Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0387/03875.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 24KB | 415 lines

$Unique_ID{COW03875}
$Pretitle{444}
$Title{United States of America
Chapter 2A.   The War of Independence}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{United States Information Service}
$Affiliation{United States Government}
$Subject{colonies
british
colonial
new
american
colonists
england
act
french
parliament}
$Date{1991}
$Log{}
Country:     United States of America
Book:        An Outline of American History
Author:      United States Information Service
Affiliation: United States Government
Date:        1991

Chapter 2A.   The War of Independence

     "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."

The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

     John Adams, second President of the United States, declared that the
history of the American Revolution began as far back as 1620. "The
Revolution," he said, "was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution
was in the minds and hearts of the people." The principles and passions that
led the Americans to rebel ought, he added, "to be traced back for two hundred
years and sought in the history of the country from the first plantation in
America."

     As a practical matter, however, the overt parting of the ways between
England and America began in 1763, more than a century and a half after
the first permanent settlement had been founded at Jamestown, Virginia. The
colonies had grown vastly in economic strength and cultural attainment, and
virtually all had long years of self-government behind them. Their combined
population now exceeded 1,500,000-a sixfold increase since 1700.

     The implications of the physical growth of the colonies were far greater
than mere numerical increase would indicate. The 18th century brought a steady
expansion from the influx of immigrants from Europe, and since the best land
near the seacoast had already been occupied, new settlers had to push inland
beyond the fall line of the rivers. Traders explored the back country, brought
back tales of rich valleys, and induced farmers to take their families into
the wilderness. Although their hardships were enormous, restless settlers kept
coming, and by the 1730s frontiersmen had already begun to pour into the
Shenandoah Valley.

     Down to 1763, Great Britain had formulated no consistent policy for her
colonial possessions. The guiding principle was the confirmed mercantilist
view that colonies should supply the mother country with raw materials and
not compete in manufacturing. But policy was poorly enforced, and the colonies
had never thought of themselves as subservient. Rather, they considered
themselves chiefly as commonwealths or states, much like England herself,
having only a loose association with authorities in London.

     At infrequent intervals, sentiment in England was aroused and efforts
were made by Parliament or the Crown to subordinate the economic activities
and governments of the colonies to England's will and interest-efforts to
which the majority of the colonists were opposed. The remoteness afforded by a
vast ocean allayed fears of reprisal the colonies might otherwise have had.

     Added to this remoteness was the character of life itself in early
America. From countries limited in space and dotted with populous towns, the
settlers had come to a land of seemingly unending reach. On such a continent
natural conditions stressed the importance of the individual.

Frontier Fosters Self-Reliance

     The colonists-inheritors of the traditions of the Englishman's long
struggle for political liberty-incorporated concepts of freedom into
Virginia's first charter. This provided that English colonists were to
exercise all liberties, franchises, and immunities "as if they had been
abiding and born within this our Realm of England." They were, then, to enjoy
the benefits of the Magna Charta and the common law.

     In the early days, the colonies were able to hold fast to their heritage
of rights because of the King's arbitrary assumption that they were not
subject to parliamentary control. In addition, for years afterward, the kings
of England were too preoccupied with a great struggle in England itself-a
struggle which culminated in the Puritan Revolution-to enforce their will.
Before Parliament could bring its attention to the task of molding the
American colonies to an imperial policy, they had grown strong and prosperous
in their own right.

     From the first year after they had set foot upon the new continent, the
colonists had functioned according to the English law and constitution-with
legislative assemblies, a representative system of government, and a
recognition of the common-law guarantees of personal liberty. But
increasingly legislation became American in point of view, and less and less
attention was paid to English practices and precedents. Nevertheless, colonial
freedom from effective English control was not achieved without conflict, and
colonial history abounds in struggles between the assemblies elected by the
people and the governors appointed by the King.

     Still, the colonists were often able to render the royal governors
powerless, for, as a rule, governors had "no subsistence but from the
Assembly." Governors were sometimes instructed to give profitable offices and
land grants to influential colonists to secure their support for royal
projects but, as often as not, the colonial officials, once they had secured
these emoluments, espoused the popular cause as strongly as ever.

     The recurring clashes between governor and assembly worked increasingly
to awaken the colonists to the divergence between American and English
interests. Gradually, the assemblies took over the functions of the governors
and their councils, which were made up of colonists selected for their docile
support of royal power, and the center of colonial administration shifted from
London to the provincial capitals. Early in the 1770s, following the final
expulsion of the French from the North American continent, an attempt was made
to bring about a drastic change in the relationship between the colonies and
the mother country.

British and French Clash

     While the British had been filling the Atlantic coastal area with farms,
plantations, and towns, the French had been planting a different kind of
dominion in the St. Lawrence Valley in eastern Canada. Having sent over fewer
settlers but more explorers, missionaries, and fur traders, France had taken
possession of the Mississippi River and, by a line of forts and trading
posts, marked out a great crescent-shaped empire stretching from Quebec in the
northeast to New Orleans in the south. Thus they tended to pin the British to
the narrow belt east of the Appalachian Mountains.

     The British had long resisted what they considered "the encroachment of
the French." As early as 1613, local clashes occurred between French and
English colonists. Eventually, there was organized warfare, the American
counterpart of the larger conflict between England and France. Thus, between
1689 and 1687, "King William's War" was fought as the American phase of the
European "War of the Palatinate." From 1702 to 1713, "Queen Anne's War"
corresponded to the "War of the Spanish Succession." And from 1744 to 1748,
"King George's War" paralleled the "War of the Austrian Succession." Though
England secured certain advantages from these wars, the struggles were
generally indecisive, and France remained in a strong position on the American
continent.

     In the 1750s, the conflict was brought to a final phase. The French,
after the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, tightened their hold on the
Mississippi Valley. At the same time, the movement of English colonists across
the Alleghenies increased in tempo, stimulating a race for physical possession
of the same territory. An armed clash in 1754, involving Virginia militiamen
under the command of 22-year-old George Washington