History of the United States (1776–1789)

Map of the thirteen colonies in 1775

Between 1776 and 1789, the United States became an independent country, creating and ratifying its new constitution, and establishing the federal government. In an attempt to assert their traditional rights, American Patriots seized control of the colonies and launched a war for independence. The Americans declared independence on July 4, 1776, raised armies under the command of General George Washington, forged a military alliance with France, and captured the two main British invasion armies. Nationalists replaced the governing Articles of Confederation to strengthen the federal government's powers of defense and taxation with the Constitution of the United States in 1789, still in effect today.

==)|Patriots]] to capture Quebec failed, and the buildup of British forces at Halifax, Nova Scotia, precluded what became Canada from joining the 13 "American" states. The Americans were able to capture a British fort at Ticonderoga, New York, and to drag cannon over the snow to the outskirts of Boston. The appearance of troops and cannon on Dorchester Heights, above the city, led the British Army to evacuate Boston on March 17, 1776.

Declaration of Independence

On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress, still meeting in Philadelphia, voted unanimously for an independent nation under the name, "United States of America." Two days later, on July 4, Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. The drafting of the Declaration was the responsibility of a Committee of Five, which included, among others, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, but the style of the document is attributed primarily to Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson's work was reviewed by Franklin at length and then submitted to the Congress where numerous changes were made, including the exclusion of his charges against George III regarding slavery.

These are the famous words from The Declaration of Independence. "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, that among these, are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

British return: 1776–1777

Further information: [[:New York and New Jersey campaign, Saratoga campaign, Philadelphia campaign]]

The British returned in force in August 1776, landing in New York and engaging the fledgling Continental Army at the Battle of Long Island in one of the largest engagements of the war. They eventually seized New York City and nearly captured General Washington. The British made the city their main political and military base of operations in North America, holding it until 1783. Patriot evacuation and British military occupation made the city the destination for Loyalist refugees, and a focal point of Washington's intelligence network.

The British also took New Jersey, and American fortunes looked dim. It was a "time to try men's souls," as Tom Paine said. But Washington struck back in a surprise attack, crossing the Delaware River into New Jersey and defeated British armies at Trenton and Princeton, thereby regaining New Jersey. While the number of troops engaged in the victories were relatively minor, they gave an important boost to pro-independence supporters at a time when morale was flagging, and have become iconic images of the war.

A grand British plan, the Saratoga Campaign, was drafted in London to make coordinated movements down from Canada and down the Hudson River, to meet at Albany, New York, dividing the colonies in two, separating New England from the rest. Failed communications and poor planning resulted in the army descending from Canada, commanded by General John Burgoyne, bogging down in dense forest north of Albany. Burgoyne's army advanced only a few miles during the whole summer of 1777 and finally was overwhelmed at Saratoga by a gathering of local militia, spearheaded by a small core of professionally trained American regulars, far outnumbering the British forces. Meanwhile, the British Army that was supposed to advance up the Hudson River to meet Burgoyne, went, instead, to Philadelphia, in a vain attempt to end the war by capturing the American capital city. The British army had agreed to surrender only on condition of being a Convention Army with repatriation to Britain. Realizing that their cause would be adversely affected if the captured troops could be switched with other British troops who would be brought out to America, Congress repudiated these terms, and imprisoned them instead.

The colonist's victory at Saratoga led the French into an open alliance with the United States through the Treaty of Alliance (1778). With the full entry of the French, the American Revolution became part of a world war, in which the French were joined by Spain and the Netherlands, all European naval powers with an interest in stemming British power. The British naval advantage was now neutralized, and Britain had to worry about losing a major war.

The British move South, 1778–1783

Further information: [[:Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War, Naval operations in the American Revolutionary War]]

The British now tried to salvage something by a campaign to seize the southern states. With limited regular troops at their disposal, the British commanders realized that success depended on a large-scale mobilization of Loyalists.

In late December 1778, the British had captured Savannah. In 1780 they launched a fresh invasion and took Charleston as well. A significant victory at the Battle of Camden meant that the invaders soon controlled most of Georgia and South Carolina. The British set up a network of forts inland, hoping the Loyalists would rally to the flag. Not enough Loyalists turned out, however, and the British had to move out. They fought their way north into North Carolina and Virginia, with a severely weakened army. Behind them much of the territory they abandoned dissolved into a chaotic guerrilla war, as the bands of Loyalist one by one were overwhelmed by the patriots.

The siege of Yorktown ended with the surrender of a British army, ending most of the fighting

The British army under Cornwallis marched to Yorktown, Virginia where they expected to be rescued by a British fleet. When that fleet was defeated by a French fleet, however, they became trapped, and were surrounded by a much stronger force of Americans and French under Washington's command. In October 1781 General Cornwallis, surrendered.

News of the defeat effectively ended the fighting in America, although the naval war continued. Support for the conflict had never been strong in Britain, where many sympathized with the rebels, but now it reached a new low. King George III personally wanted to fight on, but he lost control of Parliament, and had to agree to peace negotiations.

Peace

Main article: Treaty of Paris (1783)

In treaty negotiations to end the war, the United States was represented by a team led by Benjamin Franklin and which included John Adams and John Jay. By signing the Treaty of Paris (1783), they acquired highly favorable boundaries for the United States west of the Allegheny Mountains stretching to the Mississippi River and the southern Great Lakes region. Encompassing a vast region nearly as large as Western Europe, the west contained a few thousand American pioneers and thousands of Indians, most of whom had been allied to the British but were now abandoned by Britain. The British turned Florida over to Spain, and its settlers moved out, but few Spanish moved in, leaving a vacuum that lasted until the U.S. took control in 1820.

Development of federal institutions

Articles of Confederation

Main article: Articles of Confederation

The Treaty of Paris left the United States independent and at peace but with an unsettled governmental structure. The Second Continental Congress had drawn up Articles of Confederation in November 15, 1777, to regularize its own status. These described a permanent confederation, but granted to the Congress—the only federal institution—little power to finance itself or to ensure that its resolutions were enforced. There was no president and no judiciary.

Although historians generally agree that the Articles were too weak to hold the fast-growing nation together, they do give Congress credit for resolving the western issue, as the states voluntarily turned over their lands to national control. The Land Ordinance of 1785 and Northwest Ordinance created territorial government, set up protocols for the admission of new states, the division of land into useful units, and set aside land in each township for public use. This system represented a sharp break from imperial colonization, as in Europe, and provided the basis for the rest of American continental expansion through the 19th Century.

By 1783, with the end of the British blockade, the new nation was regaining its prosperity. However, trade opportunities were restricted by the mercantilism of the British and French empires. The ports of the British West Indies to all staple products which were not carried in British ships. France and Spain established similar policies. Simultaneously, new manufacturers faced sharp competition from British products which were suddenly available again. The inability of the Congress to redeem the public obligations (debts) incurred during the war, or to become a forum for productive cooperation among the states to encourage commerce and economic development, only aggravated a gloomy situation. In 1786-87 the Shay's Rebellion, an uprising of farmers in western Massachusetts against the state court system, threatened the stability of state government.

The Continental Congress printed paper money which was so depreciated that it ceased to pass as currency, spawning the expression "not worth a continental". Congress could not levy taxes and could only make requisitions upon the states, which did not respond generously. Less than a million and a half dollars came into the treasury between 1781 and 1784, although the states had been asked for two million in 1783 alone.

When Adams went to London in 1785 as the first representative of the United States, he found it impossible to secure a treaty for unrestricted commerce. Demands were made for favors and there was no assurance that individual states would agree to a treaty. Adams stated it was necessary for the States to confer the power of passing navigation laws to Congress, or that the States themselves pass retaliatory acts against Great Britain. Congress had already requested and failed to get power over navigation laws. Meanwhile, each State acted individually against Great Britain to little effect. When other New England states closed their ports to British shipping, Connecticut hastened to profit by opening its ports.

By 1787 Congress was unable to protect manufacturing and shipping. State legislatures were unable or unwilling to resists attacks upon private contracts and public credit. Land speculators expected no rise in values when the government could not defend its borders nor protect its frontier population.

The idea of a convention to revise the Articles of Confederation grew in favor. Alexander Hamilton realized while serving as Washington's top aide that a strong central government was necessary to avoid foreign intervention and allay the frustrations due to an ineffectual Congress. Hamilton led a group of like-minded nationalists, won Washington's endorsement, and convened the Annapolis Convention in 1786 to petition Congress to call a constitutional convention to meet in Philadelphia to remedy the long-term crisis.

Constitutional Convention

Main article: History of the United States Constitution

Congress, meeting in New York, called on each state to send delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, meeting in Philadelphia. James Madison was the moving force in devising the great compromises needed for a strong government. The Constitution, proposed by the Convention, called for a federal government—limited in scope but independent of and superior to the states—within its assigned role able to tax and equipped with both Executive and Judicial branches as well as a two house legislature. The national legislature—or Congress—envisioned by the Convention embodied the key compromise of the Convention between the small states which wanted to retain the power they had under the one state/one vote Congress of the Articles of Confederation and the large states which wanted the weight of their larger populations and wealth to have a proportionate share of power. The upper House—the Senate—would represent the states equally, while the House of Representatives would be elected from districts of approximately equal population.

The Constitution itself called for ratification by state conventions specially elected for the purpose, and the Confederation Congress recommended the Constitution to the states, asking that ratification conventions be called.

Several of the smaller states, led by Delaware, embraced the Constitution with little reservation. But in New York and Virginia, the matter became one of controversy. Virginia had been the first successful British colony in North America, had a large population, and its political leadership had played prominent roles in the Revolution. New York was a large, populous state; with the best situated and sited port on the coast, the state was essential for the success of the United States. Local New York politics was tightly controlled by a parochial elite led by Governor George Clinton, and local political leaders did not want to share their power with the national politicians. The New York ratification convention became the focus for a struggle over the wisdom of adopting the Constitution.

Struggle for ratification

US states in 1790

Those who advocated the Constitution took the name Federalists and quickly gained supporters throughout the nation. The most well-known Federalists include Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. These were the writers of the Federalist Papers, a series of 85 essays published in New York newspapers, under the pen name "Publius", which served in many ways as seminal documents for the new United States that was to come. These were written, however, after the Constitutional Convention and were a part of the ratification debates in the state of New York, where the battle for ratification was particularly fierce.

Opponents of the plan for stronger government took the name Anti-Federalists. They feared that a government with the power to tax would soon become as despotic and corrupt as Great Britain had been only decades earlier. The most notable Anti-federalists were Patrick Henry and George Mason. They were also quite concerned with the absence of a bill of rights in the Constitution. Collectively, their writings are referred to as the Anti-Federalist Papers.

The Federalists gained a great deal of prestige and advantage from the approval of George Washington, who had chaired the Constitutional Convention. Thomas Jefferson, who was serving as Minister to France at the time, was neither a Federalist nor an Anti-federalist but decided to remain neutral and accept either outcome.

Promises of a Bill of Rights from Madison secured ratification in Virginia while in New York, the Clintons, who controlled New York politics, relented sufficiently to allow Alexander Hamilton to secure ratification from the New York convention. Under the terms of the Constitution, the federal government could be put into operation governing those states which had ratified when nine had ratified. Technically, the Constitution of the United States went into effect with the ratification of New Hampshire on June 21, 1788. With the addition of Virginia on June 25 and with New York's ratification on July 26, eleven states had then ratified.

North Carolina's ratification convention adjourned without ratifying. Dominated by Anti-Federalists and led by an admirer of Jefferson, the convention was convinced to withhold its ratification pending concrete moves by the 1st Congress to adopt a Bill of Rights, amending the new Constitution to guarantee certain fundamental rights.

Rhode Island had made no moves to call a ratification convention before the federal government was put into operation in March and April 1789.

The Confederation Congress made the necessary arrangements for the first national election, in which George Washington was chosen as first President and John Adams as first Vice President. New York was designated as the first temporary national capital, where Washington was inaugurated in April 1789 at Federal Hall in lower Manhattan.

Under the leadership of James Madison, the first Congress made good on the Federalist pledge of a Bill of Rights, proposing to the states twelve amendments, ten of which were speedily adopted. Of the twelve, one failed at ratification and one was finally ratified as the 27th amendment. North Carolina's ratification convention reassembled soon after Congress proposed the Bill of Rights and ratified the Constitution. Rhode Island ratified the Constitution on May 29, 1790, and the Bill of Rights was ratified the following week in June.

Emerging First Party System

Main article: First Party System

The Constitution makes no mention of political parties, and the founding fathers regularly derided political "factionalism," which characterized government in many of the states. However, the First Party System emerged from national issues of economics and foreign policy.

The Federalists, who had advocated the Constitution, enjoyed the opportunity to put the new government into operation, while after the adoption of the Constitution, the Anti-federalists, never as well-organized, effectively ceased to exist. Alexander Hamilton in 1790-92 created a national network of friends of the government that became the Federalist party, which controlled the national government until 1801.

However, the ideals of states' rights and a weaker federal government were in many ways absorbed by the growth of a new party, the Republican or Democratic-Republican Party, which eventually assumed the role of loyal opposition to the Federalists. It strongly opposed a national bank, and the pro-British foreign policy promoted by Hamilton. Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans were pro-French seeing France during the French Revolution as a democratic ally. The Republicans under Thomas Jefferson took control of the Federal government in 1801 with the election of Jefferson as President.

See also

• History of the United States
• American Revolution
• American Revolutionary War
• First Party System

References

• Appleby, Joyce. Thomas Jefferson: The American Presidents Series (2003) excerpt and text search
• Chambers, William Nisbet. Political Parties in a New Nation: The American Experience, 1776-1809 (1963)
• Chernow, Ron. Washington: A Life (2010)
• Chernow, Ron. Alexander Hamilton (2004)
• Cogliano, Francis D. Revolutionary America, 1763-1815; A Political History (2000), British textbook
• Ellis, Joseph J. His Excellency: George Washington. (2004). ISBN 1-4000-4031-0.
• Ferling, John. A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create the American Republic (2003) online edition
• Greene, Jack P. and J.R. Pole, eds. A Companion to the American Revolution (2nd ed, 2003), excerpt and text search, 90 essays by leading scholars; strong on all political, social and international themes; thin on military
• Higginbotham, Don. The War of American Independence: Military Attitudes, Policies, and Practice, 1763-1789. Massachusetts:Northeastern University Press, 1983. ISBN 10930350448. Online in ACLS History E-book Project.  Comprehensive coverage of military and other aspects of the war.
• Kerber, Linda K. Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America (1979)
• Bernhard Knollenberg, Growth of the American Revolution: 1766-1775 (2003) online edition
• Mackesy, Piers. The War for America: 1775-1783 (2nd ed. 1993) Military history from British perspective. online edition
• Middlekauff, Robert. The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789. (2nd ed. 2005). ISBN 0-19-516247-1. 696pp online edition
• Miller, John C. Triumph of Freedom, 1775-1783 (1948) online edition
• Morris, Richard B. The Forging of the Union, 1781-1789 (The New American Nation series) (ISBN 006015733X) (1987)
• Nevins, Allan; The American States during and after the Revolution, 1775-1789 (1927) online edition.
• Wood, Gordon S. The American Revolution: A History (2003), short survey by leading scholar
• Wood, Gordon. Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815 (Oxford History of the United States) (2009) excerpt and text search

Primary sources

• Commager, Henry Steele and Morris, Richard B., eds. The Spirit of 'Seventy-Six: The Story of the American Revolution As Told by Participants (1975) (ISBN 0060108347)
• Humphrey; Carol Sue, ed. The Revolutionary Era: Primary Documents on Events from 1776 to 1800 Greenwood Press, 2003
• Morison, S. E. ed. Sources and Documents Illustrating the American Revolution, 1764-1788, and the Formation of the Federal Constitution (1923)

External links

• Early American Government: Democratic-Republic