WHAT DOES IT MEAN
TO BE AN AMERICAN?
The American Experience
AMERICAN GOVERNMENT
Marshall High School
Unit One AC
MR. CLINE
* We’re Not Gonna Take It!
• Intolerable Acts
• Parliament and the King insisted on their rights to govern the colonies as
they saw fit, and as punishment for what they saw as rebellion in America,
they issued the Intolerable Acts, a series of punitive laws meant to punish
the people for their behavior, particularly in Boston.
• They closed Boston Harbor to all shipping until the destroyed tea and other
looted and vandalized property had been paid for by the Massachusetts
colony (Boston Port Act)
• Anyone accused of a crime in Massachusetts could be taken into custody
and transported to Great Britain for trial, as well as any possible witnesses
the state would like to use (Administration of Justice Act)
• He disbanded the Massachusetts legislature, and began compelling the
other colonial legislatures meet away from their capitol in other locations
far from it, or to close their doors as well. The King was given the power to
appoint the government of Massachusetts, and all meetings and assemblies
of people were declared illegal (Massachusetts Government Act)
* We’re Not Gonna Take It!
• Intolerable Acts
• Allowed for the British Army to quarter their soldiers anywhere without waiting
for the colonial legislature to pay or authorize it (Quartering Act of 1774)
• They enlarged the borders of the Province of Quebec to include much of
the western lands that had been declared off limits by the English to
American colonists
• The First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia and this time 12 of the
13 colonies (Georgia sent no delegates) attended out of sympathy for what
was happening in Massachusetts, and fear that it may happen to them.
• They made plans that if the King did not respond to them within a year,
they would meet again.
• Their agent, Benjamin Franklin attempted to deliver these messages, but
instead, he was summoned before a royal council, and forced to stand
before them for hours as they degraded and humiliated him as if he were
on trial for all of the colonies.
* We’re Not Gonna Take It!
• Intolerable Acts
• General Thomas Gage, the new military governor of Massachusetts knew men
from Boston and all of the other Massachusetts towns had been convening
illegally to train as militia units, and that they had weapons stockpiled in the
countryside. He sent a large contingent of British soldiers out into the country
to take these stockpiles.
• As Massachusetts citizens heard of the march of British troops, word went forth
that “The British are Coming!” and members of the militia, who had trained to
be ready in a minutes notice, Minutemen, rushed out to meet them.
• In between the towns of Lexington and Concord, minutemen hiding behind
trees, stone fences, rocks and farms picked off the British contingent, and forced
a rout and retreat by them back into Boston, where they were then surrounded.
• In history, this battle became known as “The shot heard ‘round the world.”
* We’re Not Gonna Take It!
• The Last Mile
• With the dressing down of Franklin, and hostilities commencing between
colonists and the British soldiers, Congress convened again in Philadelphia as
the Second Continental Congress with delegates chosen by popular election in
the colonies
• There was much debate as to what to do, but one of the first things they did
was to adopt the Massachusetts militia as the Continental Army, and appoint
one of their members who was always showing up in a military uniform as its
commander.
• George Washington, who was a sly political choice because it made the conflict
one about all of the colonies, not just Massachusetts, and made allies of the
southern colonies who had expected to be under the thumb of Massachusetts
and New Englanders if they joined with them.
• The architect of this political maneuver, and a future leader of this Congress,
was John Adams
* We’re Not Gonna Take It!
• The Last Mile
• A small minority in Congress, led by Adams, his cousin Samuel, and John
Hancock felt war with England was inevitable, but they decided to bide their
time before making any moves in order to build up support
• Most of the congress still desired some reconciliation with Britain, and they
were led by John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, who urged a last attempt be made
by sending what came to be known as The Olive Branch Petition to King
George, III
• The petition suggested that perhaps a compromise that would allow either the
formation of an American Parliament with free trade rights for the colonies, and
taxes equal to those paid by people in England, or restricted trade with no
taxes.
• The petition claimed that Americans were not in rebellion, but were loyal to his
majesty, and that the issues were only tax and trade, and to please accept this
“humble petition.”
* We’re Not Gonna Take It!
• The Last Mile
• The petition was somewhat undermined by the capture of a letter from John
Adams to a friend that stated his unhappiness with the petition, and his belief
that war with England, and rebellion, was inevitable. The English took this as a
sign that the petition was insincere
• Richard Penn, and Arthur Lee, delegates from Congress who had been sent to
London to deliver it were sent away after the news of the Battle of Bunker Hill
arrived.
• When the Massachusetts militia besieging Boston learned that the British were
going to occupy hills around the city the next day, they quickly took them and
reinforced them, and the next morning when the British attempted to take
them, they were repulsed twice, but on a third attempt were successful.
• Both sides suffered significant losses, and the Massachusetts militia was sent
fleeing
• When the King heard of this, the decision was made to proclaim the colonists of
North America as rebels and to order the deaths of all who incited and
participated in the rebellion, as those outside of the law.
* We’re Not Gonna Take It!
• The Last Mile
• It was now that John Adams knew the time was right to call for independence,
and to have the majority support he needed
• He convinced Congress to form a committee to draft a document that would lay
out the causes and principles of the independence, its members included:
• John Adams
• Benjamin Franklin
• Roger Sherman
• Robert Livingston
• And the principal author of this document, Thomas Jefferson
• It was hard work convincing Congress to take this step, and whether or not it
would actually have enough votes to pass was in doubt until the very end
* We’re Not Gonna Take It!
• Independence
• South Carolina had to be swayed that the vote would be unanimous before
they would assent
• New York’s harbors were full of British ships that carried German
mercenaries, Hessians, and so they were scared, and rather than alert the
British of treason, or disappoint her sister colonies, they abstained from the
vote.
• Most importantly, John Dickinson was convinced not to make the vote, which
would go against him, appear to be doubted by standing up for what he
believed in, reconciliation with England, and so he did not arrive in Congress
that day.
• The document that was approved that July 4, 1776 is considered to be one of
the most influential political and philosophical works on the rights of man
ever to be produced, and has guided countless generations of not only
Americans, but others, in forming governments that to them seem just and
worthy of their rights as individuals.