Who was Thomas Preston
BOSTON MASSACRE 25 PTS. Document A 1. Who was Thomas Preston? 2. When was it written? 3. Why was it written? 4. According to this document, what happened at the Boston Massacre? 5. According to this document, who was responsible for the Boston Massacre? 6. How trustworthy is this account of what happened at the Boston Massacre? Explain your reasoning. Document B 1. Who was Samuel Drowne? 2. What kind of document is this? 3. When was this document created? 4. According to this document, what happened at the Boston Massacre? 5. According to this document, who was responsible for the Boston Massacre? 6. How trustworthy is this account of what happened at the Boston Massacre? Explain your reasoning. 7. Based on these documents, which document do you think provides a more trustworthy account of what happened at the Boston Massacre? Why? DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 25 PTS. 1. Who all is Jefferson declaring this Independence to? 2. What is the purpose of the Declaration of Independence as stated in the introductory paragraph? 3. Why was justifying the revolution so necessary? 4. What groups did the Continental Congress hope to sway by this document? 5. List in your own words three things that Jefferson accuses the King and/or Parliament of doing? 6. What references does Jefferson have to a ‘higher power’ in the Declaration? JEFFERSON AND HAMILTON 25 PTS. 1. In Hamilton’s opinion, what was the best way for people to work and make a good living? 2. In Jefferson’s opinion what is the best way for people to work and make a good living? 3. How did the views of Hamilton and Jefferson differ on the issue of Military Power? 4. How did the views of Hamilton & Jefferson differ on the issue of a National Bank? 5. In Hamilton’s opinion with which country should the U.S. be allies (friends)? 6. In Jefferson’s opinion with which country should the U.S. be allies (friends)? 7. According to Hamilton who should be in charge of the government? 8. According to Jefferson should be in charge of the government?
The declaration of independence reading
In Congress, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, 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 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. Georgia Button Gwinnett Lyman Hall George Walton North Carolina William Hooper Joseph Hewes John Penn South Carolina Edward Rutledge Thomas Heyward, Jr. Thomas Lynch, Jr. Arthur Middleton Massachusetts John Hancock Maryland Samuel Chase William Paca Thomas Stone Charles Carroll of Carrollton Virginia George Wythe Richard Henry Lee Thomas Jefferson Benjamin Harrison Thomas Nelson, Jr. Francis Lightfoot Lee Carter Braxton Pennsylvania Robert Morris Benjamin Rush Benjamin Franklin John Morton George Clymer James Smith George Taylor James Wilson George Ross Delaware Caesar Rodney George Read Thomas McKean New York William Floyd Philip Livingston Francis Lewis Lewis Morris New Jersey Richard Stockton John Witherspoon Francis Hopkinson John Hart Abraham Clark New Hampshire Josiah Bartlett William Whipple Massachusetts Samuel Adams John Adams Robert Treat Paine Elbridge Gerry Rhode Island Stephen Hopkins William Ellery Connecticut Roger Sherman Samuel Huntington William Williams Oliver Wolcott New Hampshire Matthew Thornton
The Boston Massacre
Document A: Thomas Preston On Monday Night about Eight o’Clock two Soldiers were attacked and beat. But the Party of the Towns-People in order to carry Matters to the utmost Length, broke into two Meeting-Houses and rang the Alarm Bells, which I supposed was for Fire as usual, but was soon undeceived. About Nine some of the Guard came to and informed me, the Town Inhabitants were assembling to attack the Troops, and that the Bells were ringing as the Signal for that Purpose and not for Fire, and the Beacon intended to be fired to bring in the distant People of the Country. This, as I was Captain of the Day, occasioned my repairing immediately to the Main-Guard. In my Way there I saw the People in great Commotion, and heard them use the most cruel and horrid Threats against the Troops. In a few Minutes after I reached the Guard, about an hundred People passed it and went towards the Custom-House where the King’s Money is lodged. They immediately surrounded the Sentinel posted there, and with Clubs and other weapons threatened to execute their Vengeance on him. I was soon informed by a Townsman their Intention was to carry off the Soldier from his Post and probably murder him. On which I desired him to return for further Intelligence, and he soon came back and assured me he heard the Mob declare they would murder him. This I feared might be a Prelude to their plundering the King’s Chest. I immediately sent a non-commissioned Officer and twelve Men to protect both the Sentinel and the King’s Money, and very soon followed myself to prevent (if possible) all Disorder; fearing lest the Officer and Soldiery, by the Insults and Provocations of the Rioters, should be thrown off their Guard and commit some rash Act. They soon rushed through the People, and by charging their Bayonets in half Circle, kept them at a little distance. Nay, so far was I from intending the Death of any Person that I suffered the Troops to go to the Spot where the unhappy Affair took Place without any Loading in their Pieces; nor did I ever give Orders for loading them. This remiss Conduct in me perhaps merits Censure; yet it is Evidence, resulting from the Nature of Things, which is the best and surest that can be offered, that my Intention was not to act offensively, but the contrary Part, and that not without Compulsion. The Mob still increased and were more outrageous, striking their Clubs or Bludgeons one against another, and calling out, “come on you Rascals, you bloody Backs, you Lobster Scoundrels; fire if you dare, G-d damn you, fire and be damn’d; we know you dare not,” and much more such Language was used. At this Time I was between the Soldiers and the Mob, parleying with, and endeavouring all in my Power to persuade them to retire peaceably; but to no Purpose. They advanced to the Points of the Bayonets, struck some of them and even the Muzzles of the Pieces, and seemed a general Attack was made on the Men by a great Number of heavy Clubs, and SnowBalls being thrown at them, by which all our Lives were in imminent Danger; some Persons at the same Time from behind calling out, “Damn your Bloods, why don’t you fire?” Instantly three or four of the Soldiers fired, one after another, and directly after three more in the same Confusion and Hurry. The Mob then ran away, except three unhappy Men who instantly expired, in which number was Mr. Gray, at whose Rope-Walk the prior Quarrel took Place; one more is since dead, three others are dangerously, and four slightly wounded. The Whole of this melancholy Affair was transacted in almost 20 minutes. On my asking the Soldiers why they fired without Orders, they said they heard the Word “Fire,” and supposed it came from me. This might be the Case, as many of the Mob called out “Fire, fire,” but I assured the Men that I gave no such Order, that my Words were, “Don’t fire, stop your Firing:” In short, it was scarce possible for the Soldiers to know who said fire, or don’t fire, or stop your Firing. Source: The Case of Capt. Preston of the 29th Regiment, Public Advertiser (London), April 28, 1770
Document B: Samuel Drowne Samuel Drowne, of Boston, of lawful age, testifieth and saith, that bout nine of the clock of the evening of the fifth day of March current, standing at his own door in Cornhill, saw about fourteen or fifteen soldiers of the 29th regiment, who came from Murray’s barrack, some of whom were armed with naked cutlasses, swords, or bayonets, others with clubs, fire shovels, or tongs, and came upon the inhabitants of the town, then standing or walking in Corhill, and abused some and violently assaulted others as they met them, most of whom were without so much as a stick in their hands to defend themselves, as the deponent very clearlycould discern, it being moon-light, and himself being one of the asaulted persons. All or most of the said soldiers he saw go by the way of Cornhill, Crooked lan, and Royal Exchange lane into King street, and there followed them, and soon discovered them to be quarrelling and fighting with people whom they saw there, which the deponent thinks were not more than a dozen, when the most of them were gentlemen, standing together a little soldiers came there first, armed as aforesaid. Of those dozen people, the Town-house upon the Exchange. At the appearance of those soldiers so armed, the most of the twelve persons went off, some of them being first assaulted. After which the said soldiers were observed by the deponent to go towards the main guard, from whence were at the same time issuing and coming into King street, five soldiers of said guard a corporal armed with firelocks, who called out to the fore-mentioned soldiers armed with cutlasses, &c., and said to them, “Go away,” on which they dispersed and went out of King street, sone one way and some another — by this time were collected together in King street about two hundred people and then the deponent stood upon the steps of the Exchange tavern, being the next house to the Custom-house; and soon after saw Capt. Preston, whom he well knew, with a number of soliders armed with firelocks, draw up near the west corner of the Custom-house; and at that instant the deponent thinks so great a part of the people were dispersed at the sight of the armed soliders, as that not more than twenty or thirty remained in King street; those who did remain being mostly sailors and other persons meanly dressed, called out to the armed soldiers and dared them to fire, upon which the deponent heard Capt. Preston say to the soldiers, “Damn your bloods! why don’t you fire?” The soldiers not regarding those words of their captain, he immediately said, “Fire.” Upon which they fired irregularly, pointing their guns variously in a part of a circle as they stood: during the time of the soliders firing, the deponent saw the flashes of two gunes fired from the Custom-house, one of which was out of a window of the chamber westward of the balcony and the other from the balcony, the gun which he clearly discerned being pointed through the ballisters, and the person who held the gun in a stooping posture, withdraw himself into the house, having a handkerchief or some kind of cloth over his face. After this the deponent assisted in carrying off the dead and wounded, as soons as the soldiers would permit the people so to do, for at first they were cruel enough to obstruct the carrying them off. SAMUEL DROWNE. Source: Summary of the sworn testimony of Samuel Drowne, March 16, 1770.
Jefferson and Hamilton
JEFFERSON AND HAMILTON Issue/Topic: ECONOMY From: Report on Manufactures written to the Second Congress (December 5, 1791), by Alexander Hamilton “This is not among the least valuable of the means, by which manufacturing institutions contribute to augment the general stock of industry and production. In places where those institutions prevail, besides the persons regularly engaged in them, they afford occasional and extra employment to industrious individuals and families, who are willing to devote the leisure resulting from the intermissions of their ordinary pursuits to collateral labours, as a resource of multiplying their acquisitions or [their] enjoyments. The husbandman himself experiences a new source of profit and support from the encreased industry of his wife and daughters; invited and stimulated by the demands of the neighboring manufactories. “Besides this advantage of occasional employment to classes having different occupations, there is another of a nature allied to it [and] of a similar tendency. This is – the employment of a persons who would otherwise be idle (and in many cases a burthen on the community), either from the byass of temper, habit, infirmity of body, or some other cause, indisposing, or disqualifying them for the toils of the Country.”
Issue/Topic: ECONOMY From: Notes on the State of Virginia (1785), by Thomas Jefferson “Lands in Europe were either cultivated or ‘locked up against the cultivator,’ and manufacturing was resorted to in order to support the surplus of people. On the other hand, in America there was ‘an immensity of land courting the industry of the husbandman.’ Jefferson continued, ‘Those who labour in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever he had a chosen people, whose breasts he has made his peculiar deposit for the substantial and genuine virtue… While we have land to labour then, let us never wish to see our citizens occupied at a work-bench. Or twirling a distaff. Carpenters, masons, smiths, are wanting in husbandry: but, for the general operations of manufacture, let our work-shops remain in Europe. …The mobs of great cities add just so much to the support of pure government, as sores do the strength of the human body. It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigour.’ ”
Issue/Topic: MILITARY POWER From: Letter to Jonathan Dayton (November 1799), by Alexander Hamilton “Our naval force ought to be completed to six Ships of the line Twelve frigates and twenty four sloops of War. More at this juncture would be disproportioned to our resources. Less would be inadequate to the end to be accomplished. “Our Military force should for the present be kept upon its actual footing; making provision for a reenlistment of the men for five years in the event of a settlement of differences with France—with this condition that in case of peace between Great Britain France and Spain, the U. States being then also at peace, all the Privates of twelve additional Regiments of Infantry and of the Regiments of Dragoons exceeding Twenty to a Company shall be disbanded. The corps of Artillerists may be left to retain the numbers which it shall happen to have; but without being recruited until the number of privates shall fall below the standard of the Infantry & Dragoons. A power ought to be given to the President to augment the four Old Regiments to their War Establishmnt… “The Institution of a Military Academy will be an auxiliary of great importance. “Manufactories of every article, the woolen parts of cloathing included, which are essential to the supply of the army ought to be established.”
Issue/Topic: MILITARY POWER From: Letter to Elbridge Gerry (January 26, 1799), by Thomas Jefferson “I am for a government rigorously frugal & simple, applying all the possible savings of the public revenue to the discharge of the national debt; and not for a multiplication of officers & salaries merely to male partisans, & for increasing, by every device, the public debt, on the principle of it’s being a public blessing. I am for relying, for internal defence, on our militia solely, till actual invasion, and for such a naval force only as may protect our coasts and harbors from such depredations as we have experienced; and not for a standing army in time of peace, which may overawe the public sentiment; nor for a navy, which, by it’s own expenses and the eternal wars in which it will implicate us with public burthens, & sink us under them.”
Issue/Topic: NATIONAL BANK From: Report on a National Bank (to Congress on December 14, 1790), by Alexander Hamilton “It is a fact well understood, that public Banks have found admission and patronage among the principal and most enlightened commercial nations. They have successively obtained in Italy, Germany, Holland, England, and France, as well as the United States. And it is a circumstance, which cannot but have considerable weight, in a candid estimate of their tendency, that after an experience of centuries, there exists not a question about their util[ity] in the countries in which they have been so long established… “The following are among the principal advantages of a Bank. First. The augmentation of the active or productive capital of a country. Gold and Silver, when they are employed merely as the instruments of exchange and alienation, have been not improperly denominated dead Stock; but when deposited in Banks, to become the basis of a paper circulation, which takes their character and place, as the signs or representatives of value, they then acquire life, or, in other words, an active and productive quality.”
Issue/Topic: NATIONAL BANK From: Opinion on the Constutionality of Establishing a National Bank (February 15, 1791), by Thomas Jefferson “… I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground that ‘all powers not delegated to the U.S. by the Constitution, not prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states or to the people’ [Xth. Amendmt.]. To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the power of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition. “The incorporation of a bank, and other powers assumed by this bill have not, it my opinion, been delegated to the U.S. by the Constitution. I. They are not among the powers specially enumerated, for these are: 1. A power to lay taxes for the purpose of paying the debts of the U.S. But no debt is paid by this bill, nor any tax laid. Were it a bill to raise money, it’s origination in the Senate would condemn it by the constitution
Issue/Topic: FOREIGN RELATIONS/FOREIGN POLICY From: Letter to Edward Harrington (May 20, 1792), by Alexander Hamilton “In respect to our foreign politics the views of these Gentlemen are in my judgment equally unsound & dangerous. They have a womanish attachment to France and a womanish resentment against Great Britain. They would draw us into the closest embrace of the former and involve us in all the consequences of her politics, and they would risk the peace of the country in their endeavors to keep us at the greatest possible distance from the latter. This disposition goes to a length particularly in Mr. Jefferson of which, till lately, I had no adequate Idea. Various circumstances prove to me that if these Gentlemen were left to pursue their own course there would be in less than six months an open War between the U States and Great Britain.”
Issue/Topic: FOREIGN RELATIONS/FOREIGN POLICY From: Letter to George Mason (February 4, 1791), by Jefferson “I look with great anxiety for the firm establishment of the new government in France, being perfectly convinced that if it takes place there, it would spread sooner or later all over Europe. On the contrary a check there would retard the revival of liberty in other countries. I consider the establishment and success of their government as necessary to stay up our own and to prevent it from falling back to that kind of Half-way house, the English constitution.”
Topic/Issue: WHO SHOULD RULE? From: Hamilton’s Speech to the Constitutional Convention (June 18, 1787), by Alexander Hamilton “All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are the rich and wellborn, the other the mass of the people. The voice of the people has been said to be the voice of God; and however generally this maxim has been quoted and believed, it is not true in fact. The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right. Give therefore the first class a distinct, permanent share in the government. They will check the unsteadiness of the second, and as they cannot receive any advantage by a change they therefore will ever maintain good government. Can a democratic assembly, who annually revolve in the mass of the people be supposed steadily to pursue the public good? Nothing but a permanent body can check the imprudence of democracy. Their turbulent and uncontrouling disposition requires checks.
Topic/Issue: WHO SHOULD RULE? From: Letter to James Madison (December 20, 1787 after returning from several years in France) by Thomas Jefferson “After all, it is my principle that the will of the Majority should always prevail. If they approve the proposed Convention in all its parts I shall concur in a cheerfully, in hopes that they will amend it whenever they shall find it work wrong. I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries; as long as they are chiefly agricultural; and this will be as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part of America. When they get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, they will become corrupt, as in Europe. Above all things I hope the education of the common people will be attended to; convinced that on their good sense we may rely with the most security for the preservation of a due degree of liberty.
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