Talk:History of the United States (1776–1789)/Archive 1

Archive 1

In the year AD 1776, war was beginning

First sentence of article: this phrase seems out of place with the rest of sentence starting the article. Thanks Hmains 03:23, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

USNA

Most of the original documents dating from this time, to include the important Franco-American Treaty of Alliance of 1778--making the U.S. an acknowledged nation among nations--and the British-American Treaty of Paris--that which ended the warfare of the American Revolution state that the United States was not simply called the United States of America but instead the United States of North America. A theory has been tossed around recently that says the USA's official (if original means official, since a declared change from USNA to USA was never made) name should in fact be that of North American. Some have even proposed that the name changed only after the War of 1812 after the British burned the District of Columbia due to the fact that the original Constitution and Declaration of Independence were burned with the Capitol, and that "short-hand" copies from Philadelphia replaced the originals. This would explain the name change since the "short-hand" copies exclude North from America. This is a theory some historians have been tossing around for a while now without any intention, as of yet, to officialize it (due to a lack of records, most lost during the same burning of 1814 when both the Capitol and the Library of Congress were put to flame).--SOCL 15:32, 19 July 2005 (UTC)

Historians have been tossing around this theory? I challenge that. Reference please.Rjensen 18:13, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

I should probably not have said historians have been tossing this around; further, I said some historians, not the historian community. Most of what I have heard have been discussions between professors who say they've read articles on the matter, though I can't say I've ever read anything. In the end, I was simply wondering whether anyone else had heard about this.--SOCL 03:16, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

The original US Constitution and Declaration of Independence were not in Washington when the Capitol was burned by the British and survive to this day. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.111.196.82 (talk) 12:56, 5 July 2009 (UTC)

Forgive me if I am wrong.Who were the "Americans" that were fighting the War of Independance? Were they not made up of British,etc.So in other words British were fighting British!!Who were the statesmen who declared Independance and created the war.They all spoke English and had British names so originated from Britain.My point is,and I no nothing,it seems that from a political point, the leaders saw an opportunity,for their own gain,to rule America for themselves.They were actually fighting against their own countrymen. Maybe someone with more knowledge on this subject can put me right. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.7.88.150 (talk) 11:59, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

The London IP address leads me to suspicion you're just rolling, but, just in case you're actually interested, further discussion on the causes of the revolution can be found on the American Revolution page. In a sense you are right, the American Revolution was unique among colonial revolts in that nationalism played little if any role.

Inflammatory Statement

The opening paragraph states: "American Patriots seized control of the colonies and launched a war for independence." This is not only inflammatory, it is factually inaccurate. Somebody please change it. 152.131.9.132 (talk) 18:11, 24 October 2011 (UTC)

they did something just like that. it really was a war for independence. Rjensen (talk) 18:29, 24 October 2011 (UTC)

I'd prefer to see the word "Patriots" replaced by something less encumbered with political baggage. "Rebels" would be more accurate. The American rebels had to win the war they "launched" and successfully establish the new nation before they could be considered "patriots" (and then only by their fellow rebels). Also, why should "Patriots" be capitalized? WCCasey (talk) 05:56, 25 October 2011 (UTC)

"Patriot" is the technically correct term. the dictionary (Webster's Unabridged) defines the word: "one who advocates or promotes the independence of his native soil or people from the country or union of countries of which it is a part (as a colony)." The other side were Loyalists. These are the standard terms used by historians and reference books. If you love America you'll like the Patriots; if you love Canada you'll cheer for the Loyalists. Rjensen (talk) 06:35, 25 October 2011 (UTC)

Misplaced comments moved here

Third paragraph, third sentence of "articles of confederation" contains this gem; "The ports of the British West Indies to all staple products which were not carried in British ships." I would correct the sentence fragment, but I don't know what it is the ports of the west indies did. 98.191.219.8 (talk) 19:32, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

In the last sentence of the first paragraph the current phrase "the Constitution of the Republic of the united States of America in 1789" is an update of the former statement "the Constitution of the United States in 1789, still in effect today". The purpose of the edit was to correct the phrase "still in effect today". The original 1789 Republic Constitution and government was replaced with a Corporate Constitution and government after the bankruptcy of the Republic. So the constitution of the "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" (Corporation), not the "united States of America" (Republic) is in effect today. Although similar in name and language, the difference in the structure and effect of the 2 constitutions is huge. The main reference for this edit is the Congressional Act titled “An Act To Provide A Government for the District of Columbia”, also known as the “Act of 1871”. An additional reference is the Supreme Court case Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64 (1938), which declared the original Republic Constitution null and void relative to common law. — Preceding unsigned comment added by JKL718293 (talk • contribs) 23:57, 4 August 2012 (UTC)

Cleaned up wording

I have cleaned up some of the wording in the 1776-1777 section. The factual content remains unaltered: I only re-worded some of it to make it more clear. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.61.54.235 (talk) 18:46, 26 April 2013 (UTC)