An American Perspective: The American Revolution

Chapter 2- Law

§7. The American Revolution

The American Revolution can be determined to have two courses of action. The Revolution, as distinguished from the Revolutionary War, was the series of events by which the British Empire came to an end in the thirteen colonies, which became the United States. It began, John Adams thought156, on February 24, 1761, in a Boston courtroom, and it ended on July 4, 1776, when the final draft of the Declaration of Independence was adopted in the Continental Congress at Philadelphia. After that it was left to the fortunes of war to decide if the American colonists would enjoy the fruits of their Revolution.

“What do we mean by the revolution? The war with Britain? That was no part of the revolution; it was only the effect and consequence of it. The revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people, and this was effected from 1760 to 1775, in the course of fifteen years, before a drop of blood was spilled at Lexington.” 157

“Nothing is so important as that America shall separate herself from the system of Europe, and establish one of her own – Our circumstances, our pursuits, are distinct, the principles of our policies should be so also. All entanglements with that quarter of the globe should be avoided that peace and justice shall be the polar stars of American societies.” 158

[156 Quoted in C. D. Bowen, JOHN ADAMS AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION xiv (1949)
157 Quoted in C. D. Bowen, JOHN ADAMS AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION xiv (1949)
158 Jefferson, Thomas, Writings (1950) New York: Coward McCann ]