The Cost of Liberty: The Life of John Dickinson by William Murchison

Author:William Murchison [Murchison, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Political
ISBN: 9781497635500
Google: RakdAwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 21560960
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2012-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

TEN

“LET MY COUNTRY TREAT ME AS SHE PLEASES”

FRESH EVENTS RUSHED HARD upon the many enmeshed already in sorting out earlier happenings. The British evacuation of Boston in March 1776, and the failure a month earlier of a plan to invade the southern colonies, had dashed British hopes for a quick end to the rebellion. It had to be acknowledged, nevertheless, that the world’s greatest empire was merely warming to the task of maintaining its unity and grandeur. By June 1, a waterborne British force had appeared opposite Charleston. Whatever the Continental Congress meant to do, it had to do quickly—assuming the men who made up the Congress, with their varied notions of the public good, could be brought to one mind.

First there had to be an instrument setting forth intentions. It came in the form of a resolution Richard Henry Lee offered on June 7, on the authorization of the same Virginia convention that only days earlier had asked the Congress for what Lee now proposed. Here they were at last, the stark words behind the stark idea, held up for general inspection. What did Americans want? Independence? Maintenance of the British connection in some form or another? It was time to decide—past time, indeed.

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