American Creation

The Prologue summarizes the important accomplishments of the last quarter of the 18th century. Simply put, the US created a new form of government that, over the next two centuries, would outlast competing forms to become the norm worldwide. George Washington argued that this success was the result of both timing and geography. First, the new nation formed at the height of the Enlightenment, which championed revolutionarily liberal ideas about government. Second, America had large amounts of valuable natural resources, allowing it to more easily become independent—advantages that still had to be managed well. John Adams opined that even early in the nation’s history, too much emphasis was placed on the role of statesmen like him. Adams insisted that they were mere mortals and that instead circumstances played the most important role.

Ellis lists five main achievements of the founders’ generation:

(1) They defeated the best military in the world at that time, becoming the first colony to win independence in the modern age.

(2) They founded the first republic governing a large geographical area.

(3) They established the first secular nation.

(4) They divided sovereignty in the new nation, defying Aristotle’s notion that sovereignty must be located in a single entity.

(5) They created political parties as a structure for legitimate debate on issues, so dissent was not seen as treason.

In addition to this, they managed to both foment revolution and manage a transition to a new system of government—a rare feat, since revolutionaries are usually not good at governing.

Ellis also acknowledges the founders’ failures, with slavery and the treatment of Native Americans topping the list. While he sees in this mix of great success and tragic failure a complex and “epic historical narrative,” other historians have vilified the founders as “the deadest, whitest males in American history” (11). Joining a more recent renewed interest in the founders, Ellis attempts to show how the American Revolution happened and had the success that it did.

After defeating the French in North America in 1763, the British government took the administration of the colonies more seriously, passing legislation that strengthened control over them—something the colonies resisted. Ellis explains that the American Revolution was really an “evolutionary revolution.” That is, it began with revolutionary intensity but then took a gradual approach leading to the Declaration of Independence. This first chapter describes this gradualist period between the spring of 1775 and July 4, 1776.

After the battles at Lexington and Concord, the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia. John Adams was the major player there and was foremost among those advocating a slow approach. Although he was a radical who thought the breach between England and the colonies was too great to be reversed, he knew enough to bide his time until the moderates (who favored reconciliation) could be won over. Then the British attacked Boston, in the Battle of Bunker Hill. They came away victorious, which hardened King George’s desire to crush the rebellion. However, they also suffered heavy casualties, which indicated to the colonists that the British army was not invincible.

The Continental Congress sent George Washington to Boston to take command of the militias engaged against the British in the Siege of Boston. These militias were fiercely independent insurgents, just as opposed to taking direction from one of their own as they were to acquiescing to the British. They ignored officers’ orders and left whenever they pleased to visit their homes. Even harder than managing the men was administering the war effort. Numerous details required rules and regulations that were simply nonexistent. Washington concluded that the Americans needed to emulate their enemy: the well-regulated British army.

Out of sheer necessity, revolutionary decisions ignored race and class. Black troops fought alongside whites to a degree not seen again until the Korean War. Moreover, unlike in the British army, men of lower social standing became generals, and talent elevated those without pedigree. These choices seem prescient in hindsight, but only occurred because there were no alternatives.

Designating British troops in Boston as “Ministerial Troops”—that is, troops under the control of rogue ministers rather than that of the king—allowed moderate colonists who were not ready to break with England to remain outwardly loyal to the crown. Thus, the Continental Congress simultaneously pursued the possibility of both war and reconciliation. However, the British rejected its offer to cease fighting and recognize royal—though not parliamentary—authority.

During this year, other radical voices raised the question of how to deal with slavery and women’s rights, but the founders were not prepared to fully implement revolutionary ideals in these two areas. The most eloquent advocate of the revolution was Thomas Paine, who published Common Sense in early 1776. Paine’s view was utopian: He believed governing would take care of itself once monarchic oppression ended. The more circumspect Adams felt governing had to be prudently managed.

The Prohibitory Act of late 1775, in which King George declared the colonies beyond his protection and cut off trade between them and England, effectively forced the issue of independence. The moderates were now planning for it faster than Adams had anticipated. In the spring of 1776, several states asked him to give advice on revising their constitutions. He wrote a general primer on the topic, Thoughts on Government, which placed sovereignty with “the people”—and suggested a bicameral legislature to resolve competing interests.

Adams also drafted the preface to a resolution calling on all the states to create new constitutions, a declaration of independence in fact if not in name. Adams always felt that this should have been the act celebrated by Americans, rather than the signing of Thomas Jefferson’s document in early July. Ellis agrees to an extent: What sets Jefferson’s Declaration apart is the preamble, which “smuggle[s] the revolutionary agenda into the founding document” (56).