Not until a year after Lexington did the Continental Congress muster the resolve to declare the 13 colonies free and independent states, no longer subject to Parliament or Crown. Not for five years after July 4, 1776, did George Washington's army truly attain America's independence at Yorktown.
Even then, Washington and his aide Alexander Hamilton knew that the 13 states, while politically independent, were dependent upon Europe for the necessities of their national life. Without French ships and guns, French muskets and troops, the Americans could not have forced Gen. Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown. Cornwallis would have sailed away, as Gen. Howe had from Boston. Indeed, absent the 1778 alliance with France, our Revolution would have been a longer bloodier affair and might not have succeeded.
At the Constitutional Convention of 1787, both Washington and Hamilton were determined to make America's political independence permanent, and to begin to cut the umbilical cord to Europe.
In the Constitution that came out of that convention, the states were prohibited from imposing any tariffs on the products of other states, thus creating the greatest common market in history, the United States of America. Second, the U.S. government
was empowered to raise revenue by imposing tariffs on foreign goods, but explicitly denied the power to impose taxes on the incomes of American citizens.
And as Hamilton set the nation onto a course that would ensure economic independence, Washington took the actions and made the decisions that would assure our political independence.
First, he declared neutrality in the European wars that followed the French Revolution of 1789. Second, he sought to sever the 1778 alliance with France, a feat achieved by his successor, John Adams.
Third, in his Farewell Address, the greatest state paper in U.S. history, Washington admonished his countrymen to steer clear of permanent alliances and to stay out of Europe's wars. Rarely in the 19th century did the United States divert from the course set by Washington and Hamilton.
In 1812, however, James Madison, goaded by "war hawks" Henry Clay and John Calhoun, and ignoring the counsel of the Farewell Address, declared war on Britain and came near to seeing his nation torn apart.
Had it not been for the Duke of Wellington's preoccupation with Napoleon and Andy Jackson's rout of a British invasion army at New Orleans, America might have been split asunder.
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