On September 1, 1775, George III refused to accept the Olive Branch Petition, Congress’s last attempt to avoid war. When John Adams heard the word back in America, he must have breathed a sigh of relief. On July 5, 1775, almost a year to the day before our Declaration of Independence, the Second Continental Congress had signed […]
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On August 23, 1775, King George III made it clear he was done with illusions about his American colonies. In his Proclamation for Suppressing Rebellion and Sedition, he stated that “many of Our Subjects in divers Parts of Our Colonies and Plantations in North America, misled by dangerous and ill-designing Men … have at length proceeded […]
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Our American Revolution series has reached the tense summer of 1775—a time when the Continental Congress was doing two things at once: sending polite petitions to King George III and loading muskets for battle. In our latest installment, we cover the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, which laid out why […]
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On July 6, 1775, the Continental Congress issued a declaration—not of independence, but of necessity. With British troops already marching and colonial blood already spilled, Congress laid out its reasons for taking up arms. The declaration’s title was as direct as its purpose: A Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms. It […]
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One might think that if Concord and Lexington left room for doubt that the American colonies were rebelling against Britain, the June 17 affair at Bunker Hill would have settled the question. American farmers inflicting more than a thousand casualties on Britain’s troops was a pretty strong signal of discontent. Moreover, the decision of the […]
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Two hundred forty-nine years ago, a determined band of colonists didn’t just declare independence—they dismantled the old world order. They rejected the centuries-old belief that power comes from bloodlines, conquest, or divine right, and proposed something audacious: that legitimacy flows from the governed, not the governor. That moment was not merely the birth of America—it […]
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George Washington took command of the Continental Army outside Boston on July 3, 1775. He immediately spent a solid week inspecting the army, and only then wrote to the Continental Congress with his first report. The Continental Army was brave, but it could be made better. Above all, Washington needed money. I find myself already […]
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The Continental Congress appointed George Washington Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army on June 19, 1775. Washington did not think he was qualified for the job. It’s not like any other part of the Patriot resistance was ready for war. Washington was off to lead a bunch of Massachusetts farmers who trained part-time. There were a […]
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June 17, 1775, was considered for generations of Americans after the date an “ignominious defeat.” The colonists had executed a brilliant stealth maneuver. Overnight, they had erected fortifications on a hill across the Charles River from Boston and had taken the British forces under Generals Gage and Howe by surprise. A battle ensued; in the […]
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On June 14, 1775, the Second Continental Congress took its first bold step toward becoming a nation: it created a national army. Until then, each colony had relied on its own militia. But after the violent clashes at Lexington and Concord, it was clear that isolated efforts wouldn’t be enough. A unified defense would require […]
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“Surrender, in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!” That was Ethan Allen gently explaining to the skeleton British garrison at Fort Ticonderoga that their time had come. The capture of the fort on May 10, 1775, by what amounted to a guerrilla American force was not a battle for the ages. […]
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The Second Continental Congress opened on May 10, 1775. The British had already fired upon Massachusetts militia men at Lexington and Concord. Soon, Congress would make itself into a genuine, revolutionary government by taking on the traditional tasks of borrowing money, printing paper currency, and raising an army, which is what they needed the money […]
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Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by the Journal of the American Revolution on November 26, 2024. With edits to match MTC’s style guidelines, it is cross-posted here with permission. The adjectives leveled Benedict Arnold’s way by contemporaries and historians leave little room for doubt. Though he inspired devotion among those serving under him, the […]
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Editor’s Note: The following article was originally published by RealClear Politics on April 26, 2025. It has been edited to match MTC’s style guidelines and is crossposted here with permission. Many Americans of Generation X and older will recall the red, white, and blue American Freedom Train that was a centerpiece of America’s glorious Bicentennial celebration. But few know that the […]
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At sunrise on April 19, 1775, about 80 American townsmen in Lexington, Massachusetts, filed out of Buckman Tavern onto Lexington Green. They were commanded by French and Indian War veteran John Parker. Parker was restrained. His words were, “Stand your ground; don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let […]
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Of course, Paul Revere was a hero as he rowed and rode to alarm the countryside around Boston: “The British are coming! The British are coming!” (“The Regulars are coming out,” the staid historians tell us were his actual words.) So too were the much neglected William Dawes and Samuel Prescott. We owe our independence and our liberty to their pluck and bravery. […]
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It was March 30, 1775. King George III delivers another blow to the American colonies, formally endorsing the New England Restraining Act. This Act, a direct response to the Continental Association’s 1774 boycott of British goods, was designed to strangle the rebelling colonies into submission. By royal decree, New England’s trade was restricted solely to […]
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On March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry gave his “Give me liberty or give me death” speech at the Second Virginia Convention, in favor of a resolution that Virginia form a militia to oppose King George’s tyranny. Moderates at the convention were somewhat reluctant to go on record saying explicitly that George was a tyrant who must […]
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On March 22, 1775, Edmund Burke delivered one of his great Parliamentary orations on Conciliation with America. Britain and America were rushing to war, and Burke pulled out the stops to make an extraordinary peroration for peace. Britain’s current policy was worse than unjust—it was doomed to fail. Peace must be achieved, argued Burke, by […]
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Author’s Note: This excerpt is from my weekly “Top of Mind” email, which goes out to subscribers every Thursday. This particular edition was sent on September 19, 2024. It is crossposted here in observance of Presidents Day, honoring George Washington’s pivotal role in securing American independence. For more content like this and to receive the […]
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On February 9, 1775, the Parliament of Great Britain declared Massachusetts in a state of rebellion. With cause: Massachusetts’ Provincial Congress had met without royal leave and was organizing and training a military force. Massachusetts’ disobedience could no longer be ignored. Now, Britain would arm itself for war. Orders sailed to Governor Thomas Gage in […]
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America survived those crucial months because we had self-government as well as liberty. The Second Massachusetts Provincial Congress assembled on February 1, 1775. The Second Congress would select Samuel Adams, John Adams, John Hancock, Thomas Cushing, and Robert Treat Paine to serve as delegates to the Continental Congress. It authorized a Committee of Safety—among other […]
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Francis Salvador, who emigrated from England to South Carolina in 1773, was the first Jew to be elected to a South Carolina legislative assembly—in 1774 and 1775, his neighbors voted him into South Carolina’s First and Second Provincial Congresses, with happy disregard for the statutes that gave Jews no right to vote or hold office. […]
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In New Hampshire, they call it “the shot not heard round the world.” On December 14, 1774, local patriots captured Fort McHenry in Portsmouth harbor. It’s probably—definitions and claims vary—the first open act of violent rebellion during the American Revolution. Patriots had been increasingly worried about control of scarce guns and powder since October when […]
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On December 10, 1774, the First Massachusetts Provincial Congress adjourned. They had been in session since October 7. They were America’s first revolutionary legislature, and they handled their business quite well. You can read all about it in their Journals. It’s an old nostrum that America was able to achieve independence so easily because they’d […]
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Thomas Paine arrived in America on November 30, 1774. He had to be carried ashore in Philadelphia half-dead from a shipboard fever. He left behind in England a life of poverty and failure, and he came to America with anger and resentment at the good and great who lived so well when he lived so […]
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The trouble really begins when the fishermen and the fox hunters prepare to fight. The First Continental Congress had already met but hadn’t called for armed resistance. After all, they were still petitioning the king to withdraw the Intolerable Acts and were only calling for a boycott of British goods. But plenty of Americans had […]
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On what was likely a crisp autumn day in Philadelphia in 1774—before muskets and Minutemen—the American colonies chose diplomacy. They sent a carefully crafted petition to King George III, born out of frustration and hope, as a final effort to mend a relationship that had been fraying for years. Their grievances? Numerous. Following the French […]
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Sometimes, reform offers come too late. Joseph Galloway, speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly, came to the First Continental Congress with a clever plan—the Plan of Union—to unite the British North American colonies in their own Parliament, subordinate to Great Britain’s Parliament. The American Parliament would vote on many matters, but Britain would have a veto. […]
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The First Continent Congress was not known for taking radical measures. When it met in Philadelphia in the autumn of 1774, it first rejected the plan but was forwarded by Pennsylvania representative Joseph Galloway, Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly. Galloway favored a “solid political union” between the colonies and Britain as the best way to […]
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