Our Lives, Our Fortunes and Our Sacred Honor: The Forging of American Independence, 1774-1776

529 Pages·2013·3.4 MB·English

by  Richard Beeman

HISTORY b e e m a n
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the Declaration of Independence, severing America forever from its
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account of the making of what is arguably our most cited and least understood founding document:
mother country. Rush was not alone in his radical decision—many
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the Declaration of Independence. This is a valuable and important book.” —JON MEACHAM, of those casting their votes in favor of independence did so with a
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© e in July of 1776. As late as 1774, American independence was hardly
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is the John Welsh Centennial Professor of History at the University intricate, grinding, suspenseful story of how thirteen contentious colonies agreed to leave an empire
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of Pennsylvania. The author of six books on the American Revolution
and form a nation.” —RICHARD BROOKHISER, author of James Madison u a m e r i c a n i n d e p e n d e n c e , of strangers.” Yet over the next two years, military, political, and
and the Constitution, Beeman was a National Book Award fi nalist
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diplomatic events catalyzed a change of unprecedented magnitude:

for Patrick Henry and winner of the George Washington Book Prize “With a dazzling combination of effortless prose and impeccable research, Richard Beeman has S 1 7 7 4 - 1 7 7 6 the colonists’ rejection of their British identities in favor of American
for Plain, Honest Men. He lives in Media, Pennsylvania. a 6-1/4 x 9-1/2”
ones. In arresting detail, Beeman brings to life a cast of characters,
given us a fresh understanding of how thirteen very different—and often differing —colonies became S: 1-5/8
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Adams, and the relative political neophyte Thomas Jefferson. With

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$29.99 US / $34.50 CAN A vibrant narrative, Our Lives, Our Fortunes and Our Sacred
FINISH: gritty
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Jacket design by Andrea Cardenas ISBN 978-0-465-02629-6 r Honor tells the remarkable story of how the delegates to the matte
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Jacket images (paper texture) © Lichtmeister / Shutterstock; Continental Congress, through courage and compromise, came
The Declaration of Independence © Look and Learn / Bridgeman Art Library
A Member of the Perseus Books Group to dedicate themselves to the forging of American independence.
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ALSO BY RICHARD R. BEEMAN:
Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution
The Penguin Guide to the United States Constitution
The Varieties of Political Experience in Eighteenth-Century America
The Evolution of the Southern Backcountry
Patrick Henry: A Biography
The Old Dominion and the New Nation, 1788–1801
Editor, with Stephen Botein and Edward Carter II:
Beyond Confederation: The Origins of the
American Constitution and National Identity
Series Editor, The Penguin Civic Classics:
The Declaration of Independence and Constitution;
Common Sense; Selected Essays of the Federalist Papers;
Selected Speeches by Abraham Lincoln;
Great American Speeches from the Founding to the Present;
andMajor Supreme Court Decisions
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T H E F O R G I N G
A M E R I C A N I N D E P E N D E N C E ,
1774–1776
RICH AR D R . BEE MAN
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
New York
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Copyright © 2013 by Richard R. Beeman
Published by Basic Books,
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this
book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written
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and reviews. For information, address Basic Books, 250 West 57th Street,
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Beeman, Richard R.
Our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor : the forging of American
independence, 1774–1776 / Richard R. Beeman.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-465-02629-6 (hardcover) — ISBN 978-0-465-03782-7
(e-book) 1. United States—History—Revolution, 1775–1783. 2. United
States. Continental Congress—History. 3. United States—Politics and
government—To 1775. 4. United States—Politics and government—
1775–1783. 5. Revolutionaries—United States—Biography. 6. United
States—History—Revolution, 1775–1783—Biography. 7. Statesmen—
United States—Biography. I. Title.
E210.B43 2013
973.3—dc23 2013001875
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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For Mary
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CONTENTS
Cast of Characters ix
The Continental Congress: A Chronology xvii
Introduction 1
1. The Genesis of Revolution, 1763–1774 11
2. The Quest for a Unified American Resistance 31
3. The Delegates Gather in Philadelphia 41
4. Two Different Paths to Liberty:
John Adams and John Dickinson 63
5. The Congress Organizes 79
6. “Fight Against Them That Fight Against Me” 105
7. Galloway’s Last Stand 123
8. Getting Acquainted in the City of Brotherly Love 135
9. Power to the People 149
10. The First Congress Completes Its Business 163
11. Escalation 175
12. A New Congress, Changed Circumstances 197
13. John Hancock Enters the Drama 209
14. Congress Assumes Command of a War 221
15. Desperate Efforts at Reconciliation Amidst an
Escalating War 239
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Contents
16. Managing a War While Seeking Peace 259
17. Waiting for King George III 271
18. Small Steps Toward Independence 281
19. The Year 1776 Dawns 297
20. “The Scales Have Fallen from Our Eyes” 305
21. “The Child Independence Is Now Struggling for Birth” 327
22. Fourteen Paths to Independence 343
23. “The Greatest Debate of All” 369
24. Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence 383
25. America’s Declaration of Independence 407
Acknowledgments 419
Appendix A: “Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence” 421
Appendix B: America’s Declaration of Independence:
The Final Version 429
Abbreviations of Frequently Cited Works 435
Notes 437
Index 479
viii
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CAST OF CHARACTERS
The Main Players
John Adams: Fiercely intelligent and fiercely opinionated, he took
great pride in his reputation as the “Atlas of Independence.” While
many of his fellow delegates no doubt admired his commitment to
high principle, on many occasions they must have rolled their eyes at
his flights into high dudgeon. Adams was an active participant in the
Congress from the moment it first convened and stayed around long
enough to serve on the drafting committee of the Declaration of
Independence. His ideas and emotions were always on display, and,
because he was a compulsive correspondent and diarist, he has left us
with the most vivid accounts of the events of the forging of Ameri-
can Independence.
Samuel Adams: The Massachusetts Tory Peter Oliver believed that
if an artist “wished to draw the Picture of the Devil . . . he would get
Sam Adams to sit for him.” British officials in the Bay Colony and
in London believed that John Adams’s older second cousin was ca-
pable of turning “the minds of the vulgar . . . into any course that he
might chuse.” When Sam Adams appeared at the First Continental
Congress in September 1774, he surprised the delegates by his
somber, logical exegesis on the imperial crisis. The interplay between
Sam and John Adams at the Continental Congress had some fasci-
nating twists and turns, with Sam, not John, more often recognizing
ix