THE COMING OF THE REVOLUTION
I. The Crisis in Boston
A. 1770 - The Boston Massacre
B. 1773 - The tea problem
1. Tea Act -- low prices but monopoly to Brit. East India Co.
2. Colonial merchants fear British destruction of their position
3. Boston Tea Party
C. The Intolerable or Coercive Acts are passed to retaliate for the Boston Tea Party, and are an attempt to force the citizens of Boston to pay for the destroyed tea and other property. -- 1774
1. Three acts apply specifically to Boston and Massachusetts
a. The Boston Port Act -- closes the port of Boston
b. The Administration of Justice Act -- any British official accused in the colonies of a capital crime in connection with the performance of his duties may be tried in connection with the performance of his duties may be tried not in the colony where the act took place, but in England.
c. The Massachusetts Government Act
1) Council now appointed by King, not Gen. Court.
2) High court judges to be nominated by the Royal Governor for the King to appoint
3) Lower court judges, justices of the Peace, some local officials to be appointed by the governor
4) Towns permitted only one town meeting per year, unless justified in writing and approved by the governor
5) Juries to be summoned by sheriffs, who could thus control their composition
2. The Quartering Act applied to all colonies
a. Colonies to provide food and shelter for British troops stationed within their borders
b. Troops to be quartered in taverns, abandoned houses, etc., if the colony would not provide standard barracks
c. If necessary, as a last resort, private homes could be pressed into service as quarters. (NOTE: This is more in the nature of a threat than a promise. It was most undesirable from a military standpoint.)
3. The Quebec Act was not part of the Intolerable Acts. It did not even apply to the seaboard colonies at all. But it was passed on the same day as the other acts, and it seemed to the colonists to be aimed in their direction.
a. The Province of Quebec, formerly the major part of French Canada and populated mainly by French-speaking people, was extended to include the region between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. This was a slap in the face of the seaboard colonists, who had land claims in that area. Since some of the colonies had been given land in that region by their original charters, this was seen also as a first step in a British resolve to invalidate all charters and do to all colonies what they had done to Massachusetts
b. The Catholic Church was given establishment privileges in the Province of Quebec. Protestant Colonists resented this, and also feared the precedent of any church's being so favored by the British government.
c. The governmental system of the Province of Quebec was organized so that the inhabitants could have a system as nearly like that which they had enjoyed under the French as possible. This system did not include an elected assembly or the principle of trial by jury, and it provided for direct Parliamentary taxation. To the British, the new order made sense. The French-speaking inhabitants of Quebec liked it. But the colonists on the seaboard saw it as a threat. Was this new system -- a royal-appointed council, a church established by the king, an abrogation of old charters, direct taxation, centralized authority, no elected legislatures -- a sample of what government had in mind for ALL colonies under the new colonial system?
II. The First Continental Congress
A. Called at the instigation of an extra-legal body in Massachusetts in response to the Intolerable Acts
B. Delegates from colonies met and discussed common defense against new laws. This in itself was a revolutionary gesture.
C. Adopted the SUFFOLK RESOLVES
1. Had earlier been passed by a meeting in Suffolk, Mass. and passed on to the Congress.
2. Declared Intolerable Acts to be unconstitutional, and that they need not and should not be obeyed.
3. Ordered Massachusetts to form a new government, independent of royal authority, and that the new government collect all taxes and hold them -- not sending them on to their appropriate destinations -- until the Intolerable Acts were repealed.
4. Directed the people of the colonies to arm themselves and form militia units on their own initiative.
5. Recommended economic sanctions -- principally non-importation -- against Great Britain.
D. Debated the GALLOWAY PLAN
1. Proposed by Joseph Galloway of Pennsylvania.
2. Called for one centralized body to speak for all the colonies, but to remain part of and subject to the British Empire.
3. There was to be a colonial legislature, in with each colony would be represented. The king would appoint a governor.
4. Any law designed to apply to the colonies would have to pass both parliament and the new colonial body.
5. Rejected 6-5.
E. Created and adopted the CONTINENTAL ASSOCIATION
1. Non-importation declared against British goods.
2. Local vigilante-style bodies set up to enforce this action through publicity, picketing, boycotts on non-complying merchants, and covert activities.
F. Adopted the DECLARATION AND RESOLVES
1. Denounced the Intolerable and Quebec acts as unconstitutional and cruel.
2. Criticized ALL the new revenue measures passed since 1763.
3. Protested against writs of assistance, admiralty courts, etc.
4. Passed a declaration of rights, stating that the rights of life, liberty, and property were inherent in all people.
5. Declared that the power to tax lay legally only in the colonial legislatures.
6. Declared 13 acts of Parliament unconstitutional and promised continued sanctions until all were repealed.
III. The Interim -- 1775
A. Lord North's plan of conciliation -- Parliament would "forbear" to lay any but genuine regulatory taxes on any colony which, through the actions of its legislature, agreed to tax itself to provide its share of the money necessary to the common defense and the support of civil government.
B. New England colonies formed new governments -- illegal bodies having no legitimate authority, but enjoying enough popular support to allow them to function as governments. Provincial Congresses began to exercise de facto power.
C. Patrick Henry delivered his "liberty or death" speech, and the reception it got showed that sentiment against Britain was rising.
D. Massachusetts began to gather and hide stores of arms and ammunition.
E. 19 APRIL 75 -- A British expedition to seize these illegal arms ran into colonial armed opposition at Lexington and Concord. The first shot of the revolution had been fired.
F. 23 APRIL 75 -- Massachusetts's Provincial Congress authorizes the
raising of an army.
G. 10 MAY 75 -- Ethan Allan captures Ft. Ticonderoga. 12 MAY -- Ft. Crown Point captured. These are acts of armed rebellion and war.
IV. The Second Continental Congress -- chronology.
15 MAY 75 - Resolved to place the colonies "In a State of Defense."
29 MAY 75 - Invited the Canadian provinces, as "fellow-suffers", to join in defense against British measures.
14 JUN 75 - Raised six companies of riflemen to join the Massachusetts army which had gathered near and surrounded Boston after the battles of Lexington and Concord. This was the beginning of the U.S. Army.
15 JUN 75 - Adopted the army around Boston as the "Continental Army" and named George Washington commander.
17 JUN 75 - Battle of Bunker Hill fought at Breed's Hill.
05 JUL 75 - Adoption of Olive Branch Petition
1. Declared loyalty to the King
2. Hoped for restoration of harmony
3. Begged king to withhold hostilities against the colonists and to restrain Parliament from its harmful and unconstitutional activities.
06 JUL 75 - Adopted the "Declaration of the Causes and Necessities of Taking Up Arms."
1. Mainly the work of Jefferson and Dickinson
2. Rejected independence as a desired or viable alternative
3. Declared that resistance to Parliament's actions was moral and good, and that such resistance could rightly include armed violence.
4. Hinted that if Parliament did not bend, colonists might seek aid from foreign countries. France was the obvious one.
5. "...we most solemnly, before God and the world, declare, that, exerting the utmost energy of those powers, which our beneficent Creator hath graciously bestowed upon us, the arms we have been compelled by our enemies to assume, we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverance, employ for the preservation of our liberties; being with one mind resolved to die free men rather than to live slaves."
15 JUL 75 - Suspended nonimportation of those supplies useful in war.
31 JUL 75 - Rejected Lord North's plan of conciliation
02 AUG 75 - Appointed commissioners to make treaties with Indians. This is a function of a sovereign government.
19 JUL 75 - Established Post Office Department, with Franklin at the head. This is another function normally exercised by independent and sovereign governments.
28 AUG - 31 DEC 75 -- Continental army invades Canada. Besieges Quebec,
but is defeated. Heavy loss of life in battle, even worse
on winter retreat. Canadians do not rise to their support.
12 SEP 75 - Congress reconvenes after summer recess. Georgia is present for the first time. Now, all thirteen colonies are represented in the Continental Congress.
13 OCT 75 - Authorization of a navy
9 NOV 75 - Congress receives news that George III has rejected the Olive Branch petition and has declared the colonies in rebellion.
06 DEC 75 - Congress passes a proclamation of loyalty to the king and acknowledgement of his sovereignty, but disclaims any allegiance to or willingness to be ruled by Parliament.
29 NOV 75 - Establishment of Secret Committee of Correspondence to communicate and negotiate with foreign nations. Beginning of the Department of State.
09 JAN 76 - Publication of Common Sense by Thomas Paine. Declares necessity for Independence. Attacks the king -- first such direct attack. Emotional tone, much response. (Not an action of Congress)
17 MAR 76 - British evacuate Boston. Washington's army occupies the city.
07 JUN 76 - Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduces a resolution in Congress "That these United Colonies are, and of right, ought to be, Free and Independent States."
02 JUL 76 - Lee's Resolution passes Congress. INDEPENDENCE IS NOW DECLARED.
04 JUL 76 - Jefferson's official declaration is approved.