The History Book Club discussion

Hello Everyone,

This is Week Three for Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power.

This week's reading assignment is:

Week Three - December 3rd - December 9th -> Chapters SEVEN, EIGHT, NINE, and TEN p. 76 - 113

SEVEN - There Is No Peace, EIGHT - The Famous Mr. Jefferson, NINE - The Course of Human Events, and SIX - The Pull of Duty

We will open up a thread for each week's reading. Please make sure to post in the particular thread dedicated to those specific chapters and page numbers to avoid spoilers. We will also open up supplemental threads as we did for other spotlighted books.

This book is being kicked off on November 19th. We look forward to your participation. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders and other noted on line booksellers do have copies of the book and shipment can be expedited. The book can also be obtained easily at your local library, or on your Kindle.

A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO RANDOM HOUSE FOR THEIR KINDNESS AND GENEROSITY.

There is no rush and we are thrilled to have you join us. It is never too late to get started and/or to post.

Bryan Craig will be moderating this discussion.

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Notes:

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Glossary:

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Table of Contents and Syllabus:

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Book as a Whole Thread:

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Welcome,

~~Bryan

by Jon Meacham

Chapter Overviews and Summaries


Chapter Seven: There is No Place

Jefferson served on the committee for defense in the House of Burgesses and was elected to the Second Continental Congress. The first congress issued grievances and goods boycott, while discussing the possibility of using militia force against British forces. On April 19th, Lexington and Concord occurred, and the next day in Williamsburg, British troops moved the gunpowder onto ships. By June, the situation deteriorated to a point Lord Dunmore moved out of the governor's palace to a ship. The House had a bitter debate about whether to separate from the crown and Jefferson himself favored separation.

Chapter Eight: The Famous Mr. Jefferson

In June 1775, Jefferson went to Philadelphia for the Second Continental Congress where he met John Adams. They authorized an invasion of Canada, but did agree to a resolution to attempt to avoid a war with Britain called the Olive Branch Petition. Jefferson wrote the first draft. Jefferson also wrote to his friend, John Randolph, who was going to London, to try to influence leaders by saying Americans are resolute about independence. But efforts came too late.

By October, war was a reality for Virginians as the British landed at Hampton. The House of Burgesses created the Committee of Safety to respond. Many whites feared a slave insurrection because Virginia Governor Lord Dunmore issued a proclamation stating that he would free any slave if they came to fight for the British. Jefferson helped work out who should govern when the Congress would be in recess. When he got home, he read Common Sense.

In his personal life, Jefferson continued to build his house. His wife ran the house while he was away. His daughter, Jane, died in September 1775 at the time he returned to Philadelphia.

Chapter Nine: The Course of Human Events

Jefferson's mother died in March 1776. With the emotional strain, he developed migraines. By May, he returned to Philadelphia where debate began about independence. A declaration was not prepared until July and Adams urged Jefferson to write it. So, Jefferson began to work using the influence of John Locke, Montesquieu, and the Scottish philosophers. Franklin and Adams also helped. Jefferson tried to add a passage on the slave trade, but it was cut out. The declaration was ratified on July 4 and quickly published.

Chapter Ten: The Pull of Duty

Jefferson continued to suffer personal tragedy as his wife had a miscarriage in July 1776. He was conflicted about being close to his family and working in politics. He was under a lot stress due to his family, the talk of subversion by Loyalists, the ineffective American military campaign, and the fact he got the lowest votes in the delegate election. But his declaration was worth it. He worked with Benjamin Franklin on a seal for the country and drafting rules of Congress. In the end, when he heard there was a new Virginia state constitution convention in Williamsburg, he decided to move them there to work on the constitution.

We just started to talk about this in the last chapter, but here, Meacham brings out that everyone did not jump on the "revolution train." TJ lived in a world of divided opinion.

I did not know that he was involved in the Olive Branch Petition, especially since he has decided on separation. Political move?

Olive Branch Petition:

the Continental Congress adopts the Olive Branch Petition, written by John Dickinson, which appeals directly to King George III and expresses hope for reconciliation between the colonies and Great Britain. Dickinson, who hoped desperately to avoid a final break with Britain, phrased colonial opposition to British policy as follows: "Your Majesty's Ministers, persevering in their measures, and proceeding to open hostilities for enforcing them, have compelled us to arm in our own defence, and have engaged us in a controversy so peculiarly abhorrent to the affections of your still faithful Colonists, that when we consider whom we must oppose in this contest, and if it continues, what may be the consequences, our own particular misfortunes are accounted by us only as parts of our distress."

By phrasing their discontent this way, Congress attempted to notify the king that American colonists were unhappy with ministerial policy, not his own. They concluded their plea with a final statement of fidelity to the crown: "That your Majesty may enjoy long and prosperous reign, and that your descendants may govern your Dominions with honour to themselves and happiness to their subjects, is our sincere prayer."

By July 1776, the Declaration of Independence proclaimed something very different: "The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States." Congress' language is critical to understanding the seismic shift that had occurred in American thought in just 12 months. Indeed, Congress insisted that Thomas Jefferson remove any language from the declaration that implicated the people of Great Britain or their elected representatives in Parliament. The fundamental grounds upon which Americans were taking up arms had shifted. The militia that had fired upon Redcoats at Lexington and Concord had been angry with Parliament, not the king, who they still trusted to desire only good for all of his subjects around the globe.

This belief changed after King George refused to so much as receive the Olive Branch Petition. Patriots had hoped that Parliament had curtailed colonial rights without the kings full knowledge, and that the petition would cause him to come to his subjects' defense. When George III refused to read the petition, Patriots realized that Parliament was acting with royal knowledge and support. Americans' patriotic rage was intensified by the January 1776 publication by English-born radical Thomas Paine of Common Sense, an influential pamphlet that attacked the monarchy, which Paine claimed had allowed crowned ruffians to impoverish the nation and set it together by the ears.
(Source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-hi...)

Full Text:

Most Gracious Sovereign: We, your Majesty's faithful subjects of the Colonies of New-Hampthire, Massachusetts-Bay, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, the Counties of Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex, on Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, in behalf of ourselves and the inhabitants of these Colonies, who have deputed us to represent them in General Congress, entreat your Majesty's gracious attention to this our humble petition.

The union between our Mother Country and these Colonies, and the energy of mild and just Government, produced benefits so remarkably important, and afforded such an assurance of their permanency and increase, that the wonder and envy of other nations were excited, while they beheld Great Britain rising to a power the most extraordinary the world had ever known.

Her rivals, observing that there was no probability of this happy connexion being broken by civil dissensions, and apprehending its future effects if left any longer undisturbed, resolved to prevent her receiving such continual and formidable accessions of wealth and strength, by checking the growth of those settlements from which they were to be derived.

In the prosecution of this attempt, events so unfavourable to the design took place, that every friend to the interest of Great Britain and these Colonies, entertained pleasing and reasonable expectations of seeing an additional force and exertion immediately given to the operations of the union hitherto experienced, by an enlargement of the dominions of the Crown, and the removal of ancient and warlike enemies to a greater distance.

At the conclusion, therefore, of the late war, the most glorious and advantageous that ever had been carried on by British arms, your loyal Colonists having contributed to its success by such repeated and strenuous exertions as frequently procured them the distinguished approbation of your Majesty, of the late King, and of Parliament, doubted not but that they should be permitted, with the rest of the Empire, to share in the blessings of peace, and the emoluments of victory and conquest.

While these recent and honourable acknowledgments of their merits remained on record in the Journals and acts of that august Legislature, the Parliament, undefaced by the imputation or even the suspicion of any offence, they were alarmed by a new system of statutes and regulations adopted for the administration of the Colonies, that filled their minds with the most painful fears and jealousies; and, to their inexpressible astonishment, perceived the danger of a foreign quarrel quickly succeeded by domestick danger, in their judgment of a more dreadful kind.

Nor were these anxieties alleviated by any tendency in this system to promote the welfare of their Mother Country. For though its effects were more immediately felt by them, yet its influence appeared to be injurious to the commerce and prosperity of Great Britain.

We shall decline the ungrateful task of describing the irksome variety of artifices practised by many of your Majesty's Ministers, the delusive pretences, fruitless terrours, and unavailing severities, that have, from time to time, been dealt out by them, in their attempts to execute this impolitick plan, or of tracing through a series of years past the progress of the unhappy differences between Great Britain and these Colonies, that have flowed from this fatal source.

Your Majesty's Ministers, persevering in their measures, and proceeding to open hostilities for enforcing them, have compelled us to arm in our own defence, and have engaged us in a controversy so peculiarly abhorrent to the affections of your still faithful Colonists, that when we consider whom we must oppose in this contest, and if it continues, what may be the consequences, our own particular misfortunes are accounted by us only as parts of our distress. Knowing to what violent resentments and incurable animosities civil discords are apt to exasperate and inflame the contending parties, we think ourselves required by indispensable obligations to Almighty God, to your Majesty, to our fellow-subjects, and to ourselves, immediately to use all the means in our power, not incompatible with our safety, for stopping the further effusion of blood, and for averting the impending calamities that threaten the British Empire.

Thus called upon to address your Majesty on affairs of such moment to America, and probably to all your Dominions, we are earnestly desirous of performing this office with the utmost deference for your Majesty; and we therefore pray, that your Majesty's royal magnanimity and benevolence may make the most favourable constructions of our expressions on so uncommon an occasion. Could we represent in their full force the sentiments that agitate the minds of us your dutiful subjects, we are persuaded your Majesty would ascribe any seeming deviation from reverence in our language, and even in our conduct, not to any reprehensible intention, but to the impossibility of reconciling the usual appearances of respect with a just attention to our own preservation against those artful and cruel enemies who abuse your royal confidence and authority, for the purpose of effecting our destruction.

Attached to your Majesty's person, family, and Government, with all devotion that principle and affection can inspire; connected with Great Britain by the strongest ties that can unite societies, and deploring every event that tends in any degree to weaken them, we solemnly assure your Majesty, that we not only most ardently desire the former harmony between her and these Colonies may be restored, but that a concord may be established between them upon so firm a basis as to perpetuate its blessings, uninterrupted by any future dissensions, to succeeding generations in both countries, and to transmit your Majesty's name to posterity, adorned with that signal and lasting glory that has attended the memory of those illustrious personages, whose virtues and abilities have extricated states from dangerous convulsions, and, by securing happiness to others, have erected the most noble and durable monuments to their own fame.

We beg leave further to assure your Majesty, that notwithstanding the sufferings of your loyal Colonists during the course of this present controversy, our breasts retain too tender a regard for the kingdom from which we derive our origin, to request such a reconciliation as might, in any manner, be inconsistent with her dignity or her welfare. These, related as we are to her, honour and duty, as well as inclination, induce us to support and advance; and the apprehensions that now oppress our hearts with unspeakable grief, being once removed, your Majesty will find your faithful subjects on this Continent ready and willing at all times, as they have ever been, with their lives and fortunes, to assert and maintain the rights and interests of your Majesty, and of our Mother Country.

We therefore beseech your Majesty, that your royal authority and influence may be graciously interposed to procure us relief from our afflicting fears and jealousies, occasioned by the system before-mentioned, and to settle peace through every part of our Dominions, with all humility submitting to your Majesty's wise consideration, whether it may not be expedient, for facilitating those important purposes, that your Majesty be pleased to direct some mode, by which the united applications of your faithful Colonists to the Throne, in pursuance of their common counsels, may be improved into a happy and permanent reconciliation; and that, in the mean time, measures may be taken for preventing the further destruction of the lives of your Majesty's subjects; and that such statutes as more immediately distress any of your Majesty's Colonies, may be repealed.

For such arrangements as your Majesty's wisdom can form for collecting the united sense of your American people, we are convinced your Majesty would receive such satisfactory proofs of the disposition of the Colonists towards their Sovereign and Parent State, that the wished for opportunity would soon be restored to them, of evincing the sincerity of their professions, by every testimony of devotion becoming the most dutiful subjects, and the most affectionate Colonists.

That your Majesty may enjoy a long and prosperous reign, and that your descendants may govern your Dominions with honour to themselves and happiness to their subjects, is our sincere prayer.
(Source: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Olive_B...)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_Br...

It is nice to read about the different worries that Jefferson and others at this time had. Thinking of revolution when your own family is in danger (and the lack of communication) was tough, that TJ continued in his efforts for revolution does show some of what he was made of.

I agree, Kathy, it really must have been scary, you and your family are in danger.

Two of the things that struck me (and that are easy to forget about) were mortality and time. Nowadays, we easily send e-mail to a bunch of people all over the world and get responses in minutes or hours. This is so radically different from Jefferson's day that I think it's hard to conceive. Even if we need to be somewhere in person - I hop on a train and I'm in DC in a couple hours.

The other is mortality. While some people lived a very long time, even back then (Jefferson lived to 83) death was everywhere. If I go on a trip, I don't have to worry about whether my wife and kids will be alive when I get home. I think, this, too, would have profound effects on a person's whole psyche.

Isn't it amazing that Jefferson and so many other Americans were willing to put their lives on the line for something that was so uncertain? Nowadays it's easy to look back at our American Revolution victory as an inevitability, but these people didn't know what was going to happen. They were sacrificing it all to do what they knew was right. I love reading about it because the passion is so inspiring.

As for TJ being out in front of the pro-separation movement, I'm starting to get the impression that he was incredibly skilled at slowly and subtly convincing others to join with his line of thinking. I haven't gotten to the Olive Branch Petition part yet. Looking forward to it.

Bryan wrote: "We just started to talk about this in the last chapter, but here, Meacham brings out that everyone did not jump on the "revolution train." TJ lived in a world of divided opinion.

I did not know t..."

I recently read the book "Torries: Fighting for the King in America's First Civil War" by Thomas B. Allen. I never realized how divided our country really was and how bitter it became between the remaining loyalists and the rebellion. The title is quite true by referring to it as America's first civil war.

When drafting the Declaration of Independence we see Jefferson again showing anti-slavery tendencies. This seems to be such a conundrum as he kept slaves his entire life. I wonder what he was really thinking and what his real thoughts on slavery were. Perhaps he was conflicted himself.

It does seem that TJ was intent on independence while many others were unsure, perhaps his debt was a big part of his surety on this?

I thought that Meacham made another excellent point regarding Jefferson's reaction to the events that were unfolding in 1775 and 1776. Jefferson wasn't just shaping events, he was influenced by them as well. On page 93, Meacham writes:

"The human element of Jefferson's service in Philadelphia is sometimes minimized, with more attention paid to textual investigations of his resonant state papers. Yet the personal and the philosophical were always intimately connected: The Jefferson of the summer of 1776 was shaped by the tensions and contests of 1775. What he read of the deteriorating relations with Dunmore and of the bloodshed and fears in Virginia steeled him for the war ahead."

David wrote: "I recently read the book "Tories: Fighting for the King in America's First Civil War" by Thomas B. Allen. I never realized how divided our country really was and how bitter it became between the remaining loyalists and the rebellion. The title is quite true by referring to it as America's first civil war."

Thanks David. Please remember to post the book too.

Thomas B. Allen

Peter wrote: "Two of the things that struck me (and that are easy to forget about) were mortality and time. Nowadays, we easily send e-mail to a bunch of people all over the world and get responses in minutes or..."

Thanks, Peter. I think you tend to be more reflective in letter writing than email. You can send a tweet with just a few characters. Although, people sent short notes/letters, I think it gives you time to think.

Death was commonplace and I think colonists understood this better than we do today.

David wrote: "Bryan wrote: "We just started to talk about this in the last chapter, but here, Meacham brings out that everyone did not jump on the "revolution train." TJ lived in a world of divided opinion.

I ..."

David and Steve, yes, I agree, it was not a "slam dunk" revolution. Especially regarding the military side, things did not shape up well for the colonists. We forget this as time passes and we read the result.

Kathy wrote: "When drafting the Declaration of Independence we see Jefferson again showing anti-slavery tendencies. This seems to be such a conundrum as he kept slaves his entire life. I wonder what he was reall..."

I think he was conflicted, too. In his mind, he wanted to abolish the slave trade, emancipate the slave, and deport them. However, in life, he was more practical, I think. He might have needed his slaves, the national sentiment just wasn't there, so he knew not to push.

Greg wrote: "I thought that Meacham made another excellent point regarding Jefferson's reaction to the events that were unfolding in 1775 and 1776. Jefferson wasn't just shaping events, he was influenced by th..."

Meacham does a good job in giving us some context and I do think Dunmore's statements and other British actions pushed him farther down the road of separation.

Here is a good quote from the book that sums up some things were are talking about:

"The Jefferson style-cultivate his elders, make himself pleasant to his contemporaries, and use his pen and his intellect to shape the debate-armed him well for the national arena." (p. 83)

Declaration of Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, Part One:

If it was possible for men, who exercise their reason to believe, that the divine Author of our existence intended a part of the human race to hold an absolute property in, and an unbounded power over others, marked out by his infinite goodness and wisdom, as the objects of a legal domination never rightfully resistible, however severe and oppressive, the inhabitants of these colonies might at least require from the parliament of Great-Britain some evidence, that this dreadful authority over them, has been granted to that body. But a reverance for our Creator, principles of humanity, and the dictates of common sense, must convince all those who reflect upon the subject, that government was instituted to promote the welfare of mankind, and ought to be administered for the attainment of that end. The legislature of Great-Britain, however, stimulated by an inordinate passion for a power not only unjustifiable, but which they know to be peculiarly reprobated by the very constitution of that kingdom, and desparate of success in any mode of contest, where regard should be had to truth, law, or right, have at length, deserting those, attempted to effect their cruel and impolitic purpose of enslaving these colonies by violence, and have thereby rendered it necessary for us to close with their last appeal from reason to arms. - Yet, however blinded that assembly may be, by their intemperate rage for unlimited domination, so to sight justice and the opinion of mankind, we esteem ourselves bound by obligations of respect to the rest of the world, to make known the justice of our cause.

Our forefathers, inhabitants of the island of Great-Britain, left their native land, to seek on these shores a residence for civil and religious freedom. At the expense of their blood, at the hazard of their fortunes, without the least charge to the country from which they removed, by unceasing labour, and an unconquerable spirit, they effected settlements in the distant and unhospitable wilds of America, then filled with numerous and warlike barbarians. -- Societies or governments, vested with perfect legislatures, were formed under charters from the crown, and an harmonious intercourse was established between the colonies and the kingdom from which they derived their origin. The mutual benefits of this union became in a short time so extraordinary, as to excite astonishment. It is universally confessed, that the amazing increase of the wealth, strength, and navigation of the realm, arose from this source; and the minister, who so wisely and successfully directed the measures of Great-Britain in the late war, publicly declared, that these colonies enabled her to triumph over her enemies. --Towards the conclusion of that war, it pleased our sovereign to make a change in his counsels. -- From that fatal movement, the affairs of the British empire began to fall into confusion, and gradually sliding from the summit of glorious prosperity, to which they had been advanced by the virtues and abilities of one man, are at length distracted by the convulsions, that now shake it to its deepest foundations. -- The new ministry finding the brave foes of Britain, though frequently defeated, yet still contending, took up the unfortunate idea of granting them a hasty peace, and then subduing her faithful friends.

These devoted colonies were judged to be in such a state, as to present victories without bloodshed, and all the easy emoluments of statuteable plunder. -- The uninterrupted tenor of their peaceable and respectful behaviour from the beginning of colonization, their dutiful, zealous, and useful services during the war, though so recently and amply acknowledged in the most honourable manner by his majesty, by the late king, and by parliament, could not save them from the meditated innovations. -- Parliament was influenced to adopt the pernicious project, and assuming a new power over them, have in the course of eleven years, given such decisive specimens of the spirit and consequences attending this power, as to leave no doubt concerning the effects of acquiescence under it. They have undertaken to give and grant our money without our consent, though we have ever exercised an exclusive right to dispose of our own property; statutes have been passed for extending the jurisdiction of courts of admiralty and vice-admiralty beyond their ancient limits; for depriving us of the accustomed and inestimable privilege of trial by jury, in cases affecting both life and property; for suspending the legislature of one of the colonies; for interdicting all commerce to the capital of another; and for altering fundamentally the form of government established by charter, and secured by acts of its own legislature solemnly confirmed by the crown; for exempting the "murderers" of colonists from legal trial, and in effect, from punishment; for erecting in a neighbouring province, acquired by the joint arms of Great-Britain and America, a despotism dangerous to our very existence; and for quartering soldiers upon the colonists in time of profound peace. It has also been resolved in parliament, that colonists charged with committing certain offences, shall be transported to England to be tried.

But why should we enumerate our injuries in detail? By one statute it is declared, that parliament can "of right make laws to bind us in all cases whatsoever." What is to defend us against so enormous, so unlimited a power? Not a single man of those who assume it, is chosen by us; or is subject to our control or influence; but, on the contrary, they are all of them exempt from the operation of such laws, and an American revenue, if not diverted from the ostensible purposes for which it is raised, would actually lighten their own burdens in proportion, as they increase ours. We saw the misery to which such despotism would reduce us. We for ten years incessantly and ineffectually besieged the throne as supplicants; we reasoned, we remonstrated with parliament, in the most mild and decent language.

Administration sensible that we should regard these oppressive measures as freemen ought to do, sent over fleets and armies to enforce them. The indignation of the Americans was roused, it is true; but it was the indignation of a virtuous, loyal, and affectionate people. A Congress of delegates from the United Colonies was assembled at Philadelphia, on the fifth day of last September. We resolved again to offer an humble and dutiful petition to the King, and also addressed our fellow-subjects of Great-Britain. We have pursued every temperate, every respectful measure; we have even proceeded to break off our commercial intercourse with our fellow-subjects, as the last peaceable admonition, that our attachment to no nation upon earth should supplant our attachment to liberty. -- This, we flattered ourselves, was the ultimate step of the controversy: but subsequent events have shewn, how vain was this hope of finding moderation in our enemies.

Several threatening expressions against the colonies were inserted in his majesty's speech; our petition, tho' we were told it was a decent one, and that his majesty had been pleased to receive it graciously, and to promise laying it before his parliament, was huddled into both houses among a bundle of American papers, and there neglected. The lords and commons in their address, in the month of February, said, that "a rebellion at that time actually existed within the province of Massachusetts-Bay; and that those concerned with it, had been countenanced and encouraged by unlawful combinations and engagements, entered into by his majesty's subjects in several of the other colonies; and therefore they besought his majesty, that he would take the most effectual measures to inforce due obediance to the laws and authority of the supreme legislature." -- Soon after, the commercial intercourse of whole colonies, with foreign countries, and with each other, was cut off by an act of parliament; by another several of them were intirely prohibited from the fisheries in the seas near their coasts, on which they always depended for their sustenance; and large reinforcements of ships and troops were immediately sent over to general Gage.

Fruitless were all the entreaties, arguments, and eloquence of an illustrious band of the most distinguished peers, and commoners, who nobly and strenuously asserted the justice of our cause, to stay, or even to mitigate the heedless fury with which these accumulated and unexampled outrages were hurried on. -- equally fruitless was the interference of the city of London, of Bristol, and many other respectable towns in our favor. Parliament adopted an insidious manoeuvre calculated to divide us, to establish a perpetual auction of taxations where colony should bid against colony, all of them uninformed what ransom would redeem their lives; and thus to extort from us, at the point of the bayonet, the unknown sums that should be sufficient to gratify, if possible to gratify, ministerial rapacity, with the miserable indulgence left to us of raising, in our own mode, the prescribed tribute. What terms more rigid and humiliating could have been dictated by remorseless victors to conquered enemies? in our circumstances to accept them, would be to deserve them.

Soon after the intelligence of these proceedings arrived on this continent, general Gage, who in the course of the last year had taken possession of the town of Boston, in the province of Massachusetts-Bay, and still occupied it a garrison, on the 19th day of April, sent out from that place a large detachment of his army, who made an unprovoked assault on the inhabitants of the said province, at the town of Lexington, as appears by the affidavits of a great number of persons, some of whom were officers and soldiers of that detachment, murdered eight of the inhabitants, and wounded many others. From thence the troops proceeded in warlike array to the town of Concord, where they set upon another party of the inhabitants of the same province, killing several and wounding more, until compelled to retreat by the country people suddenly assembled to repel this cruel aggression. Hostilities, thus commenced by the British troops, have been since prosecuted by them without regard to faith or reputation. -- The inhabitants of Boston being confined within that town by the general their governor, and having, in order to procure their dismission, entered into a treaty with him, it was stipulated that the said inhabitants having deposited their arms with their own magistrate, should have liberty to depart, taking with them their other effects. They accordingly delivered up their arms, but in open violation of honour, in defiance of the obligation of treaties, which even savage nations esteemed sacred, the governor ordered the arms deposited as aforesaid, that they might be preserved for their owners, to be seized by a body of soldiers; detained the greatest part of the inhabitants in the town, and compelled the few who were permitted to retire, to leave their most valuable effects behind.

By this perfidy wives are separated from their husbands, children from their parents, the aged and the sick from their relations and friends, who wish to attend and comfort them; and those who have been used to live in plenty and even elegance, are reduced to deplorable distress.

Declaration of Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, Part Two:

The general, further emulating his ministerial masters, by a proclamation bearing date on the 12th day of June, after venting the grossest falsehoods and calumnies against the good people of these colonies, proceeds to "declare them all, either by name or description, to be rebels and traitors, to supersede the course of the common law, and instead thereof to publish and order the use and exercise of the law martial." -- His troops have butchered our countrymen, have wantonly burnt Charlestown, besides a considerable number of houses in other places; our ships and vessels are seized; the necessary supplies of provisions are intercepted, and he is exerting his utmost power to spread destruction and devastation around him.

We have rceived certain intelligence, that general Carelton[Carleton], the governor of Canada, is instigating the people of that province and the Indians to fall upon us; and we have but too much reason to apprehend, that schemes have been formed to excite domestic enemies against us. In brief, a part of these colonies now feel, and all of them are sure of feeling, as far as the vengeance of administration can inflict them, the complicated calamities of fire, sword and famine. We(2) are reduced to the alternative of chusing an unconditional submission to the tyranny of irritated ministers, or resistance by force. -- The latter is our choice. -- We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery. -- Honour, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them, if we basely entail hereditary bondage upon them.

Our cause is just. Our union is perfect. Our internal resources are great, and, if necessary, foreign assistance is undoubtedly attainable. -- We gratefully acknowledge, as signal instances of the Divine favour towards us, that his Providence would not permit us to be called into this severe controversy, until we were grown up to our present strength, had been previously exercised in warlike operation, and possessed of the means of defending ourselves. With hearts fortified with these animating reflections, we most solemnly, before God and the world, declare, that, exerting the utmost energy of those powers, which our beneficent Creator hath graciously bestowed upon us, the arms we have been compelled by our enemies to assume, we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverence, employ for the preservation of our liberties; being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live slaves.

Lest this declaration should disquiet the minds of our friends and fellow-subjects in any part of the empire, we assure them that we mean not to dissolve that union which has so long and so happily subsisted between us, and which we sincerely wish to see restored. -- Necessity has not yet driven us into that desperate measure, or induced us to excite any other nation to war against them. -- We have not raised armies with ambitious designs of separating from Great-Britain, and establishing independent states. We fight not for glory or for conquest. We exhibit to mankind the remarkable spectacle of a people attacked by unprovoked enemies, without any imputation or even suspicion of offence. They boast of their privileges and civilization, and yet proffer no milder conditions than servitude or death.

In our own native land, in defence of the freedom that is our birthright, and which we ever enjoyed till the late violation of it -- for the protection of our property, acquired solely by the honest industry of our fore-fathers and ourselves, against violence actually offered, we have taken up arms. We shall lay them down when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, and all danger of their being renewed shall be removed, and not before.

With an humble confidence in the mercies of the supreme and impartial Judge and Ruler of the Universe, we most devoutly implore his divine goodness to protect us happily through this great conflict, to dispose our adversaries to reconciliation on reasonable terms, and thereby to relieve the empire from the calamities of civil war.
(Source: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_centu...)

For TJ, what role does writing declarations have in the currency of power? Why is TJ agreeing to write these declarations?

Just thinking (I posted this in the previous week's discussion) about the Olive Branch Petition from Chapter 8, with John Dickinson. I posted there what John Adams though about Dickinson in a private letter, where he called Dickinson 'a piddling genius'. Adams was very much opposed to the Olive Branch Petition, but finally relented, not convinced, but realizing the futility of continuing the argument when so many of the 2nd Continental Congress was in unrelenting support of that petition.

David McCullough

Yeah, I think it was a time that everyone was not on-board for full separation.

To me, it shows great politics. Those who supported independence like TJ and Adams probably knew the petition wouldn't go far, but it was important to reach out, give them time, etc. At least that is what I think TJ was doing, Meacham doesn't go into detail here, maybe there is little documentary evidence.

Jefferson's Original Draft of DOI:

Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia behind a veil of Congressionally imposed secrecy in June 1776 for a country wracked by military and political uncertainties. In anticipation of a vote for independence, the Continental Congress on June 11 appointed Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston as a committee to draft a declaration of independence. The committee then delegated Thomas Jefferson to undertake the task. Jefferson worked diligently in private for days to compose a document. Proof of the arduous nature of the work can be seen in the fragment of the first known composition draft of the declaration, which is on public display here for the first time.

Jefferson then made a clean or "fair" copy of the composition declaration, which became the foundation of the document, labeled by Jefferson as the "original Rough draught." Revised first by Adams, then by Franklin, and then by the full committee, a total of forty-seven alterations including the insertion of three complete paragraphs was made on the text before it was presented to Congress on June 28. After voting for independence on July 2, the Congress then continued to refine the document, making thirty-nine additional revisions to the committee draft before its final adoption on the morning of July 4. The "original Rough draught" embodies the multiplicity of corrections, additions and deletions that were made at each step. Although most of the alterations are in Jefferson's handwriting (Jefferson later indicated the changes he believed to have been made by Adams and Franklin), quite naturally he opposed many of the changes made to his document.
(Source: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/declara/d...)

More:
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures...
http://www.princeton.edu/~tjpapers/de...

Text of Draft of DOI:

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for a people to advance from that subordination in which they have hitherto remained, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the equal and independent station to which the laws of nature and of nature's god entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the change

We hold these truths to be [sacred and undeniable] selfevident, that all men are created equal and independent; that from that equal creation they derive in rights inherent and inalienables, among which are the preservation of life, and liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these ends, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government shall become destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing it's powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes: and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. but when a long train of abuses and usurpations, begun at a distinguished period, and pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to [subject] reduce them to arbitrary power, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --

Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to expunge their former systems of government. the history of his present majesty is a history of unremitting injuries and usurpations, among which no fact stands single or solitary to contradict the uniform tenor of the rest, all of which have in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. to prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world, for the truth of which we pledge a faith yet unsullied by falsehood.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good:

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has neglected utterly to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people unless those people would relinquish the right of representation [in the legislature], a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only:

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

[he has dissolved]he has refused for a long space of time, to cause others to be elected, whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise, the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within:

he has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands:

he has suffered the administration of justice totally to cease in some of these colonies, refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers:

he has made our judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount of their salaries.

he has erected a multitude of new offices by a self-assumed power, and sent hither swarms of officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

he has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies and ships of war:

he has affected to render the military, independent of and superior to civil power:

he has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitutions, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their pretended acts of legislation, for quartering large bodies of armed troops among us;

for protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders [which] they should commit on the inhabitants of these states; for cutting off our trade with all parts of the world;

for imposing taxes on us without our consent;

for depriving us of the benefits of trial by jury;

for transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses;

for taking away our charters, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments;

for suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever;

he has abdicated government here, withdrawing his governors, and declaring us out of his alegiance and protection;

he has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people:

he is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy unworthy the head of a civilized nation:

he has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions of existence:

he has incited treasonable insurrections of our fellow citizens with the allurements of forfeiture and confiscation of our property:

he has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it's most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemispere, or to incure miserable death in their transportation hither. this piratical warfare, the opprobium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain. [determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold,] he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce [determining to keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold]: and that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he had deprived them, by murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded them: thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another.

in every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. a prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a people who mean to be free. future ages will scarce believe that the hardiness of one man, adventured within the short compass of twelve years only, on so many acts of tyranny without a mask, over a people fostered and fixed in principles of liberty.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. we have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over these our states. we have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here, no one of which could warrant so strange a pretension: that these were effected at the expence of our own blood and treasure, unassisted by the wealth or the strength of Great Britain: that in constituing indeed our several forms of government, we had adopted one common king, thereby laying a foundation for perpetual league and amity with them: but that submission to their parliament was no part of our constitution, nor ever in idea, if history may be credited: and we appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, as well as to the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which were likely to interrupt our correspondence and connections. they too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity, and when occasions have been given them, by the regular course of their laws, of removing from their councils the disturbers of our harmony, they have by their free election re-established them in power. at this very time too they are permitting their chief magistrate to send over not only soldiers of our common blood, but Scotch and foreign mercenaries to invade and deluge us in blood. these facts have given the last stab to agonizing affection, and manly spirit bids us to renounce forever these unfeeling brethren. We must endeavor to forget our former love for them, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. we might have been a free and a great people together; but a communication of grandeur and of freedom it seems is below their dignity. be it so, since they will have it: the road to [glory and] happiness [and to glory] is open to us too; we will climb it apart from them [in a seperate state] and acquiesce in the necessity which denounces [pronounces][ our [everlasting Adieu!] eternal separation!

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled do , in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these states, reject and renounce the allegiance and subjection to the kinds of Great Britain and all others whe may herafter claim by, through, or under them; we utterly dissolve and break off all political connection which may have heretofore subsisted between us and the people or parliament of Great Britain; and finally we do assert and declare these colonies to be free and independent states, and that as free and independent states they shall herafter have [full] power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.
(Source: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h3...)

Final Version of DOI:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
(Source: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/char...)

Meacham makes a very interesting point about TJ's reaction to the public editing of his draft of the Declaration of Independence, indicating he took the changes personally.(p 106) Later, TJ apparently printed and disseminated his "original version to friends."(p. 108) Despite, TJ's love for reason, he could respond quite emotionally to events, including feeling criticized by his peers. This story, combined with his "sick" headaches at the loss of his first "love" Rebecca and his mother, indicates TJ was subject to intense physical and emotional responses to big events in his life.

Just an FYI, but I don't think Adams thought the petition was a good idea, nor did he think the colonists should give another crack at the English agreeing. He was decidedly for independence at that point. He was upset that, after Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill, arguing 'Powder and artillery are the most efficacious, sure and infallible conciliatory measures we can adopt." He (along with a few others) realized they weren't going to win the argument against the Olive Branch Petition. Plus, Adams was ostracized when his criticism of Dickinson was published, because lots of people respected Dickinson (at that time). Dickinson never signed the Declaration of Independence, first voting no, later abstaining each time it came to vote on it. And he knew the consequences to his reputation on that vote, 'My conduct this day, I expect will give the finishing blow to my once too great... and now too diminished popularity...' (see John Adams book (picture/author referenced above)

Changing the subject a little, but staying with the Declaration, at least in David McCullough's John Adams book, he mentioned that we got it wrong about July 4. McCullough says that nothing really happened July 4, reading both Jefferson and Adams' notes. 12 colonies voted for independence on July 2 (New York abstained).

One thing I think is wrong with the John Adams biography (at least the one I know about), McCullough says that the Secretary Charles Thomson signed it after Hancock, yet I do not see his signature. Either McCullough is wrong, or there are more than one version of the IoD out there, the one signed by just Hancock/Thomson, and the one we have been seeing all these years.

Joanne wrote: "Meacham makes a very interesting point about TJ's reaction to the public editing of his draft of the Declaration of Independence, indicating he took the changes personally.(p 106) Later, TJ appare..."

One think I have found is that TJ was sensitive to criticism all his life.

Marc, you get a sense that Adams and TJ approach politics in a different way.

So far I have been extremely impressed with the insights that this book has brought to my vision of what I thought of Jefferson. His ability to take the views of many political ideas and fuse them into one coherent document is amazing. Here is a man of stature who is able to listen and use what he hears wisely. His use of the written word while not being a debater is a real mystery to me. I doubt he was afraid of crowds and he was certainly smart enough to be a great debater. Hopefully this will be talked about more. His stance on slavery while not freeing any of his own slaves and even his defense of slavery when the British threatened to free those who would fight for England brings me to the point of where I wonder if the Americans thought of using the same tactic against the English. One more thought. Jefferson's ability to concentrate on the task before him while suffering personal tragedy in is life would have disabled many less capable men. Most men would have fallen apart by such loses. Want to say more but just can not put my words on paper tonight. I hope what I have said makes sense.

Thank you Bryan for putting the original draught of the declaration on here. TJ seems to completely blame the British for slavery. It was their idea to capture and sell other human beings and now they encourage these same people to rise up and kill those who own them, promising them freedom. I wonder does Jefferson think that he has to take care of the slaves he inherits, because they're here and he must take care of them. It seems an odd rationale. ( I wish I could quote the document, but I am writing on my i-pad good-reads app which obscures topics page while I write. )

Addendum: He uses the word "obtrude" which means to force something upon another, that the King obtrudes the practice of slavery onto the colonies.

Clayton wrote: "So far I have been extremely impressed with the insights that this book has brought to my vision of what I thought of Jefferson. His ability to take the views of many political ideas and fuse them ..."

Thanks, Clayton. I think for Meacham the use of the pen as a prime example of Jefferson's use of power. It is indeed impressive.

Clayton, could you flesh out what you were saying about the Americans using the same tactic as the British regarding slavery?

I think this is a reason why TJ is writing all these drafts and declarations: to get his message across.

Sherry wrote: "Thank you Bryan for putting the original draught of the declaration on here. TJ seems to completely blame the British for slavery. It was their idea to capture and sell other human beings and now..."

I do think TJ has a paternalistic outlook of taking care of his slaves--up to a point.

It is interesting to think what ifs....if the British abolished slavery earlier and did not import the system to the American colonies...could it be different?

Bryan wrote: "Clayton wrote: "Clayton, could you flesh out what you were saying about the Americans using the same tactic as the British regarding slavery"

Umm... no spoilers...

OK, then maybe at a later time ;-)

Hi Everyone!

I am the new kid on the block. I just wanted to say hello.

I will pick up a copy of THOMAS JEFFERSON: THE ART OF POWER, and play catch-up this weekend. A few months ago, I went to a Broadway play about Sally Hemmings and Thomas Jefferson. It definitely picked my interest. Looking forward to learning more about the President, Thomas Jefferson.

Welcome, Edith, our threads are open and catch up when you can, no pressure.

Bryan I was just thinking that if the British freed the slaves for fighting against the Americans then maybe the Americans could free the slaves for fighting against the British. The author mention how the south would object to this while the north would object because they were still importing slaves to the south. Could this have been the beginnings of the abolitionism movement in the north? I hope I am not getting into areas covered later in the book. I do not read ahead and try to stay on task.

Clayton, I think it is fine since the Dunmore proclamation is in these chapters.

Great question. You forget that the North was involved in the trade, as well.

In chapter 8, page 86, TJ says, "Nobody now entertains a doubt but that we are able to cope..." He had an unbounded optimism in the idea of a new nation in America, and he stayed focused on this idea in spite of personal losses and major obstacles facing the colonies.

Bryan wrote: "It is interesting to think what ifs....if the British abolished slavery earlier and did not import the system to the American colonies...could it be different?"

Bryan, if I remember correctly King George was an impediment to the abolishment of salvery. I supppose there was an financial reason. I have included a passage from TJ's draft of the Declaration that was edited out during those sessions that irritated TJ.

"He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, capturing and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur a miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the 'Christian' King of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where men should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative [his right to veto laws] for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce." 14

Jim

As a high school history teacher, due to time constraints, we jump right to 1776 and the Declaration of Independence. Often we forget the angst and turmoil leading up to that decision. It was not a guarantee; every one was not for Revolution. If the idea of Independence from England failed they could lose everything! Thomas Jefferson was a skilled writer. The complaints section of the declaration of Independence speaks directly to what England had done to them. We may not know now what each complaint refers to, but the colonists at the time did. The colonists could relate each complaint to a specific wrong action done by the British. While declaring Independence Jefferson is still drumming up support the cause by reminding the colonists of England’s wrongs. I am learning to appreciate Jefferson and the subtlety is his writing, which make him such a good politician.
Trisha

Thanks for posting the original rough draft of the Declaration of Independence. I can certainly see why the parts on slavery did not make the final draft. The argument that the British government imposed slavery and the slave trade on the colonists is almost laughable. The Southern plantation owners and Northern slave traders were very active and willing participants. Jefferson himself sold slaves on occasion, and, after his death, most of his slaves had to be sold to settle his estate. There was a lot of hypocrisy in this section which would have been recognized and mocked by opponents. Best not to bring up the subject at all.

The British promised slaves freedom if they fought for them. Their story after the war finished is sad. Former slaves were resettled in Nova Scotia but not given the means to be successful . An excellent book of historical fiction, Someone Knows My Name: A Novel, describes this period, as well as earlier events in the life of a slave captured in Africa and sold in America.



byLawrence Hill

Their hesitancy to all out declare war was wise. Obviously the Colonists were finally pushed to the limit. War is serious business. But after reading this section it seemed obvious that the British didn't even want to hear anything the colonists had to say. To me, GB was saying, "Bring it on."

On page 82, Meacham states, “For Jefferson and Randolph the key point was unity among the colonies.” This is a great point that I hadn’t considered before. How impossible would it have been to fight a country like GB and fight your own countrymen at the same time?

Lewis wrote: "In chapter 8, page 86, TJ says, "Nobody now entertains a doubt but that we are able to cope..." He had an unbounded optimism in the idea of a new nation in America, and he stayed focused on this id..."

So true, Lewis, his optimism was one of his great strengths.

Jim wrote: "Bryan wrote: "It is interesting to think what ifs....if the British abolished slavery earlier and did not import the system to the American colonies...could it be different?"

Bryan, if I remember ..."

Thanks, Jim, if memory serves, it wasn't until after George III's death that Britain abolished the slave trade. (It happened when TJ was president in 1807).

Trisha wrote: "As a high school history teacher, due to time constraints, we jump right to 1776 and the Declaration of Independence. Often we forget the angst and turmoil leading up to that decision. It was not a..."

Thanks for your thoughts, Trisha. Sorry to hear you have to cut stuff out, but you can't put in everything.

You get the impression with all these declarations and then Common Sense, they work to galvanize public opinion for independence. I know for myself it would be a scary decision.