Early United States History

¶ … United States History

On April 19, 1775, a detachment of the British regular Army marched inland from Boston, Massachusetts, in search of a cache of arms and with orders to arrest certain prominent local leaders. At Lexington, they confronted and fired upon a small group of local militia, who had gathered on the town common, or "green." Further along their line of march, they confronted a much larger group of militia at a bridge in Concord, and were turned back. Retreating to Boston, the British soldiers were subjected to continual sniper attacks. The Battle of Lexington and Concord, coming after a dozen years of escalating political conflict between the colonies and the British Parliament, marked the beginning of the American Revolution.

On May 10, 1775, the Second Continental Congress, with representatives from thirteen of the British colonies along the Atlantic Coast of North America, began meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Congress immediately began to organize a federal government for the thirteen associated colonies, taking over governmental functions previously exercised by the King and Parliament of Great Britain, and directed the several States to prepare State constitutions for their own governance. The Congress appointed George Washington to head a Continental Army, and dispatched him to Boston, where the local militia was besieging a British Army.

After a year of warfare, the Congress declared the United States of America independent of Great Britain in the Declaration of Independence. The drafting of the Declaration was the responsibility of a committee of five, which included, among others, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, but the style of the document is attributed primarily to Thomas Jefferson. However, Jefferson's work was reviewed by Franklin at length and then submitted to the Congress where numerous changes were made, including the exclusion of his charges against George III regarding slavery.

With the help of an alliance with France, the United States (U.S.) were eventually able to win the American Revolutionary War against Great Britain, settled by the Treaty of Paris, which endowed the new country with a great wilderness empire stretching from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River, and including the southern Great Lakes region.

In the aftermath of war, economic depression and the weakness of political institutions troubled the young country. The Second Continental Congress continued to act as a federal government, formalizing its own status by the Articles of Confederation, proposed and put into effect in 1778, but not fully ratified until 1781. The Articles of Confederation outlined the governance of a permanent federation of States, without fully clarifying whether the United States was to be a nation-state or a mere league of States, acting in cooperation.

The perceived need for a more powerful and complete federal government led, in 1787, to the calling of a convention, to consider revising the Articles. That Convention, meeting in Philadelphia, chose, instead, to write a Constitution, which was ratified by eleven States in 1788.

In 1789, the Constitution of the United States was put into operation, and George Washington was elected the first President of the United States.

Centralization proved difficult for many people to accept. America had been settled in large part by Europeans who had left their homelands to escape religious or political oppression, as well as the rigid economic patterns of the Old World that locked individuals into a particular station in life regardless of their skill or energy. These settlers highly prized personal freedom, and they were wary of any power especially that of government that might curtail individual liberties.

The diversity of the new nation was also a formidable obstacle to unity. The people who were empowered by the Constitution in the 18th century to elect and control their central government represented different origins, beliefs, and interests. Most had come from Britain, but Sweden, Norway, France, the Netherlands, Prussia, Poland, and many other countries also sent immigrants to the New World. Their religious beliefs were varied and, in most cases, strongly held. There were Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Calvinists, Huguenots, Lutherans, Quakers, Jews, and many more. Economically and socially, Americans ranged from the land-owning aristocracy to slaves from Africa and indentured servants working off debts.