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Learn how George Washington was chosen to lead the army, his leadership qualities, and major battles during the American Revolution. Explore the pivotal role he played in establishing American independence and foreign policy.
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Chapter 8 America Secedes from the Empire, 1775–1783
I. Congress Drafts George Washington • The Second Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775: • First most important single action—to select George Washington to head the army: • The choice was made with considerable misgivings • He never rose above the rank of a colonel • His largest command had numbered only 20,000 • Falling short of true military genius, he would actually lose more pitched battles than he won.
I. Congress Drafts George Washington (cont.) • He was gifted with outstanding powers of leadership and immense strength of character • He radiated patience, courage, self-discipline, and a sense of justice • He was trusted and insisted on serving without pay, however, keeping a careful list of expenses-$100,000. • The Continental Congress chose more wisely than it knew.
II. Bunker Hill and Hessian Hirelings • The war of inconsistency was fought for 14 months—April 1775 to July 1776—before the fateful plunge into independence. • Gradually the tempo of warfare increased: • May 1775 Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold captured garrisons at Ticonderoga and Crown Point in upper New York • June 1775 the colonists seized Bunker Hill
II. Bunker Hill and Hessian Hirelings (cont.) • July 1775 the Congress adopted the Olive Branch Petition: • It professed American loyalty to the crown and begged the king to prevent further hostilities • King George III slammed the door on all hope of reconciliation • August 1775 he proclaimed the colonies in rebellion:
II. Bunker Hill and Hessian Hirelings (cont.) • The skirmishes were now out-and out treason, a hanging crime • Next he sealed arrangements for hiring thousands of German troops • George III needed the men • Because most of the soldiers-for-hire came from the German principality of Hesse, the Americans called all the European mercenaries Hessians • News of the Hessian deal shocked the colonists • Hessian hirelings proved to be good soldiers.
III. The Abortive Conquest of Canada • October 1775 the British burned Falmouth (Portland), Maine: • In autumn, the rebels daringly undertook a two-pronged invasion of Canada • A successful assault on Canada would add a 14th colony and deprive Britain of a valuable base for striking the colonies in revolt • Invasion northward was undisguised offensive warfare.
III. The Abortive Conquest of Canada (cont.) • This broad stroke for Canada narrowly missed success (Map 8.1) • One invading column under General Richard Montgomery pushed up the Lake Champlain route and captured Montreal. • At Quebec he was joined by the army of General Benedict Arnold • An assault on Quebec was launched on the day of 1775. Montgomery was killed.
III. The Abortive Conquest of Canada (cont.) • Arnold was wounded in one leg. • Bitter fighting persisted in the colonies: • January 1776 the British set fire to Norfolk, Va. • March 1776 they were forced to evacuate Boston • In the South the rebels won two victories: • February 1776 against some 15,000 Loyalists at Moore’s Creek Bridge North Carolina • June 1776 against an invading fleet at Charleston harbor.
IV. Thomas Paine Preaches Common Sense • Loyalty to the empire was deeply ingrained: • Americans continued to believe they were a part of a transatlantic community • Colonial unity was poor • Open rebellion was dangerous • As late as January 1776 the king’s health was being toasted—”God save the king.” • They gradually were shocked into recognizing the necessity to separate.
IV. Thomas Paine Preaches Common Sense (cont.) • 1776 Common Sense by Thomas Paine: • One of the most influential pamphlets ever published • Began with a treatise on the nature of government • And that the only lawful states were those that derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
IV. Thomas Paine Preaches Common Sense (cont.) • As for the king, he was nothing but “the Royal Brute of Great Britain” • Within a week the astonishing total of 120,000 copies were sold. • No where in the physical universe did the smaller heavenly bodies control the larger one • So why should the tiny island of Britain control the vast continent of America?
IV. Thomas Paine Preaches Common Sense (cont.) • Paine tried to convince the colonists that their true cause was independence rather than reconciliation with Britain. • Paine could thus be said to have drafted the foundational document not only of American independence, but of American foreign policy as well.
V. Paine and the Idea of “Republicanism” • Paine was calling for a republic: • For the creation of a new kind of political society where power flowed from the people themselves • In biblical imagery, he argued that all government officials—governors, senators, and judges—and not just representatives should derive their authority from popular consent.
V. Paine and the Idea of “Republicanism” (cont.) • Paine was not the first to champion a republican form of government: • Greece and Rome revived in the 17th century Renaissance • Republicanism appealed to British politicians critical of excessive power in the hands of the king and his advisers • The American colonists interpreted the royal acts as part of a monarchical conspiracy.
V. Paine and the Idea of “Republicanism” (cont.) • Paine’s summons to create a republic fell on receptive ears: • New Englanders already had practiced a kind of republicanism: • In their town meetings and annual election. • Most American considered citizen “virtue” fundamental to any successful republican government.
V. Paine and the Idea of “Republicanism” (cont.) • Individuals in a republic: • Needed to sacrifice their personal self-interest to the public good • The collective good of “the people” mattered more than private rights and interests of individuals • Paine inspired his contemporaries to view America as fertile ground for the cultivation of such civil virtue.
V. Paine and the Idea of Republicanism (cont.) • Not all Patriots agreed with Paine’s ultra-democratic approach to republicanism: • Some favored a republic ruled by a “natural aristocracy” of talent • They wanted an end to hereditary aristocracy, but not an end to all social hierarchy • They were conservative republicans who wanted the stability of the social order. • The contest of American republicanism would continue for the next 100 years.
VI. Jefferson’s “Explanation” of Independence • On July 7, 1776, fiery Richard Henry Lee of Virginia moved that “these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states.” The motion was adopted a month later on July 2, 1776. • The passing of Lee’s resolution was the formal “declaration” of independence by the colonies • Technically this was all that was needed to cut the British tie.
VI. Jefferson’s “Explanation” of Independence (cont.) • An inspirational appeal was needed: • To enlist other British colonies in the Americas • To invite assistance for foreign nations • To rally resistance at home. • Congress appointed a committee to prepare a more formal statement: • The task of drafting it fell to Thomas Jefferson • He was fully qualified for it.
VI. Jefferson’s “Explanation of Independence (cont.) • The Declaration of Independence • Formally approved by Congress on July 4, 1776 • It had universal appeal by invoking the “natural rights of humankind—not just British rights • He argued that the king had flouted these rights the colonists were justified in cutting their ties • He set forth a long list of the presumably tyrannous misdeeds of George III • The Declaration had a universal impact.
VII. Patriots and Loyalists • The War of Independence was a war within a war: • Loyalists—colonials loyal to the king who fought the American rebels called “Tories” after the dominant political factions in Britain • Patriots—rebels who also fought the British redcoats called “Whigs” after the opposition factions in Britain.
VII. Patriots and Loyalists (cont.) • The American Revolution was a minority movement: • Many colonists were apathetic or neutral • The Patriot militias played a critical role • The rebel militiamen appeared and took the task of “political education” sometimes by coercion • The ragtag militia units served as agents of Revolutionary ideas.
VII. Patriots and Loyalists • Loyalists: • Numbered about 16 percent of the American people, who remained true to their king • Families often were split • They were taught fidelity to the crown • Many people of education and wealth, of culture and caution, remained loyal • More numerous among the older generation • Included the king’s officers and beneficiaries.
VII. Patriots and Loyalists (cont.) • Loyalists: • They were the Anglican clergy and their congregations notable exception was Virginia • King’s followers entrenched in aristocratic New York City and Charlestown, Quaker Pennsylvania and New Jersey • They were less numerous in New England • Most numerous where Presbyterianism and Congregationalism flourished.
VIII. The Loyalist Exodus • Before the Declaration in 1776, persecution of the Loyalists was relatively mild: • Some were subject to brutality, tarring and feathering and riding astride fence rails • Harsher treatment began after the Declaration • Were regarded as traitors • Were roughly handled, some were imprisoned and a few noncombatants were hung. • There was no wholesale reign of terror.
VIII. The Loyalists Exodus (cont.) • 80 thousand loyal supporters of King George were driven out or fled • Several hundred thousand were permitted to stay • The estates of the fugitives were confiscated and sold • Some 50 thousand Loyalist volunteers bore arms for the British • They helped the king’s cause by serving as spies, by inciting the Indians, and by keeping Patriot soldiers • Ardent Loyalists had their hearts in their cause.
IX. General Washington at Bay • General Washington: • Only mustered 18,000 ill-trained troops to meet the British invaders at New York, March 1776 • Disaster befell the Americans at the Battle of Long Island summer and fall of 1776 • Washington escaped to Manhattan Island, finally reaching the Delaware River • The Patriot cause was at low ebb and the rebel remnants fled across the river.
IX. General Washington at Bay (cont.) • General William Howe, Washington’s adversary, did not speedily crush the demoralized American forces • Washington stealthily recrossed the Delaware River at Trenton on December 26, 1776, he surprised and captured 1,000 Hessians • A week later he defeated a small British fleet at Princeton. • These two lifesaving victories revealed the “Old Fox” Washington at his military best.
X. Burgoyne’s Blundering Invasion • London officials adopted an intricate scheme to capture the Hudson River valley in 1777: • If successful it would sever New England from the rest of the states and paralyze the American cause: • General John Burgoyne would push down the Lake Champlain route from Canada • General Howe’s troops would advance up the Hudson and meet Burgoyne near Albany
X. Burgoyne’s Blundering Invasion (cont.) • A third smaller British force, under Colonel Barry St. Leger, would come from the west by way of Lake Ontario and the Mohawk • British planners did not reckon with General Arnold • Arnold came along the St. Lawrence River to the Lake Champlain area where he assembled and outfitted a fleet of floatable vessels • His fleet was destroyed, but time had been won • The result would have been the British recapturing Fort Ticonderoga. • If Burgoyne would have started from Montreal he most certainly would have succeeded in his venture.
X. Burgoyne’ Blundering Invasion (cont.) • General Washington transferred his army to the vicinity of Philadelphia: • There he was defeated in two pitched battles, at Brandywine Creek and Germantown • General Howe settled down in the lively capital and left Burgoyne to flounder in upper New York • Washington retired to Valley Forge • Burgoyne was trapped with no possible advancement and was forced to surrender his entire command at Saratoga on October 17, 1777, to Gen. Horatio Gates.
X. Burgoyne’s Blundering Invasion (cont.) • Saratoga ranks high among the decisive battles of both America and world history: • The victory immensely revived the faltering colonial cause • Even more important, it made possible the urgently needed foreign aid from France, which in turn helped ensure American independence.
XI. Revolution in Diplomacy? • France’s role in the Revolution: • Hopefully France could regain its former position and prestige in North America: • Her loss in the Seven Years’ War rankled deeply • America’s revolutionaries badly needed help in her struggle to throw off the British: • America needed to seal an alliance with France against the common British foe.
XI. Revolution in Diplomacy?(cont.) • The rebellious Americans harbored revolutionary ideas about international affairs: • They wanted an end to colonialism and mercantilism: • They strongly supported free trade and freedom of the sea • They wanted to support the rule of law to arbitrate the affairs of nations.
XI. Revolution in Diplomacy? (cont.) • In the summer of 1776 the Continental Congress drafted a Model Treaty: • To guide the American commissioners who would be dispatched to the French court • John Adams, one of the chief authors, described its basic principles: • “1. No political connection. . . .2. No military connection. . . .3. Only a commercial connection.” • These were remarkable self-denying restrictions.
XI. Revolution in Diplomacy?(cont.) • Benjamin Franklin negotiated treaty in Paris: • He was determined that his very appearance should herald the diplomatic revolution • He shocked the royal court • Ordinary Parisians adored him as a specimen of a new democratic social order The British offered a measure to the effect of American home rule in the empire.
XI. Revolution in Diplomacy?(cont.) • This was essentially what the colonials had asked for—except independence: • On February 6, 1778, France offered the Americans a treaty of alliance • The young republic concluded its first entangling military alliance and would soon regret it • The Treaty with France constituted an official recognition of America’s independence • Both allies bound themselves together to secure America’s freedom and to terms with the common enemy.
XII. The Colonial War Becomes a Wider War • England and France came to blows in 1778, and the shot fired at Lexington widened into a global conflagration. • Spain entered in 1779 as did Holland • The weak maritime neutrals of Europe began to demand their rights (see Table 8.1) • Catherine the Great, Russia, led in organizing the Armed Neutrality—it lined all remaining European neutrals in an attitude of passive hostility toward Britain.
