Here are some summary excerpts from Gordon Wood's The American Revolution....
“Growth and Movement of Population:”
British colonial administration needed attention after the French and Indian War (1763):-- Unorganized, haphazardly administered to that point had resulted in relatively little direct British control of American colonies politically and economically;
Dynamic developments made such reforms even more necessary:
-- Growth and Movement of Population both in England and American colonies (e.g., between 1750 and 1770, population in N. American colonies had doubled to 2 million);
-- Movement to small colonial cities and to wilderness areas, especially in search for land;
-- Far-reaching effects included: 1) fragmentation of society; 2) colonial governments’ loss of control over new settlements; 3) increasing lawlessness; 4) pressure on native peoples.
-- Some Indian tribes resisted encroachment on land;
-- Overall situation created pressure for placement of standing British army in the colonies;
-- Rapid settlement of wilderness areas and outlying towns created vigilantism but also distrust of distant government and unfair representation, since the British did not allow the new areas political representation;
“Economic Expansion:”
Huge Economic Growth during mid-18th Century:-- e.g., value of colonial exports to Britain doubled in 20 years, while imports from Britain increased even faster;
-- Britain could not produce enough food for domestic needs; therefore soaring prices for American exports;
-- Rising consumption, manufacturing sector, better infrastructure result in colonies;
-- Such forces undermined the customary paternalistic structure of colonial society;
-- small business people became more independent economically and also more involved in politics;
“Reform of the British Empire”
Reform of British possessions, including the additions of territory gained from France and Spain required large amount of funding;
-- New expansive possessions required the positioning of a standing army in America;
-- Funding source? British approach is to raise the revenue in the colonies;
-- British initial attempts at reform handicapped by haphazardly implemented policies pursued by George III and his frequently changing ministers;
-- In Britain, growing demand by general public for more direct political participation; widespread rioting;
-- Thus, British were faced with need to overhaul its empire and gain revenue from colonies at the very time of great political turmoil in Britain;
-- British legislative attempts at reform were poorly conceived and/or implemented: e.g., Quebec Act, Sugar Act (1764); new customs duties; the latter two being mercantilist attempts to regularize trade and generate revenue;
-- Reforms threatened to upset the delicately balanced existing patterns of trade.
“American Resistance”
Colonies not receptive to reforms due to existing economic downturn; reforms seemed to exacerbate the situation and made it easy to blame the British for the overall economic situation:
-- Currency Act (1764); Sugar Act (1764) which hurt trade with West Indies
-- Most significant: Stamp Act (1765) which levied a tax on nearly every type of document and publication in the colonies:
-- Strong public reaction arouses and unifies Americans as never before; Act repealed in 1766;
-- British desire to economize resulted in redeploying army from remote areas to coastal cities; raised colonials’ fear of British intentions;
-- British officials take steps to exert more control over colonial populations;
“Deepening of the Crisis”
- British legislation had stimulated colonial resistance; e.g., political pamphlets and discussion, merchant associations boycott British goods;
-- Hotbed of resistance: Massachusetts; increased presence of British troops; “Boston Massacre” (1770) (five civilians killed by soldiers);
-- By the end of 1760’s, reform plans were “in shambles;” and colonists had become deeply suspicious of British intentions;
-- 1773: British grant monopoly on tea, which creates extensive, violent reaction, culminating in “The Boston Tea Party:”
-- In response, British Parliament passes Coercive Acts (1774) which close port of Boston, revamp colonial government in Massachusetts, protects colonial officials;
-- Coercive Acts push the colonies to the edge of revolt;
“The Imperial Debate:”
-- British legislation, particularly the Stamp Act, fostered the political view of “no taxation without representation:”
-- Some British supporters advance the theory of “virtual representation” (each member of Parliament represented all Britons, including colonists), rejected by Americans;
-- In America, unlike in Britain, electoral districts were the result of population changes; therefore stressed fullest and most equal participation of people in government;
-- British argument that sovereignty requires colonial submission to British Parliament, is not convincing; in fact, the logic of “sovereignty” encourages colonists to see their own legislative prerogatives as therefore indivisible and independent of Parliament;
“Revolution”
-- Coercive Acts provoked open rebellion in America: mass meetings, local associations; committees, etc. controlling and regulating local life;
-- First Continental Congress (1774) endorses the local governance underway;
-- Unanticipated popularization of politics leads to turmoil but expands political participation;
-- Fighting breaks out in 1775, forcing Second Continental Congress to assume responsibilities for central government; creates Continental Army, issues paper money, forms committee to negotiate with foreign countries;
-- Thomas Paine’s’ “Common Sense” making the case for independence, has mass public appeal:
-- Declaration of Independence omits reference to slavery (despite Jefferson’s protestations); nevertheless, a “brilliant expression of Enlightenment ideals,” especially regarding human rights;
-- Intellectual justification in America for the revolution was restoration of the spirit of the English constitution (which the King had betrayed);
-- In fact, however, principles involved were revolutionary, based on the “country” opposition promoted by British dissidents in 17th and 18th centuries emphasizing distrust of central government, expanded voting rights, press freedom, etc.;
-- Americans came to see British government’s actions as part of a grand scheme for tyranny; therefore, colonies’ struggle was a worldwide struggle for liberty; setbacks in Ireland and Corsica for democratization reinforced this view;
“Constitution-making and War”
1776; Continental Congress authorized/advised colonies to adopt new governments eliminating any authority of the Crown;-- Colonies drew on precedent of written colonial charters in deciding to create written constitutions; elevates principles of governance above the realm of day-to-day governance;
-- Main goal; prevent power from encroaching on liberty, embodied in the people
or legislatures;
-- Constitutions stripped elected governors of much of the power royal predecessors had possessed e.g., electoral districts, veto, establish courts, even make foreign alliances and grant pardons;
-- One state eliminated the governor position; others had councils selected by the legislatures to control the governor;
-- Legislatures take over executive power, e.g., executive and judicial appointments;
-- Examples of separation of powers: parliamentary form of government is rejected in order to prevent executive manipulation of other branches;
-- Constitutions emphasize actual representation by creating equal electoral districts, requiring annual elections, enlarging suffrage, imposing residential requirements;
-- In most colonies, upper houses are created to curb possible excesses of lower house;
Articles of Confederation:-- Americans’ primary loyalties were to their state, not a national government;
-- Congress needed some legal basis for its authority;
-- Took 4+ years for states to accept the Articles;
-- created a confederacy with no executive, only a series of committees;
-- national government did have control over diplomatic relations; create money; settle interstate disputes;
-- equal state representation in unicameral Congress;
-- all trade and travel restrictions among states are eliminated;
-- *crucial powers of commercial regulation and taxation remained with the states;
-- thus, Confederation resembled an alliance rather than a single national government, something like the current EU;
-- dispute over how to handle western lands delayed final approval of Articles;
Northwest Ordinance of 1787:
-- guaranteed settlers basic legal and political rights;
-- new states created in the West would enter the union with equal standing to the original states;
-- facilitated the westward expansion of the U.S.;
“Republicanism:” (In effect, a discussion of the intellectual framework of the American Revolution)
Republicanism in America was a radical ideology, adding a moral and idealistic dimension to independence from Britain.
-- Classical republican ideals has been revived by Renaissance writers and carried into 17th and 18th century Britain; had become a sort of counter culture for dissatisfied Europeans;
-- Evoked utopian image of simple farmer-citizens enjoying liberty, pastoral life;
-- Such image connected well to the circumstances in America;
-- Adoption of republican form of government reflected American leaders’ more positive conception of human nature (compared to that of monarchists); the general population had the skills, and moral values to run a government; devotion to a common good;
-- Individual ownership of property is essential for a republic, as source of independence and proof of attachment to the community;
-- Noteworthy about U.S. attempt at republican form – only small countries with homogenous populations had attempted it so far;
-- Nevertheless, Americans confident that their experiment would work due to the country’s virtues ideally suited for republicanism;
-- Americans also believed U.S. would be the site for a new flowering in arts and sciences, that the torch of civilization had passed to the U.S.;
-- Based on belief that free states and an educated populace are best source of talent;
-- Americans adopted republican classicism as preferred form of art; e.g., public buildings in Washington; give new freshness to an established form, based on the principles of reason and nature;
-- Art’s value judged by the effect on the viewer;
-- Neoclassicism, however, was soon overtaken by egalitarian approach;
-- Equality, most powerful idea in American history;
-- But in a republic, an aristocracy based on merit, not birth, would exist;
-- Stress, however, on the moral capacity of ordinary people to be responsible members of society contributing to a functioning republic;
-- While people could be distinguished by acquired skills, etc., not by innate characteristics, then everyone began life at the same level;
-- “That only education and cultivation separated one man from another was the most explosive idea of the 18th century, indeed of all modern thinking;”
-- A moral sense or sympathetic instinct bound everyone together in a common humanity and made possible natural compassion and morality;
--Such beliefs were based on 18th century social thought;
-- People’s natural instinct to be socialable was a modern substitute for the ascetic virtue of the classical world; society is viewed as beneficent and government as malevolent;
-- Government is an obstacle to the natural state of relative harmony among people;
HISTORY OF THE 4th OF JULY: THOMAS JEFFERSON
