Our Lives, Our Fortunes and Our Sacred Honor: The Forging of American Independence, 1774-1776

by Richard R. Beeman

Overview

In 1768, Philadelphia physician Benjamin Rush stood before the empty throne of King George III, overcome with emotion as he gazed at the symbol of America's connection with England. Eight years later, he became one of the fifty-six men to sign the Declaration of Independence, severing America forever from its mother country. Rush was not alone in his radical decision — many of those casting their votes in favor of independence did so with a combination of fear, reluctance, and even sadness.

In Our Lives, Our Fortunes and Our Sacred Honor, acclaimed historian Richard R. Beeman examines the grueling twenty-two-month period between the meeting of the Continental Congress on September 5, 1774 and the audacious decision for independence in July of 1776. As late as 1774, American independence was hardly inevitable — indeed, most Americans found it neither desirable nor likely. When delegates from the thirteen colonies gathered in September, they were, in the words of John Adams, "a gathering of strangers." Yet over the next two years, military, political, and diplomatic events catalyzed a change of unprecedented magnitude: the colonists' rejection of their British identities in favor of American ones. In arresting detail, Beeman brings to life a cast of characters, including the relentless and passionate John Adams, Adams' much-misunderstood foil John Dickinson, the fiery political activist Samuel Adams, and the relative political neophyte Thomas Jefferson, and with profound insight reveals their path from subjects of England to citizens of a new nation.

A vibrant narrative, Our Lives, Our Fortunes and Our Sacred Honor tells the remarkable story of how the delegates to the Continental Congress, through courage and compromise, came to dedicate themselves to the forging of American independence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780465049653
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	10/27/2015
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	528
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Richard R. Beeman is the John Welsh Centennial Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of several books on the American Revolution and Constitution, including the Penguin Guide to the United States Constitution. He is a trustee of the National Constitution Center. Beeman lives in Media, Pennsylvania.

Table of Contents

Cast of Characters ix

The Continental Congress: A Chronology xvii

Introduction 1

1 The Genesis of Revolution, 1763-1774 11

2 The Quest for a Unified American Resistance 31

3 The Delegates Gather in Philadelphia 41

4 Two Different Paths to Liberty: John Adams and John Dickinson 63

5 The Congress Organizes 79

6 "Fight Against Them That Fight Against Me" 105

7 Galloway's Last Stand 123

8 Getting Acquainted in the City of Brotherly Love 135

9 Power to the People 149

10 The First Congress Completes Its Business 163

11 Escalation 175

12 A New Congress, Changed Circumstances 197

13 John Hancock Enters the Drama 209

14 Congress Assumes Command of a War 221

15 Desperate Efforts at Reconciliation Amidst an Escalating War 239

16 Managing a War While Seeking Peace 259

17 Waiting for King George III 271

18 Small Steps Toward Independence 281

19 The Year 1776 Dawns 297

20 "The Scales Have Fallen from Our Eyes" 305

21 "The Child Independence Is Now Struggling for Birth" 327

22 Fourteen Paths to Independence 343

23 "The Greatest Debate of All" 369

24 Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence 383

25 Americas Declaration of Independence 407

Acknowledgments 419

Appendix A "Jefferson's Declaration of Independence" 421

Appendix B America's Declaration of Independence: The Final Version 429

Abbreviations of Frequently Cited Works 435

Notes 437

Index 479

Editorial Reviews

“Beeman's prose captures those tensions and facilitates the imagination so the reader can feel a part of the debate.... Our Lives, Our Fortunes and Our Sacred Honor is an appropriate complement to David Stewart's The Summer of 1787.... Beeman has produced an authoritative account of how this nation was imagined, and how the members from different sections of the continent were able to put aside their differences and to explore their differing philosophical, political and market needs to form an embryonic government that has grown to be a beacon for other communities seeking self-governance.”
—Roanoke Times

“An engaging history of the Founders of 1776.”
—Booklist

“Full of fascinating details.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Lively study of the main players of the two Continental Congresses.... Beeman elegantly moves through the deeply compelling process of how these motley characters fashioned government as an agency for the people. A welcome addition to a rich, indispensable field of scholarly study.”
—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

“The American Revolution tends to bring out the best in its chroniclers. Case in point: Richard Beeman's latest book, Our Lives, Our Fortunes, & Our Sacred Honor: The Forging of American Independence, 1774-1776. It's a charming, fast-paced retelling of a narrative that's been retold a thousand times before.... It's not really the historian's trade he's plying in these pages but rather the epic poet's: reciting the grand old stories while the wine of patriot season flows and the night sky over Boston is filled with fireworks. There's a worth to that, and Beeman has written a worthy book.”
—Open Letters Monthly

“This book should be required reading in every college survey course on American History.... An outstanding book that should become an instant classic and needs to be on the bookshelf of anyone who fancies themselves knowledgeable about the Revolutionary Period.”
—Battles & Book Reviews

“[Beeman] demonstrates his virtuosity.... The book abounds with colorful descriptions and personalities….vivid writing.”
—Cleveland Plain Dealer

“[A] winningly delivered twice-told tale about the founding events of the United States.”
—New York Times Book Review

“Richard Beeman's account of the movement to American independence is gripping, even if the reader knows the subject well and has no doubt as to how it ends.... We are fortunate to have as readable and cogent account of it as Our Lives, Our Fortunes and Our Sacred Honor.”
—Federal Lawyer

“New insight to an old story.... Beeman is a strong, direct writer, adept at bringing historical personalities to life.”
—Philadelphia Inquirer

“Our best history of the Continental Congress and the grand debate that led to independence.... With back-room deals and personality clashes in abundance, Beeman's tale of independence is as complex, worldly, and occasionally tedious as modern-day politics.”
—Books & Culture

“You walk away from Our Lives with the undeniable impression that the Founding Fathers really were giants, however flawed, who single-handedly created American democracy.”
—Slate

From the Publisher

In this comprehensive account, Beeman examines the American colonists’ transition from “loyal” subjects of the British Crown in 1774 to the “radical” rebels of 1776. The University of Pennsylvania history professor argues that the journey along the revolutionary path was a slow one, and freedom was never the guaranteed endpoint. His take on the matter is full of fascinating details, like the Sons of Liberty footing the bill for a pack of tailors to dress up the “notoriously” scruffy Samuel Adams for the First Continental Congress, as well as Patrick Henry’s metamorphosis from failed merchant to lawyer to the Virginian “son of thunder.” Beeman also profiles lesser known figures like Charles Thomson, secretary of the Continental Congress, who burned all of his secret notes on the revolution in order to preserve the myth of the “supposed wisdom and valor” of America’s foremost liberators. But fascinating particulars aside, the narrative contains little new analysis—Beeman’s Founding Fathers are the familiar ones. It’s clear that the National Book Award finalist (for Patrick Henry) knows his stuff, but unnecessarily stodgy prose (“there was no shortage of places in which they could find opportunities for the convivial consumption of alcohol”) will likely deter casual readers. Illus. Agent: John Wright, John W. Wright Literary Agency. (May 7)

Publishers Weekly

To create this lively study of the main players of the two Continental Congresses, Beeman (History/Univ. of Pennsylvania) draws on his wealth of research from his previous, award-winning works, Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution (2009) and Patrick Henry (1974). The author concentrates on the fascinating human contrasts among the delegates, from the fiery Bostonians, including the Adamses, to the loyalist New Yorkers, as they brought with them their provincial biases and sincere and honorable hopes for fair, just government, but mostly a desire for reconciliation with the British crown. Indeed, Beeman's leitmotif throughout his fluid study of the events of the key 22 months is the frank reluctance on the part of the delegates to make that rupture, as Pennsylvania lawyer John Dickinson would eloquently argue in moving speeches opposing independence up until the decisive vote of July 2, 1776. While Virginia's "son of thunder" Patrick Henry harangued the delegates on the second day of the first Congress with an appeal to their "American" rather than regional identities, the others were not yet ready to renounce the British constitution, hammering out successive appeals to the king, despite the hardening of British sympathies against them. From voting on the banning of British imports and exports to appointing George Washington as commander of the Continental Army to the selection of little-known Thomas Jefferson to the committee to write a declaration of independence to the publication of Thomas Paine's incendiary Common Sense, Beeman elegantly moves through the deeply compelling process of how these motley characters fashioned government as an agency for the people. A welcome addition to a rich, indispensable field of scholarly study.

Kirkus Reviews