WEBVTT NOTE 5. The Response of the Continental Congress 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.600 Volume 4, Chapter 5, The Response of the Continental Congress 2 00:00:06.600 --> 00:00:12.780 The most important business before the Congress, however, was not Ticonderoga, but the problem 3 00:00:12.780 --> 00:00:18.900 of Boston and the army that Massachusetts and New England had hastily put up around 4 00:00:18.900 --> 00:00:25.620 it. What Congress decided to do about that army would determine what it would do about 5 00:00:25.620 --> 00:00:46.620 As soon as Congress opened, Dr. Warren of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress urged the Continental Congress to take responsibility for the Army around Boston by appointing a Commander-in-Chief, thus committing the other colonies irrevocably to the Revolution. 6 00:00:46.620 --> 00:00:53.620 The Congress showed its temper by not even deigning to answer. Instead, as the Massachusetts 7 00:00:54.140 --> 00:01:00.440 radicals watched with dismay, it frittered away its time in evading responsibility for 8 00:01:00.440 --> 00:01:06.720 adopting the revolution, merely sending elaborate proofs to London that the British troops had 9 00:01:06.720 --> 00:01:12.580 fired first at Lexington. It was clear that a considerable majority of the delegates, 10 00:01:12.580 --> 00:01:19.500 led by the now arch-conservative John Dickinson of Philadelphia, looked forward to reconciliation 11 00:01:19.500 --> 00:01:27.360 with Britain, rather than to waging the revolution with zest and vigor toward eventual independence. 12 00:01:27.360 --> 00:01:33.420 Joseph Galloway and Isaac Lowe, heads of the ultra-right in the First Congress, had by 13 00:01:33.420 --> 00:01:40.300 then, as outright Tories, moved outside the American dialogue as well as the Continental 14 00:01:40.300 --> 00:01:45.220 of Congress, and we're soon to slip behind British lines. 15 00:01:45.220 --> 00:01:48.420 Seething inwardly, John Adams wrote to Joseph Warren 16 00:01:48.420 --> 00:01:51.860 from Philadelphia, we find a great many bundles 17 00:01:51.860 --> 00:01:53.460 of weak nerves. 18 00:01:53.460 --> 00:01:56.740 We are obliged to be as delicate and soft and modest 19 00:01:56.740 --> 00:01:59.140 and humble as possible. 20 00:01:59.140 --> 00:02:02.300 Not receiving any reply to its letter, 21 00:02:02.300 --> 00:02:04.920 the Massachusetts Provincial Congress developed 22 00:02:04.920 --> 00:02:09.060 a careful petition, shrewdly designed to prod 23 00:02:09.060 --> 00:02:15.320 The Continental Congress into action by urging Congress to allow Massachusetts to set up 24 00:02:15.320 --> 00:02:21.540 a permanent civil government. Such official authorization of the Provincial Congress and 25 00:02:21.540 --> 00:02:27.540 the network of town committees would push the Continental Congress closer to endorsing 26 00:02:27.540 --> 00:02:34.140 an open political break with England. Above all, Massachusetts petitioned Congress to 27 00:02:34.140 --> 00:02:39.700 To Appoint a Commander-in-Chief of the Army at Cambridge, the Massachusetts petition was 28 00:02:39.700 --> 00:02:46.860 sent down via the Informer Church as personal courier and was presented to the Congress 29 00:02:46.860 --> 00:02:54.180 on June 2. Cautiously, Congress appointed a committee to maul over and report on this 30 00:02:54.180 --> 00:03:00.380 vital and controversial petition. The first part of the Massachusetts petition was relatively 31 00:03:00.380 --> 00:03:27.380 On June 7, Congress sanctioned Massachusetts' new civil government and approved the right of the people to set up their own government in the current circumstances, declaring, however, that this civil government would be only temporary until reconciliation with Britain could restore the operation of the old, disrupted Massachusetts Charter. 32 00:03:27.380 --> 00:03:33.620 Meanwhile, the right wing had been winning point after point in the Congress. An attempt 33 00:03:33.620 --> 00:03:39.820 to shift the side of the Congress northward to Connecticut, near the New England about-a-front, 34 00:03:39.820 --> 00:03:46.140 had been quashed by the Dickinson Group. So underdeveloped was the revolutionary timber 35 00:03:46.140 --> 00:03:51.480 of this Congress that when New York asked what it should do if British troops were to 36 00:03:51.480 --> 00:04:07.020 Finally, while the hypocritical plan of British Prime Minister Lord North for conciliation 37 00:04:07.020 --> 00:04:14.120 was summarily rejected by the Congress, Dickinson and James Duane of New York infuriated the 38 00:04:14.120 --> 00:04:21.120 radicals by moving, at the end of May, to send an humble and dutiful petition to the 39 00:04:21.480 --> 00:04:28.480 King, pleading for immediate negotiation and mutual accommodation. Infuriated, John Adams 40 00:04:29.280 --> 00:04:35.240 blasted such futile and humble petitioning. He argued that Congress should be making haste 41 00:04:35.240 --> 00:04:40.840 to defend the continent from the British, to take charge of the army at Cambridge and 42 00:04:40.840 --> 00:04:46.840 and even to warn that it was ready to make European alliances to aid its resistance. 43 00:04:46.840 --> 00:04:52.320 Adams was quickly backed by John Sullivan of New Hampshire, but Dickinson bitterly warned 44 00:04:52.320 --> 00:04:58.280 them that if New England didn't agree to our Pacific system, I and a number of us will 45 00:04:58.280 --> 00:05:01.500 break off from you in New England. 46 00:05:01.500 --> 00:05:07.300 The radicals, however, were prepared to accept the Dickinson-Olive Branch petition, which 47 00:05:07.300 --> 00:05:12.740 which they knew would be futile, provided that they won the crucial point, the second 48 00:05:12.740 --> 00:05:20.020 point in the Massachusetts petition, Congressional Assumption of Responsibility for the Revolutionary 49 00:05:20.020 --> 00:05:26.380 Army in New England. The Congress took measured steps toward this goal during early June by 50 00:05:26.380 --> 00:05:34.020 voting to supply funds to furnish powder, first for the Continental Army and then, frankly, 51 00:05:34.020 --> 00:05:40.500 or The American Army Before Boston. The final step, however, was whether the Congress would 52 00:05:40.500 --> 00:05:46.380 actually take over direction of the Army at Cambridge, directing the troops and furnishing 53 00:05:46.380 --> 00:05:52.320 them with both supplies and a commander-in-chief. Here, the Massachusetts radicals were in a 54 00:05:52.320 --> 00:05:59.520 cruel dilemma. Any army under the Continental Congress would mean, in contrast to a guerrilla 55 00:05:59.520 --> 00:06:05.760 of the guerrilla army, the inevitable build-up of a central state apparatus, and of a highly 56 00:06:05.760 --> 00:06:12.360 expensive and burdensome state army, which would inevitably saddle all Americans with 57 00:06:12.360 --> 00:06:19.360 heavy taxes, inflation and debt. The Massachusetts radicals can hardly be blamed for their decision 58 00:06:20.440 --> 00:06:27.120 to press for a statist continental army. The theory of revolutionary guerrilla warfare 59 00:06:27.120 --> 00:06:33.540 had yet to be fully developed, and Massachusetts was understandably desperate to weld the other 60 00:06:33.540 --> 00:06:38.400 reluctant colonies firmly to the revolutionary cause. 61 00:06:38.400 --> 00:06:46.560 On June 14, Congress took the fateful step of voting to organize an army of 15,000 men, 62 00:06:46.560 --> 00:06:54.120 and specifically to raise six, a little later ten, companies of expert backwoods riflemen 63 00:06:54.120 --> 00:07:06.640 It was not lost upon the delegates that the crack-shooting frontier riflemen had been 64 00:07:06.640 --> 00:07:12.880 particularly effective in the victory at Concord. The crucial question now remaining was the 65 00:07:12.880 --> 00:07:20.440 identity of the commander-in-chief to be appointed by Congress. On this vital issue, the Massachusetts 66 00:07:20.440 --> 00:07:50.440 Sam Adams' radical leadership, traditionally united as one man, was grievously divided. Sam Adams, almost always instinctively libertarian, began with the most individualistic and democratic plan of all, appoint no Commander-in-Chief at all, and permit the local militia soldiers themselves to elect all of their own officers up to the rank of Commander-in-Chief. 67 00:07:50.440 --> 00:07:57.440 Thomas Cushing, Robert Treat Payne, and other New Englanders wanted a New England general, the obvious choice being Artemis Ward, already in command before Boston. Ward, however, was a bit old for the job. The issue, of course, was that he was a young man. 68 00:08:20.440 --> 00:08:26.680 is not simply local pride but the crucial one of keeping control of the army in the hands 69 00:08:26.680 --> 00:08:33.680 of individualistic and democratic New Englanders rather than subject to the aristocratic colonies. 70 00:08:34.640 --> 00:08:41.520 At this crossroads, John Adams, Elbridge Gerry and Joseph Warren bent so far backward to 71 00:08:41.520 --> 00:08:48.520 achieve continental unity that they gravely compromised and sacrificed libertarian principle, 72 00:08:48.520 --> 00:08:53.720 Storing Up Untold Trouble for Individualism in the Future 73 00:08:53.720 --> 00:09:03.120 In short, they decided to support for Commander-in-Chief that conservative scion of the Virginia landed oligarchy, George Washington. 74 00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:15.920 In doing so, incidentally, John Adams, though not Warren or Gary, began a slow but steady political drift rightward out of the libertarian radical camp. 75 00:09:15.920 --> 00:09:22.400 Sam Adams, too, began to display an unsureness, a lack of confidence, that would periodically 76 00:09:22.400 --> 00:09:30.060 display itself on national issues, and would also lead him, at least temporarily, rightward. 77 00:09:30.060 --> 00:09:36.480 Something seemed to be going forever from that once uncannily sure and self-confident 78 00:09:36.480 --> 00:09:42.200 planner and organizer of the revolution, and he allowed himself to be persuaded by his 79 00:09:42.200 --> 00:09:49.200 From a short-range, opportunistic point of view, the nomination of Washington appeared 80 00:09:52.800 --> 00:09:59.440 to the radicals to have merit, not militarily, to be sure, for he had had little military 81 00:09:59.440 --> 00:10:06.440 experience and that was a series of decisive losses in the French and Indian War. The attraction 82 00:10:06.440 --> 00:10:16.440 Washington was virtually the only man who could gain the votes of most radicals and conservatives alike. 83 00:10:16.440 --> 00:10:29.440 On the one hand, socially and politically, Washington was a deep-dyed conservative and could be depended upon to support the oligarchy and classical military tactics. 84 00:10:29.440 --> 00:10:35.400 On the other hand, in the fight with Britain, he, along with most of the Virginians, was 85 00:10:35.400 --> 00:10:42.080 close to the radical camp and could be depended upon to be militant in warring against Great 86 00:10:42.080 --> 00:10:44.160 Britain. 87 00:10:44.160 --> 00:10:50.280 Even such an admirer of Washington as Marcus Cunliffe admits that Washington's best role 88 00:10:50.280 --> 00:10:56.380 during the war was political and consultative rather than military. 89 00:10:56.380 --> 00:11:02.380 Like General Eisenhower, he was a coalition general for a large part of the war. Major 90 00:11:02.380 --> 00:11:09.180 strategic plans usually lay outside his scope. If his charismatic symbols were those of the 91 00:11:09.180 --> 00:11:16.060 flag, the sword, the beautifully comparisoned horse, his day-to-day responsibilities were 92 00:11:16.060 --> 00:11:22.620 more appropriately symbolized by the chairman's gavel and the secretary's quill. It was his 93 00:11:22.620 --> 00:11:43.140 Consequently, John Adams rose in Congress on June 14 to nominate Washington, and he was 94 00:11:43.140 --> 00:11:45.460 seconded by Sam Adams. 95 00:11:45.460 --> 00:11:51.940 In so doing, they permanently alienated the vain and flighty John Hancock, who fancied 96 00:11:51.940 --> 00:11:58.940 himself in the panoplyed robes of Commander-in-Chief, and expected his fellow Massachusetts delegates 97 00:11:59.260 --> 00:12:05.980 to nominate him. Already ensconced in the high-sounding but largely honorific post of 98 00:12:05.980 --> 00:12:12.320 President of the Continental Congress, his unfounded ambition was gravely wounded by 99 00:12:12.320 --> 00:12:18.720 by their decision not to notify him in advance of what was being planned. 100 00:12:18.720 --> 00:12:26.920 The consequences of the Hancock-Adams split for future Massachusetts politics were enormous. 101 00:12:26.920 --> 00:12:35.320 For a start, from this point on, Hancock hobnobbed with and was fettered by the ultraconservatives 102 00:12:35.320 --> 00:12:41.640 of the Congress, men who were better able to satisfy his taste for finery than were 103 00:12:41.640 --> 00:12:45.520 for the Plain Men of Massachusetts. 104 00:12:45.520 --> 00:12:51.640 John Adams' plan met considerable resistance on June 14, especially from those backing 105 00:12:51.640 --> 00:12:54.140 Ward and the other candidates. 106 00:12:54.140 --> 00:13:00.740 But by the next day, resistance had melted away, and Washington was approved unanimously. 107 00:13:00.740 --> 00:13:06.180 With their main points carried, the Radicals supported the Dickinson-Olive Branch petition 108 00:13:06.180 --> 00:13:10.180 to England, which was passed by the Congress on July 5.