The War Years

• The Second Continental Congress: was a de facto government (unofficial government)
  • George Washington was appointed the head of the Continental Congress and head of the Continental Army. He was chosen because he was from the south and from Virginia, which was the most populous state. Washington was nominated by John Adams
  • Olive Branch Petition: sent it directly to the king and not Parliament because they wanted to appeal to the emotions of one person, rather than many. Some people also believed in DRK.
  • Ben Franklin drew up the Articles of Confederation in 1775. These articles were re-drawn by John Dickinson in 1777, but still could not get enough support for. Technically we didn't have any government during the war.
  • Tried to create Committees of Safety and Defense, which would have set up a series of militia all around the country.
  • Also tried to establish a navy, which did not work so well. The navy was made up of mostly privateers, who were motivated by not only patriotism, but were motivated by money. One moment of naval glory by John Paul Jones, who named his boat Bonhomme Richard after Benjamin Franklin (good man Richard after Poor Richard's Almanac). Jones's ship was on fire, so the men swung onto the British boat, the Serapis, and won the battle.
  • The Model Treaty: basically the creation of our foreign policy. Two noted diplomats were Benjamin Franklin (France) and John Jay (Spain). Gained the French support after the battle of Saratoga.
  • Borrowing Money! Haym Soloman was a Jewish immigrant. He donated his entire family fortune to buy cannons and such to help the American Revolution. One guy guaranteed the debts of Continental Congress, which means he would pay any debts that the Continental Congress could not pay.
  • Appointed the Committee of Five.
• Appointed a committee to draft a formal Declaration of Independence, The Committee of Five: Franklin, Roger Sherman (would later propose the Great Compromise), Robert Livingston, Jefferson (plagiarized almost everything! stole from John Locke, fellow Virginian George Mason, Montesquieu, and Rousseau), John Adams. Jefferson took out a bit from the Declaration about how slavery was a warfare against humanity. First person to suggest breaking away from GBR is Henry Lee.
  • First part of the Declaration is the Preamble: states the grievances against the kind
  • Second Part: provides a theory of Government.
  • Third Part: a separation document from England.
    • Included a part appealing to England on how to treat the captured Americans soldiers, as POWs, and not as traitors.
  • Reasons for the Declaration
    • an attempt to commit the one third of the population that was undecided
    • to make something symbolic of what we are fighting for
    • to tell the world that the king was using mercenaries, specifically from Germany, called Hessians. Why would the world even care about this? Their reasoning was if the King was using outsiders to kill colonists, then it wasn't really a family battle anymore.
    • pointed out new ways of government.
  • Outside reason/uses of the Declaration
    • women's' rights groups
    • civil rights movement
    • abolitionist movements
    • the declaration was also used in Vietnam
• American and British Strategies (on Larry's website)
  • American Strategy
    • control the seas
    • keep a fighting army to tire out the British
• Strengths and Weaknesses of both sides
  • British Advantages
    • lots of money
    • the best army/navy in the world
    • stable and admired governement
    • best weapons with better trained army leaders
  • British Weakness
    • 3,000 mies away
    • British was a smaller landmass
    • no headquarters in America (New York was eventually their base)
    • don't have home field advantage
    • didn't have a cause to fight for
  • Colonial Advantages
    • home field advantage
    • Great leaders: George Rogers Clark, George Washington, Nathaniel Greene (the fighting Quaker)
    • had a cause to fight for
  • Colonial Disadvantage
    • no way to pay soldiers
    • no organized government
    • not many supplies
    • no money
• The Germain Plan- The Saratoga Campain
  • George Burgoyne, St. Leger, and Howe were three English generals who were supposed to meet up got separated. Horatio Gates was the commanding american officer who received the surrender.
• The War in the South and the end
  • The Cornwallis Southern Campain
    • Guilford Courthouse: costly victory for the British
    • Yorktown: British surrender, the last big battle in the war. Readouts: a thrown together fortress that the Americans had to attack
• Aftermath of the Revolution and the Significance of the Revolution