Independence

by John Ferling

  19. Hugh Earl Percy to General Harvey, July 28, 1775, in Charles K. Bolton, ed., Letters of Hugh Earl Percy from Boston and New York, 1774–1776 (Boston, 1902), 58.

  20. James Grant to Richard Rigby, October 5, 1775, Papers of James Grant of Ballindaloch, reel 29, Library of Congress.

  21. PGWR 3:377–78n; GW to Read, February 26[–March 9], 1776, ibid., 3:376.

  22. Am Archives 4th series, 5:422–23; PGWR 4:2n.

  23. Francis Lightfoot Lee to Landon Carter, April 9, 1776, LDC 3:500.

  24. Am Archives 4th series, 3:644, 794–95.

  25. James Duane, Notes for a Speech in Congress, [May 23–25, 1775], LDC 1:392.

  26. Quoted in T. H. Breen, American Insurgents, American Patriots: The Revolution of the People (New York, 2010), 10.

  27. David Hackett Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride (New York, 1994), 320–21; Joyce Lee Malcolm, Peter’s War: A New England Slave Boy and the American Revolution (New Haven, Conn., 2009), 75.

  28. BF to Anthony Todd, March 29, 1776, PBF 22:393.

  29. GW, General Orders, October 26, 31, November 14, 20, 1775, PGWR 2:235–36, 269, 369, 443.

  30. See David Ammerman, In the Common Cause: American Response to the Coercive Acts of 1774 (Charlottesville, Va., 1974), 103–24.

  31. Am Archives 4th series, 3:141–42.

  32. Am Archives 4th series, 4:858, 1050–51.

  33. Am Archives 4th series, 4:719.

  34. Am Archives 4th series, 3:319.

  35. Am Archives 4th series, 4:713.

  36. Breen, American Insurgents, American Patriots, 233–34. Breen chronicles the work of these committees in detail and shows how restrained many were in practice. See pages 207–40.

  37. Am Archives 4th series, 3:218, 692, 462–63, 955, 1072; 4:288; 5:547.

  38. Am Archives 4th series, 3:133, 322, 682, 692.

  39. Am Archives 4th series, 3:141–42.

  40. Brendan McConville, The King’s Three Faces: The Rise and Fall of Royal America, 1688–1776 (Chapel Hill., N.C., 2006), 63–64, 74, 87, 107, 126, 129–31, 138, 202. The quotations can be found on pages 74 and 202.

  41. McConville, King’s Three Faces, 292, 296–97.

  42. Quoted in Merrill Jensen, The Founding of a Nation: A History of the American Revolution, 1763–1776 (New York, 1968), 669.

  43. The literature on republicanism and the American Revolution is voluminous. Good places to start—and on which the foregoing draws—are Bernard Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (Cambridge, Mass., 1967), 48–52, 281–84; Gordon S. Wood, The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1969), 46–124; Gordon S. Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution (New York, 1992), 11–189; Robert E. Shalhope, “Republicanism, Liberalism, and Democracy: Political Culture in the Early Republic,” in Milton M. Klein et al., eds., The Republican Synthesis Revisited: Essays in Honor of George Athan Billias (Worcester, Mass., 1992), 37–90; Robert E. Shalhope, “Republicanism and Early American Historiography,” William and Mary Quarterly 39 (1982): 334–56; Robert E. Shalhope, “Toward a Republican Synthesis: The Emergence of an Understanding of Republicanism in American Historiography,” ibid., 29 (1972): 49–80; Joyce Appleby, “Republicanism and Ideology,” American Quarterly 37 (1985): 461–83; Linda K. Kerber, “The Republican Ideology of the Revolutionary Generation,” ibid., 37:474–95.

  44. Jensen, Founding of a Nation, 677–78.

  45. Am Archives 4th series, 5:608–14.

  46. Am Archives 4th series, 5:1025–32; Maier, American Scripture, 69–72.

  47. JA to Warren, April 22, 1776, PJA 4:135.

  48. Am Archives 4th series, 6:1524; JCC 5:425; LDC 3:417n; Jensen, Founding of a Nation, 678.

  49. SA to Samuel Cooper, April 30, 1776, LDC 3:600–602.

  50. Jensen, Founding of a Nation, 679.

  51. Am Archives 4th series, 6:1524; Jensen, Founding of a Nation, 680–81.

  52. Am Archives 4th series, 5:1025–32, 1032–34, 1034–35, 1046–47, 1205–6, 1206–9; 6:514–15. Pauline Maier brought to the attention of all historians what she called “the other declarations of Independence,” the local statements adopted between April and July in Virginia, South Carolina, and elsewhere. See Maier, American Scripture, 47–96, and see also the convenient log that she provides of these statements, 217–23.

  53. Francis Lightfoot Lee to Landon Carter, January 22, March 19, April 9, 1776, LDC 3:130, 407, 500.

  54. Am Archives 4th series, 5:1034–35.

  55. [Anon.], “Serious Questions Addressed to the Congress,” April [?], 1776, Am Archives 4th series, 5:1078.

  56. “Salus Populi,” March [?], 1776, Am Archives 4th series, 5:98–99; [Thomas Paine], “The Forester,” [April 1776], ibid., 5:1020; “FA,” April 29, 1776, ibid., 5:1134.

  57. [Thomas Paine], “A Dialogue between the Ghost of General Montgomery … and an American Delegate, in a Wood near Philadelphia,” 1776, Am Archives 4th series, 5:131; [Anon.], “Plain Hints,” March [?], 1776, ibid., 5:214; “Somers,” [Williamsburg, Va., March 1776], ibid., 5:122–23; [Anon.], Untitled, March 21, 1776, ibid., 5:450.

  58. [Anon.], “Seek Truth,” April [?], 1776, Am Archives 4th series, 5:1016; [Anon.], “Plain Hints,” March [?], 1776, ibid., 5:214; “An American,” Untitled, March 15, 1776, ibid., 5:227.

  59. Civis, “To the Freeholders … of Philadelphia,” April 30, 1776, Am Archives 4th series, 5:1142; James H. Hutson, “The Partition Treaty and the Declaration of Independence,” Journal of American History 58 (1972): 351–58.

  60. Pennsylvania Gazette, May 1, 1776; Cato, “A Letter to the People of Pennsylvania,” Letter III and Letter IV [March 1776], Am Archives 4th series, 5:445, 514; A Settled Citizen, “On the Present State of Publick Affairs,” April 23, 1776, ibid., 5:1037; Civis, “To the Freeholders … of Philadelphia,” April 30, 1776, ibid., 5:1141–42; Hampden, “Hampden Against Independence,” May 1, 1776, ibid., 5:1158–59; CS, “Reply to Remarks of Rationalis on “ ‘Common Sense,’ ” April 18, 1776, ibid., 5:976; [Anon.], “Reasons for a Declaration of the Independence of the American Colonies,” April 20, 1776, ibid., 5:992; Civis, “To the Inhabitants of Philadelphia,” [April 1776], ibid., 5:803–4.

  61. AB, Untitled, April 12, 1776, Am Archives 4th series, 5:861–62.

  62. A British American, “To the Inhabitants of the United Colonies,” December 28, 1776, Am Archives 4th series, 4:473.

  63. [Anon.], “To the Inhabitants of New-York,” April 11, 1776, Am Archives 4th series, 5:856.

  64. JA to AA, March 19, 1776, AFC 1:363; JA to William Tudor, April 12, 1776, PJA 4:118; JA to Warren, May 12, 1776, ibid., 4:182.

  65. PJA 4:65–68n.

  66. [John Adams], Thoughts on Government (1776), PJA 4:86–93.

  67. Robert Treat Paine, Diary, May 5, 1776, LDC 3:625–26; Richard Henry Lee to Samuel Purviance Jr., May 6, 1776, ibid., 3:632.

  68. Jay to James Jay, January 4, 1776, LDC 3:29; Thomas Lynch to GW, January 16, 1776, ibid., 3:101; Morris to Gates, April 6, 1776, ibid., 3:495.

  69. PH 18:728, 1175, 1181, 1185.

  70. Hancock to the Massachusetts Assembly, May, 16, 1776, LDC 4:7; Hancock to Certain Colonies, June 4, 1776, ibid., 4:136; William Whipple to Joshua Brackett, June 2, 1776, ibid., 4:119; Wolcott to Laura Wolcott, May 25, 1776, ibid., 4:72; Duane to Robert Livingston, January 5, 1776, ibid., 3:33; Morris to Deane, June 5, 1776, ibid., 4:147; Bartlett to John Langdon, May 19, 1776, ibid., 4:39.

  71. Richard Henry Lee to Carter, June 2, 1776, LDC 4:117.

  72. Wolcott to Laura Wolcott, March 2, 1776, LDC 3:325; SA to Elizabeth Adams, February 26, 1776, ibid., 3:303.

  73. JA to AA, December 3, 1775, AFC 1:331; AFC 1; Thomas McKean to George Read, January 19, 1776, LDC 3:115; Duane to Alexander McDougall, February 25, 1776, ibid., 3:300; Samuel Ward to Deborah Ward, January 2, 1776, ibid., 3:21; Wolcott to Laura Wolcott, March [8], 19, 1776, ibid., 3:359, 412; Samuel Huntington to Joseph Trumbull, February 20, March 26, 1776, ibid., 3:290; Jay to Robert R.
Livingston, March 4, 1776, ibid., 3:328; Bartlett to Mary Bartlett, January 24, 1776, ibid., 3:131; Hancock to Cushing, January 17, 1776, ibid., 3:105; John Rogers to Maryland Council, April 28, 1776, ibid., 3:582n; JCC 3:302–3.

  74. SA to Warren, March 8, 1776, LDC 3:353–54; Paine to Joseph Hawley, January 1, 1776, ibid., 3:6–7; Paine to Joseph Palmer, January 1, 1776, ibid., 3:10–11; Paine to Warren, January 1, 1776, ibid., 3:11–12; JA to AA, April 6, 1776, ibid., 3:493.

  75. SA to Elizabeth Adams, February 26, 1776, LDC 3:303; Jay to Livingston, March 4, 1776, ibid., 3:328; Ward to His Daughter, February 11, March 8, 1776, ibid., 3:232, 357; Ward to Anna Ward, January 21, 1776, ibid., 3:128; Deane to Elizabeth Deane, January 13, 1776, ibid., 89.

  76. AA to JA, May 7, 24, 1775, AFC 1:195, 205.

  77. AA to JA, June [16], 1775, AFC 1:217, 219.

  78. AA to JA, November 12, 1775, AFC 1:325.

  79. Malcolm, Peter’s War, 80.

  80. AA to JA, June [16], 25, July 16, September 8, 25, 29, October 1, 9, November 12, December 10, 1775, AFC 1:219, 232, 249, 276–78, 284, 287–88, 288–89, 296, 324–25, 337.

  81. AA to JA, October 21, 25, 1775, AFC 1:305, 312.

  82. AA to JA, June 22, 25, July 5, 1775, March 2, 1776, AFC 1:226, 231, 239, 353, 355.

  83. JA to AA, June 10, July 7, 1775, AFC 1:214, 241–42; AA to JA, July 16, 1775, ibid., 1:247.

  84. AA to JA, May 24, 1775, AFC 1:205; JA to AA, July 28, September 26, October 1, 2, 7, 13, 19, 1775, ibid., 1:267, 285, 289, 291, 295, 300–301, 303.

  85. JA to Abigail Adams, 2d, October 20, 1775, AFC 1:304–5; JA to Thomas Boylston Adams, October 20, 1775, ibid., 1:305; JA to AA, October 29, 1775, April 15, 1776, ibid., 1:317–18, 383–84.

  86. JA to AA, December 3, 1775, AFC 1:331.

  87. JA to AA, October 7, 1775, AFC 1:295–96. Edith B. Gelles is the recognized authority on Abigail Adams. To understand AA and her relationship with JA, see Gelles’s, Abigail & John: Portrait of a Marriage (New York, 2009), Abigail Adams: A Writing Life (New York, 2002), and Portia: The World of Abigail Adams (Bloomington, Ind., 1992). Other biographies of AA include: Woody Holton, Abigail Adams (New York, 2009); Charles Akers, Abigail Adams: A Revolutionary American Woman (New York, 2007); Lynne Withey, Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams (New York, 1981); and Phyllis Lee Levin, Abigail Adams: A Biography (New York, 1987).

  88. JA to AA, March 17, April 12, 14, 1776, AFC 1:361, 377, 382; AA to JA, March 31, 1776, ibid., 1:369–70.

  89. JA to John Winthrop, May 6, 1776, PJA 4:175; JA to Warren, May 20, 1776, ibid., 4:195; John Dickinson Sergeant to JA, April 11, 1776, ibid., 4:114; Whipple to Joshua Brackett, April 21, 1776, LDC 3:568; SA to Cooper, April 30, 1776, ibid., 3:600–601; Wolcott to Laura Wolcott, April 17, 1776, ibid., 3:555.

  90. Whipple to Joseph Whipple, May 6, 1776, LDC 3:634; Francis L. Lee to Carter, April 9, 1776, ibid., 3:500; Lee to Charles Lee, May 11, 1776, ibid., 3:655.

  91. JA to Joseph Ward, April 16, 1776, LDC 3:534; SA to Hawley, April 15, 1776, ibid., 3:528; JA to Warren, April 20, 22, 1776, PJA 4:130–31, 136; JA to Winthrop, May 6, 1776, ibid., 4:175; JA to AA, April 28, 1776, AFC 1:400–401.

  92. JA to Warren, March 21, May 20, 1776, PJA 4:56, 195.

  93. Richard A. Ryerson, The Revolution Is Now Begun: The Radical Committees of Philadelphia, 1765–1776 (Philadelphia, 1978), 172–74; William Hogeland, Declaration: The Nine Tumultuous Weeks When America Became Independent, May 1–July 4, 1776 (New York, 2010), 1–10.

  94. JA to Warren, May 15, 1776, PJA 4:186; Hogeland, Declaration, 11–49, 73–76. On Dickinson’s absence, see David Hawke, A Transaction of Free Men: The Birth and Course of the Declaration of Independence (New York, 1964), 117–18.

  95. Milton E. Flower, John Dickinson: Conservative Revolutionary (Charlottesville, Va., 1983), 150.

  96. Carter Braxton to Landon Carter, May 17, 1776, LDC 4:19; JA, Notes of Debates, [May 13–15, 1776], DAJA 2:238–41; JCC 4:342, 357–58; Hogeland, Declaration, 97–100; Hawke, A Transaction of Free Men, 119–20.

  97. JA to Warren, May 15, 1776, PJA 4:186; JA to AA, May 17, 1776, AFC 1:410.

  98. Stone to James Hollyday[?], May 20, 1776, LDC 4:47.

  CHAPTER 11: “NOT CHOICE, BUT NECESSITY THAT CALLS FOR INDEPENDENCE”: THE DILEMMA AND STRATEGY OF ROBERT LIVINGSTON

  1. Lee to Carter, June 2, 1776, LDC 4:117; Carter Braxton to Carter, May 17, 1776, ibid., 4:20; JA to Lee, June 4, 1776, PJA 4:239.

  2. JA to Lee, June 4, 1776, PJA 4:239; Am Archives 4th series, 5:1589; Francis L. Lee to Carter, May 21, 1776, LDC 4:57.

  3. Morris to Deane, June 5, 1776, LDC 4:147; Gerry to Warren, June 6, 1776, ibid., 4:152–53; Richard Henry Lee to Thomas Ludwell Lee, May 28, 1776, ibid., 4:90; Am Archives 4th series, 6:323; ibid., 5:462–63.

  4. JCC 4:40, 71, 186; Josiah Bartlett to New Hampshire Committee of Safety, January 20, 1776, LDC 3:117–18; Hancock to William Maxwell, January 25, 1776, ibid., 3:153; Hancock to Schuyler, January 24, February 6, 20, 1776, ibid., 3:146, 205, 288.

  5. Allen Johnson et al., eds., Dictionary of American Biography (New York, 1929–37), 20:525.

  6. JA to John Thomas, March 7, 1776, PJA 4:43.

  7. Hancock to John Thomas, March 6, 1776, LDC 3:341.

  8. Hancock to the Massachusetts Assembly, January 29, 1776, LDC 3:162–63; Caesar Rodney to Thomas Rodney, February 4, 1776, ibid., 3:195; Morris to Charles Lee, February 17, 1776, ibid., 3:268; Resolutions Concerning the Canadian Campaign, March 8, 1776, PJA 4:5–6.

  9. Richard Smith, Diary, February 14, 1776, LDC 3:257; Instructions to the Commissioners to Canada, March 20, 1776, PJA 4:6–9.

  10. BF to Josiah Quincy Jr., April 15, 1776, PBF 22:400.

  11. Thomas to GW, April 7, 27, 1776, PGWR 4:49, 151–52; Thomas to Congress, April 8, 1776, Am Archives 4th series, 5:822; John Carroll to [?], May 1, 1776, ibid., 5:1167; Commissioners to Canada to Hancock, May 1, 1776, LDC 3:611–12.

  12. Council of War, April 30, 1776, Am Archives 4th series, 5:1166–67; Commissioners to Canada to Hancock, May 8, 1776, LDC 3:639.

  13. Journal of Thomas Ainslie, May 6, 1776, in Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris, eds., The Spirit of ’76: The Story of the American Revolution as Told by Participants (New York, 1958), 1:211; John Sullivan to Hancock, June 1, 1776, ibid., 1:212; Commissioners to Canada to Hancock, May 10, 17, 1776, LDC 3:645, 4:23; Francis L. Lee to Carter, May 21, 1776, ibid., 4:58; Commissioners to Canada to [William Heath], April 5, 1776, PBF 22:398; General Guy Carleton to Germain, DAR 12:137–38.

  14. Commissioners to Canada to Hancock, May 10, 17, 1776, LDC 3:645–46; 4:22; Commissioners to Canada to Schuyler, May 10, 1776, ibid., 3:646–47; Commissioners to Canada to Thomas, May 15, 1776, ibid., 3:680; Chase to Schuyler, ibid., 3:647n.; Commissioners to Canada to BF, May 11, 1776, ibid., 3:649, 650n.

  15. Commissioners to Canada to Hancock, May 10, 17, 27, 1776, LDC 3:646–47; 4:22–24, 80–82. The two missives were written by Chase and Charles Carroll, as Franklin and Father Carroll had departed.

  16. Commissioners to Canada to Hancock, May 27, 1776, LDC 4:81.

  17. Francis L. Lee to Carter, May 21, 1776, LDC 4:58.

  18. Chase to Schuyler, May 31, 1776, LDC 4:105.

  19. Charles P. Whittemore, A General of the Revolution: John Sullivan of New Hampshire (New York, 1961), 28; Sullivan to GW, June 7, 8, 1776, Otis G. Hammond, ed., Letters and Papers of Major-General John Sullivan, Continental Army (Concord, N.H., 1930–39), 1:226, 228; Paul H. Smith, “Sir Guy Carleton: Soldier-Statesman,” in George A. Billias, ed., George Washington’s Opponents: British Generals and Admirals in the American Revolution (New York, 1969), 120–23; Sullivan to Hancock, June 1, 1776, ibid., 1:212; Sullivan to Schuyler, June 19, 22, July 6, 1776, ibid., 1:250, 258, 280; [Lewis Beebe], “Journal of a Physician on the Expedition Against Canada, 1776,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 59 (1935): 336, 338.

  20. Lee to Charles Lee, May 27, 1776, LDC 4:86; Lee to Thomas L. Lee, May 28, 1776, ibid., 4:90; Lee to Carte
r, June 2, 1776, ibid., 4:118.

  21. Stone to James Hollyday, May 20, 1776, LDC 4:49; Whipple to Langdon, June 2, 1776, ibid., 4:120; Chase to Schuyler, May 31, 1776, ibid., 4:105–6; Hancock to Certain Colonies, June 4, 1776, ibid., 4:136.

  22. Hewes to Johnston, June 4, 1776, LDC 4:139; Francis L. Lee to Carter, May 21, 1776, ibid., 4:57.

  23. Gerry to Warren, May 20, 1776, LDC 4:43; Bartlett to Mary Bartlett, June 3, 1776, ibid., 4:124; Richard Henry Lee to Carter, June 2, 1776, ibid., 4:117; JA to Henry, June 3, 1776, PJA 4:235.

  24. Cynthia A. Kierner, Traders and Gentlefolk: The Livingstons of New York, 1675–1790 (Ithaca, N.Y., 1992); George Dangerfield, Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, 1746–1813 (New York, 1960), 3–76. The quotations are from Dangerfield, pages 55 and 66, and New York Delegates to the New York Provincial Congress, July 6, 1775, LDC 1:596. On Clermont, Livingston’s manor house, see Edward Countryman, A People in Revolution: The American Revolution and Political Society in New York, 1760–1790 (New York, 1989), 27.

  25. JA to AA, July 23, 1775, AFC 1:253. JA spoke of the “Timidity” of men of “overgrown Fortunes,” a reference to Dickinson and Thomas Willing. See ibid., 253–54n.

  26. Quoted in Dangerfield, Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, 87.

  27. Robert R. Livingston to John Stevens, April 23, 1775, LDC 1:331; Robert R. Livingston’s Notes for a Speech in Congress, [October 27, 1775], ibid., 2:263–71; Livingston to Thomas Lynch, [January ?, 1776], ibid., 3:179; JA, Notes of Debates, DAJA 2:186–87, 188–92, 219–20.

  28. JCC 3:317, 339–41, 446–52; LDC 2:369n, 462n; Livingston to Jay, November 27, December 6, 1775, ibid., 2:397, 451; Committee to the Northward to Hancock, November 23, 1775, ibid., 2:377–79; Committee to the Northward Minutes of Proceedings, November 30, 1775, ibid., 2:411–12; Committee to the Northward to Montgomery, November 30, 1776, ibid., 2:412–13; Robert Treat Paine, Diary, November 8, December 8, 1775, ibid., 2:318, 461.

  29. Dangerfield, Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, 60.

  30. Livingston to Catherine Livingston, May 28, 1776, LDC 4:92; Livingston to Jay, May 17, 1776, ibid., 4:29; Livingston to Duane, February 16, 1776, ibid., 3:265. Livingston’s “well-timed delays” comment can be found in Merrill Jensen, The Founding of a Nation: A History of the American Revolution, 1763–1776 (New York, 1968), 697.