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On This Day 7/4/1776 6/30/2011 8:32:41 PM
American colonies declare independence On this very special day in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Continental Congress adopted the "Declaration of Independence", which proclaims the independence of a new United States of America from Great Britain and its King, King George III. The declaration cam four hundred forty-two days after the first shots of the "American Revolution" were fired at the "Battle of Lexington" and the "Battle of Concord" in Massachusetts and marked an ideological explanation of the conflict that would eventually involve France's intervention on behalf of the Americans.
The first major American opposition to British policy came in 1765 after the British Parliament pass "The Stamp Act", a taxation measure designed to raise revenue for a standing British Army in America. Under the banner of:
"no taxation, without representation"
colonists convened "The Stamp Act Congress" in October 1765 to vocalize their opposition to the tax. With its enactment in November, most colonists called for a boycott of British goods and some organized attacks on customhouse and homes of tax collectors. After months of protest in the colonies, the British Parliament finally voted to repeal "The Stamp Act" in March 1766
Most colonists continued to quietly accept British rule until the British Parliament's enactment of "The Tea Act" in 1773, a bill designed to save the faltering British East India Company by greatly lowering its tea tax and granting a monopoly on the American tea trade. The low tax allowed the company to undercut even tea smuggled into America by Dutch traders, and any colonists viewed the act as another example of taxation tyranny.
In response, militant colonists in Massachusetts organized the "Boston Tea Party," which saw British tea valued at some eighteen thousand pounds sterling dumped into Boston Harbor, Massachusetts. The British Parliament, outraged by the "Boston Tea Party", and other blatant acts of destruction of British property, enacted "The Coercive Acts", called "The Intolerable Acts" by the colonists, in 1774.
"The Coercive Acts"
*Closed Boston Harbor Massachusetts to merchant
shipping
*Established formal British military rule in
Massachusetts
*Made British Officials immune to criminal
prosecution in America
*Required colonists to quarter British troops
In response, the colonists called the First Continental Congress to consider united American resistance to the British. With the other colonies watching intently, Massachusetts led the resistance to the British, forming a shadow revolutionary government and establishing militias to resist the increasing British military presence across the colony.
In April 1775, Thomas Gage, the British Governor of Massachusetts, ordered British troops to march to Concord, Massachusetts where a Patriot arsenal was known to be located. On April 19, 1775 the British Regulars encountered a group of American militiamen at Lexington, Massachusetts, and the first shots of the "American Revolution" were fired.
Initially, both the Americans and the British saw the conflict as a kind of civil war within the British Empire. To King George III, it was a colonial uprising or rebellion, and to the American colonists, it was a struggle for their rights as British citizens.
However, Parliament remained unwilling to negotiate with the American rebels and instead hired Hessians, German Mercenaries, to help the British Army crush the rebellion. In response to Great Britain's continued opposition to reform the Continental Congress began to pass measures abolishing British authority in the colonies.
In January 1778, Thomas Paine publisher of "Common Sense", an influential political pamphlet that convincingly argued for American independence and sold more than five hundred thousand copies in just a few months. In the spring of 1778, support for independence swept the colonies, the Continental Congress called for states to form their own governments and a five-man committee was assigned to draft a declaration.
The "Declaration of Independence" was largely the work of Virginian Thomas Jefferson. In justifying American independence, Thomas Jefferson drew generously from the political philosophy of John Locke, an advocate of natural rights and from the work of other English theorists. The "Declaration of Independence" features the immortal lines:
"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."
It then goes on to present a long list of grievances that provided the rationale for rebellion. On July 2, 1776 the Continental Congress voted to approve a Virginia motion calling for separation from Great Britain. The dramatic words of this resolution were added to the closing of the "Declaration of Independence." Two days later on July 4, 1776 the declaration was formally adopted by twelve colonies after minor revision.
New York, the thirteenth colony, approved it on July 19, 1776. On August 2, 1776 the "Declaration of Independence" was signed. The "American Revolution" would last for five years. Yet to come were the Patriot triumps at the "Battle of Saratoga", the bitter winter at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, the intervention of the French, and the final victory at Yorktown, Virginia on October 18, 1781. In 1783, with the signing of the "Treaty of Paris" with Great Britain, the United States formally became a free and independent nation.
(K) (HST)
George III King of Great Britain
Thomas Gage Royal Governor of Massachusetts
Thomas Jefferson American Patriot
President, USA
John Locke Philosopher
