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CHAPTER 3: THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCEOUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORYit had suffered more than 250 killedand wounded. The Americans lost93 men.The Second Continental Congressmet in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,on May 10. The Congressvoted to go to war, inducting thecolonial militias into continentalservice. It appointed Colonel GeorgeWashington of Virginia as theircommander-in-chief on June 15.Within two days, the Americans hadincurred high casualties at BunkerHill just outside Boston. Congressalso ordered American expeditionsto march northward into Canada byfall. Capturing Montreal, they failedin a winter assault on Quebec, andeventually retreated to New York.Despite the outbreak of armedconflict, the idea of complete separationfrom England was still repugnantto many members of the ContinentalCongress. In July, it adoptedthe Olive Branch Petition, beggingthe king to prevent further hostileactions until some sort of agreementcould be worked out. King Georgerejected it; instead, on August 23,1775, he issued a proclamation declaringthe colonies to be in a stateof rebellion.Britain had expected the Southerncolonies to remain loyal, in partbecause of their reliance on slavery.Many in the Southern coloniesfeared that a rebellion against themother country would also triggera slave uprising. In November 1775,Lord Dunmore, the governor of Virginia,tried to capitalize on that fearby offering freedom to all slaves whowould fight for the British. Instead,his proclamation drove to the rebelside many Virginians who wouldotherwise have remained Loyalist.The governor of North Carolina,Josiah Martin, also urged NorthCarolinians to remain loyal to theCrown. When 1,500 men answeredMartin’s call, they were defeated byrevolutionary armies before Britishtroops could arrive to help.British warships continued downthe coast to Charleston, South Carolina,and opened fire on the city inearly June 1776. But South Carolinianshad time to prepare, andrepulsed the British by the end ofthe month. They would not returnSouth for more than two years.COMMON SENSE ANDINDEPENDENCEIn January 1776, Thomas Paine,a radical political theorist andwriter who had come to Americafrom England in 1774, published a50-page pamphlet, Common Sense.Within three months, it sold 100,000copies. Paine attacked the idea of ahereditary monarchy, declaring thatone honest man was worth more tosociety than “all the crowned ruffiansthat ever lived.” He presentedthe alternatives — continued submissionto a tyrannical king andan outworn government, or libertyand happiness as a self-sufficient,independent republic. Circulatedthroughout the colonies, CommonSense helped to crystallize a decisionfor separation.There still remained the task,however, of gaining each colony’sapproval of a formal declaration. OnJune 7, Richard Henry Lee of Virginiaintroduced a resolution in theSecond Continental Congress, declaring,“That these United Coloniesare, and of right ought to be, freeand independent states. ...” Immediately,a committee of five, headedby Thomas Jefferson of Virginia,was appointed to draft a documentfor a vote.Largely Jefferson’s work, the Declarationof Independence, adoptedJuly 4, 1776, not only announcedthe birth of a new nation, but alsoset forth a philosophy of humanfreedom that would become a dynamicforce throughout the entireworld. The Declaration drew uponFrench and English Enlightenmentpolitical philosophy, but one influencein particular stands out: JohnLocke’s Second Treatise on Government.Locke took conceptions of thetraditional rights of Englishmen anduniversalized them into the naturalrights of all humankind. TheDeclaration’s familiar opening passageechoes Locke’s social-contracttheory of government:We hold these truths to be selfevident,that all men are createdequal, that they are endowedby their Creator with certainunalienable Rights, that amongthese are Life, Liberty and thepursuit of Happiness. — That tosecure these rights, Governmentsare instituted among Men,deriving their just powers fromthe consent of the governed,— That whenever any Form ofGovernment becomes destructiveof these ends, it is the Right of thePeople to alter or to abolish it,and to institute new Government,laying its foundation on suchprinciples and organizing itspowers in such form, as to themshall seem most likely to effect theirSafety and Happiness.Jefferson linked Locke’s principlesdirectly to the situation in the colonies.To fight for American independencewas to fight for a governmentbased on popular consent in placeof a government by a king who had“combined with others to subjectus to a jurisdiction foreign to ourconstitution, and unacknowledgedby our laws. ...” Only a governmentbased on popular consent could securenatural rights to life, liberty,and the pursuit of happiness. Thus,to fight for American independencewas to fight on behalf of one’s ownnatural rights.DEFEATS AND VICTORIESAlthough the Americans sufferedsevere setbacks for months afterindependence was declared, theirtenacity and perseverance eventuallypaid off. During August 1776,in the Battle of Long Island in NewYork, Washington’s position becameuntenable, and he executed amasterly retreat in small boats fromBrooklyn to the Manhattan shore.British General William Howe twicehesitated and allowed the Americans6061