Unit 3: A More Perfect Union

1770 Repeal of Townshend Duties

• following colonial protests and reduced purchase of British goods the UK Parliament repealed all the 1767 duties (import taxes), except for tax on tea

• good news for Americans are that duties were removed but Parliament was still breaking with constitutional custom by taxing without colonial representation

Boston Massacre

a riot in Boston led to British soldiers panicking and five Bostonian deaths, popularized as the Boston Massacre

Impact of 1772 Somerset vs Stewart case in UK High Court, London

• this case motivated some planters (Southerners) to take an anti-British stand because they feared the British might try to end slavery or tax it

• meant the Revolution was not only fought to support constitutional liberties but also to deny liberty and protect property (slaves)

Who were the Sons of Liberty and Samuel Adams?

• Sons of Liberty were formed around the time of the Stamp Act in 1765, dedicated to political independence

  • supporters were Northern farmers, and those with firearms indicated a willingness to fight if the call came (minutemen)

• Boston-born Samuel Adams was a leading figure in the Sons of Liberty

What was the Tea Act of 1773?

• Passed to help the British East India Company sell surplus Indian (Asian India) tea in the American market

• it ruled that this tea could sell in the colonies tax-free

• a reminder that Parliament was changing tax policy without following the Magna Carta constitutional custom of securing the approval of those affected – ‘No taxation without representation!’

1773 Boston Tea Party

Sam Adams and others made their protest against the Tea Act by boarding three British tea clippers docked in Boston harbor in the middle of the night and dumping 300 chests of Indian tea overboard

1774 Coercive Acts

• as a result of the Boston Tea Party, the UK responded with this act

• closed down the port of Boston, closed down the Massachusetts Town Meetings, and imposed martial (military) rule of Massachusetts

• punished the whole of the Mass. colony, not just Boston, and served only to intensify anti-British hostility through all of New England

1774 Quebec Act

• expressed tolerance for French Catholicism (which would have angered hard-core New England Puritans who were virulently anti-Catholic)

• provided for the expansion of Quebec southward to the Ohio Valley which would have angered all colonials denied land in Ohio under the Land Proclamation of 1763.

1774 1st Continental Congress, Philadelphia

• Convened for all colonies to discuss Massachusetts’ problems

• argued over the constitutional relationship with Britain

• opted for a trade boycott to pressure for UK repeal of the Coercive Act

1775 Incidents at Lexington & Concord, Massachusetts

• American colonials were killed by British soldiers confiscating firearms stockpiled by militia minutemen in Lexington and Concord

• Americans effectively used rifles (more accurate than British smooth-bore muskets) in retaliation to ambush and kill soldiers in guerilla attacks

1775 2nd Continental Congress

• trade boycott failed to get Parliament to repeal Coercive Acts so majority of colonial representatives (but not all) voted for military preparation – form a Continental Army

• New Englanders wanted a New Englander as Commander in Chief  but George Washington was chosen because it would represent unity

1775 King George III statement

• News of British fatalities at Lexington etc. and Washington’s appointment led the king to recruit Hessians (Germans) and ship them to the colonies as reinforcements

• opted for a military, as opposed to a diplomatic, solution to the problems

1776 Declaration of Independence

• In response to King George III declaring war, 2^nd Continental Congress prepared the Declaration of Independence in response to George III (part-influenced by Tom Paine’s best-selling pamphlet Common Sense)

Describe the 1st British military strategy and why it failed. Who became America’s eventual allies (and thanks to the efforts of who?)

• British HQ in New York City. British General William Howe defeated George Washington at the Battle of New York in September 1776.

• Planned in London: one marching south under the command of General Johnny Burgoyne and one marching north under Howe – to meet and cut off New England (hotbed of the rebel cause) from the rest of the colonies

Why it didn’t work:

• Howe did not march north, he pursued pursue Washington instead, fighting him a second time at Brandywine Creek, Sept 1777. Victory put him into Philadelphia, and Washington was forced to retreat into winter quarters (1777/78) at Valley Forge.

• Secondly, Burgoyne was over-burdened with baggage and ambushed by rebel militia (led by Benedict Arnold). He was then defeated at the Battle of Saratoga by General Horatio Gates and the Americans.

• 1778: French signed a treaty with the Americans to support them thanks to the diplomatic efforts of Benjamin Franklin in Paris

Describe the 2nd British military strategy and why it failed.

• Double bad news for George Washington: 1. Benedict Arnold was exposed as a traitor/spy defecting to British side; 2. Comte de Rochambeau (French commander) was unwilling to offer him assistance in an attack on the British HQ in New York. 

• British army tried to gain support in the South first, then build the momentum to attack the North. 

Why it didn’t work

• American General Nathaniel Greene’s tactics of ambush, retreat and cover exhausted the British pursuit – Brits forced into ransacking the countryside for food and supplies, making enemies of the South

• Cornwallis encamped at Yorktown to await re-supply ships from New York

  • Admiral de Grasse’s French fleet cut off the supply ships and besieged Yorktown 

  • marked the failure of the second British strategy

Treaty of Paris 1783

• An ‘Armed Neutrality’ formed against Britain – the Russians and the Dutch joined the French & Spanish support of the American cause.  

• under international hostility the British eventually agreed to come to the negotiation table (they still held New York and several other American forts) in Paris, France. 

• Benjamin Franklin played a key role: negotiated a treaty which 1. officially recognized the USA as a legitimate sovereign state in its own right, independent of Britain 2. stretched from the Atlantic to the Mississippi river

When was the Constitution issued? Why was it issued so late?

1787 because they already had an earlier constitution: the Articles of Confederation

Articles of Confederation

• State voters chose politicians for State government

• State governments nominated 3 to 7 delegates per state, population proportionate, to serve in a national United States government

• US gov

  • unicameral legislature – a single house assembly

  • limited to conduct foreign policy, conduct domestic (American Indian) policy, declare war, set up a national mail service

• state powers

  • taxation, commerce at home, commerce with foreign powers

Shay’s Rebellion

• weak national gov + depressed economy + debts = Shay’s Rebellion

• armed rebellion broke out by war veterans over tax hikes, ‘no taxation without representation’

• Shays Rebellion was crushed but convinced many American political leaders the Articles of Confederation was not strong enough to hold

the union together

• ^^ this was why the Constitution was written

Who was absent from the Constitutional Convention? Who was present?

Conspicuously absent

• Thomas Jefferson (US ambassador, in Paris)

• John Adams (US ambassador, in London)

• Samuel Adams (not nominated)

• Patrick Henry (refused to go)

Conspicuously present

• Geo. Washington (chairman)

• Alexander Hamilton (pro-stronger central govt.)

• George Mason (pro-states govt. and individual rights)

• James Madison (compromiser!)

How was the following problem solved: was the USA to be more about the union or its member states?

• Federal system of 14 governments (13 states + national govt.)

• powers left to federal gov

  • Article I (Congress): powers to tax and regulate trade

  • Article II (Executive): office of the Presidency created

• powers left to state

  • criminal codes/punishments, commercial powers incl. taxation, education & social welfare, transportation

• Checks and balances principle (credit Madison) embedded in constitution to try to ensure no individual or group could control power.

How was the following problem solved: would slaves be counted in state populations for proportional representation in House of Representatives?

Three-Fifths compromise: three-fifths of the slave population in slave states would be added to the free population to figure number of representatives for those states

How was the following problem solved: should politicians of national government be popularly elected by voters at large or by those experienced in political life?

• House of Representatives to be popularly elected, with elections every 2 years

• Indirect selection of Senators by State governments every 6 yrs

• Election of Presidents by electoral college vote - every 4 yrs

• Indirect election of Senators will be amended through 17th Amendment, 1913

1787 Constitution Ratification Clause

Constitution had ratification clause whereby it became the new constitution once nine of the thirteen member states had ratified it

Anti-federalists

• opposers of the Constitution were dubbed ‘Anti-Federalists’

• two main sides

  • Some though it gave way too much power to the national (federal) government - main person: Patrick Henry

  • Others felt it was too much about the powers of national government and not enough about individual rights. However they might support it if it were amended by a Bill of Rights - main person: Thomas Jefferson

Ratification Convention #10 in Virginia

• pitched Patrick Henry in opposition to James Madison, a leading author of the Constitution

• Madison promised to prepare a Bill of Rights in return for Federalist votes

  • George Mason of Virginia, who had proposed a Bill of Rights was supportive

  • Henry remained uncompromisingly opposed. 

• The vote went 79 against, 89 for. The Constitution won by a margin of 10 votes. 

Ratification Convention #11 in New York

• New York was known to contain many Anti-Federalists and if New York failed to ratify, it would not be a part of the USA 

• A series of essays known collectively as the Federalist Papers were published to argue the case for the Constitution in New York – they explained its check-and-balances principles

  • authors: Alexander Hamilton of New York, James Madison

  • The vote went 27 against, 30 for. The Constitution won by a margin of only 3 votes!

Bill of Rights

• Madison wrote eighteen amendments to the Constitution recognizing individual rights – including freedom of speech, press and religion; protection of property rights; right to bear arms; freedom to petition and protest; protection of rights against abuse by state governments; rights to a speedy trial by jury. 

• Congress approved ten of these in 1791 – the Bill of Rights.  

10th Amendment

It states that “only powers that the national govt has are the ones in the Constitution… all other powers belong to the states and the people.” 

This will also influence the Civil War—the South will argue that the federal government did not have the right to end slavery