US History/US History (Bureau Development Inc.)(1991).ISO/dp/0025/00250.txt

Text File | 1990-12-23 | 37KB | 811 lines

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$Pretitle{19}
$Title{United States History 1600-1987
Chapter II   Revolutionary War and the Constitution}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Immigration and Naturalization Service}
$Affiliation{US Department of Justice}
$Subject{states
government
constitution
war
colonists
rights
england
english
americans
colonies}
$Volume{M-288}
$Date{1987}
$Log{Differences*0025001.tab
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Book:        United States History 1600-1987
Author:      Immigration and Naturalization Service
Affiliation: US Department of Justice
Volume:      M-288
Date:        1987

Chapter II   Revolutionary War and the Constitution

French and Indian War

     One of the reasons that the King of England allowed the colonies so much
freedom and self-government was that England and France were at war much of
the time between 1689 and 1763.  Generally these wars were fought in Europe,
even though they were concerning colonial issues.  In 1754, the war broke out
between the British and French in North America.

     The problems in North America grew out of the different ways the British
and French settled the land.  The French controlled the area which is now
Canada.  Most of the people in Canada were trappers and fur traders.  The
British controlled the area which is now the United States and usually built
farms or towns.  Unfortunately, both the British and the French claimed one
piece of unsettled land.  When French troops tried to move into this land,
they met Virginia militiamen.  They fought and at first the French, with help
from their Indian allies, won most of the battles.  This was the beginning of
the French and Indian War, lasting from 1754 to 1763.

     George Washington, who later would be the first President of the United
States, completed several daring missions for the English.  The English sent
in extra troops and reorganized.  The colonists helped as the English began to
win more and more of the battles in America.  The English also were winning
battles in Europe.  In 1763, the French and Indian War ended with the Treaty
of Paris.  France lost all of her colonies, and England had power over most of
the colonies in North America.

Results of the French and Indian War

     The problems in the American colonies did not end when the war ended.  In
fact, they were just beginning.  The colonists had become used to the freedom
they had had especially in trading with other countries and in
self-government.  They had begun to think of themselves more as Americans than
as Englishmen.  The colonists had gained self-confidence and experience in
fighting wars.  They saw the need for the colonies to be united to be able to
solve common problems.  They also were feeling less dependent on England for
help because of the decreased danger of attack from the French.  However, now
that the problems with France were solved, England was ready to re-establish
its control over the colonies.

     At this time, one of the reasons countries such as England (called the
Mother Country) wanted to have colonies was so that they could buy goods from
the colonies at low prices.  They then could sell their own manufactured goods
back to the colonies at high prices.  They did this by:

     * allowing the colony to trade only with the Mother Country, or

     * forcing the colony to pay high taxes on trade with other countries.

     After the French and Indian War, England wanted to follow this policy
very strictly.  The war had been very expensive and England wanted the
colonies to help pay the costs.

     The British government decided on a new policy for the American colonies.
This policy involved:

     * enforcing laws strictly,

     * new taxes,

     * new policies for settling land, and

     * quartering of soldiers.

     The Navigation Acts were passed which allowed colonists to ship their
goods only on English ships and to sell some of their produce only to England.
This hurt the colonists because the other countries in Europe would have paid
a higher price for the same produce.  Many colonists responded by smuggling
goods in and out of the country.  In fact, this action was so prevalent that
the English responded by proclaiming the Writs of Assistance, which were
search warrants allowing English officials to search any home, building or
ship for smuggled goods at any time.

     England also put new taxes on the colonists, such as the Stamp Act.  The
Stamp Act forced the colonists to buy stamps from the government to put on
their printed materials such as wills and newspapers.  A proclamation on land
policy (the Proclamation Line of 1763) did not allow colonists to settle west
of the Appalachian mountains.  England also forced the colonists to feed and
house English soldiers, called quartering.  All of these actions greatly
angered the colonists.  They believed that their rights had been violated
because some of these actions were illegal under British law.  Probably what
made the colonists most angry was taxation without representation.  England
was making the colonists pay a tax but the colonies were not allowed to send
representatives to the English legislature to vote on the tax.

Colonists' Actions Against England

     To show they were against the British laws and policies, the colonists
did not follow or obey the laws.  Many laws the colonists simply ignored.
They knew it would be almost impossible for the British government to prevent
them from settling west of the Appalachians or from smuggling goods in and out
of the colonies.  They also boycotted English goods as much as they could,
finding substitutes for the goods.  They demonstrated in public and wrote
letters and editorials in the newspapers complaining about the unfair taxes
and laws.  Several patriotic societies were formed.  Men opposed to the Stamp
Act formed the Sons of Liberty to organize protests against that tax.  By
1772, so many colonists were protesting English policies that Committees of
Correspondence were formed to keep all the different groups informed of new
developments.  The colonies cooperated with each other and united against
England.  England passed the Tea Act of 1773 which placed a tax on imported
tea.  The colonists were so angry that some of them dressed up as Indians and
secretly boarded a ship in the Boston harbor which was carrying tea.  The
colonists dumped all the tea into the ocean.  The act is famous as the Boston
Tea Party.

     The Boston Tea Party made people in England very angry with the
colonists.  The English legislature passed the Repressive Acts (1774).  These
laws were intended to punish the colonists in Massachusetts and assert British
authority.  The acts were so strict that the other colonies supported
Massachusetts.  The colonists called them the Intolerable Acts.

First Continental Congress, 1774

     To show their unified position, the colonists held the first meeting of
the Continental Congress, from September 5 to October 26, 1774, in
Philadelphia.  Twelve of the 13 colonies sent representatives, including such
famous men as George Washington and Patrick Henry.  The Congress wrote a
Declaration of Rights, which asked the King to look at and correct the
problems about which they were complaining, including repealing the
Intolerable Acts.  The Congress also voted on a boycott of British goods.
Patrick Henry's stirring words to close the Congress, "Give me liberty or give
me death," told the English that this group of colonists calling themselves
Americans was willing to fight for the principles in which they believed.  The
colonists began training the militia and storing supplies.

The Revolutionary War, 1775-1783

     Unfortunately, the English did not listen.  The English legislature and
the King rejected the Declaration of Rights.  They also sent troops to
Lexington, Massachusetts, to find the colonists who were leading the rebellion
and to seize military supplies at Concord.  At Lexington the colonial Minute
Men did not leave quickly enough when the English troops arrived.  Eight
Americans died and some were wounded.  The English pushed on to Concord, where
the colonists "fired the shot heard round the world," and started the American
Revolutionary War.

     During the first year of the war, the colonists were not sure if they
were fighting for their rights as English citizens or for independence.  Some
factors helped the Americans decide to fight for independence.  The English
hired German soldiers, called Hessians, to help them fight the war which made
the Americans very angry.  Some Americans were influenced by Thomas Paine's
famous pamphlet, "Common Sense."  His appeal to Americans that they had a
"moral obligation to the world . . . to set herself up as an independent
democratic republic," persuaded many people to be active, loyal supporters of
the Revolution.  The Americans had self-confidence because they had fought
well against the British.  The Americans also were lucky to have George
Washington as their Commander in Chief.  He had military experience and was
greatly admired by his men.  He was a great inspiration during the hard times
of the war.  And though his men were not as well trained as the English
soldiers, they usually could shoot more accurately.

     Also, the Americans could not get help from France until they declared
their independence from England because England might declare war on France.

Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

     Some colonists were loyal to England throughout the war.  Others wanted
the problems to be resolved.  The Second Continental Congress, acting as the
central government, had been meeting since May 1775, handling issues necessary
to fighting the war, such as establishing the Continental Army, appointing
George Washington as leader of the army, and calling for support, both troops
and funds, from colonists.  Though the Second Continental Congress at first
had made clear that they were still loyal to England, they finally decided
that England was not going to treat the colonies better than it had been; in
fact England was going to punish them harshly.  After much debate,
representatives of the Second Continental Congress decided to declare their
independence from England.  The Congress asked Thomas Jefferson, a lawyer and
farmer from Virginia, to write the Declaration of Independence.  What he wrote
inspired the Americans fighting for freedom as it has inspired people fighting
to be free ever since.  Some of the most important ideas in the Declaration of
Independence form the basis of the American government.  Perhaps the most
important is the belief that all men are created equal.  This belief is
crucial to a working democracy.  And while all Americans have not always
enjoyed equal rights, this stated belief has given inspiration to those
working to extend rights to everyone.

     Jefferson based his claim to independence on two basic principles:

     (1) that all people have "certain unalienable rights," including "life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

     Unalienable means that each person is born with specific rights that
cannot be taken away.  Everyone who lives in this country, whether or not he
or she is a citizen, has these rights.

     (2) that a government exists only by consent of the governed.

     This means that the government must carry out the wishes of the people as
expressed by how the people vote.  Jefferson and the other members of the
Congress believed that England was not listening to the wishes of its people.
Therefore, they believed that they had the right to destroy the old government
and form a new one.  To show that England had ignored the Americans and
violated their rights, Jefferson also wrote a list of the complaints or
grievances the colonists had against the King.  Jefferson ended the
Declaration with the statement that the colonies are, and should be, free and
independent states.

     The Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776.  Americans
celebrate this day as the birth of their country.  It is a national holiday,
often celebrated with parades, speeches and fireworks as family and friends
gather to remember their nation's birth.

     The Declaration of Independence was a magnificent document and encouraged
the colonists and their friends in other countries to fight for their freedom.
But the war still had to be won or the piece of paper that was the Declaration
of Independence would have little meaning.

Fighting the War

     From the beginning, the revolutionary army fought well.  The colonists
did not have as much training, ammunition, clothes, or food as the British.
The men were often in rags and without shoes.  But, the colonists were
fighting for principles in which they believed and they were fighting on their
own land.  They also fought differently than the English soldiers expected.
The English generals had a hard time adjusting and lost or nearly lost several
battles in spite of having more troops and ammunition than the Americans.
George Washington led his army in one of the most exciting battles at Bunker
Hill, just outside Boston.  The Americans were outnumbered two to one, but
lost only because they ran out of ammunition.

     The American forces barely managed to hold their own for the next few
years.  They won some battles by surprising the English.  The lack of
supplies, training and numbers hurt them.

     Only inspired military leadership and courage from such generals as Ethan
Allen, George Rogers Clark and George Washington kept the Americans in the
war.  In a series of battles, the Americans had many victories and took
control of new territories.  The final decisive victory for the American
forces came on October 19, 1781, at Yorktown, Virginia.  English General
Cornwallis had to surrender his entire force.  Though the war did not end
formally for another two years, from then on the Americans were the
controlling force.

     The experiences of Americans during the Revolutionary War varied as much
as the opinions regarding whether America should be rebelling.  Some people
were barely affected by the war - they were unaware that it was being fought.
But even these people, usually farmers in frontier areas, became aware of the
war by its conclusion.  For others, the war was a part of daily life.
Certainly that was true for the soldiers, who often endured terrible
conditions and went without pay to fight for independence.  It was also true
for the families of soldiers.

     Crops still had to be planted, businesses operated and food put on the
table.  Some men, worried about their families, left the army to help with
planting or other tasks.  Other families did the best they could.  People who
remained loyal to the King of England (usually called Tories or Loyalists)
often were involved in the war.  Some fought with the British, while some
suffered the hardships of being imprisoned, forced out of their homes and even
beaten.  Other Loyalists, however, made much money selling supplies and food
to the British.

Treaty of Paris, 1783

     Three negotiators went to Paris from America to write the peace treaty to
end the Revolutionary War:  Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and John Adams.  The
Treaty of Paris, signed in 1783, was very generous to the newly independent 13
colonies.  The English recognized America's boundaries as:  the Atlantic Ocean
to the east, the Mississippi River to the west, the Great Lakes to the north,
and, Florida, then controlled by Spain, to the south.  Perhaps most
importantly, America had won world recognition of its independence.  The
following map shows the U.S. after the treaty was signed.

After the Revolutionary War

     The problems of day-to-day government overshadowed the celebrations of
the end of the Revolutionary War.  Groups which had forgotten their
disagreements and were united in the common goal of defeating the English now
were ready to reassert their interests.  Not only were interests different,
but many people felt more loyalty to the individual states in which they lived
than to the United States.  Most people also were afraid of a centralized
government because they thought it could become too strong.  They wanted the
states to have most of the power so that the people could control the
government directly.

Articles of Confederation

     The Congress gave the people the kind of government they wanted with the
Articles of Confederation.  This document was intended to provide the basis
for the government, as the U.S. Constitution does today.  There were strengths
and weaknesses in the Articles.

Weaknesses

     The newly formed United States of America faced many serious problems.
The main problem was that although the Articles of Confederation was what the
people wanted, it did not give enough authority to the federal government.

Other problems were:

     * it was in debt;

     * many of the states were printing their own money, which undermined the
value of the money printed by the federal government;

     * it was difficult for the Congress to pass laws because at least 9 of 13
states needed to meet together and to agree on issues;

     * it was even more difficult to amend or change the Articles because all
13 states had to agree on changes (Amendments were necessary to help the
government respond to changing conditions.);

     * the Articles did not give the government power to establish courts to
settle disputes nor to control trade between states or with foreign countries;

     * the Congress had the responsibility of defending and protecting the
country, but it did not have power to recruit troops or to tax citizens to pay
for defense of the country;

     * there was no executive, such as the current President; and,

     * each state had too much autonomy.

Strengths

     The government under the Articles of Confederation had some strong
points:

     * the country was united during difficult times;

     * a favorable treaty to end the Revolutionary War was negotiated; and,

     * western territory was opened to peaceful settlement.

     This weak federal government was what the people believed they wanted,
but it did not work well.  The big issue became whether the United States of
America should be:

     * 13 independent, sovereign states, each acting as an independent
country; or,

     * 13 mutually dependent states, acting as one united country.

Constitutional Convention, 1787

     Solving the problems was a high priority of the Constitutional Convention
called in 1787 "for the sole and express purpose of revising" the Articles of
Confederation.  The result was the United States Constitution.

     The men who met at the Constitutional Convention had a difficult job
ahead of them.  Thomas Jefferson called them an "assembly of demi-gods."  Such
talent and vision would prove necessary to completing the task.  Only 12 of
the 13 states had sent representatives, totaling 55 altogether.  Rhode Island
refused to send delegates because of its strong independent streak and desire
to continue printing its own paper money.  The men met in the Philadelphia
state house building, behind locked doors.  They wanted the meetings kept
secret so that they could debate all options.  The delegates agreed on perhaps
only two issues:

     * The federal government needed to be made stronger and more centralized
than it was; and,

     * A new strong federal government must not take away any of the
liberties, or freedoms, of the people.

     The Convention accomplished almost nothing at first.  The decision to
write a new Constitution rather than revise the Articles of Confederation left
the delegates with the problem of designing the basis for the new government.
The large, populous states, such as Virginia, wanted representation based on
the number of people in the state.  Their plan was called the Virginia Plan.
Their argument made sense, since those states would pay more taxes and send
more men to war than the small states.  The large states deserved to have the
power to protect their interests.  Of course, this plan was not acceptable to
small, less populated states.  They wanted each state to have an equal number
of representatives, as in the Articles of Confederation.  This plan was called
the New Jersey Plan.  Their argument also made sense, because they believed
the large states would try to use their strength to pass laws ignoring or even
opposing the small states' interests.  The Convention was deadlocked.  No
action was possible until the method of choosing the government was
determined.

Compromises Create the Constitution

     A solution finally was reached called the Great Compromise, or
Connecticut Compromise.  A bicameral legislature satisfied everyone.  This
means there were two lawmaking branches:

     * the House of Representatives, elected on the basis of the number of
people in each state; and,

     * the Senate, with two Senators from each state (no matter what the size
or population of the state).

     There were still many other problems to solve, but the spirit of
compromise had been set by the Great Compromise.  The other problems were
serious, but the biggest obstacle had been removed.

The other problems related to:

     * slavery;

     * tariffs;

     * electing the President of the United States; and,

     * guaranteeing civil rights in the Constitution.

     It was difficult to compromise on these issues because people felt so
strongly about them.  They did not want to give up something they believed
could threaten their way of life.

Slavery

     One of the most difficult issues was slavery.  Slavery had existed in the
colonies since 1619 when the first blacks were brought to Virginia from
Africa.  The southern states approved of slavery and believed they needed it
to provide inexpensive labor on their farms.  Most southerners did not think
of slavery as moral, but they believed that they needed it to keep their way
of life.  Most northern states either did not have slavery or would soon make
it against the law.  They did not think of slavery as moral either, but most
northerners did not care too much if the South kept slavery.  There was little
discussion of outlawing slavery.

     The problem came because the southern states wanted to count the slaves
as part of the population to determine how many Representatives the soouthern
states would have in the House of Representatives.  But they did not want to
count slaves for tax purposes.  The northern states wanted the opposite.  In
the end, the delegates settled on the Three-Fifths Compromise.

     Five slaves would be counted as three free people for both representation
and taxation.

Tariffs

     The tariff issue also split the North and South.  The agricultural South
did not want the federal government to have the power to impose tariffs on
their exports of rice, indigo and tobacco.  The North was more industrial than
agricultural.  It wanted the federal government to be able to do whatever was
necessary to regulate or control commerce to protect developing northern
industry.  Congress was given power to regulate all foreign commerce, and to
place tariffs on imports, but not exports.  The solution calmed southern fears
that tariffs on exports would make their products too expensive to compete on
the world market while also meeting the northern desire to protect American
industry from low-priced imports.

Presidency

     There was disagreement on how to elect a President and the term of
office.  The Articles of Confederation had not had an executive leader because
the colonists did not want one person to have too much power.  They were
afraid that someone would become President and not step down, but stay in
power and become similar to the Kings of England.  Therefore, the delegates to
the Constitutional Convention wanted to have a President who could lead the
country but who would be limited in power by the Constitution.  One limitation
in the Constitution is that the President must run for reelection every four
years.

     No one could be President for more than four years unless the people
voted for him/her again.  Another limitation was that the President would be
elected through the Electoral College.  The people in each state would vote
for their choice for President.  The person who won the majority of the votes
in that state then would get the votes from all the electors in the Electoral
College that the state had.  The number of electors each state had was to be
based on its population.  This process helps guarantee that one person will
get a majority of the electors so that a clear winner can be found.

Guarantee of Civil Rights

     Many delegates felt that the Constitution should guarantee the rights of
the people.  They also saw the necessity of giving the federal government more
power than it had had under the Articles of Confederation.  But they were
worried.  Their experiences with England made them afraid that if the
government was too strong, it might take away the rights they had fought to
win in the Revolutionary War.  Some of the states guaranteed such rights as
freedom of speech and religion in their own constitutions.  People in these
states wanted the U.S. Constitution also to guarantee these rights.  The
delegates agreed that those rights were important, but that it was not
necessary to put them in the body of the Constitution.  They compromised, and
said that a Bill of Rights would be added to the Constitution immediately, as
the first amendments.

Signing of the U.S. Constitution, 1787

     The Constitution finally was completed after a long hot summer of hard
work and heated debate.  The delegates to the Constitutional Convention now
had to convince the states to accept it.  That task proved to be as difficult
as writing it had been.  The delegates knew that some of the state
governments, such as Rhode Island, would not approve it.  They concluded that
the best test would be to have the people decide.  The states were asked to
call special conventions to ratify the Constitution.  When two-thirds of the
states had ratified the Constitution, it would be declared the law of the
land.  The voters in each state elected their representatives to the
convention.  They voted either for:

     * Federalists, who would support and ratify the Constitution, or

     * anti-Federalists, who did not like and would try to change or get rid
of the Constitution.

     Some states, especially small ones, ratified the Constitution quickly.
In many states, however, there was heated debate.  The debate in New York was
the most famous.  In the beginning, the anti-Federalist majority was strong.
Three important men wrote persuasive and eloquent articles for ratifying the
Constitution:

     * Alexander Hamilton, often called the Father of the Constitution;

     * John Jay, who negotiated the treaty to end the American Revolution;
and,

     * James Madison, later a President of the United States.

     These famous papers, in a collected work entitled The Federalist Papers,
are studied and discussed almost as much today as they were then, as some of
the best writing about the Constitution.

     By June 21, 1788, enough states had ratified the Constitution for it to
be in effect.  All 13 states eventually ratified it soon after George
Washington took office as the first President of the United States of America
on April 30, 1789.

     The main differences between the Articles of Confederation and the
Constitution are shown on the following chart.

[See Differences: Contrast Between Constitution and Articles of Confederation]

The Constitution:  The Basis of U.S. Government

     The structure of the Constitution has not been changed since it was first
written.  Amendments have been added to meet changing situations, but the
basic document has proven flexible enough to survive the many changes since
1787.  The main idea or philosophy of the Constitution is federalism.  Under
federalism, the powers of the government are divided between the central
(federal or national) government and the state governments.  There are three
types of powers:

     * Delegated or enumerated powers:

     --Powers which belong to the federal government.

     --Include foreign policy and defense of the country.

     * Residual powers:

     --Powers which belong to the state governments.

     --Include education and traffic laws.

     * Concurrent powers:
     --Powers shared by the federal and state governments.

     --Include levying taxes, borrowing money and building roads.

     This division of power has worked well but also has been thought of in
different ways by different groups of people.  There are different ways to
interpret the division of powers:

     * strict interpretation means the federal government should do only what
is specifically stated in the Constitution; and,

     * loose interpretation means the federal government can expand its power
whenever needed, except in areas specifically given to the states.

     This controversy has been of major importance throughout American
history.  There has been a tendency towards loose interpretation and a strong
federal government.

Bill of Rights

     The Bill of Rights that the delegates had promised to add to the
Constitution was begun immediately, and finished by 1791.  These 10 amendments
are crucial in establishing the civil rights and liberties of all Americans.
The amendments are described below.

1st Amendment

     Guarantees the rights of freedom of speech, press, religion, peaceable
assembly, and requesting change of the government.  It also states that church
(any religion) and state (any part of the government) should be separate.
These are some of the most important rights Americans have, and they are
carefully enforced.

2nd Amendment

     Gives Americans the right to have weapons or the right to own a gun.
(However, there are regulations about buying and keeping guns.)

3rd Amendment

     The government may not require the people to quarter, or house, soldiers
in their home during peacetime without asking the people.  (The English
government did require Americans to quarter soldiers, which made the Americans
very angry.)

4th Amendment

     This amendment, similar to the 3rd, limits the power of the government.
It says that the government may not conduct "unreasonable search and seizure"
of persons or property.  This means that the government needs to have a reason
to search the person or his/her house.  The reason must be written down on a
warrant, which describes the person and place to be searched.

5th Amendment

     The 5th amendment often is used in court.  It ensures that everyone has
the right to a fair trial.  It says a person may not be tried for a crime more
than one time.  Also, a person cannot be forced to testify against him/
herself.

6th Amendment

     This amendment says that if a person is charged with a crime he or she
still has important rights, such as the right to a quick and public trial with
a jury of his or her peers.  If he or she cannot afford a lawyer, the state
must provide one.

7th Amendment

     Allows trial by jury in most cases.

8th Amendment

     The government must not have excessive fines (punish someone for a crime
by making them pay a lot of money) or cruel and unusual punishment
(punishments which can hurt the prisoner).

9th Amendment

     The people have rights other than those mentioned in the Constitution.

10th Amendment

     Any power not given to the federal government by the Constitution is a
power of either the state or the people.

Amending the Constitution

     The writers of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights knew that changes
might need to be made as the country grew and changed.  But they did not want
to make it too easy to change or the Constitution might be changed too often
and come to mean very little.  Therefore, it was decided that amendments to
the Constitution could be proposed in only two ways:

     * by a two-thirds vote in both Houses of Congress; or,

     * by a special convention called by Congress after two-thirds of the
states ask for it.

     The second way has never been used.

     The amendment then must be ratified, or accepted.  This can be done in
two ways:

     * by the legislatures of three-fourths of the states; or,

     * special conventions called by three-fourths of the states.

     The second way of approval has been used only once, in approving the 21st
amendment.

Thomas Jefferson

Who He Was

     Virginia farmer and lawyer.

     Had sympathy for and belief in the common man.

     Devoted himself early in his life to the cause of freedom.

     Participated with enthusiasm and skill at many levels in the United
States government.

     Believed strongly in states' rights as a way of preserving freedom.

What He Did

     Wrote the Declaration of Independence.

     --Understood the universal appeal of natural rights presented in the
Declaration.

     --Wrote that with the Document, "We mutually pledge to each other our
lives."

     Ambassador to France while Constitution was written;

     --First Secretary of State.

     --Under George Washington.

     --Helped lay foundations of U.S. foreign policy.

     Vice President under John Adams.

     --Helped found and lead Democratic-Republican Party.

     Elected third President of the United States.

     --Concluded Louisiana Purchase.

     --Kept U.S. out of war with England during trying times.

     --Championed rights of the middle-class and small farm owners.

Benjamin Franklin

Who He Was

     Worked as printer and publisher, but tried many other professions.

     Strongly believed in education and opportunity for all.

     Known for diplomatic skills in helping colonies settle differences among
themselves or with other countries.

What He Did

     Promoted colonial unity during French and Indian War.

     Delegate to Continental Congress.

     Famous remark at signing of Declaration of Independence, "We must all
hang together, or most assuredly we will all hang separately."

     Published many widely read publications, including:

     --Pennsylvania Gazette;

     --Poor Richard's Almanac, the second most widely read book in the
colonies, other than the Bible.

     Opened first privately supported lending library in the United States.

     Helped found the University of Pennsylvania, the first American
university not controlled by a religious organization.

     One of three negotiators of the Treaty of Paris (1783) which ended the
Revolutionary War.

     Delegate to the Constitutional Convention, and signer of the
Constitution.

Revolutionary War - Review Questions

     1. Name one way the colonists benefited from the French and Indian War
while it was being fought.

     2. Name two new policies the British government set for the colonies
after the French and Indian War.

     3. Name two ways the colonists protested British policies before the
Revolutionary War.

     4. What was the purpose of the Declaration of Independence?

     5. Who was the main author of the Declaration of Independence?

     6. Name one major principle of the Declaration of Independence.

     7. What do Americans celebrate on the Fourth of July?

     8. What was the purpose of the Treaty of Paris, signed in 1783?

     9. What document provided the basis for the U.S. government after the
Revolutionary War?

     10. Name one weakness or problem in the Articles of Confederation.

     11. Name one strength or good point in the Articles of Confederation.

     12. How were the problems in the Articles of Confederation solved?

     13. Name one issue on which the delegates to the Constitutional
Convention had to compromise.

     14. How did the delegates to the Constitutional Convention decide to
guarantee civil rights?

     15. In what year was the Constitution written?

     16. After the delegates to the Constitutional Convention agreed on the
Constitution, what had to happen before it could take effect?

     17. What issue was debated by the Federalists and anti-Federalists?

     18. List two differences between the Articles of Confederation and the
Constitution.

     19. Why are amendments added to the Constitution?

     20. Name three rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.