A Family Quarrel With A Good Outcome
By Skip Hellewell
It started out as a family quarrel, mostly about money, that escalated into war. The quarrel exposed a gulf between the two sides, who had first moved apart, then grown apart. The larger side of the family, about four times bigger, in their hubris expected victory. The smaller side belatedly issued a statement to explain their position, listing 27 grievances. We celebrate it next Tuesday, with waving flags and fireworks—our Declaration of Independence.
The remarkable thing is how thirteen colonies, each founded at different times for differing reasons, came together as one. Starting about 1764, one means was the Committees of Correspondence—a means to quickly spread the news of the moment to every town and hamlet. Paul Revere’s famed “Midnight Ride” was less an individual feat than a link in a well-working communication system.
The next innovation was the Committees of Safety, another old means put to new use. With the royal officials driven from office and patriot legislatures organized, local leaders were formed into committees empowered to act quickly when the legislatures were not in session. It was the Massachusetts Committee of Safety that sent Revere to alert the militia at Lexington and Concord, resulting in the “shot heard around the world.” The British attack aroused the countryside, local militia quickly gathered, and the British barely made it back to Boston, which became a city under siege.
These committees prepared the delegates for the First Continental Congress, a tentative exploration of a new future following the Boston Tea Party. The Second Continental Congress, its course sealed by the 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill, lasted six years until the final victory at Yorktown in 1781.
Thinking they owed an explanation to the world, the Second Continental Congress assigned a “Committee of Five” to draft a Declaration of Independence, with an aging Benjamin Franklin deftly passing the assignment to young Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson skillfully laid the framework of three ideals that had evolved in the New World: In a time of kings and privileged royal families, a new truth: “. . . all men are created equal.” Another new idea, this one credited to our Creator: the existence of “unalienable Rights,” including “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Finally, the right, even duty, of citizens to overthrow despots and defeat tyranny.
The British controlled the few square miles of our port cities—Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Savannah and Charleston—though at great expense. The rebels controlled the countryside, where nine out of ten colonists lived. George Washington led the Continental Army, losing battles but keeping his army intact. With a stalemate in the north, the British turned to the southern colonies, expecting greater support. A string of stirring colonist victories—at Kings Mountain, Cowpens, and Guilford Courthouse—caused the British to retreat to Yorktown.
We should not forget the help of the French at Yorktown in 1781. Washington brought his Continental Army, reinforced with French soldiers under Marquis de Lafayette. In a surprise march, the French fleet kept the British Navy at bay, and a trapped Cornwallis was forced to surrender his army. Peace followed in 1783 with the Treaty of Paris, and our Constitution was ratified in 1789, establishing the concept and values of democracy. The purpose of this brief account is to encourage all to study our history lest we forget how the United States of America came to be and the price paid by patriots. There’s meaning in that.
Skip fell in love with Laguna on a ‘50s surfing trip. He’s a student of Laguna history and the author of “Loving Laguna: A Local’s Guide to Laguna Beach.” Email: [email protected].
