it had suffered more than 250 killed would fight for the British . Instead,
and wounded . The Americans lost his proclamation drove to the rebel
93 men .
side many Virginians who would
The Second Continental Con- otherwise have remained Loyalist .
gress met in Philadelphia, Penn-
The governor of North Caroli-
sylvania, on May 10 . The Congress na, Josiah Martin, also urged North
voted to go to war, inducting the co- Carolinians to remain loyal to the
lonial militias into continental ser- Crown . When 1,500 men answered
vice . It appointed Colonel George Martin’s call, they were defeated by
Washington of Virginia as their revolutionary armies before British
commander-in-chief on June 15 . troops could arrive to help .
Within two days, the Americans had
British warships continued down
incurred high casualties at Bunker the coast to Charleston, South Car-
Hill just outside Boston . Congress olina, and opened fire on the city
also ordered American expeditions in early June 1776 . But South Car-
to march northward into Canada by olinians had time to prepare, and
fall . Capturing Montreal, they failed repulsed the British by the end of
in a winter assault on Quebec, and the month . They would not return
eventually retreated to New York .
South for more than two years .
Despite the outbreak of armed
conflict, the idea of complete sep-
COMMON SENSE AND
aration from England was still
INDEPENDENCE
repugnant to many members of the
Continental Congress . In July, it In January 1776, Thomas Paine,
adopted the Olive Branch Petition, a radical political theorist and
begging the king to prevent fur- writer who had come to America
ther hostile actions until some sort from England in 1774, published a
of agreement could be worked out . 50-page pamphlet, Common Sense .
King George rejected it; instead, on Within three months, it sold 100,000
August 23, 1775, he issued a procla- copies . Paine attacked the idea of a
mation declaring the colonies to be hereditary monarchy, declaring that
in a state of rebellion .
one honest man was worth more to
Britain had expected the South- society than “all the crowned ruf-
ern colonies to remain loyal, in part fians that ever lived .” He presented
because of their reliance on slav- the alternatives — continued sub-
ery . Many in the Southern colonies mission to a tyrannical king and
feared that a rebellion against the an outworn government, or liberty
mother country would also trigger and happiness as a self-sufficient,
a slave uprising . In November 1775, independent republic . Circulated
Lord Dunmore, the governor of Vir- throughout the colonies, Common
ginia, tried to capitalize on that fear Sense helped to crystallize a decision by offering freedom to all slaves who for separation .
60
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
There still remained the task,
the consent of the governed, —
however, of gaining each colony’s
That whenever any Form of
approval of a formal declaration . On
Government becomes destructive
June 7, Richard Henry Lee of Vir-
of these ends, it is the Right of the
ginia introduced a resolution in the
People to alter or to abolish it,
Second Continental Congress, de-
and to institute new Government,
claring, “That these United Colonies
laying its foundation on such
are, and of right ought to be, free
principles and organizing its
and independent states . . .” Immedi-
powers in such form, as to them
ately, a committee of five, headed by
shall seem most likely to effect
Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, was
their Safety and Happiness.
appointed to draft a document for
Jefferson linked Locke’s princi-
a vote .
ples directly to the situation in the
Largely Jefferson’s work, the Dec- colonies . To fight for American in-
laration of Independence, adopted dependence was to fight for a gov-
July 4, 1776, not only announced the ernment based on popular consent
birth of a new nation, but also set in place of a government by a king
forth a philosophy of human free- who had “combined with others to
dom that would become a dynamic subject us to a jurisdiction foreign
force throughout the entire world . to our constitution, and unacknowl-
The Declaration drew upon French edged by our laws . . .” Only a gov-
and English Enlightenment political ernment based on popular consent
philosophy, but one influence in par- could secure natural rights to life,
ticular stands out: John Locke’s Sec- liberty, and the pursuit of happiness .
ond Treatise on Government . Locke Thus, to fight for American inde-
took conceptions of the traditional pendence was to fight on behalf of
rights of Englishmen and universal- one’s own natural rights .
ized them into the natural rights of
all humankind . The Declaration’s
DEFEATS AND VICTORIES
familiar opening passage echoes
Locke’s social-contract theory of Although the Americans suffered
government:
severe setbacks for months after
We hold these truths to be self-
independence was declared, their
evident, that all men are created
tenacity and perseverance eventu-
equal, that they are endowed
ally paid off . During August 1776,
by their Creator with certain
in the Battle of Long Island in New
unalienable Rights, that among
York, Washington’s position be-
these are Life, Liberty and the
came untenable, and he executed a
pursuit of Happiness. — That to
masterly retreat in small boats from
secure these rights, Governments
Brooklyn to the Manhattan shore .
are instituted among Men,
British General William Howe twice
deriving their just powers from
hesitated and allowed the Americans
61