Assignment 1

IMPORTANT HISTORICAL EVENTS

Starting From War To The Framing Of US
Constitution
American Revolutionary War;
Although the continental congress held in June 1775 that declared loyalty
with the British crown. The continental congress created a united force to
fight the British army and George Washignton a known retired army officer
was made the first commander in chief of this United force. Later he also
became the first president (1789 to 1797) of America. A month later, the
congress issued a declaration which stated the causes and necessity of
taking of the arms. During the same process they decided to write a
petition to the king to request for removal of unfair taxes. On October 25,
1774, the First Congress sends a respectful petition to King George 3rd to inform
his majesty that if it had not been for the acts of oppression forced upon the
colonies by the British Parliament, the American people would be standing behind
British rule. It was an effort of the continental congress to avoid a full
scale war between colonies and imperial power. The king rejected the
petition. Through revolutionary war American colonies threw off British rule to
establish the sovereign United States of America, founded with the Declaration of
Independence in 1776.

Declaring Independence;
For over a year, the continental congress supervised a war with the imperial
power. Despite of the fact that the same continental congress had declared
its loyalty with the British crown. The people living in the colonies and also
the delegates in the congress were divided on the question of independence
of America. Even after one year of open war between both sides there was
lack of consensus of opinion regarding the declaration of independence from
British imperial power.

After 1776 a number of factors strengthen the call for independence . In

January 1776 a parliament was published by the name ‘Common sense’ by
a British immigrant Thomas Payne. The pampered narrated various reasons to
justify. The independence messages from colonies started to receive to
delegates in congress to support the idea of independence. It was very
difficult to continue to fight the imperial power as there was no organized
system of collection of revenue by the members of continental congress.

In the meanwhile keeping in view the difficulties to fight, the continental

congress decided to seek help of the foreign powers. An agreement between
France and continental congress took place. And the French Kingdom onwards
supported the initiative of the people living in the colonies of America.
Delegates from various colonies were instructed to submit the proposal for
the independence. On July 4, 1774 the congress voted for the approval of
declaration of independence.

Events Leading To American War

1) Sugar Tax of 1764
Also titled as America Revenue Act. On April 5, 1764, Parliament passed a
modified version of the Sugar and Molasses Act (1733), which was about to
expire. Under the Molasses Act colonial merchants had been required to pay
a tax of six pence per gallon on the importation of foreign molasses.
2) Stamp Act of 1765
The stamp Act of 1765 was an Act of the Parliament of Great
Britain which imposed a direct tax on the British colonies in America and
required that many printed materials in the colonies be produced on
stamped paper produced in London, carrying an embossed revenue stamp.
Printed materials included legal documents, magazines, playing cards,
newspapers, and many other types of paper used throughout the
colonies, and it had to be paid in British currency, not in colonial paper
money. The purpose of the tax was to pay for British military troops
stationed in the American colonies after the French and Indian War, but the
colonists had never feared a French invasion to begin with, and they
contended that they had already paid their share of the war expenses. They
suggested that it was actually a matter of British patronage to surplus British
officers and career soldiers who should be paid by London.
The Stamp Act was very unpopular among colonists. A majority considered
it a violation of their rights as Englishmen to be taxed without their consent
—consent that only the colonial legislatures could grant. Their slogan was
"No taxation without representation." Colonial assemblies sent petitions
and protests, and the Stamp Act Congress held in New York City was the
first significant joint colonial response to any British measure when it
petitioned Parliament and the King.
3) Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a political and mercantile protest by the Sons of
Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1773.The target was the
Tea Act of May 10, 1773, which allowed the British East India company to
sell tea from China in American colonies without paying taxes apart from
those imposed by the Townshend Acts. American Patriots strongly opposed
the taxes in the Townshend Act as a violation of their rights. Demonstrators,
some disguised as Native Americans, destroyed an entire shipment of tea
sent by the East India Company.
70 people boarded 3 ships on port and threw 342 chests of tea worth
90,000 thrown into sea. The British government responded harshly and the
episode escalated into the American Revolution. The Tea Party became an
iconic event of American history, and since then other political protests such
 as the Tea Party movement have referred to themselves as historical
successors to the Boston protest of 1773.
The Tea Party was the culmination of a resistance movement throughout
British America against the Tea Act, which had been passed by the British
Parliament in 1773. Colonists objected to the Tea Act because they believed
that it violated their rights as Englishmen to "no taxation without
representation", that is, to be taxed only by their own elected
representatives and not by a British parliament in which they were not
represented.
4) Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre, known to the British as the Incident on King Street, was a
confrontation on March 5, 1770 in which British soldiers shot and killed several
people while being harassed by a mob in Boston. The event was heavily publicized
by leading Patriots such as Paul Revere and Samuel Adams. British troops had
been stationed in the Province of Massachusetts Bay since 1768 in order to support
crown-appointed officials and to enforce unpopular Parliamentary legislation.

Amid tense relations between the civilians and the soldiers, a mob formed
around a British sentry and verbally abused him. 9 soldiers opened firing
onto mob. They fired into the crowd without orders, instantly killing three
people and wounding others, two of whom later died of their wounds. So,
total deaths were 5 and 6 were injured. Weapons used in it are Flintlock
muskets and clubs. Nine soldiers were involved in it. Later on only 2
soldiers were punished symbolically and were freed.
5) Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable Acts were punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in
1774 after the Boston Tea Party. The laws were meant to punish the
Massachusetts colonists for their defiance in the Tea Party protest in reaction
to changes in taxation by the British to the detriment of colonial goods. In
Great Britain, these laws were referred to as the Coercive Acts. The acts took
away self-governance and historic rights of Massachusetts, triggering
outrage and resistance in the Thirteen Colonies. They were key
developments in the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in April
1775.Four of the acts were issued in direct response to the Boston Tea Party
of December 16, 1773.
a) The Townshend Act
The Townshend Acts were a series of measures, passed by the British
Parliament in 1767, that taxed paints, paper, glass, lead and other goods
imported to the American colonies. The people disagreed to pay these taxes
without being given representation. British government eventually repealed
all the taxes due to growing pressure except tea tax. East India Company
was alarmed to ship tea to American colonies duty free. Since the colony
was defying the authority of British. East India Company was at the verge of
bankruptcy due to this. People used tea smuggled from Holland, Netherland
(Dutch Tea). During the agitation on the imperial power on the issue of
tax(tea) the suppliers played the major role.
b) The Boston Port Act was the first of the laws passed in 1774 in response
to the Boston Tea Party. It closed the port of Boston until the colonists paid
for the destroyed tea and the king was satisfied that order had been restored.
Colonists objected that the Port Act punished all of Boston rather than just
the individuals who had destroyed the tea, and that they were being punished
without having been given an opportunity to testify in their own defense.
c) The Massachusetts Government Act provoked even more outrage than
the Port Act because it unilaterally took away Massachusetts' charter and
brought it under control of the British government. Under the terms of the
Government Act, almost all positions in the colonial government were to be
appointed by the governor, Parliament, or king. The act also severely limited
town meetings in Massachusetts to one per year, unless the Governor called
for one. Colonists outside Massachusetts feared that their governments could
now also be changed by the legislative fiat of Parliament.
d) The Administration of Justice Act allowed the Royal governor to order
trials of accused royal officials to take place in Great Britain or elsewhere
within the Empire if he decided that the defendant could not get a fair trial in
Massachusetts. Although the act stipulated for witnesses to be reimbursed
after having traveled at their own expense across the Atlantic, it was not
stipulated that this would include reimbursement for lost earnings during the
period for which they would be unable to work, leaving few with the ability
to testify. George Washington called this the "Murder Act" because he
believed that it allowed British officials to harass Americans and then escape
justice. Many colonists believed the act was unnecessary because British
soldiers had been given a fair trial following the Boston Massacre in 1770.
e) The Quartering Act applied to all of the colonies, and sought to create a
more effective method of housing British troops in America. In a previous
act, the colonies had been required to provide housing for soldiers, but
colonial legislatures had been uncooperative in doing so. The new
Quartering Act allowed a governor to house soldiers in other buildings if
suitable quarters were not provided. While many sources claim that the
Quartering Act allowed troops to be billeted in occupied private homes,
historian David Am merman’s 1974 study claimed that this is a myth, and
that the act only permitted troops to be quartered in unoccupied buildings.
6) First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was a meeting of delegates from 12 of the 13
British colonies that became the United States. They wrote a letter to UK
King George 3rd, 51 delegate’s signatures on it. It was written on October
25, 1774. Author name is John Dixon. It met from September 5 to October
26, 1774 at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania after the British
Navy instituted a blockade of Boston Harbor and Parliament passed the
punitive Intolerable Acts in response to the December 1773 Boston Tea
Party. During the opening weeks of the Congress, the delegates conducted a
spirited discussion about how the colonies could collectively respond to the
British government's coercive actions, and they worked to make common
cause. A plan was proposed to create a Union of Great Britain and the
Colonies, but the delegates rejected it. They ultimately agreed to impose an
economic boycott on British trade, and they drew up a Petition to the King
pleading for redress of their grievances and repeal of the Intolerable Acts.
That appeal had no effect, so the colonies convened the Second Continental
Congress the following May, shortly after the battles of Lexington and
Concord, to organize the defense of the colonies at the outset of the
Revolutionary War. The delegates also urged each colony to set up and train
its own militia.
 7) Battle of Lexington and Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the
American Revolutionary War. The battles were fought on April 19, 1775 in
Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington,
Concord, Lincoln, Monotony (present-day Arlington), and Cambridge. They
marked the outbreak of armed conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and
its thirteen colonies in America. In late 1774, Colonial leaders adopted the Suffolk
Resolves in resistance to the alterations made to the Massachusetts colonial
government by the British parliament following the Boston Tea Party. The colonial
assembly responded by forming a Patriot provisional government known as the
Massachusetts Provincial Congress and calling for local militias to train for
possible hostilities. The Colonial government exercised effective control of the
colony outside of British-controlled Boston. In response, the British government in
February 1775 declared Massachusetts to be in a state of rebellion.

The first shots were fired just as the sun was rising at Lexington. Eight militiamen
were killed, including Ensign Robert Munroe, their third in command. The British
suffered only one casualty. The militia was outnumbered and fell back, and the
regulars proceeded on to Concord, where they broke apart into companies to search
for the supplies. At the North Bridge in Concord, approximately 400 militiamen
engaged 100 regulars from three companies of the King's troops at about 11:00 am,
resulting in casualties on both sides. The outnumbered regulars fell back from the
bridge and rejoined the main body of British forces in Concord. The British forces
began their return march to Boston after completing their search for military
supplies, and more militiamen continued to arrive from neighboring towns.

8) Adoption of Declaration of Independence

The United States Declaration of Independence is the pronouncement adopted by
the Second Continental Congress meeting at the Pennsylvania State House (now
known as Independence Hall) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 4, 1776. The
Declaration explained why the Thirteen Colonies at war with the Kingdom of
Great Britain regarded themselves as thirteen independent sovereign states, no
longer under British rule. With the Declaration, these new states took a collective
first step toward forming the United States of America. The declaration was signed
by representatives from New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island,
Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia,
North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The Lee Resolution for
independence was passed on July 2 with no opposing votes. The Committee of
Five had drafted the Declaration to be ready when Congress voted on
independence. John Adams, a leader in pushing for independence, had persuaded
the committee to select Thomas Jefferson to compose the original draft of the
document, which Congress edited to produce the final version. After ratifying the
text on July 4, Congress issued the Declaration of Independence in several forms.
It was initially published as the printed Dunlap broadside that was widely
distributed and read to the public.

9) Battles of Saratoga
The Battles of Saratoga (September 19 and October 7, 1777) marked the climax of
the Saratoga campaign, giving a decisive victory to the Americans over the British
in the American Revolutionary War. British General John Burgoyne led a large
invasion army southward from Canada in the Champlain Valley, hoping to meet a
similar British force marching northward from New York City and another British
force marching eastward from Lake Ontario; the southern and western forces never
arrived, and Burgoyne was surrounded by American forces in upstate New York.
He fought two small battles to break out which took place 18 days apart on the
same ground, 9 miles (14 km) south of Saratoga, New York. They both failed.

Burgoyne found himself trapped by superior American forces with no relief, so he

retreated to Saratoga (now Schuylerville) and surrendered his entire army there on
October 17. His surrender, says historian Edmund Morgan, "was a great turning
point of the war because it won for Americans the foreign assistance which was the
last element needed for victory.

10) Surrender at York Town

On October 19, 1781, British General Charles Cornwallis surrendered his army of
some 8,000 men to General George Washington at Yorktown, giving up any
chance of winning the Revolutionary War. ... Hours after the surrender, the
general's defeated troops marched out of Yorktown to the tune “The World Turned
Upside Down.”

11) Signature on Treaty of Paris

The Treaty of Paris signed in Paris by representatives of King George III of Great
Britain and representatives of the United States of America on September 3, 1783,
ended the American Revolutionary War. The treaty set the boundaries between the
British Empire in North America and the United States of America, on lines
"exceedingly generous" to the latter. Details included fishing rights and restoration
of property and prisoners of war.

Important Names of People

Following are the important and famous names of people who participated in
resistance against imperial power.

Among students is Alexander Hamilton, among planters is George Masson,

among farmers is Daniel Sharers and Joseph Plump, among merchants is
Alexander Med oval and John Hancock and among lawyers is John Adam.
Slaves and free people also participated.

In fact all people of 13 colonies participated in independence of Britain. It was a

collective war against imperial power. That is why resulted into success for
American people.

THANK YOU
History of Conventions
Brief history of conventions leading to the American Constitution.

a) 11 Nov 1620
A ship arrived on the soil of US which has started its journey in the
month of July 1620 from England. Its name was may flower. There were 102
passengers and around 30 crew members. The male passengers of ship agreed
upon rules of business to be followed while their stay in the British colony
in the soil of US. This document is known as may flower compact in the history.
This is considered as the first unofficial document, to govern the colonies in
USA.

b) 4 July 1776;
The declaration of independence was adopted 13 British were in war
at that time with the imperial power. The leaders who framed and
constructed the declaration of independence decided to keep it
secret to avoid the punishment under the law of treason.

c) 16 Dec 1777
Virginia became the first state to ratify the articles of confederation and
with the rectification by the Virginia the article of rectification became the
basis of kind of government in US. There was still a discussion going on in
the different circle that despite of the availability of a document or
confederation the requirement of strong government is needed.

d) 3 Sep 1783
 It is the date when a treaty was signed between France and US which
resulted into the end of an ongoing war between the imperial power and
states and it was only when the great Britain recognized the USA as an
independent state of America.

e) Aug 1786
Shays Rebellion started an armed war against the state government in
Massachusetts . And it was that unrest in the state that the law makers felt
that they need to do something more to insure peace in the states and also
to have a relatively strong government.

f) 25 May 1787
Continental congress begins Philadelphia the delegates from the various
states in Philadelphia to discuss the possibility of making changes in the
article of federation to have a stronger federation in future .The discussion
continued till 17 of September 1787 instead of recommendation of
improvement in the article of federation the delegates drafted the
constitution.

e) 21 June 1788
The state in the name of new Hampshire rectified the US constitution . It
was the 9th state to rectify the constitution and by ratification the US
constitution became law of the land.

f) 25 Sep 1789
The bill of rights passed by the congress. The congress discussed the
fundamental rights on the basis of the human right and fundamental rights
available to British citizens in UK , it guaranteed certain freedom to all
citizens includes freedom of speech to every citizens.

Only 10 Articles were rectified

1) 6 Dec 1865

Thirteenth amendment was abolished.

2) 9 July 1868

Fourteenth amendment was adopted all the citizens born in united states
including slaves were declared as citizens ,

3); 3 March 1870

Fifteenth amendment is adopted voting rights to all citizens regardless of

race or ethnicity .

5)16 Jan 1919

Eighteenth amendment this was inserted into the constitution to announce

ban on manufacturing , sale and transportation of alcohol.

6)5 Dec 1933

Twenty first amendment was inserted in constitution which repealed the 18

amendment coz of the extra ordinary difficulty of 18 amendment.

7) 27 Dec 1941

Constitution arrives at fort Knox Kentucky this was due to fear that the
important state documents including the constitution may be destroyed due
to the war.

a)
References
1) Wood, Gordon S., "The Creation of the American Republic,
1776–1787" (1972) ISBN 978-0-807-84723-7, p. 359.
2) Morris, Richard B., American Historical Association Presidential
Address AHA December 28, 1976. Viewed June 8, 2014.
3) Phillip Shaw Paludan , A Covenant with Death: the Constitution,
Law, and Equality in the Civil War Era (1975) pp. 2–4
4) Levinson, Sanford (2006). Our Undemocratic Constitution: Where
the Constitution Goes Wrong (And How We the People Can
Correct It). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 248. ISBN
978-0-19-530751-1.
5) Larry J. Sabato interviewed by Policy Today's Dan Schwartz (18
October 2007). "Time for a Second Constitutional Convention?".
Policy Today. Retrieved 2009-09-20.
6) Sabato, A More Perfect Constitution (2007).