Purpose - To alleviate the Royal Expenditure during the Seven Years War, of which the Colonies are seen as the primary Beneficiaries, and so must also pay into the debt.
Colonists respond with outrage. A Stamp Act Congress, arguably the first true meeting of some of the Colonies aimed at mutual gain and cooperation, was held between October 7 and 25, 1765. Representatives from 9 of the 18 colonies were in attendance. By the end of there congress, they published the Declaration of Rights and Grievances.
Among the many issues raised was that, having logical argued their status as full British Citizens, owed the same treatment as any other British Citizen in any other British holding, was being treated unfairly. They were being directly taxed with out a Representative in Parliament to speak on their behalf. That The Admiralty Courts had their power extended far beyond their "... ancient limits," and tended to rule against Colonial interests regardless of evidence.
The entire act is a polite redress of grievances, assuring the Crown of their desire for devotion and warmest affection, and of their loyalty while requesting a repeal of the act.
They were not alone, and many merchant houses in England also objected to the act.
Tax collectors in the Colonies were be harassed constantly, and violence was not uncommon. It became difficult for the Governors to keep and collectors in their employ, and so as November came around, the Stamp Act was largely ignored.
After the pressures put on it, Parliament repealed the Stamp act on 17 March 1766.
18 March 1766 - Parliament passes the Declaratory Act. It states that it has the power to pass any laws to bind the colonies... in any case whatsoever. In other words, it gave itself the legal justification to pass any act, and law, and tariff it so desired at any time, for any cause. A nearly identical act was used to bind Ireland into virtual bondage to the Crown.
5 March 1770 - A riotous crowd gathers outside the Customs House of Boston, Province of Massachusetts Bay. As they passes, the Guards are assaulted with rocks and snowballs. A Colonist is stuck by a British rifle butt. Cooler Colonial heads try to disperse the crowd, 19 year old Henry Knox chiding the Guards that "If you fire, you must die for it!" The captain of the Guard is summoned, and he arrives with more soldiers. As the engagement grows, with many Colonial agitators crying "Fire!"
Events become blurry at best, but it is believed that Private Montgomery was hit with a club, causing him to stumble and drop with weapon. On collecting it from the ground, he raised it, cried, "Damn you, fire!" and discharged his weapon. His fellow soldiers followed suit in staggered fashion.
Captain Preston did his best to bring order to his men. As the crowd dispersed, three dead, two yet to die, and six more wounded, he called out the 29th regiment and fortified his position. He then sought a fair inquiry into the shooting, known now as the Boston Massacre.
Fall 1770 - With John Adams serving as Defense Council, Cpt. John Preston, British Royal Army, is acquitted. Six of the remaining eight soldiers are also acquitted, with the other two convicted on Manslaughter due to the overwhelming evidence of them firing point blank into the crowd.
This impartial ruling, given to men hated by the populace, laid the foundation of the belief in the Rule of Law, not of men.
10 May 1773 - The Tea Act is passed. It allows the East India Company to directly import tea from Britain to the Colonies without duty. Plainly speaking, the Company had a vast surplus of tea in England, and the cost of paying Duties was enough to prohibit them from shipping the goods to the Colonies, who were buying black market tea to get around the Townshend Act's tax on tea. (1767)
With no duties, it was not only feasible to ship to the Colonies, it was greatly desired. It was assumed that with Tea cheaper than black market prices (With no duties, the Company could cut prices) they Colonists would see reason and buy legally.
They were wrong. The Townshend Acts were still in place, and thus were still a tax with out representation. As a matter of principle, Colonial buyers refuse to buy Company tea.
16 December 1773 - Every Colony but Massachusetts has managed to revoke the Company shipments of tea. Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson refuses to allow the three ships to leave harbor, believing the protesters will cave.
After a long meeting regarding these events, between 30 and 130 men, some dressed as Indians, boarded the three ships and in the course of three hours dumped all the tea into the harbor. The message was clear: We will have nothing to do with a tax without our own representation. It is follow to think otherwise.
These events prompted London to remove the Colonial local government and place it under the rule of General Thomas Gage.
19 April, 1775 - Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay. Gage has learned of Colonial arms stockpiles in Concord. Royal troops are sent to confiscate them.
Having considered this eventuality, having been trained to ready to respond to an attack in a minute or less, and having been forewarned of the troop movement the night before by Paul Revere and William Dawes,
Shortly after four in the morning, Captain Parker stood with 80 Colonial soldiers, his training cadre, in Lexington. Many of them were relations of his. From experience, he felt that the British troops would find nothing and leave. A scout informed him of the approaching Royal forces size: 700 men.
Aware of his vast numerical inferiority, Captain Parker choose to make a political statement. He arrayed his men in parade formation on the city greens. They would not impede the oncoming force. They would merely state by their presence that such a visiting was not wanted. It was later recalled that Parker said to his men "Stand your ground; don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here."
The British forces surrounded Parker and his men, shouting and causing a general ruckus. The officers intended to take Parker's surrender and weapons.
As Parker ordered his men to comply and disperse some one fired into the commons. A general engagement preceded quickly, with the Colonials getting at best one scattered volley out before either fleeing or being killed. Many were run through by British bayonets. The extreme close quarters of the fight meant it lasted mere moments. One British soldier and eight Americans lie dead.
After gathering the men together again, the British continue to Concord. There a battle is engaged, ending with the British army besieged in the confines of Boston.
The War had begun.
7 June 1776 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposes a resolution to the Second Continental Congress..
"Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved. That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances. That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective Colonies for their consideration and approbation."
28 June 1776 - A declaration of independence is presented for consideration with the Lee Resolution.
2 July 1776 - The first clause of the Lee Resolution is approved by 12 of the 13 Colonies. New York, lacking guidance from home, abstains until July 9th, when they too throw in their lot with the rest.
The Pennsylvania Evening Post reads:
"This day the Continental Congress declared the United Colonies Free and Independent States."
3 July 1776 - John Adams writes to his wife Abigail:
"The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more."
4 July 1776 - The Second Continental Congress publishes the Declaration of Independence.
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
A DECLARATION
By the REPRESENTATIVES of the
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
In GENERAL CONGRESS assembled.
A DECLARATION
By the REPRESENTATIVES of the
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
In GENERAL CONGRESS assembled.
WHEN in the course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.
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—-That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the Present King of Great-Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People; unless those People would relinquish the Right of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyrants only.
He has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness his Invasions on the Rights of the People.
He has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and Convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and Amount and Payment of their Salaries.
He has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their Substance.
He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our Legislature.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World:
For imposing taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the same absolute Rule in these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Powers to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.
He is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized Nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic Insurrections among us, and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all Ages, Sexes and Conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.
Nor have we been wanting in Attentions to our British Brethren. We have warned them from Time to Time of Attempts by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settlement here. We have appealed to their native Justice and Magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Kindred to disavow these Usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our Connections and Correspondence. They too have been deaf to the Voice of Justice and of Consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be,Free and Independent States; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political Connection between them and the State of Great-Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of the divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
Signed by Order and in Behalf of the Congress,
JOHN HANCOCK, President.
JOHN HANCOCK, President.
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