Moving Toward Independence

1. Moving Toward Independence EQ: Why did the colonists draft a “declaration of independence”?

2. What new issues faced the Second Continental Congress? • May 10, 1775, this congress met for the first time and despite fighting at Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill many members were still not convinced breaking away from Britain was a good idea. • They had to create the Continental Army to fight in a more organized way than armed militias could. • They began to print their own money and set up their own post offices. • Their last move to was offer Britain the last chance to avoid a full-blown war.

3. Who were some of the leaders of the Second Continental Congress? • Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, and George Washington were holdovers from the First Congress. • John Hancock, who was already involved in the fight for freedom with the Liberty Affair, was nominated president of the Congress. • Before this role, Hancock had funded many Patriot groups including the Sons of Liberty. • Benjamin Franklin was already an influential member of the Pennsylvania legislature and helped win King George’s removal of the Stamp Act.

4. What other brilliant minds of the day answered the call to serve? • Thomas Jefferson, had already built a reputation as a great thinker and writer, and served with the House of Burgess in Virginia that sent many letters of protest to Britain during the taxation of the colonists. • Under this leadership, they set up a dialogue with Native Americans in the area, announcing their intentions towards Britain. • On John Adams’ recommendation they unanimously voted George Washington as the Continental Army’s commander.

5. What was King George’s reaction to the Olive Branch Petition? • In the petition –formal request-to King George the colonists assured their desire for peace. • It asked the King to protect the colonists’ rights that Parliament seemed destined to destroy. • But King George never received the petition and refused to open it. • Instead he hired 30,000 German troops to go to America and fight beside the British. • This meant there was no going back now.

6. What was the early strategy used by G.W. & the Continental Army? • George was instructed by Congress to intercept the British from invading and taking New York. • After leaving from a recent Colonist victory at Fort Ticonderoga, they moved to Montreal and captured it in November of 1776. • Benedict Arnold led a force from there to take Quebec but failed and remained outside Quebec before the harsh winter drove them back to Fort Ticonderoga. • This early quick strike strategy had produced mixed results in bad weather conditions.

7. How did GW improve the Continental Army? • During the time after the defeat at Bunker Hill GW believed the army lacked discipline, organization, and leadership. • The army trained from July of 1775 until March of 1776 to ready themselves to take Boston away from Sir William Howe and the British regiments. • As Washington surrounded the town in a semi-circle, Howe fled with his forces into Boston Harbor and GW marched his victorious forces into the town on March 17th.

8. What was Thomas Paine’s Common Sense all about? • Even though the war for independence was moving forward, there were many Americans not ready to make a complete break away from Britain. • The support for a total break from Britain was also growing and in January of 1776, Thomas Paine captured the attention of all Americans in his pamphlet Common Sense. • He stated it was merely “common sense” that to stop the royal brute “King George” and the fight was just not over taxes but a struggle for freedom and thousands agreed.

9. When did the colonies declare independence? • On June 7th of 1776 Virginia’s Richard Henry Lee proposed the resolution “ That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States…and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be totally dissolved.” • This was a very risky move because even though they were already at war, there was the fear that Britain might just put down the rebellion. • This was Lee’s big moment in politics and history.

10. Who made up the Declaration of Independence committee? • Thomas Jefferson was selected to write the document and used the teachings of English philosopher John Locke to set the colonists’ reasons for proclaiming their freedom. • Locke wrote that people were born with certain natural rights to life, liberty, property, and needed a government to protect these rights. • The last part Locke believed was that if a government was interfering with those rights, it needed to be overthrown.

11. What did Congress decide? • On July 2nd 1776, Congress voted on Lee’s resolution for independence and twelve of the original thirteen voted for it. • New York did not approve it but later announced its support. (Figures, dang Yankees!) • It took Congress two days to change a few things and approved the document on July 4th 1776. • John Hancock, the President of the Congress was the first to sign it and made a joke he’d write it big enough so King George could see it. 56 eventually signed it.

12. What was the colonists’ reaction to the document? • George Washington read it to his troops on July 9th. • In New York, colonists tore down a statue of King George in celebration. • In Worchester, Massachusetts the crowd gathered to hear its reading erupted in repeated cheers, firing muskets, canons, bonfires, and other demonstrations of jubilation. • The four sections of the document were received very well by most that heard it.

13. What are the sections of the Declaration of Independence? • The preamble (introduction) states that people that wish to form a new country should express their reasons for doing so. • The next two sections list the rights they believe they should have and the complaints they have with Britain. • By announcing their status as Americans and declare their new nation, the document pledges “to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred honor.”

14. Answer Your EQ • Please answer in 4-5 sentences.