Page 150 - American Stories, A History of the United States

The sticking point remained—as it had been in 1765—the sovereignty of Parliament.
No one in Britain could think of a way around this constitutional impasse. In 1773, 5.1
Benjamin Franklin had offered a suggestion: “The Parliament has no right to make any
law whatever, binding on the colonies. . . . the king, and not the king, lords, and com- Quick Check
mons collectively, is their sovereign.” But so long as it seemed possible to coerce the Did the coercive acts represent an 5.2
Americans into obedience, Britain’s rulers had little incentive to accept such a humiliat- overreaction by Parliament to the
ing compromise. Boston Tea Party?

5.3
steps toward independence
5.4

5.3 What events in 1775 and 1776 led to the colonists’ decision to declare independence?
D uring the summer of 1774, committees of correspondence analyzed the

perilous situation in which the colonists found themselves. The commit-
tees endorsed a call for a Continental Congress, a gathering of 55 elected
delegates from 12 colonies (Georgia sent none but agreed to support
the action taken). This First Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia on First Continental Congress
September 5. It included some of America’s most articulate, respected leaders: John At a meeting of delegates from
Adams, Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, Christopher Gadsden, and 12 colonies in Philadelphia
George Washington. in 1774, the congress denied
Parliament’s authority to legislate
Differences of opinion soon surfaced. Delegates from the Middle Colonies—Joseph for the colonies, condemned
Galloway of Pennsylvania, for example—wanted to proceed with caution, but Samuel british actions toward the colo-
Adams and other more radical members pushed the moderates toward confrontation. nies, created the continental
Boston’s master politician engineered congressional acceptance of the Suffolk Resolves, Association, and endorsed a call to
a statement drawn up in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, that encouraged forcible resis- take up arms.
tance to the Coercive Acts.
This decision established the tone of the meeting. Moderates introduced concil-
iatory measures, which received polite discussion but failed to win a majority vote.
Just before returning to their homes (September 1774), the delegates created the
“Association,” an inter-colonial agreement to halt commerce with Britain until Parlia-
ment repealed the Intolerable Acts. This was a brilliant revolutionary decision. The
Association authorized a vast network of local committees to enforce nonimportation,
a policy by which colonial consumers and shopkeepers promised not to buy British
goods. Violators were denounced, shamed, forced either to apologize publicly or to be
shunned by their patriot neighbors. In many of the communities, the committees were
the government, distinguishing, in the words of James Madison, “Friends from Foes.”
George III sneered at these activities: “I am not sorry that the line of conduct seems now
chalked out . . . the New England Governments are in a state of Rebellion, blows must
decide whether they are to be subject to this country or independent.”

shots Heard Around the World

The king was correct. Before Congress reconvened, “blows” fell at Lexington and
Concord, two small villages in eastern Massachusetts. On the evening of April 18, 1775,
General Gage dispatched troops from Boston to seize rebel supplies. Paul Revere, a
renowned silversmith and patriot, warned the colonists that the redcoats were coming.
The Lexington militia, a collection of ill-trained farmers, boys, and old men, decided
to stand on the village green on the following morning, April 19, as the British soldiers
passed on the road to Concord. No one planned to fight, but in a moment of confusion,
someone fired; the redcoats discharged a volley, and eight Americans lay dead.
Word of the incident spread rapidly. By the time the British force reached its destina-
tion, the countryside swarmed with “minutemen,” special companies of Massachusetts
militia prepared to respond instantly to military emergencies. The redcoats found

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