|
The Revolution involved more than battles and diplomacy. If those were the most crucial and immediate objectives, more important long-term goals and purposes were to be met; for this was a constructive, not a negative revolution. If Americans broke a relationship characterized by colonialism and monarchy, that was about the extent of their destructive activity. They still respected British institutions, which they felt had been abused and corrupted by politicians around George III. Consequently, in fashioning their own state institutions--a process that began in the summer of 1776--they usually employed familiar British-American bricks and mortar.
The British constitution was unwritten, but the Americans spelled out the responsibilities and limits of government in written charters. Since their governments rested totally on the consent of the people, they were designated as republican in character. Basic liberties could not be abrogated by government under any pretext. They were defined in bills of rights, which included freedom of the press, right of petition, trial by jury, habeas corpus, and other procedures that came to be known as due process of law.
The direct involvement of the people in government was increased in other ways. Governors were elected, not appointed; both branches of the legislatures were elected directly or indirectly by the citizens. Obviously, special privilege had no place in a republic. Consequently, several states forbade the passage of any office from one man to another by ties of blood. North Carolina\'s constitution echoed words found in other political parchments when it proclaimed that \"no hereditary emoluments, privileges or honors ought to be granted or conferred by this state.\"
Institutional Changes
The Americans were primarily about a political revolution when they cast off their imperial links and tailored independent governments. Moreover, a revolution coupled with a foreign war is hardly a time for thoughtful social experimentation, especially when--in the case of the Americans--men believed that they already lived in a remarkably free and open society. Some Americans, however--filled with such Enlightenment ideas as that society\'s institutions should be judged critically in terms of their usefulness to mankind--stirred somewhat uneasily. They acknowledged certain contradictions between their revolutionary theories and their practices.
To be sure, some institutional inequities, such as anachronistic inheritance laws and established churches that received preferential treatment, had been eroded or undermined by the degree of liberty and opportunity that existed everywhere in the twilight years of the colonial era. But during the Revolution, Americans took specific action that resulted in the abolition of primogeniture and entail; in the South the Anglican church lost its already weakened privileged status, as did the Congregational church in New England some years later. Virginia, as was so often true in the Revolution, led the way with its famous Statute of Religious Freedom (1786). An outstanding document of the age, it proclaimed that \"no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship\" nor \"suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief,\" nor would his \"civil capacities\" be affected by any \"matters of religion.\"
The Spirit of Progress
If Americans of the Revolutionary generation did not level the social order, or did not create democracy in its present form, they laid the basic groundwork. Furthermore, the revolutionists elevated the American spirit. They conveyed to their fellow citizens the notion that the country would grow and expand. In opening new lands in the West, they shaped an orderly process by which frontier territories would move from colonial status to statehood; moreover, the infant states would not be inferior to the original states, as had been true of the earlier relationship between the thirteen colonies and Great Britain. Freed from the mercantilism of the old colonial system, Americans found fresh outlets for trade and commerce and devised improved methods of banking and corporate organization. They set up new educational institutions, and they advanced the controversial idea that the state had a responsibility for the education of its citizens, an obligation that had traditionally been the preserve of the church.
From all these accomplishments two additional American goals developed. First, a sense of mission--of uniqueness and special purpose--was present in the Revolutionary experience. It was to make America a kind of showcase that would enable people everywhere to see what free people were capable of achieving. The sense of mission was later a powerful catalyst for continuing change, for living up to the principles of the Declaration of Independence. The second goal, relating to self-purification and setting one\'s own house in order, was the appeal for a distinct American culture. Although such a development occurred only in a limited sense--for Americans have always been a part of Western civilization--it did trigger a new and at least partially fruitful quest for attainments in music, the arts, and literature.
Creation of the Constitution
One final accomplishment of the Revolutionary generation was the creation of a viable national government. Without it, all other gains of the period might have amounted to little. Since that achievement had not taken place by 1783, the leaders of the time felt that the Treaty of Paris did not mean the end of the American Revolution. As the poet Joel BARLOW explained, \"The revolution is but half completed. Independence and government were the two objects contended for; and but one is yet obtained.\"
The task of preparing a constitution for the new nation had begun in 1776 in the Continental Congress, when that body worked to define the relations of the states to one another and to the nation. In doing so, Congress found that the old colonial jealousies still existed, as did the suspicions of remote, centralized authority that had led the colonists to criticize and break their ties with the king and Parliament.
Consequently, the first national constitution, the ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION, was not completed until 1777 and not ratified by all the states until 1781, and it provided for a government of limited national jurisdiction. It was an instrument of one branch, Congress, which now was given legal authority to do what it was already doing in large part in attempting to direct the war effort. Congress was to have exclusive authority over foreign relations, war and peace, weights and measures, admiralty cases, Indian relations outside the boundaries of individual states, and postal services. Congress was crippled in crucial ways, however, especially in obtaining revenues; for it could not tax or levy duties on external commerce, nor did it have legal ways to enforce its legitimate authority if the states chose to disregard its laws.
As the war approached its end, the states displayed less willingness to cooperate with Congress and to support its acts, a trend that grew ominous after the treaty of peace. It was especially depressing to those who had become ardent nationalists through their wartime experiences to see the states ignore the Articles of Confederation by making treaties with the Indians and building state navies, or by failing to send representatives to Congress and neglecting to contribute sums for the support of the Confederation government. To nationalists such as Washington, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Henry Knox, and others, a new political system altogether was needed, particularly because all efforts to amend the articles had failed. To that end, the CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION, which met at Philadelphia in 1787, decided to try a different form of government--one that would ensure the rights of the states and at the same time provide the country with a central government capable of maintaining domestic tranquillity, preserving individual liberty, providing for the common defense, and raising the status of America in the family of nations.
The result was the federal CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, which was approved by the states in ratifying conventions in 1788, despite the cries of opponents that such a powerful government would tyrannize the states and their citizens. The new constitution was federal, in that powers were separated and divided between the national and state governments, both with their own jurisdictions. By turning to federalism the 55 men at Philadelphia solved what had been the central problem of American political history in the quarter century since the end of the French and Indian War, namely, how governmental power should be allocated. First, the question was between Parliament and the colonial assemblies; later, between Congress under the Articles of Confederation and the state legislatures. The American Revolution reached its culmination when the Constitution was adopted in 1788.
Don Higginbotham
Bibliography: Alden, John R., A History of the American Revolution (1969); Bailyn, Bernard, Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (1967); Bemis, Samuel Flagg, The Diplomacy of the American Revolution (1957; repr. 1983); Dupuy, Richard E., The American Revolution, a Global War (1977); Higginbotham, Don, War of American Independence (1971); Langguth, A. J., Patriots (1988); Morgan, Edmund S., Birth of the Republic, 2d ed. (1977); Morris, Richard B., The American Revolution: A Short History (1979) and The Forging of the Union 1781-1789 (1987); Shy, John, A People Numerous and Armed (1976); Stokesbury, James L., A Short History of the American Revolution (1991); Tuchman, Barbara, The First Salute (1988); Wood, Gordon, Creation of the American Republic (1969).
See also: BRANDYWINE, BATTLE OF THE; BUNKER HILL, BATTLE OF; COWPENS, BATTLE OF; LEXINGTON AND CONCORD, BATTLES OF; LONG ISLAND, BATTLE OF; MONMOUTH, BATTLE OF; PARIS, TREATIES OF; SARATOGA, BATTLES OF; TRENTON, BATTLE OF; YORKTOWN CAMPAIGN.
Picture Caption[s]
A: Vikings B: Christopher Columbus C: Henry Hudson D: British Explorers and Settlers (first Union Jack) E: French Explorers and Settlers (17th and 18th Centuries) F: Continental Colors (1776) G: First Stars and Stripes (1777-95) H: Esek Hopkins, First Commander in Chief of the Continental Navy I: First Star Spangled Banner (1795-1818) J: Oliver Hazard Perry (War of 1812) K: Texas Republic (1836) L: Bear Flag Republic (1846) M: Stars and Bars of the Confederacy (1861-63) N: Fort Sumter Flag (1861) O: Stars and Stripes (Old Glory) in 48-Star Version (1912-59)
John Paul Jones (1747-92) was an American naval hero of the Revolutionary War. Jones\'s raids on British warships earned him the French Merite Militaire, making him the only officer in the American armed services to be so decorated. (The Bettmann Archive)
Benjamin Franklin (1706-90), an American scientist, inventor, and writer, is portrayed in a painting by Charles Wilson Peale. Franklin figured prominently in the governmental organization of the emerging American nation. (The Bettmann Archive)
Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804), first secretary of the treasury of the United States, is depicted in a posthumous portrait by John Trumbull painted in 1806. Hamilton was killed in a duel by his political rival, Aaron Burr. (The Bettmann Archive)
John Adams, 2nd President of the United States (1797-1801), from a painting by Gilbert Stuart (1798). Adams helped to draft the Declaration of Independence, and his brilliant championing of American rights in Congress caused Thomas Jefferson to call him the \"Colossus of Independence.\" (The Bettmann Archive)
Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States (1801-09), from a painting by Charles Willson Peale. Jefferson was one of the most significant figures in American history, serving as a primary author of the Declaration of Independence, as secretary of state to George Washington, as vice president to John Adams, and as president for two terms during a period of growth for the new nation. He is also remembered as an architect, naturalist, and linguist of distinction. (The Bettmann Archive). Speech: recreation of an excerpt from Jefferson\'s First Inaugural.
George Washington, 1st President of the United States (1789-97), from a painting by Gilbert Stuart (1796). Washington, known as the \"Father of His Country,\" was commander in chief of the Continental army during the American Revolution. As the first President he governed during the critical early years of the new nation, but refused to serve for a third term. (The Bettmann Archive) Speech: recreation of an excerpt from Washington\'s Farewell Address.
Yorktown Campaign
The 1781 Yorktown Campaign, in Virginia, was the final major military episode of the AMERICAN REVOLUTION. The campaign involved a remarkable degree of cooperation and coordination between French and American forces over a vast region of North America and the West Indies: a French army in Rhode Island under the comte de ROCHAMBEAU, an American army outside New York City under Gen. George WASHINGTON, an assortment of American regulars and militia in Virginia under the marquis de LAFAYETTE, a small French naval squadron at Newport under the comte de Barras, and a formidable French fleet in the West Indies under the comte de GRASSE.
The objective of the French-American allies was to trap Charles CORNWALLIS, the British commander in the south, who had established himself at Yorktown on the Virginia peninsula after having failed to destroy the American army of Gen. Nathanael Greene in the Carolinas. The various contingents all converged on Chesapeake Bay at virtually the same time. Siege operations against Yorktown opened on Oct. 6, 1781, as French and American artillery began a nearly incessant bombardment of Cornwallis\'s positions. Sir Henry CLINTON in New York City hastened a naval expedition to the relief of the Yorktown garrison, but it was beaten back by de Grasse. On October 17, Cornwallis asked for an armistice and proposed terms unacceptable to General Washington. With no hope remaining, Cornwallis surrendered his nearly 8,000-man force to the 17,000-man Franco-American army on Oct. 19. For all practical purposes, the American War of Independence was over.
Don Higginbotham
Bibliography: Davis, Burke, The Campaign that Won America: The Story of Yorktown (1970); Fleming, Thomas J., Beat the Last Drum: The Siege of Yorktown, 1781 (1963); Selby, John, The Road to Yorktown (1976); Thayer, Theodore G., Yorktown, Campaign of Strategic Options (1975)
Constitution of the United States
The Constitution of the United States comprises the nation\'s fundamental law, providing the framework for its governance and the principles under which it must operate. Judicial reinterpretation has given the Constitution the flexibility to accommodate changes in the specific laws subject to its authority. As Chief Justice John MARSHALL pointed out early in the 19th century, the Constitution was \"intended to endure for ages to come, and, consequently, to be adapted to the various crises of human affairs. To have prescribed the means by which government should, in all future times, execute its powers, would have been to change entirely, the character of the instrument, and give it the properties of a legal code.\"
The distinction Marshall made between the Constitution and other law was in keeping with the framers\' provision for the supremacy of the Constitution in Article VI, which states: \"This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land . . . .\"
|
