Birth of a Nation

On May 10, 1775, the Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia to discuss the fighting that had erupted in Massachusetts between colonists there and the British Army.  Delegates from all thirteen of the original British Colonies were at the Congress.  On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, based upon a resolution passed by his Colony’s Convention, proposed to the Congress that “Resolved: That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.” On July 2, 1776, Lee’s resolution was approved by twelve of the Colonies.  New York gave its approval one week later. 

On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress issued the Declaration of Independence which refers to the “Unanimous Declaration of thirteen united States of America.”  It concluded that “We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America...declare, That these United Colonies are...Free and Independent States.” 

The reference to thirteen, to an uncapitalized united, and to independent States is proof that the original thirteen British Colonies came together in the Declaration of Independence for the purpose of declaring independence from the British, for each of the thirteen States. 

The declared independence was, of course, rejected by the British.  It took until the signing of the Treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783, after seven years of war, for the British to finally accept the independence of those thirteen American Colonies.  In the first article of the treaty, “His Britanic Majesty acknowledges the said United States, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia to be free sovereign and independent states.”  

The original document, ratified on March 1, 1781, that governed the relationship among the thirteen newly independent States was the “Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union Between the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.”  Article 2 of that document declares that “Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence.”  Article 3 proclaimed that “The said states hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other.” 

As this league of friendship ultimately proved unsatisfactory, representatives from the thirteen independent States reconvened in Philadelphia to draft a new document, the Constitution of the United States of America.  The Preamble of the Constitution declares that “We, the people of the United States...establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” It was now the United States, not the thirteen united States. 

Article 7 of the Constitution proclaimed that, “The Ratifications of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution Between the States so Ratifying the same.”  On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to so ratify the Constitution, thereby establishing a Union between it and the other eight States (Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, South Carolina, and Georgia) that had previously ratified it.  Today is June 21, 2015, the 227th anniversary of the birth of a nation, the United States of America.  Please celebrate this anniversary today and every June 21st.    

The other four non-ratifying independent States (Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island) could have been considered to be foreign nations by the United States of America.  However, Virginia ratified the Constitution four days later on June 25, 1788 and New York followed suit the next month on July 26, 1788.  North Carolina joined the United States of America the following year on November 21, 1789.  Finally, Rhode Island, which had at first rejected the Constitution, ratified it on May 29, 1790, almost two years after the establishment of the Constitution of the United States of America.  The thirteen previously independent States had now given up their independence to form one independent united nation.

Please note the following from Dr. Richard R. Beeman, John Welsh Centennial Professor of History Emeritus, Department of History, University of Pennsylvania: 

“There is no question but that the thirteen American colonies, when they declared their independence, considered themselves "united States" in that common cause, but NOT The United States.    And the Articles of Confederation reinforced that notion of thirteen independent and sovereign states--making it clear that the states, not the "central government," was supreme.  Indeed, the Articles of Confederation are properly considered more of a "treaty" among those sovereign states than America's first Constitution.    The drafting and ratification of the U.S. Constitution was an important step in creating the United States, but, in fact, if you look in the public press during the period between 1789 and 1865, most of the references to the central government are spelled "united States," not "United States."  It is only after the Civil War, when the notion of a perpetual union is enforced by force of arms, that the American nation is regularly referred to as the "United States.””