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UNITED STATES ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; and.  The Revolutionary Epoch. The English government, to repay the expenses of the war with France, taxed the American colonies heavily. Since 1651 it had hampered their commerce and manufactures, and Parliament's legislation was one of the direct causes of the American Revolution, but acts in restraint of trade were not vigorously and universally enforced until 1761. The colonists acknowledged that it was only fair that they should pay their share of the cost of their protection by England, but denied that Parliament, in which they were not represented, had the right to tax them. In 1761 Otis of Massachusetts declared that “an act of Parliament against the constitution is void,” and the colonists resisted Parliament's writs of assistance.

In 1765 Parliament passed a stamp-act that taxed the colonists without their consent, devoted the American revenue to the support of a standing army, and intended this army to maintain taxation. The Virginian assembly, the people's house of the legislature, declared that each colony had the right to make its laws and to lay and spend the taxes; the Massachusetts assembly proposed an American congress of representatives from every colony, appointing a committee to secure united action. The congress met, and appealed to the king and Parliament. The (q. v.) was repealed, but American imports were taxed (1767) and the British authorities goaded the colonists further and further. In 1773 the colonial legislatures appointed “committees of correspondence” to keep up union of action with one another. A national spirit had been born. When the people of Boston threw a cargo of tea into the water, “the whole continent applauded.” In 1774 Boston was closed to commerce and the charter of Massachusetts changed. These acts of the British government made war only a question of time. They crystallized every element of union in the colonies. The Virginians suggested, and the men of Massachusetts called, another congress which met at Philadelphia in September of 1774. This was the first continental congress (q. v.), the first really national body in American history. It addressed the English people and the king, and issued a Declaration of Rights of the colonists. It approved Massachusetts' opposition to Parliament and resolved that, if execution of the acts “by force” should be attempted, “all America ought to support their opposition.” Congress summoned a new Congress which convened at Philadelphia in May of 1775. The British government now ordered General Gage to reduce the colonies to submission, and he at once took possession of Boston Neck and fortified it.

On April 19, 1775, at Concord and Lexington, Mass., war began, and with it the national existence, politically, of the United States. The people's or lower house of every colony took the government. Congress met as the representative of an united people, and all the colonists supported Massachusetts. The articles of association had already substituted government by the people for government by the legislatures, and the general union affected all our after history. Congress was sustained by the united people without regard to colonial governments, but did not take the national powers that were within its grasp. Congress adopted the Massachusetts mil i tia around Boston as the nucleus of the national army, and Washington was appointed its commander-in-chief. The day of his being commissioned is the day of the battle of Bunker Hill, which was one of the decisive battles of the war, because it showed that American soldiers would stand their ground. In March of 1776 Washington compelled the British to quit Boston. The war was unpopular in England, the British fighting but half-heartedly till 1778. In June of 1776 Richard Henry Lee of Virginia moved that Congress declare independence, and in July it “resolved that these united colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown; and that all political connection between them and Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved.” On July 4 Jefferson's Declaration of Independence was adopted by Congress, and the United States' legal existence began. Meanwhile the war was going against the new nation, for Washington was driven out of Long Island, New York and New Jersey, and the British controlled the Hudson's mouth. But on Dec. 26, 1776, at Trenton, N. J., Washington struck the blow that proved the turning-point of the war, and on Jan. 4, 1777, he made Morristown, N. J., his headquarters, and there these really remained through almost all the rest of the war. De Kalb of Germany, Kosciusko of Poland and La Fayette of France already were serving in the American army; Pulaski and Steuben came later; and in 1777 Franklin in France made the government in all but name an ally of the United States. On Oct. 17, 1777, Burgoyne, a British general who had tried to cut off New England from the other colonies by coming down the Hudson from Canada, was forced to surrender his army at Saratoga. This success won the United States a treaty of alliance with France. Howe captured