The Boisterous Sea of Liberty
Part 5. The Age of Revolution, 1765-1825
The Boisterous Sea of Liberty
A Documentary History of America from Discovery through the Civil War
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George III, Proclamation of 1763, October 7, 1763
The Stamp Act Crisis 146 2. "There is a violent spirit of opposition raised on the continent" 146
Archibald Hinschelwood, August 19, 1765
3. "There is not gold and silver enough in the colonies to pay the stamp duty for one year" 148
Benjamin Franklin, "The Examination of Doctor Benjamin Franklin," 1766
The Townshend Acts 151 4. "Taxes...are imposed upon the People, without their consent" 151
John Hancock and four other Boston selectmen, September 14, 1768
5. "The governors of too many of ye colonies are not only unprincipled, but...rapacious" 152
James Otis, July 27, 1769
6. "The army...is now publicly declared to be for the purpose of enforcing obedience to the authority of Parliament" 153
Charles Thomson, November 26, 1769
The Boston Massacre 154 7. "A most horrid murder was committed...by 8 or 9 Soldiers" 154
Deacon John Tudor, 1770
8. "What are all the Riches...of Life compared with...Liberty" 156
Brutus, May 16, 1770
9. "I trust we have Virtue & Resolution" 157
John Dickinson, October 31, 1770
10. "My Enemies were forced to content themselves with abusing me... in the Newspapers" 158
Benjamin Franklin, December 30, 1770
The Regulators 159 11. "Lawyers, bad everywhere, but in Carolina worse than bad" 159
Richard Henry Lee, June 19, 1771
Samuel Adams 159 12. "The Wretch who betrays his Country" 159
Samuel Adams, July 16, 1772
13. "A System of Tyranny gaining ground upon us every day" 160
John Adams, April 19, 1773
The Boston Tea Party 161 14. "Nothing but equal Liberty...can secure the attachment of the Colonies to Britain" 161
John Adams, December 11, 1773
15. "There arrived from England 450 chests of tea" 162
John Easson, December 18, 1773
16. "We consider each Colony on this Continent as parts of the same Body" 162
George Read, Thomas McKean, and Jonathan McKinley, May 26, 1774
17. "They found upwards of fifty thousand men well armed, actually on their march to Boston" 165
Caesar Rodney, September 17, 1774
18. "Ruinous system of colony administration...calculated for enslaving these Colonies" 165
The Association, agreed upon by the Grand American Continental Congress, October 20, 1774
19. "We...lay our grievances before the throne" 168
Petition from the General Congress in America to the king, October 26, 1774
20. "When a Nation...turns advocate for Slavery and Oppression, there is reason to suspect she has...ceased to be virtuous" 169
Letter from the General Congress at Philadelphia, September 5, 1774
American Resistance to Britain 171 21. "It will produce Resistance, and Reprisal, and a Flame through all America" 171
John Adams, December 28, 1774
22. "Kings are servants, not the proprietors of the people" 171
Thomas Jefferson, "A Summary View of the Rights of British America," 1774
23. "We consider ourselves as laying the foundation of a glorious future Empire" 172
Ezra Stiles, April 15, 1775
The Battles of Lexington and Concord 173 24. "Troops...marched to Lexington & there Killed a number of our American Soldiers" 173
Isaac Merrill, April 19, 1775
25. "The name of God has been introduced in the pulpits to excite and justify devestation and massacre" 175
Thomas Gage, Proclamation of amnesty, June 12, 1775
26. "All Europe is interested in the fate of America" 176
Mercy Otis Warren, August 24, 1775
27. "I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense" 178
Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776
28. "The Course of Events naturally turns the thoughts of Gentlemen to the Subjects of Legislation" 179
John Adams, November 15, 1775
29. "It is not choice...but necessity that calls for Independence" 181
Richard H. Lee, June 2, 1776
30. "Our affairs are hastening fast to a Crisis" 182
John Hancock, June 4, 1776
Declaring Independence 183 31. "The Christian King of Great Britain [is] determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold" 183
Thomas Jefferson, draft of the Declaration of Independence, 1776
Slavery and the American Revolution 186 32. "In the year of our Lord 1775...I entered into the service of the U.S. as a private soldier" 187
Peter Kiteridge, April 6, 1806
33. "The Iniquitous Practice of depriving any of their just right to Liberty" 188
Society of Friends, extracts from the minutes of the yearly meeting, September 23-28, 1776
34. "To prohibit a great people...from making all that they can of every part of their own produce...is a manifest violation of the most sacred rights of mankind" 189
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, 1776
35. "Our cause is the cause of God, of human nature & Posterity" 191
John Jay, December 23, 1776
36. "It seems their design is, this spring, to spread smallpox thro the country" 193
Josiah Bartlett, April 21, 1777
37. "I hope you will not consider yourself as commander in chief of your own house" 194
Lucy Knox, August 23, 1777
38. "It would be next to impossible for Britain to succeed" 196
George Washington, December 14-15, 1777
39. "We had...not less than 2898 men unfit for duty, by reason of their being barefoot and otherwise naked" 198
George Washington, December 29, 1777
40. "The benevolent overtures of Great-Britain towards a re-union and coalition with her colonies" 199
Sir Henry Clinton, "Manifesto and Proclamation to the Members of the General Assemblies," October 3, 1778
Benedict Arnold's Treason 201 41. "The story...is indeed shocking to humanity" 201
Edmund Pendleton, October 17, 1780
The War in the South 202 42. "The loud roaring of our approaching Enemy" 202
Henry Laurens, February 14, 1780
43. "A considerable Fleet of the Enemy has arrived within our Capes" 202
Thomas Jefferson, October 22, 1780
44. "Measures for suppressing the remains of Rebellion" 203
Charles Cornwallis, "A Proclamation," February 20, 1781
45. "Our affairs have been for some time growing from bad to worse" 204
George Mason, June 3, 1781
46. "We are told that the enemy['s]...superior fleet will soon drive off the French" 206
Edmund Pendleton, September 10, 1781
47. "The designs of the enemy in strengthening Canada, & bending the residue of their force against the West Indies" 207
Edmund Pendleton, October 21, 1782
The Articles of Confederation 208 48. "'Twas high time the confederation was completed" 208
Edmund Pendleton, September 25, 1780
