”

By 1777, Congress adopted a plan for union, the Articles of Confederation - a weak decentralized system of government.

Continental Congress, July 4 1776

Jefferson wrote most of the Declaration, but had help from Ben Franklin and John Adams. Borrowed many concepts circulating throughout the colonies and from the Enlightenment.

Mobilizing for War

Financing the war was difficult because Congress had no authority to levy taxes on its own and had to borrow from state governments.

Most of the money used to finance the war came from France and other nations.

Volunteer soldiers were scarce. States had to pay bounties or draft them into service.

At first, militiamen remained under control of their respective states but Congress recognized the need for a centralized military command and created a Continental Army with George Washington as the Commander.

War for IndependenceBritish Advantages:

Greatest Navy

Best Equipped Army

Resources of an empire

Coherent structure of command

American Advantages:

Fighting on own territory

More committed to the conflict

Substantial aid from abroad

Luck:Early British blunders and miscalculations

The First Phase

British suffered heavy losses at Bunker Hill

Parliament did not believe it was a “real” war, but quarrels

Fighting moved out of Boston into Canada

Americans invaded Canada unsuccessfully and Britain realized they needed to wage a full scale war


Lexington & Concord

Saratoga

Boston

Philadelphia

Charleston

Richmond

Canada American Revolution

Battles and Cities

Battles

Cities

Valley Forge

Delaware River

The Second Phase

If not for a series of British mistakes, the war would probably have ended by 1778

British General William Howe offered the colonists: surrender with a royal pardon or face a battle against overwhelming odds.

American rejected Howe’s offer and Howe pushed them off Manhattan into New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

British settled in for the winter, but Washington crossed the Delaware River on Christmas night in 1776 and surprised the Hessians (German mercenaries).

Although it was a moral victory, it was a military defeat for Washington as he was unable to hold onto Trenton.

The Second Phase

The British strategy relied on dividing the Continental Army into 2

British captured Philadelphia hoping the war would end soon after. The Continental Congress fled to York, Pennsylvania.

George Washington tried to attack the British at Germantown, just outside of Philadelphia. Unsuccessful, he fled to Valley Forge.

In all the defeats, the Colonists managed a huge victory at Saratoga (New York)

Saratoga changed EVERYTHING

Securing Aid From Abroad

The French stood to gain the most of a British defeat

At first they provided the Colonists with badly needed supplies but no formal diplomatic recognition. French foreign minister, Charles Gravier de Vergennes wanted evidence that the Americans had a real chance of winning.

Prime Minister Lord North offered the colonists complete home rule within the empire for Americans if they would quit the war.

Vergennes feared the Americans would accept the offer and destroy France’s opportunity to support Britain. Formal recognition was granted to America.

The Final Phase: The South

After Saratoga, the British relied on heavily Loyalist sentiment in the South. They moved South to enlist the Loyalists and tried to convince slaves to fight for them.

The British badly overestimated the Loyalist sentiment. Further, they underestimated the ability of the colonial army to move within the territory of the South and blend in with the population.

This phase of the war made it “revolutionary.” It had the effect of mobilizing and politicizing large groups of the population. The war expanded into previously isolated communities, with many civilians forced to involve themselves whether they liked it or not. Support for independence increased greatly.

The British found success in the South in Charleston and Savannah

The Final Phase: The South

American and French forces quickly descended on Yorktown. George Washington and French General Count de Rochambeau marched to Yorktown to meet the Marquis de Lafayette. This joint operation caused the surrender of Cornwallis. The war for independence was over.

General Nathanael Greene replaced Horatio Gates in the colonial southern campaigns. Gates confused British General Lord Cornwallis by dividing American forces and avoided open, conventional battles. Cornwallis said the American forces delivered “a very unexpected and severe blow.”

After American reinforcements arrived, Greene decided to move back into traditional open battlefield fighting and lost to Cornwallis. However, Cornwallis lost so many men that he decided to abandon the Carolina campaign and take a defensive position in Yorktown, Virginia.


Winning the PeaceConwallis’s defeat provoked outcries in England

Lord North resigned as Prime Minister

British emissaries appeared in France to negotiate a peace settlement

Ben Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay were the American diplomats

Treaty signed on September 3, 1783

3. Americans gained fishing rights off Newfoundland

Treaty of Paris 1783

1. Full American independence recognized by Britain

2. Boundaries set:North = Great LakesWest = MS RiverSouth = 31st Parallel

4. Britain kept control of Canada

5. Navigation of the MS River was to be open to both British & Americans

War and SlaveryFor some African Americans, war meant freedom. The British helped many escape the country as a way of disrupting the American war effort.

PA was the 1st state to abolish slavery (1780)

VT was the 1st colony to abolish slavery (1777)

Emancipation of slaves in the North was slow, but the number of slaves dwindled over the next few decades.

Nov. 7, 1775 Lord Dunmore issued a Proclamation “And I hereby further declare all indentured servants, Negroes, or others free, that are able and willing to bear arms, they joining His Majesty’s Troops...”

Fewer than 1,000 fought for Dunmore

About 5,000 served in the Continental Army

Tension Between Liberty and Slavery

The Revolution exposed the continuing tension between the natin’s commitment to liberty and its commitment to slavery.

It seemed obvious to most that slavery and liberty were incompatible, but it was less obvious in the South

Many white southerners believed that enslaving Africans was the best way to ensure liberty for white people. They feared that without slaves, it would be necessary to recruit a servile white workforce in the South, and that the resulting inequalities would jeopardize the survival of liberty

One of the ironies of the American Revolution was that many white Americans were fighting both to secure freedom for themselves and to preserve slavery for others.

For some African Americans, the Revolution meant an increased exposure to the concept of liberty

Native Americans and the RevolutionMost tribes ultimately chose to stay out of the war. Only the Iroquois allied with Britain - although they claimed to be neutral.

Many Indians the Revolution would replace a somewhat trustworthy ruling group (the British) with a hostile ruling group bent on expansion (Americans)

The Revolution weakened the position of the Native Americans in several ways:

Increased white demand for western land

Resentment towards Indians for not allying with Colonists and carrying out raids

Paternalistic point of view toward the Indians led by Thomas Jefferson: The Indians were “noble savages,” uncivilized in their present state but redeemable if they were willing to adapt to the norms of white society.

Abigail Adams

The emphasis on liberty and the “rights of man” led some wealthy women to question their position in society.

Abigail Adams wrote to her husband John, “In the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors.” She was calling

for new protections against abusive and tyrannical men.

Eliza Wilkinson

“The men say we have no business [with politics]. They won’t even allow us liberty of thought, and that is all I want.” Women did not insist on civic equality with men; they sought only to an end to restrictive customs and laws.


America, a RepublicMost politicians ignored women’s requests, and most men insisted on the traditional sexual and political prerogatives of their sex.

Husbands remained patriarchs who dominated their households. Even younger men did not support legal equality for their wives and daughters. In the new American republic, only white men enjoyed full citizenship.

Nevertheless, the republican belief in an educated citizenry created opportunities for some women. In 1779, Judith Sargent Murray wrote an essay called “On the Equality of Sexes.” In her essay she argued that men and women had equal capacities for memory and that women had superior imaginations. She conceded that most women were inferior to men in judgment and reasoning, but only from lack of training.

That situation changed in the 1790s, when the attorney general of MA declared that girls had an equal right to schooling under the state constitution. By 1850, the literacy rates of women and men in the northeastern states were equal, and educated women again challenged their subordinate legal and political status.

Republican Mother

Despite the efforts of Adams and others like Judith Sargent Murray (equal education), American society became more patriarchal than ever.

No voting, all property belonged to the husband, no legal transactions, no property rights, no legal authority over her children, could not initiate divorce.

Out of this though, was the importance of the woman as mother - to produce a new kind of citizen, one steeped in the principles of liberty. The “Republican Mother”

Women’s Rights and Women’s Roles

Women were in charge of farms and businesses while men fought

Led protests against price increases, rioted, or looted food

Attacked British troops when possible“Camp Followers” - nurses,

cooks, launderers; some disguised themselves as men to fight - Deborah Sampson

Spies

Assumptions of Republicanism

If Americans agreed to nothing else, they agreed that their new governments would be republican.

Republic - government system in which power comes from the people, not a supreme authority

The success of this type of government depended on the small, independent land owner embedded with civic virtue.

Warned of a few powerful aristocrats and a great mass of dependent workers

Equality

“All men are created equal.”

All people have to earn their success. There might be no equality of condition, but there would be equality of opportunity.

But would there really be equality of opportunity?

African Slaves

Exploitation of Indians

Women not granted access to education

First State Constitutions

State constitutions were to be written down

Power of the executive was to be limited

No executive could hold office in the legislature simultaneously

Did not embrace direct popular rule

Property requirements for voters


Most Americans continued to believe that religion should play some role in government but did not want to give special privileges to any particular

denomination.1786 Virginia enacted the Statue of Religious Liberty - calling for the complete separation of church and state. (Thomas Jefferson)

Separation of Church and State

Note: There is NOTHING in the US Constitution that makes separation of church and state an official law. This is merely conventional practice.

Toleration and Slavery

Slavery was more difficult to resolve. In many places in the North it was abolished.

South Carolina and Georgia prohibited the further importation of slaves from abroad

Virginia passed a law encouraging the voluntary freeing (manumission) of slaves

Slavery survived nonetheless in all southern and border states because:

Racist assumptions among whites of the inferiority of blacks

Washington and Jefferson owned slaves

What would happen to freed blacks?

Belief that blacks could be assimilated into white society

The Articles of Confederation 1777

National Government: 1 Branch = Confederation Congress - A committee of delegates composed of representatives from each state. Appointed by state legislatures.

Each state had 1 vote. 9 votes needed to approve any measure. 13 votes needed to approve any amendments to the Articles

Each state would tax itself to help contribute to common expenses (war debt)

No state was to be deprived of western lands.

Each state retained powers not explicitly delegated to Congress.

States retained sovereignty, freedom, and independence.

Powers of Congress

Declare War and Peace

Appoint military and naval officers

Requisition the states for men and money

Send and receive ambassadors

Enter into treaties and alliances

Establish a post office

Coin money

Borrow money or issue paper money on credit

Cannot:

Regulate trade

Draft troops

Levy direct taxes

Mediate interstate issues

Enforce its will on the states

Regulate Commerce

Can:

Weaknesses of Articles

Never solved the problem of representation

Big states wanted representation based on population

Small states wanted equal representation

No separate executive. The “President” was merely the residing officer at the sessions of Congress

No judicial Branch to act as mediator between the states

Inflexible as it needed all 13 states to ratify amendments

Problems Created by the ArticlesThe Federal Government was weak and could not enforce the A of C

States refused to pay off foreign debts, refused to pay taxes on time, or at all (GA)

Trade limits imposed by Britain, France & Spain. A of C too weak to contest

Could not protect American settlements in areas controlled by Spain and Britain.

States violated treaties with Indian nations - A of C could not punish states

States would not send delegates to Congress - Congress could not hold session

States argued over boundaries, fishing rights, trading, etc. A of C could not resolve infighting

Some states wanted secession

Turmoil between debtors and creditors - each state had different currencies

Rebellions left the states to defend themselves (Shay’s Rebellion)


Success of the Articles

Received international recognition

Forged diplomatic relations with foreign nations

Borrowed money from international lenders

Negotiated the Treaty of Paris

Fielded a Continental Army and won a war

Established of a system of territorial governance under federal authority

--> Land Ordinance of 1784 and the Northwest Ordinance 1787

Land Ordinance of 1784Until about 1780 the lands of the Northwest Territory were claimed by several existing states, including NY & VA. These states soon ceded their land holdings to the central government.

The Ordinance of 1784, drafted by Thomas Jefferson and passed by Congress, divided the territory into a handful of self-governing districts.

It stipulated that each district could send one representative to Congress upon its attaining a population of 20,000, and it would become eligible for statehood when its population equaled that of the least populous existing state. (This ordinance was superseded by the Ordinance of 1787.)

By the time the Revolution ended in 1783, specific measures were needed to guide the settlement, division, and organization of the Northwest Territory.

Provided for the scientific surveying of the territory’s lands and for a systematic subdivision of them.

Land Ordinance of 1785

It also required that half of the townships be sold in single blocks of 23,040 acres each, which restricted their sale to well-to-do farmers.

Land was to be subdivided according to a rectangular grid system; the basic unit of land grant was the township, which was a square area measuring six miles on each side.

A township could then be subdivided into a number of rectangular parcels of individually owned land. The minimum land sale was set at one square mile (640 acres), and the minimum price per acre was $1.

One section in each township was to be set aside for a school. These procedures formed the basis of American public land policy until the Homestead Act of 1862.

The Northwest Ordinance, 1787

1787 Ordinance - created a single Northwest Territory out of the lands north of the Ohio River. The territory was then subsequently divided into 5 territories.

The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 was the most important of the land ordinances.

It laid the basis for the government of the Northwest Territory and for the admission of its constituent parts as states into the Union.

Arguably the most important accomplishment of the Articles of Confederation.

Under this ordinance, the principle of granting new states equal rather than inferior

status to older ones was firmly established.

Each district was to be governed by a governor and judges appointed by Congress until it attained a population of 5,000 adult free males, at which time it would become a territory and could form its own representative legislature.

An individual territory could be admitted to statehood in the Union after having attained a population of 60,000.

Under the ordinance, slavery was forever outlawed from the lands of the Northwest Territory; freedom of religion, trial by jury, and other civil liberties were guaranteed

The Northwest Ordinance. 1787

Indians were promised decent treatment; and education was provided for.


A problematic era due to the weakness of the national government under the A of C

Foreign problems

The Critical Period, 1783-1789

Britain wants debts paid to merchants and refused to send a minister to the US for diplomacy

Britain still maintained Northwest trading posts--was not abiding by treaties that compelled them to leave the territory. US will not pay debts until the trading posts are desertedFrance, almost bankrupt, is upset with Congress for not paying debtsUS unable to oppose the Barbary Pirates due to lack of a navy

States lacked respect for the national governmentDomestic Problems

Military almost at the point of mutiny--not being paid by the government

British goods dumped at low prices

Bank-holders & creditors lost faith in gov’t b/c it could not even pay interest payments, let alone pay its loan principal

No Standard Currency

Creditors hurt by state laws forcing acceptance of paper money for debts

The Critical Period, 1783-1789Dissatisfied GroupsMerchants wanted gov’t that regulates commerce & can secure favorable treatment overseasManufacturers wanted tariff barriers against foreign goodsLand speculators wanted strong gov’t to keep Indians away & the frontier open for profitHolders of government bonds wanted the government to pay off its debtCreditors and financiers wanted a stable currency and a less severe inflation rate

Post War Depression, 1784-1787Exposed the problem of an inadequate money supply - particularly a problem for debtors. Enormous outstanding debt from the War, and little means to pay it. Congress could not tax, & states only gave small contributions. On the verge of default States had war debts too and relied on heavy taxes from its citizens. Poor farmers considered such policies unfair. Demanded that state governments issue paper currency to increase the money supply and make it easier for them to pay their loans & taxes.

In MA, lawmakers refused to enact debtor relief legislation.

Shay’s Rebellion

They imposed high taxes to pay off the state’s war debt and cut the supply of paper currency.

Cash-strapped farmers could not pay both their taxes and their debts. Creditors threatened lawsuits.

Courts were foreclosing on homes. Mobs of angry farmers closed the courts by force. They were trying to prevent “valuable and industrious members of

society being dragged from their families to prison.”

These crowd actions grew into a full-scale revolt led by Daniel Shays, former captain of the Continental Army.

Shay’s Rebellion

Shays issued a set of demands to the MA legislature:

Issuance of paper money, tax relief, moratorium on debts, and abolition of imprisonment for debts

The MA gov’t was relatively uninvolved in the rebellion until “Shayists” prevented the collection of debts and used force to keep the courts from sitting and sheriffs from selling confiscated property.

Wealthy Bostonians in the West (including Abigail Adams) donated money to form a militia to put down the rebellion.

The rebels were routed in a skirmish in January 1787. Shays escaped to Vermont and was later pardoned. 150 others were captured and several sentenced to death. George Washington and others urged compassionate treatment of the rebels and pardons were eventually granted.

Abigail Adams, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson, while she was in London & he in Paris, she described the uprising as: “Ignorant, restless desperadoes, without conscience or principles, have led a deluded multitude to follow their standard, under pretense of grievances which have no existence but in their imaginations.”

Shay’s Rebellion

Reversal from the Revolution

Sam Adams had become an establishment figure in Massachusetts politics and urged death sentences for the leading Shays rebels. It is believed that he said, “The man who dares to rebel against the laws of a republic ought to suffer death.”

Demonstrated that many people realized that state governments undermined property rights

Effects of Shay’s Rebellion

Led to calls for stronger national government--every state except Rhode Island sendt delegates to Philly to revise the Articles

The rebellion added urgency to the movement to produce a new, national constitution. One with a more centralized government, the power to tax, and the power to intervene in state affairs if needed.

People realized that a stronger national government was required to answer to the needs of the union and to stop the states from threatening their peoples’ lives

Many people (including Madison) felt that the principles of the Revolution were being threatened more by state governments than they could be by a stronger central government, IF it was to be created

Brinkley, Chapter 5 Notes - Marlington Local Chapter 5...Brinkley, Chapter 5 Notes Winning %e Peace Conwa,is’s defeat provoked outcries in England Lord Nor% resigned as Prime Minis!r

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