Though the Congress of the thirteen colonies which met in Philadelphia in 1774 had no authority to make laws, the people chose to obey its recommendations and to disobey the governors sent to them from England. The Congress petitioned the king and Parliament to restore their rights. But meanwhile the colonies organized the militia, and collected military stores, that they might be ready to fight for their liberties.

General Gage was in command of the British forces at Boston. He resolved to check the rebellious spirit of the people. He sent out troops from Boston soon after midnight on April 19, 1775, to destroy some military stores at Concord, about twenty miles away. The Americans had formed companies ready to be called out on the minute; these were called "minute men." At Lexington the British troops fired on the minute men and killed eight of them. At Concord the soldiers destroyed the stores.

But the minute men were now pouring in from the whole country, and the English troops beat a hasty retreat back through Lexington. The Americans, swarming like maddened bees, attacked them in the rear, in front, and on both sides. The minute men fired from behind trees, rocks, and stone fences. The English retreated in a state of exhaustion with a loss in killed and wounded of nearly three hundred men; the Americans lost about eighty-five. Messengers on horseback carried the news of the "battle of Lexington," as it was called, all over New England and into the Middle and Southern colonies. The people now knew that the war so long threatened had begun.

After the battle of Lexington, an irregular army of New Englanders blockaded the English troops in Boston. A detachment sent to encamp on Bunker Hill threw up breastworks on Breed's Hill instead. Here the British attacked them with nearly double their force, and, though the Americans were farmers who had never fought, and had almost nothing but fowling-pieces to fight with, they twice repulsed the British regulars with great slaughter, and, when their ammunition was exhausted, fought with the butts and barrels of their guns until compelled to retreat. One third of the British force was killed or wounded, and the result of the battle was to give great confidence to the Americans, who have always regarded the battle of Bunker Hill, as it was called, more as a victory than a defeat.

Meantime it fell to the Continental Congress, in session in Philadelphia, to elect a commander-in-chief for the new army. Colonel George Washington, of Virginia, who had gained distinction for zeal, courage, and prudence in the French and Indian wars, was chosen to this responsible place. He declined all pay except his expenses. He set out for Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he took command on July 3, 1775.

Washington brought his irregular army to a tolerable state of organization, and closely besieged the British in Boston until March of the next year, 1776, when he sent a strong force to occupy and fortify Dorchester Heights, which commanded the harbor and the town. This forced the English to withdraw their troops from Boston to Halifax, in Nova Scotia. Up to this time the Americans had been fighting for their liberties as British subjects. But now they were everywhere weaned from attachment to England. The colonies, one after another, formed constitutions independent of England, or took steps looking toward independence. On the fourth day of July, 1776, the Continental Congress adopted the "Declaration of Independence." This act was a formal separation of the united colonies from England, whose king was no more to be king in the thirteen colonies. Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, wrote this eloquent declaration, which will never be forgotten.

The Declaration says: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are born equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The Declaration of Independence gives an account of the various acts of tyranny which the colonies had suffered under the government of George III, and then says: "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 the authority of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States." It closes with these words: "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.



PAUL REVERE

Paul Revere, an engraver and an active patriot, was sent to tell Adams and Hancock, who were at Lexington, that the British were coming. He waited at Charlestown until he saw a light hung in a church-steeple, which was a signal to him that the British were moving. Then he rode to Lexington, warning the people of their danger. (See Longfellow's famous poem on the subject.)



CAPTURE OF TICONDEROGA

Soon after the battle of Lexington, Ethan Allen, at the head of eighty backwoodsmen from Vermont, known as "Green Mountain Boys," made a sudden descent on Fort Ticonderoga, near the south end of Lake Champlain. Entering the fort in the night, he found the commander in bed, and summoned him to surrender. "In whose name?" demanded the officer. "In the name of the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!" replied Allen. With the fort Allen secured a supply of powder, then very much needed by the Americans.



EARLY LIFE OF GEORGE WASHINGTON

George Washington was born in Virginia, February 22, 1732. His father was a planter, with a large landed property; his mother was a woman of great force of character, but, like many ladies of that day, she had little education. Washington got such education as the poor country schools of the time afforded, but he made the most of it. His exercise books are models of method and neatness. Besides the common branches of reading, writing, and arithmetic, he learned surveying and bookkeeping. He was a lad of great strength, and took the lead in all athletic sports, and he became one of the best horsemen of his time. He bore hardships with great resolution, he spoke the truth, he was economical, industrious, and systematic in his habits. He was, while yet hardly more than a boy, engaged in surveying wild lands for Lord Fairfax, an English nobleman, who owned a great tract of Virginia territory, and lived in the Shenandoah Valley. He thus came to know the frontier country and the habits of the American Indians. He was made a major of the militia at nineteen, and he was but twenty-one when Governor Dinwiddie sent him on a mission to the French posts on the Ohio, as we have told in another chapter. By his prudent conduct in Braddock's and Forbes's expeditions, and in the defense of the Virginia frontier, he won the confidence of the American people. He was a member of the Continental Congress of 1774. He was not a brilliant man, but even in 1774 Patrick Henry pronounced him, for "solid information and sound judgment, unquestionably the greatest man" on the floor of the Continental Congress.



THOMAS JEFFERSON

Thomas Jefferson was born near Charlottesville, Va., in 1743. His father was a noted land-surveyor, and one of the authors of a map of Virginia. He left an ample fortune. Thomas was an eager student. He graduated at William and Mary College, and was soon recognized as perhaps the most accomplished general scholar in the colonies. He was an excellent mathematician, and knew Greek, Latin, French, Spanish, and Italian. There was almost no knowledge that he was not eager to acquire. He was not gifted as an orator, but with his eloquent pen he rendered great services to the cause of liberty in America. He wrote the Declaration of Independence, the most famous state-paper in the world. He used his best endeavor to have slavery and the slave-trade abolished. He took the lead in abolishing the colonial laws that gave to the oldest son the largest share of the father's property. He was also the leader in separating church and state, and giving to the people religious freedom. To him we owe the change of our money from pounds, shillings, and pence to a simple decimal system of dollars, dimes, and cents. To him, also, was due the purchase from France of the territory west of the Mississippi. He was the third President of the United States, chosen in the year 1800, and was elected for a second term in 1804. He died on the 4th of July, 1826, just fifty years to a day from the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, and the aged John Adams, second President, died on the same day.