All of the previous seven
But Van Buren was not the last U.S. president not born a British subject. William Henry Harrison, who only served one month as president before becoming the first president to die in office, was born on February 9, 1773.
Beginning with John Tyler (10th president) and later, all of our presidents were born after July 4, 1776.
LBJ’s Ranch in Stonewall, where the president maintained what was known as the Texas White House, during the time he was president from 1963 to 1969, has received a makeover from the National Park Service. They have restored LBJ’s working office.
For more information, see the article in the Austin American-Statesman newspaper, or the website of the LBJ Ranch.
We all know about the Declaration of Independence, the Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere's midnight ride, the Revolutionary War, and the Constitution. But how did it all fit together and when did these and other key events in our nation's founding take place? The following brief description and chronology helps to place it all in context, within three broad bands of time.
Rising Taxes and Tensions: Broadly speaking, starting in 1764, there was a decade of increasingly rising tensions between the colonies and
The Colonies Respond: In September 1774, with tensions between the mother country and the colonies at an all time high, representatives from twelve of the thirteen colonies assembled in
But when they assembled in May of 1775, the situation most on their minds was the opening of what we now call the Revolutionary War - a six and a half year battle fought by thirteen independent colonies with a ragtag army against the world's greatest military power. Three weeks prior to the convening of the Second Continental Congress, also held in
They began when 700 Redcoats marched out of
When the Redcoats arrived at
For a whole year, the Second Continental Congress debated what to do. There were conservatives, led by John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, who were pushing for reconciliation with
A New Nation: Fourteen long months passed from the start of the Second Continental Congress until July 4, 1776 when Congress approved the Declaration of Independence. But nations don't suddenly spring into existence just by a declaration.
It would not be until March of 1781 when the ill-fated Articles of Confederation were implemented, setting up a loose government in which the individual colonies (now states) were sovereign. During all this time, George Washington's Continental Army continued fighting the British, or in some cases avoided fighting the British just to remain alive for another day. But then in October 1781 came the shocking surrender of the British forces under General Cornwallis at
The
While it took fourteen months for the Second Continental Congress to eventually declare independence, fourteen long years passed from the start of the Revolutionary War at
It's easy for us, 222 years on this side of history, to think that the birth of the
Rising Taxes and Tensions | |
| 1764 | Sugar Act
|
| 1765 | Stamp Act
|
| 1767 | Townshend Acts
|
| March 5, 1770 | |
| 1773 | Tea Act |
| Dec. 16, 1773 | |
| 1774 | Intolerable Acts (Coercive Acts)
|
| The Colonies Respond | |
| September 1774 | First Continental Congress |
| April 18, 1775 | Paul Revere’s midnight ride |
| April 19, 1775 | Start of Revolutionary War
|
| May 10, 1775 | Second Continental Congress convenes in |
| A New Nation | |
| July 2, 1776 | Resolution on independence approved by Congress |
| July 4, 1776 | Declaration of |
| August 2, 1776 | Declaration of |
| March 1, 1781 | Articles of Confederation implemented |
| October 19, 1781 | End of Revolutionary War
|
| Sept. 17, 1787 | Constitution signed by delegates to the Constitutional Convention |
| June 1788 | Constitution ratified by 9 states |
| April 30, 1789 | George Washington inaugurated as first president under the Constitution |
A Declaration of the Representatives of the
When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for a people to advance from that subordination in which they have hitherto remained, & to assume among the powers of the earth the equal & independant station to which the laws of nature & of nature's god entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the change.
We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independant, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these ends, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government shall become destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, & to institute new government, laying it's foundation on such principles & organising it's powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety & happiness. prudence indeed will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light & transient causes: and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. but when a long train of abuses & usurpations, begun at a distinguished period, & pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to subject them to arbitrary power, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government & to provide new guards for their future security. such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; & such is now the necessity which constrains them to expunge their former systems of government. the history of his present majesty, is a history of unremitting injuries and usurpations, among which no one fact stands single or solitary to contradict the uniform tenor of the rest, all of which have in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. to prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world, for the truth of which we pledge a faith yet unsullied by falsehood.
he has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good:
he has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate & pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has neglected utterly to attend to them.
he has refused to pass other laws for the accomodation of large districts of people unless those people would relinquish the right of representation, a right inestimable to them, formidable to tyrants alone:
he has dissolved Representative houses repeatedly & continually, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people:
he has refused for a long space of time to cause others to be elected, whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise, the state remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, & convulsions within:
he has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither; & raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands:
he has suffered the administration of justice totally to cease in some of these colonies, refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers:
he has made our judges dependant on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and amount of their salaries:
he has erected a multitude of new offices by a self-assumed power, & sent hither swarms of officers to harrass our people & eat out their substance:
he has kept among us in times of peace standing armies & ships of war:
he has affected to render the military, independant of & superior to the civil power:
he has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitutions and unacknoleged by our laws; giving his assent to their pretended acts of legislation, for quartering large bodies of armed troops among us;
for protecting them by a mock-trial from punishment for any murders they should commit on the inhabitants of these states;
for cutting off our trade with all parts of the world;
for imposing taxes on us without our consent;
for depriving us of the benefits of trial by jury;
for transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences: for taking away our charters, & altering fundamentally the forms of our governments;
for suspending our own legislatures & declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever:
he has abdicated government here, withdrawing his governors, & declaring us out of his allegiance & protection:
he has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns & destroyed the lives of our people:
he is at this time transporting large armies of foreign merce naries to compleat the works of death, desolation & tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty & perfidy unworthy the head of a civilized nation:
he has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, & conditions of existence:
he has incited treasonable insurrections in our fellow-subjects, with the allurements of forfeiture & confiscation of our property:
he has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it's most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. this piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of
in every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms; our repeated petitions have been answered by repeated injury. a prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a people who mean to be free. future ages will scarce believe that the hardiness of one man, adventured within the short compass of 12 years only, on so many acts of tyranny without a mask, over a people fostered & fixed in principles of liberty.
Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. we have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend a jurisdiction over these our states. we have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration & settlement here, no one of which could warrant so strange a pretension: that these were effected at the expence of our own blood & treasure, unassisted by the wealth or the strength of Great Britain: that in constituting indeed our several forms of government, we had adopted one common king, thereby laying a foundation for perpetual league & amity with them: but that submission to their parliament was no part of our constitution, nor ever in idea, if history may be credited: and we appealed to their native justice & magnanimity, as well as to the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations which were likely to interrupt our correspondence & connection. they too have been deaf to the voice of justice & of consanguinity, & when occasions have been given them, by the regular course of their laws, of removing from their councils the disturbers of our harmony, they have by their free election re-established them in power. at this very time too they are permitting their chief magistrate to send over not only soldiers of our common blood, but Scotch & foreign mercenaries to invade & deluge us in blood. these facts have given the last stab to agonizing affection, and manly spirit bids us to renounce for ever these unfeeling brethren. we must endeavor to forget our former love for them, and to hold them as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. we might have been a free & great people together; but a communication of grandeur & of freedom it seems is below their dignity. be it so, since they will have it: the road to glory & happiness is open to us too; we will climb it in a separate state, and acquiesce in the necessity which pronounces our everlasting Adieu!
We therefore the representatives of the United States of America in General Congress assembled do, in the name & by authority of the good people of these states, reject and renounce a11 allegiance & subjection to the kings of Great Britain & all others who may hereafter claim by, through, or under them; we utterly dissolve & break off a11 political connection which may have heretofore subsisted between us & the people or parliament of Great Britain; and finally we do assert and declare these a colonies to be free and independant states, and that as free & independant states they shall hereafter have power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, & to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, & our sacred honour.
Source: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/declara/ruffdrft.html. This is Professor Julian Boyd's reconstruction of Thomas Jefferson's "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence before it was revised by the other members of the Committee of Five and by Congress. From: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Vol. 1, 1760-1776. Ed. Julian P. Boyd. Princeton:
John Dickinson of
Dickinson, a lawyer, was the son of a wealthy farmer who also married into a wealthy family, a Quaker family with Tory sympathies. In fact, Dickinson frequently received pressure from his wife and mother to pursue a position of moderation and against independence. “Johnny,” his mother warned him, “you will be hanged, your estate will be forfeited and confiscated, you will leave your excellent wife a widow, and your charming children orphans, beggars, and infamous.”
He became the leader in Congress for reconciliation, arguing for the Olive Branch petition to King George III. In this role, Dickinson found himself frequently up against Boston lawyer John Adams who was the unofficial leader of the delegates arguing for independence.
Known as "The Farmer" for his 1768 document "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania," Dickinson was probably one of the better known Americans of the times. He was tall and thin. When Adams first met Dickinson on August 31, 1774 as part of the First Continental Congress, he observed that "One would think at first sight that he could not live a month. Yet upon a more attentive inspection, he looks as if the springs of life were strong enough to last many years."
After one particularly passionate series of speeches before Congress by
A month or so later, a private letter that Adams had written to a friend in
He was probably a Scotch or Scotch-Irish Presbyterian. He lived in
McNair’s was the official bell ringer of the Liberty Bell for 18 years, from October 16, 1758 until his death in February 1777. The Liberty Bell was rung for important events, such as calling the Pennsylvania Assembly into session, for various protests of British taxes, for the closure of
Records also describe McNair as the doorkeeper for the Pennsylvania Assembly, a position requiring annual election and appointment by the Assembly. It appears that the doorkeeper and bell ringer duties went together. During the period from 1753 through 1780, McNair was one of only five individuals who held the position of doorkeeper, and he clearly held it for the longest time – 18 years. Generally, the person in this position for the Pennsylvania Assembly would also serve in a similar capacity for the Continental Congress, and thus McNair found himself serving the First and Second Continental Congress. He was appointed as doorkeeper for the First Continental Congress on September 22, 1775. Not only was he the doorkeeper and bell ringer, records indicate that he also was responsible for “cleaning house,” which is perhaps where the musical “1776” gets his title as “Congressional Custodian.” For the 146 days from April 30, 1776 through November 1, 1776, he was paid $118 for his services.
The duties of the doorkeeper appear to have been fairly broad and McNair, as the doorkeeper, would have been responsible for the physical management of the facility that Congress met in. The Second Continental Congress met in the Pennsylvania State House Building, which is today known as Independence Hall.
The information above is from a small book entitled Andrew McNair and the Liberty Bell, by Mary D. Alexander (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1929).
