Chapters 8 and 9 Flashcards
2nd Continental Congress
The delegates drafted new appeals to brit (like Olive Branch Petition) and raised money to create an army and navy
Washington was selected to head the army.
Olive Branch Petition
The Olive Branch Petition was adopted by Congress on July 5th, 1775 to be sent to the King as a last attempt to prevent formal war from being declared. The Petition emphasized their loyalty to the British crown and emphasized their rights as British citizens.
In response, King George declared the colonies to be in open rebellion and threatened to hang the traitors. He also hired German soldiers dubbed “Hessian flies” by the Americans
“war of inconsistency”
The period of the war before the official declaration of independence (april 1775 to July 1776)
Ft. Ticonderoga
Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold captured the British garrison in may 1775, gunpowder and artillery was secured for use in Boston
Henry Knox brought the goods back to Boston, about 250 miles
The Americans also seized the artillery at Crown Point, NY
Battle of Bunker Hill
(Technically Breed’s Hill)
The colonist seized the hill in June 1775 and held it against 3 waves of British attack until they ran out of powder (the brits took the hill on the 4th attack)
Boston was occupied by the Brits until they evacuated on March 17, 1776
Common Sense
His message in Common Sense was that Americans should separate from Brit, Republican government is beneficial bc power flowed from the people themselves, not from a despotic (tyrannical) monarch.
The message was aimed at the common people bc Paine believe they should have a more active part in gov to build their “civic virtue”
Colonists identified w Paine’s message bc they already had experience in Republican gov due to town meetings, committees of correspondence, etc
Declaration of Independence
Indepence was proposed june 7, 1776 by Richard Henry Lee
The delegates voted for independence on July 2, and formal adoption took place on July 4th.
jefferson s Dec of Ind was a long list of grievances against King George 3
Passages about slavery and women’s right (dispite Abigail Adam’s plea to “Remmember the Ladies”) were crossed out
Jefferson borrowed from John Locke’s “natural rights” philosophy: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Hypocritical Jefferson. He owned people yet wrote “all men are created equal” he believed slavery existed only bc govs allowed it
The Dec of Ind inspired the French to write their Declaration of the Rights of Man after the 1789 Rev.
It also inspired revolutionaries in Venezuela to write the Acta de La Independencia in 1811.
Continental Army
State of the Continental Army in 1776, the men were badly trained; only 18000 men, few victories
The army had to retreat when the Brits attacked Long Island. W moved his forces south towards PA
Washinton’s success on Dec 26, 1776 (Trenton) boosted morale (Note: Hessians NOT drunk as commonly stated)
Washington kept the army together and in the field. He was not known as a great strategist. But he does get liked for being nice and stuff and also being tall as people admired that
Colonial forces suffered greatly at Valley Forge, PA, during the winter of 1777-78. (amazingly, it was actually a mild winter– 1780 was MUCH worse)
10,000 men lived in makeshift wood and clay structures. Almost 2500 died
The men were drilled by Baron von Stueben and learned about artillery from Thaddeus Kosciusko
Casimir Pulaski helped to build fortifications at West Point and also organized the first US Cavalry Corps
The marquis de lafayette assisted the americans as well
women collected supplies and money for the Continental Army
Quebec (invasion of Canada)
American believed they could make Quebec a 14th colony
Joint attack planned (fall 1775)
Richard Montogemry (who went through Lake Champlain) and Benedict Arnold (who went through ME up the Kennebec River)
Montgomery conquered Montreal, then joined Arnold at Quebec. Montgomery was killed, arnold was wounded
The american army was forced to retreat
Battle of Saratoga
-general howe attacked and “liberated” Philadelphia instead of joining Burgoyne bc he wanted to force a general engagement w Washington
Washington had been defeated in late 1777 at Brandywine Creek and Germantown (both near Philadelphia
As a consequence, burgoyne was defeated at the Battle of Saratoga (oct. 1777)
American general horatio gates rarely left his tent during the battle
(important) Saratoga is considered the turning point in the war bc it revived the American cause and made possible much needed aid from France. Spain also joined the American side.
Treaty of Alliance (w/France) also alliance with Spain and Holland
Ben Franklin went to the court of King Louis 14 with a “Model Treaty” that included the principles of no political connection, no military connection, only a commercial connection.
Franklin, dressed in homespun clothing and a fur cap (the french were like “aww hes so cute! American uwu!”, succeeded in wooing the french by arguing that if brit won, it might threaten the French W-Indies
The resulting Treaty of Alliance provided gunpowder, other supplies, and the French navy
The Americans were also guaranteed home rule and independence
Some americans were upset by the alliance bc France was a Catholic country and a former enemy
FRANCO-AMERICAN ALLIANCE
Spain and Holland joined the Franco-American Alliance. Other countries joined the “Armed Neutrality” (organized by russia against britain)
The brits evacuated Philadelphia in 1778 and concentrated their force in NYC
The theater of the war shifted to the Caribbean, as the French and British fought over their sugar-producing islands.
Battle of Newtown
The battle of Newtown, 1779, involved 25 percent of all US troops. The aim was to drive the Iroquis out of NY bc they supported the Brits and were harassing American settlers
The goal was met- the Iroquois died in large numbers during the winter
Treaty of Ft. Stanwix
Because the Iroquois sided w the Brit, after the war, they were forced to cede most of their land to the US as part of the Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1784)
Battle of Yorktown
Assuming Britain would control the seas, General Cornwallis inadvertently placed himself in a corner by falling back to the Yorktown peninsula
While the americans (washington) and French (Rochambeau) blocked his retreat by land, the French moved into block his retreat by sea.
The brit surrendered oct 19, 1781.
(Cornwallis wasnt even present at the surrender. American General Benjamin Lincholn is shown accepting the surrender of British General Charles O-Hara.
Sporadic fighting continued for a year afterward
Treaty of Paris (1783)
(Negotiated by Ben Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay)
The brit recognized the independence of the US with generous boundaries. The US held a share of the Newfoundland fisheries
Americans agreed not to persecute Loyalists and to recommend that Loyalist property be returned
The treaty was broken on both sides (Brits didn’t leave the land, US didn’t return territory)
The Spanish did not like the idea of an independent US
The french were fine with it but wanted the US to stay weak
Articles of Confederation
THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION: BACKGROUND
The states were essentially sovereign because they: coined their own money, erected tariff barriers, raised their own troops
The Articles were agreed to by delegates in 1777, but not ratified until 1781 due to disagreement over western lands.
States without land holdings would be taxed heavily to pay fr Rev. War debt, while the others could simply turn over their lands and be debt-free.
THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION: GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE
Chief agency of government: congress
No executive branch due to fear of monarchy
Judiciary system left up to the states
Each state had one vote
all bills dealing with important subjects required 2/ 3’s of the states (9 at the time)
Any amendment of the Articles required unanimous ratification
Congress was purposely designed to be weak
Congress could not regulate commerce, nor could it enforce its tax-collection program
THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION: CONGRESSIONAL POWERS
They could:
Declare war, make peace, set forgien policy, make treaties (but couldn’t enforce them), establish a postal service, establish a tax quota and miliata quota for each of the states (but couldn’t make the states comply)
Newburgh Conspiracy
In 1783, mutinous soldiers demanded back pay
Washington quelled the rebellion by giving a speech on which he said, “i have grown old and blind in the service of my country”
Shortly afterwards, congress approved a plan to pay the soldiers.
Land Ordinance of 1785
the acreage of the Old Worthest would be sold to pay off national debt: land was divided into townships in 6 sq. miles. A section of each town was set aside for a school.
Northwest Ordinance of 1787
Jefferson’s Northwest Ordinance of 1787: when a territory had 60,000 people, it could become a state. Enslavement was outlawed, although enslaved people already present were exempted
Shays’s Rebellion
Cause: poor farmers (many were veterans) in the West were losing their farms through mortgage foreclosures due to tax delinquencies (they also felt underrepresented in state government)
Capt. Daniel Shays led the rebellion in Massachusetts
Debtor demands: cheap paper money, lighter taxes, and suspension of property takeovers
Collapse of the Rebellion: Massachusetts authorities raised a small army that clashed with the Shaysites in several skirmishes, the biggest at Springfield, Mass.
Shays was condemned to death but later pardoned.
People started to realize that the government was too weak
Philadelphia Constitutional Convention
55 delegates from every state except Rhode Island
Most were lawyers, well-to-do; average age was 42
Franklin, Madison, and Hamiltion were present. Jefferson, John Adams, Paine, Sam Adams, Hancock, and P. Henry weren’t.
Washington was elected chairman.
The delegates sought to curb “unrestrained democracy” ensuring security of life and property against uprising by the “mobocracy”
Virginia Plan
The Virginia Plan (Madison, “large state plan”) 2 houses, representation based on population in both (gave larger states an advantage)
New Jersey Plan
The New Jersey Plan (Patterson, “small state plan”) 1 house, equal representation regardless of state size (favored small states)
Great Compromise
The “Great Compromise” (Sherman) Equal representation in the Senate, (2 per state) representation by population in the House.
Electoral College
Electoral College: indirect election of the president and vice president where each state receives electors equaling its number of senators and representatives
