CHAPTER II

INDEPENDENCE, UNION, AND SELF-GOVERNMENT

THE American Revolution has two aspects. On the one hand, it was a contest between the government of Great Britain and those colonists who determined, in the beginning of the controversy, to resist the policy of the mother country, and finally to throw off her rule altogether. To bring this contest to a successful issue, the Revolutionists formed committees, assemblies, and national congresses; they raised troops, levied taxes, borrowed money, negotiated with foreign powers, and waged war in the field. On the other hand, when independence was declared, the Revolutionists had to provide some form of united government for the realization of their common purposes, and at the same time to establish permanent state governments. Thus cooperation among the Revolutionists of all the colonies and internal reconstruction within each colony proceeded simultaneously, and the result at the close of the war was a collection of "free, sovereign, and independent states "- each with a constitution of its own-leagued in a "perpetual union" under the Articles of Confederation.

Union under the Continental Congresses

The Revolution was the work of definite groups of men cooperating for specific purposes. In the preliminary stages of resistance to Great Britain, the colonists relied mainly on their regular assemblies as organs for the expression of revolutionary opinion, but as the contest became more heated and acts were performed for which there was no legal sanction, the Revolutionists began to form independent committees to represent them. This was necessary for the purposes of agitation, and later for organized rebellion, especially in those colonies with royal governors.

casts ʼn parishes, towns, and counties cout spending with me mother, comparing Sopelathing in the great task of overturning tld setting up i new system. These com

car organizations, but spread so rapidly and fectively that they soon gathered suficient force hce work of the Revolution.

November, 1772, & committee of correspondence in Boston under the Direction of Samuel Adams; it meetings, seat emissaries to neighboring towns to ular bodies, mad carried on a campaign of popular í an oppo ilien to British 3 icmal policy.

at the low. g year the Virginia House of Burgesses ad a spool committee which was charged "to obtain the stle inteligence of all such acts and the britisa Patament or proceedings of adminis...ect the British colonies in America; ...d a correspoï lence and communicaOs respecting Tose important consideraavr mevcredings from time to time us ad example was speedily ssemedes, so that within about a aco Atees appointed in regular ser 2002, di wever, they were by no Teas 7% unothcial local committees

county committee, which in its tur. selected representative to compose a committee for tin taure colony. These commistees were powerful organs for action, then kept up, the genera. agitation; they calied periodica. convention- o Kevolutionists: and indeed assumed the reins of government.

The skeleton or framework of the revolutionary machine was therefore weli perfected when Samuel Adams u 1774 proposed in the Massachusetts legislature a resolution in favor of calling a congress of delegates from al the colonies to meet at Philadelphia in September. While the messenger of the governor, sent to dissolve the assembly, was thundering at the door, the momentous resolve was passed and the call for united action against Great Britain was issued. The other colonies except Georgia responded to this appeal with alacrity by selecting, in some fashion or another, representatives for the general Congress. The method of choice varied so greatly that the Congress was in every way an irregular and revolutionary body. The colonies without the consent of the British crown can scarcely be said to have enjoyed the right of calling and organizing such a congress. In Massachusetts, Khode Island, and Pennsylvania, the representatives were chosen informally by the colonial assembly; in New Hampshire they were selected by a meeting of delegates appointed by the several towns. In Connecticut they were elected by committees of correspondence; in New York practically by the Revolutionists of New York county; in New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia by conventions com posed of county delegates, many of whom had been members of the colonial legislatures; in South Carolina by a “general meeting of the inhabitants of the colony," and in North Carolina by "a general meeting of the deputies of the province." In all of these irregular elections, the lead was taken by the men who had been most active in the organization of committees of correspondence and the agitation against Great Britain.

The general purpose of this Congress, ostensibly at least, was stated in the instructions which were given to the delegation of each colony by the body that elected it. These instructions

'This call is printed in the Readings, p. 18.

'The South Carolina Resolution appointing delegates is in the Readings, p. 19.

apply the test. The Revolutionists, consciously or not, were burning their bridges behind them.

The first Congress, furthermore, recommended the call of a second Congress for the purpose of continuing the work thus begun; and, acting on this suggestion, the revolutionary bodies in the colonies, organized in the form of the old assemblies, or conventions, or committees, selected the delegates to a new Congress. This time the instructions were a little more determined in tone, and there was less talk about reconciliation and legal measures. The Massachusetts and New York instructions spoke of the restoration of harmony, but likewise of the firm and secure establishment of American rights and privileges; New Hampshire gave "full and ample power in behalf of this province to consent and agree to all measures which shall be deemed necessary to obtain redress of American grievances"; and the Connecticut instructions authorized them "to join, consult, and advise with other delegates on proper measures for advancing the best good of the colonies."

When this second Congress met in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775, the cause of Revolution had advanced beyond the stage of mere negotiation. Within two months, Ethan Allen's troops took Fort Ticonderoga "in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress," the battle of Bunker Hill was fought, and Washington was called to the command of the American troops. In the midst of the crisis, Congress seized and exercised sovereign powers; it assumed the direction of the war; entered into diplomatic negotiations with other countries; declared independence, regulated common concerns; raised funds; and finally designed a firmer national union in the form of the Articles of Confederation. It was not an assembly of delegates formally chosen and instructed by legally constituted states; it was the central organ, not of colonies or of states, but of that portion of the American population that was committed to the cause of Revolution.

'On the political significance of the first Continental Congress, see C. L. Becker, History of Political Parties in the Province of New York, 1760-76, University of Wisconsin Publications, 1909.

For the Declaration of Independence, see Readings, p. 21.