the Continental Congress, Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee presented a series of resolutions on June 7, 1776, calling for independence from Great Britain and the establishment of a national government in America. On July 1st, Congress approved the resolutions. Two committees were established; one for drafting a Declaration of Independence, and the other for designing the structure for an American government. Seated on the declaration committee were Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Livingston, Roger Sherman, and John Adams. The manuscript was penned by Jefferson, a 33-year-old Virginian lawyer and planter with a talent for persuasive writing.
He pushed for independence which resulted in the Missouri Compromise. He was best know for promoting several major compromises for the freedom of slaves. He ran for presidency against Adams and lost. But in 1820 Adams elected him as his Secretary of State. Henry Clay died on June 29, 1852 in Washington D.C. Robert Young Hayne was born November 10, 1791 in South Carolina.
At the age of just nineteen Hamilton became captain of an artillery company that saw battles in New York, Long Island, Trenton, Princeton, and White Plains. After the success of these battles, Hamilton became Washington’s personal military aid. In 1781, Hamilton, who was tired of not seeing battle, resigned as aide to Washington. That same year Hamilton again led a battalion at the battle of Yorktown, and with help from other battalions took over British
James attended Yale at the age of thirteen, but was expelled in his third year (1805) for committing several pranks. He worked on sailing ships, merchant vessels and then in the U.S. Navy. After seeing some of the world, he returned home in 1811 to marry Susan De Lancey, a woman from New York's social elite. The De Lancey's were Loyalists during the Revolution, and lost a lot of property with
He was an esteemed writer who helped Thomas Jefferson write a Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, and also wrote Olive Branch Petition, an appeal to King George III to resolve the dispute. He also wrote Letter from a Pennsylvania Farmer, which regarded the Townshend Acts. From what one can gather from this document John Dickinson wanted reconciliation between the colonies and Great Britain and not complete independence. The document from John Dickinson mainly states that declaring independence would not be of benefit for the colonies during 1776. John Dickinson stated that escaping the protection of England would be like “…destroying a house before we have got another, in winter, with a small family; then asking a neighbor to take us in and finding he is unprepared.” He is basically saying that they shouldn’t break the
The Articles of Confederation played an important part in the American Revolutionary War. The purpose of the Article was to provide a general government for the 13 colonies that had won their freedom from British rule. However, the Confederation government was weak and the Article was a failure because the states tended to ignore and paid little attention to acts passed by Congress. In the late 1780s, more and more American leaders concluded that the Articles of Confederation needed improvements. Discussion at the Annapolis Convention of 1786 led to a convention in Philadelphia in 1787.
The Mayflower Voyage The group that set out from Plymouth, in southwestern England, in September 1620 included 35 members of a radical Puritan faction known as the English Separatist Church. In 1607, after illegally breaking from the Church of England, the Separatists settled in the Netherlands, first in Amsterdam and later in the town of Leiden, where they remained for the next decade under the relatively lenient Dutch laws. Due to economic difficulties, as well as fears that they would lose their English language and heritage, they began to make plans to settle in the New World. Their intended destination was a region near the Hudson River, which at the time was thought to be part of the already established colony of Virginia. In 1620, the would-be settlers joined a London stock company that would finance their trip aboard the Mayflower, a three-masted merchant ship, in 1620.
For many years various acts were passed taxing the residents of the newly founded colonies. At first this posed no threat to England, but as time went on the patience of the colonies grew thin. Aggression towards England would reach an all time high by the 1770’s. The colonies in North America, for multiple reasons, had reached their breaking point with the unruly governing of Britain and its king. On July 4, 1776, congress approved the Declaration of Independence, formally declaring its separation from England.
American National Government Olivia Summer Petersen Essay 1 On July 4th 1776 the colonies declared themselves independent from British rule but it took over 10 years to adopt the Constitution. Before the Constitution was drafted there were many problems facing the newly independent colonies. There were problems with coining and printing money and taxes and unpaid debt. Delegates met in Philadelphia in 1787 to try and set up the Constitution to fix these problems. The colonies had all types of issues before the Constitution was drafted, such as state sovereignty, coining/printing money, and taxes and unpaid debt.
The Monroe Doctrine Forty-seven years after the Declaration of Independence enter James Monroe, fifth President of the United States (1817-1825). Monroe was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia April 28, 1758. He was of the planter class, and fought in the American Revolutionary War. After the war Monroe would study law under Thomas Jefferson, and then serve as a delegate in the Continental Congress. Monroe was extremely active as an anti-federalist delegate and helped prevent ratification of the United States Constitution stating it gives too much power to central government.