The American Revolution Part Four
Just after news of Bunker Hill reached Philadelphia the delegation team that had been sent to London returned. They weren’t the bares of good news. Along with the Battle of Bunker Hill the report by the delegation team is marked as a turning point in the American Revolution that when from trying to create an equal footing where they didn’t have to pay taxes levy by a group they had no vote in to the drive for trying set up their own independent nation and break free from London and the British Crown.
The delegation reported they had been poorly received in London from everyone in the city. Even the general Londoner didn’t seem to care for the colonists at that much as they had been. The people of London didn’t see what the issue was about. They paid over 17 times more than what the colonists paid in taxes each year and didn’t see the problem of Parliament taxing the colonies just as they taxed the Londoners themselves. Even most Londoners didn’t have a vote in Parliament with most being in the same boat at the Colonists themselves with no say in the government.
It didn’t get any better from there. King George the Third refused to see them. Parliament did see them but only to yell at them. British Parliament refused to listen to them, instead Parliament turned the meeting into a free-for-all to blast the colonists as little children who needed to be reminded who the parent was. And that was putting it nicely. Parliament wanted to bring the colonies to heel and the Battles of Lexington and Concord gave them all the reason they needed to come down hard. They let the colonial delegation go instead of having them arrested to inform the Continental Congress to disband and swear an oath of loyally to the British Crown or be hung.
This didn’t go over well. With all 13 colonies now being declared to be in rebellion against the British Crown and Parliament forced the Continental Congress to move from trying to work with the British to understand their side of issue to forging a new path as a nation on its own. There were those still wanted to work out the issues with London peacefully. This group was led by Robert Alexander of Maryland. However as the actions of the British over the next six months would discredit this group with most of them coming out as Patriots. Alexander on the other hand became an American Tory.
It was during this time that Benjamin Franklin gave his famous we all hang together or hang separately speech. The full quote is “We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.” Franklin was pushing for national unity with his speech. At the time the idea of being an American was still something new and most people viewed themselves as being loyal to the colony they came from. However Franklin’s speech hit a cord that started the path to unifying the colonies into one nation. This would be help by both the victories and defeats that came from the battlefield.
During this time the Continental Congress approved a mission to take Quebec and bring it into the new nation that at this point didn’t even have a name. The idea of a republican monarchy hadn’t yet taken off and the idea of a divine right of kings was something that was generally disliked in the colonies. After they were the second and third sons of family lines that had come to the new world as they knew they wouldn’t get anything when their parents would pass. Instead they came to America and made something of themselves. Indeed at first America was a republic instead of a republican monarchy. However the weakness of a pure republic government had yet to be seen.
They also started handing out letters of marque. At the time the Americans had no navy and if one was going to fight the British they would need one. The letters of marque were short cut to building a navy if a costly one. However some of the best privateers would go on to form the core of the infant navy in a few years time. A navy that in time would take the title of the world’s most powerful navy away from the British.
In turn the British didn’t laurels. They started sending units of the British Army to the Americas to put down the rebellion against their rule. They also started hiring German Armies to help them in their goal of putting down the infant nation before it was even able to stand. The most noteable group to be hired by the British were the Hessens. However the British hired from all over the Germanies to put down the Americans. It was a question of time if they would bring enough troops to do it.