Washington, who previously fought for the British in the Indian Wars, took charge of the disorganized revolutionary forces, perhaps 20,000 in total, eventually called the Continental Army. At first, the colonists expressed the view that they only were fighting to maintain their rights as English citizens.214 Because of a shortage of enlistees, Washington was glad to lead a mixed army that included blacks, Indians, young and old.215 Washington always was aware that his authority derived from the Continental Congress, a group of representatives of the thirteen colonies that met in Philadelphia.
In January of 1776, the British under General William Howe were besieged in Boston by Washington’s troops. The British were short of supplies, but the Continental Army was suffering through a cold winter with low morale and little money; perhaps 9,000 troops went home at the end of their enlistment on January 1, and not all were replaced. After collecting and securing cannons from upper New York, Washington began the bombardment of the entrenched British troops on March 2 from Dorchester Heights in Cambridge, and the British, along with thousands of Loyalists, were forced to evacuate. For not only the Continental soldiers, but for much of the population of New England, this was a turning point in morale.216
From there Washington’s troops made haste for New York, which was essential to defend, politically and strategically, and they plunged into constructing fortifications.217 Washington had about 7,000 troops in comparison to 30,000 for the British including mercenaries, more than the city of New York, when their armada arrived on June 29.
On July 2, the Congress in Philadelphia voted to terminate ties with Britain. The Declaration of Independence, completed on July 4 after many drafts by Thomas Jefferson, contains the most famous words in the annals of democracy:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.218
In February of that year, an English immigrant named Thomas Paine, who had failed at business to that point, published a fiery booklet, Common Sense. In the spirit of other Enlightenment authors, he wrote that government, when poorly managed, brings suffering to those who are governed. By implication, the British government incited rebellion in the Colonies by ignoring their needs:
Society in every state is a blessing, but government even at its best is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.219
With the onset of winter, Howe decided to rest his exhausted men in northern New Jersey and New York, as was typical for “civilized” armies. 1,550 Hessian mercenaries and some British troops were encamped across the river in Trenton, New Jersey. Washington had about 6,000 men left who could fight; about 1500 were incapacitated due to the cold. Nevertheless, Washington planned an attack which would cross the Delaware on Christmas night and then march north to attack the enemy force. All night, boats were loaded with cannons and horses, but a major storm struck while they were waiting to cross. Two men froze to death on the march. The attack, which was planned to begin before dawn, was not able to begin until 8AM, which eliminated the element of surprise. But the Hessian force and the British soldiers were defeated. This was the beginning of the reversal of the course of the war that lasted for another six and a half years, but as news of the rebellion’s success spread, help came in from France, Spain and the Netherlands.220
British ships commonly attacked New England towns during the war just to incite fear. In the summer of 1777, Benedict Arnold, a popular leader, led his troops to a victory over General John Burgoyne at Saratoga. This began turning the tide and brought the French more fully into the war. Arnold later became a British spy. Captain John Paul Jones, an American of Scottish descent supported by the French, attacked the British mainland and engaged in battles with British ships in their own waters. In 1778 the British offered the Americans a reconciliation agreement, but lacking full recognition of American independence, it was turned down.221
In 1781, Louis XVI committed much of his navy to aid the American cause, which allowed the conflict to end in two more years. A combined American and French force, led by Washington and Lafayette, descended on Chesapeake Bay by land and sea in the Battle of Yorktown in October. General Cornwallis surrendered, and the fate of America was in its own hands after that point.222
According to Joseph Ellis, “Based on what we now know about the military history of the American Revolution, if the British commanders had prosecuted the war more vigorously in its earliest stages, the Continental Army might well have been destroyed at the start and the movement for American independence nipped in the bud. The signers of the Declaration of Independence would then have been hunted down, tried, and executed for treason, and American history would have flowed forward in a wholly different direction.”223
The Articles of Confederation, written by Congress in the early stages of the war and later confirmed by the states, allowed states autonomy without central taxing power. The results were distressing to founders such as John Adams and James Madison, who realized that thirteen sets of laws and customs that often were incompatible created an ungovernable entity.
In 1787 a committee was assembled to create an acceptable replacement for the Articles. The most prominent members were Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison. They agreed that sovereignty did not reside with the government or states; the founding principle was that the authority for government was “We the People.” Beyond that, nearly everything else was decided after a long-argued process, with continual reference to that same founding principle. Yet they did work out a compromise that lasted, known as the US Constitution, that was certified by the states in 1789 and has been amended only twenty-seven times to date. The first ten amendments were added in 1791 as the Bill of Rights.224
Blacks and Indians had served nobly in the Revolutionary War and there were nearly 700,000 slaves. So were blacks or Indians to be included in the definition of “The People,” and if so, how? Many of the leading authors of the eventual Constitution were slaveholders, including Washington and Madison.225 One “compromise” that was reached, but later changed, was to not count Indians toward congressional representation and to count just “three fifths of all other Persons.” (US Constitution, Article I, Section 2) Thus slave ownership actually increased the representational power of the southern states in Congress. Another compromise was the continuation of the slave trade until 1808, which put off this contentious issue for twenty years. (Article I, Section 9)226
As Joseph Ellis states, “the debate was not resolved so much as built into the fabric of our national identity.”227 America’s oldest tradition is to work together in good faith toward a common understanding and course of action so that its institutions can continue to thrive. An example was a compromise in which the southern states allowed the Federal Government to assume the states’ war debt in exchange for locating the Capitol in the South.228
George Washington, who had become US President by unanimous choice in 1789 and continued for two terms to 1796, declined a third term for fear of turning the office of President into a monarchy. In his Farewell Address, Washington warned of the dangers of allegiance to political parties rather than to the principles of the US founding, advice we might well heed today:
