This is the first of five newsletters tied to the 250th anniversary of the birth of America. Each newsletter will summarize and explain key events of a 50-year timeframe.
It began with a document containing a sentence now viewed as the greatest sentence ever written.
The document was The Declaration of Independence. It was signed on July 4, 1776, thus marking the birth date of the United States of America.
During the next 50 years, the resolve of the 56 men who signed the document and the 2.5 million people who resided in the 13 original colonies of the United States of America would be tested repeatedly during the country’s first 50 years of official existence.
The first effort to form an independent government in America, in 1777, created an intentionally weak central government as a guard against tyranny. The Articles of Confederation provided for a network of states, each with supreme powers in many ways. The states remained sovereign and independent. Congress could make treaties, maintain armed forces, and coin money, but had no way to levy taxes to pay for such things. There was no chief executive and no judiciary. The system essentially was a failure.
A Constitutional Convention was called in 1787 to remedy the problem. The plan was to amend the Articles of Confederation, but it soon became clear that the weaknesses in the system of confederation required a full rewrite, a new document, a new approach. The result was another great achievement of the first half-century, for that matter, a great achievement that has served well for 250 years: The Constitution of the United States of America.
The Revolutionary War, which broke out more than a year before the Declaration of Independence was signed, made it clear that a stronger central government was needed.
The war began with armed battles at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts between the British Army and thousands of American volunteers known as the Minute Men.
The British eventually discovered that they were far outnumbered in trying to concentrate their attack in America’s heartland, the New England coast. They thus expanded their effort to the south as far as Florida and the west as far as the Mississippi River.
The war dragged on for more than eight years, ending in September 1783 with the British formally recognizing the United States as “free, sovereign and independent” through a treaty negotiated in Paris.
The U.S. death toll in the war was estimated at 25,000, including 6,800 men killed in battle and 18,500 patriots who died of disease. Overall, about 1 percent of the U.S. population died in the war – the equivalent of about 3.5 million people dying in a war today. Amazingly, there would be a war in the future, with an even greater death rate.
British losses totaled more than 43,000 men with about 6,000 killed in battle and 35,000 who died of disease, twice the number of U.S. soldiers who succumbed to disease.
A major factor in the numbers killed by disease was that smallpox raged throughout North America during the war, resulting in 130,000 deaths. George Washington’s decision to have his troops vaccinated against smallpox was viewed as one of his most important decisions of the war.
Ultimately, within just a few years, the U.S. would have to fight a second war against Great Britain to affirm its independence. The War of 1812 began in the wake of Great Britain’s efforts to impede U.S. trade with France at a time when Great Britain was at war with France. During this time, the British Royal Navy also captured American vessels in the Atlantic and forced its seamen into service in the British Navy, arguing that they were still British citizens. Before this war ended, in 1815, the British invaded and burned much of Washington.
Although war was the dominant event of America’s first 50 years in many ways, an argument can be made that achieving independence from Great Britain was on a par in importance with another transformative event of the same half-century. That would be the Louisiana Purchase. The U.S. paid France $15 million for land that roughly doubled the physical size of the U.S. Perhaps one of the greatest real estate bargains in history.
The territory, situated on the west side of the Mississippi River, would come to include all of the states of Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, as well as parts of 10 other states stretching from the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of Mexico.
The story of America’s first 50 years also has to include the fact that the first five presidents who served during this time – George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe – are generally ranked among America’s 15 best presidents. Only one other half-century in history comes close to this record. (Story to come later in this series.)
America’s first half-century ended, however, on an extraordinarily sad note. Remember that greatest sentence ever written?
“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.”
Thirty-six words that shaped the next 250 years and hopefully, hundreds more to come.
It is the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence, a document written by Thomas Jefferson and edited by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin.
Franklin died on April 17, 1790 at age 84.
Jefferson and Adams, in an eerie coincidence, died at their homes within hours of each other on the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1826. Jefferson was 83. Adams was 90.
America’s July 4 celebration was darkened that year like no other.
Next: America’s second half-century – another major war, slavery, assassination, the Indians, mechanized transportation.
. . . part of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, which represents more than 60 professional writers with Iowa roots. My goal today was to provide an enjoyable, informative, or worthwhile reading experience – ideally, two or three of these things. Although my subject matter is widely varied in an increasingly specialized Substack world, I hope you may view this diversity as an added value that promotes thought about a wide range of issues. But I digress. This newsletter is free. Which makes me all the more appreciative of those who choose to contribute. I am deeply grateful for such entirely voluntary financial support. In response, I will contribute net proceeds to nonprofit organizations that promote freedom of speech or cover local news in the Midwest. As a paid subscriber, you are thus encouraging me to continue writing so that both of us may effect some overall good for our society. Best wishes and happy reading. You can subscribe or upgrade to paid with the button below.
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