AmRev-PS.tpgs 9/29/03 3:46 PM Page 1 American Revolution Primary Sources AmRev-PS.tpgs 9/29/03 3:46 PM Page 3 American Revolution Primary Sources Linda Schmittroth Lawrence W. Baker and Stacy A. McConnell, Editors ARPSiv-xxxiv 7/29/03 6:51 PM Page iv Linda Schmittroth s e Staff c r Lawrence W. Baker, U•X•L Senior Editor u Stacy A. McConnell, U•X•L Editor o Carol DeKane Nagel,U•X•L Managing Editor Thomas L. Romig, U•X•L Publisher S Rita Wimberley, Senior Buyer y Evi Seoud, Assistant Manager, Composition Purchasing and Electronic Prepress r Dorothy Maki, Manufacturing Manager a Tracey Rowens, Senior Art Director m Margaret Chamberlain, Permissions Specialist (Text and pictures) Kelly A. Quin,Editor, Imaging and Multimedia Content i Pamela Reed,Imaging Coordinator r P Leitha Etheridge-Sims,Image Cataloger Robert Duncan and Dan Newell, Imaging Specialists : Randy A. Bassett,Image Database Supervisor n Barbara J. Yarrow,Imaging and Multimedia Content Manager o Linda Mahoney,LM Design, Typesetting i t u Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data l o American Revolution : primary sources / [compiled by] Linda Schmittroth; v edited by Lawrence W. Baker and Stacy McConnell. e p. cm. R Includes bibliographical references and index. Summary: A collection of annotated documents relating to the n American Revolution, including speeches, autobiographical text, and a proclamations. c ISBN 0-7876-3790-4 i 1. United States—History—Revolution, 1775–1783—Sources— r Juvenile literature. [1. United States—History—Revolution, 1775-1783— e Sources.] I. Schmittroth, Linda. II. Baker, Lawrence W. III. McConnell, m Stacy A. IV. Title. E203.A577 2000 A 973.7—dc21 99-046940 This publication is a creative work fully protected by all applicable copyright laws, as well as by misappropriation, trade secret, unfair competition, and other applica- ble laws. The editors of this work have added value to the underlying factual mate- rial herein through one or more of the following: unique and original selection, coordination, expression, arrangement, and classification of the information. All rights to this publication will be vigorously defended. Copyright © 2000 U•X•L, an imprint of The Gale Group 27500 Drake Road Farmington Hills, MI 48331-3535 All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Cover illustration of stamp burning is reproduced by permission of Archive Photos; King George III, reproduced by permission of The Granger Collection, Ltd.; and George Washington, courtesy of the Library of Congress. Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ARPSiv-xxxiv 7/29/03 6:51 PM Page v Contents Advisory Board. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Reader’s Guide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi Timeline of Events in Revolutionary America . . . . . . xv Words to Know. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxv Primary Sources Chapter 1: British Actions, Colonial Reactions. . . . . . . 1 The Stamp Act. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 George Washington Reacts to the Stamp Act (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 The Declaratory Act. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 The Townshend Revenue Act . . . . . . . . . . 25 Charles Townshend (box). . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Samuel Adams, Committee-Man and Son of Liberty (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 v ARPSiv-xxxiv 7/29/03 6:51 PM Page vi The Intolerable Acts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 The Boston Port Act . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 The Quartering Act. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Arthur Lee, Forgotten Revolutionary (box) . . . . 42 Edmund Burke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Edmund Burke, British Supporter of the Colonies (box). . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 “On Conciliation” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 King George III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Proclamation of Rebellion . . . . . . . . . . . 58 George III, Benevolent Monarch or “Royal Brute”? (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 John Dickinson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies . . . . 66 Benjamin Franklin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Benjamin Franklin, Man of Many Talents (box). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 “An Edict by the King of Prussia” . . . . . . . . 75 Thomas Jefferson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 A Summary View of the Rights of British America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Patrick Henry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Patrick Henry, Orator and Statesman (box). . . . 92 “Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death!” . . . . . . 93 Thomas Paine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Thomas Paine, a Lover of Mankind (box). . . . . 98 Common Sense. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Chapter 2: Great Congressional Documents . . . . . . 107 The Continental Association . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Virginia Delegates to the First Continental Congress (box) . . . . . . . . . . 114 John Adams, Founding Father (box) . . . . . . 123 John Adams’s Writings (box). . . . . . . . . . 125 Wartime Proclamations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 vi American Revolution:Primary Sources ARPSiv-xxxiv 7/29/03 6:51 PM Page vii Olive Branch Petition . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 John Dickinson, Man of Contradictions (box). . 131 The Declaration of Independence . . . . . . . . 135 Thomas Jefferson, Foremost Spokesman for Freedom (box). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 “Remember the Ladies” (box) . . . . . . . . . 145 John Hancock, Patriot (box) . . . . . . . . . . 148 Articles of Confederation . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 Revolutionary War Documents on the World Wide Web (box). . . . . . . . . . . 154 Native Americans in the Revolution (box). . . . 164 Chapter 3: Scandal and Betrayal. . . . . . . . . . . . 169 Thomas Hutchinson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Thomas Hutchinson (box). . . . . . . . . . . 173 Letter of Thomas Hutchinson, June 18, 1768. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Letter of Thomas Hutchinson, January 20, 1769 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 Benjamin Franklin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 Letter to Massachusetts Speaker of the Assembly Thomas Cushing. . . . . . . . . 185 The Hutchinson Letters (box) . . . . . . . . . 187 Resolves of the House of Representatives, Respecting the Letters of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Others. . . . . . . . 191 Benjamin Franklin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 Public Statement on the Hutchinson Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 Americans’ Reactions to Benedict Arnold’s Treason. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 Comments of Lieutenant John Whiting on Arnold’s Treason . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 General George Washington’s Announcement to the Continental Army of Arnold’s Treason . . . . . . . . . . . 206 “An Acrostic on Arnold”. . . . . . . . . . . . 207 Contents vii ARPSiv-xxxiv 7/29/03 6:51 PM Page viii Closing Lines of George Washington’s Summary of the Treason Story . . . . . . . . . 207 Benedict Arnold, American Traitor (box) . . . . 208 Chapter 4: Notes from the Battlefronts . . . . . . . . 211 Lord Dunmore. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 Declaration of Martial Law in Virginia . . . . . 218 Joseph Plumb Martin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221 Joseph Plumb Martin, Proud Yankee Soldier (box) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222 A Narrative of Some of the Adventures, Dangers, and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 Thomas Paine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 The Crisis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231 Eliza Wilkinson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 Account of the Looting of Her Sister’s Home by British Soldiers. . . . . . . . . . . . 237 Horace Walpole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 Letter to the Earl of Strafford about the Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown . . . . . . 243 George Washington . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 Farewell Address to the Armies of the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250 Where to Learn More. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 viii American Revolution:Primary Sources ARPSiv-xxxiv 7/29/03 6:51 PM Page ix Advisory Board Special thanks are due to U•X•L’s American Revolution Ref- erence Library advisors for their invaluable comments and suggestions: • Mary Alice Anderson, Media Specialist, Winona Middle School, Winona, Minnesota • Jonathan Betz-Zall, Children’s Librarian, Sno-Isle Regional Library System, Edmonds, Washington • Frances Bryant Bradburn, Section Chief, Information Tech- nology Evaluation Services, Public Schools of North Car- olina, Raleigh, North Carolina • Sara K. Brooke, Director of Libraries, The Ellis School, Pitts- burgh, Pennsylvania • Peter Butts, Media Specialist, East Middle School, Holland, Michigan ix ARPSiv-xxxiv 7/29/03 6:51 PM Page xi Reader’s Guide American Revolution: Primary Sources presents thirty-two excerpts from documents, narratives, satirical pieces, pamphlets, and letters that explore events surrounding the American Revolution. The book begins with the hated 1765 Stamp Act, continues through the great documents of the Continental Congresses, and ends with General George Wash- ington’s 1783 farewell address to the Continental Army. Along the way, students can sample the words of ordinary people liv- ing in extraordinary times, such as Joseph Plumb Martin, who was a teenage soldier, and Eliza Wilkinson, who recalls when British soldiers looted her sister’s Southern home. Both lived to write lively accounts of their wartime adventures. American Revolution: Primary Sourcesis divided into four chapters that focus on specific themes: British Actions and Colonial Reactions; Great Congressional Documents; Scandal and Treason; and Notes from the Battlefronts. Enlightening, easy-to-understand commentary accom- panies the excerpts. American Revolution: Primary Sources includes the following additional material: xi ARPSiv-xxxiv 7/29/03 6:51 PM Page xii • An introduction places the document and its author in a historical context. • “Things to remember while reading . . .” offers readers important background information and directs them to central ideas in the text. • “What happened next . . .” discusses the impact of the document on both the speaker and his or her audience. • “Did you know . . .” provides significant and interesting facts about the excerpted document, the author, or the subjects discussed in the excerpt. • “Where to learn more”lists sources for more information on the author, the document, or the subject of the excerpt. Other features of American Revolution: Primary Sources include short biographies of featured authors, illustrations depicting the personalities and events discussed in the excerpts, and sidebars presenting additional information on unusual or significant aspects of the issue or event under dis- cussion. In addition, a glossary running alongside each pri- mary document defines unfamiliar terms, people, and ideas contained in the excerpted material. Finally, American Revolu- tion: Primary Sourcesprovides a timeline, which lists significant dates and events of the Revolutionary era, and a cumulative subject index. American Revolution Reference Library American Revolution: Primary Sources is only one com- ponent of the three-part American Revolution Reference Library. The other two titles in this multivolume set are: • American Revolution: Almanac: This work presents a com- prehensive overview of the Revolutionary era. The vol- ume’s twelve chapters describe in narrative form the events leading up to the war and the major events of the era. • American Revolution: Biographies: This two-volume set pre- sents profiles of fifty-nine important figures from the American Revolution era. The essays cover such key people as patriots John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Paine, as well as less celebrated people such as poet and for- mer slave Phillis Wheatley; Frenchman Pierre Charles L’Enfant, who designed the city of Washington, D.C.; and xii American Revolution:Primary Sources