Rhode Island, State of (U.S.A.)
Years: 1776 - 2057
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In May 1776, Congress votes to suppress all forms of crown authority, to be replaced by locally created authority.
Virginia, South Carolina, and New Jersey create their constitutions before July 4.
Rhode Island and Connecticut simply take their existing royal charters and delete all references to the crown.
The new states are all committed to republicanism, with no inherited offices.
They decide what form of government to create, and also how to select those who will craft the constitutions and how the resulting document will be ratified.
The resulting constitutions in states such as Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, New York, and Massachusetts feature:
Property qualifications for voting and even more substantial requirements for elected positions (though New York and Maryland lower property qualifications)
Bicameral legislatures, with the upper house as a check on the lower
Strong governors with veto power over the legislature and substantial appointment authority
Few or no restraints on individuals holding multiple positions in government
The continuation of state-established religion
In Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New Hampshire, the resulting constitutions embodied:
universal manhood suffrage, or minimal property requirements for voting or holding office (New Jersey enfranchises some property-owning widows, a step that it will retract twenty-five years later)
strong, unicameral legislatures
relatively weak governors without veto powers, and with little appointing authority
prohibition against individuals holding multiple government posts
The success of Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense in the colonies has boosted public support for independence.
The Continental Congress, at war with Britain for a year, had on July 2, 1776, had, with twelve affirmatives and one abstention, finally passed the Lee Resolution (also known as "The Resolution for Independancy"), which declared the establishment of a new country of United Colonies as independent from the British Empire, creating what will become the United States of America.
New York was the only colony to not vote for independence, as the delegates were not authorized to do so.
News of this act had been published that evening in the Pennsylvania Evening Post and the next day in the Pennsylvania Gazette.
The final text of the document formally announcing this action, Jefferson’s draft of the United States Declaration of Independence, is approved two days later on July 4, 1776, which is celebrated as Independence Day.
Nathan Hale is executed for espionage in New York City.
General Howe had established his headquarters in the Beekman House in a rural part of Manhattan, on a rise between what are now 50th and 51st Streets between First and Second Avenues, near where Beekman Place commemorates the connection.
Hale reportedly was questioned by Howe, and physical evidence was found on him.
According to tradition, Hale spent the night in a greenhouse at the mansion.
He requested a Bible; his request was denied.
Sometime later, he requested a clergyman. Again, the request was denied.
According to the standards of the time, spies are hanged as illegal combatants.
On the morning of September 22, 1776, Hale is marched along Post Road to the Park of Artillery, which is next to a public house called the Dove Tavern (at modern-day 66th Street and Third Avenue), and hanged.
He is twenty-one years old.
Bill Richmond, a thirteen-year-old former slave and Loyalist who will later become a boxer in Europe, is reportedly one of the hangmen, responsible for securing the rope to a strong tree and preparing the noose.
By all accounts, Hale comported himself well before the hanging.
Over the years, there has been speculation as to whether he specifically uttered the line: "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."
The line may be a revision of "I am so satisfied with the cause in which I have engaged that my only regret is that I have not more lives than one to offer in its service."
The Americans withdraw across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania in early December.
The year 1776 had seen delicate negotiations between American agents in Paris, including Silas Deane, and Louis XVI and his foreign minister, Comte Charles de Vergennes.
The king and his minister hope that by supplying the Americans with arms and officers, they might restore French influence in North America, and exact revenge against Britain for the loss in the Seven Years' War.
When the young Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, heard that French officers were being sent to America, he had demanded to be among them.
He met Deane, and gained inclusion despite his youth.
On December 7, 1776, Deane had enlisted Lafayette as a major general.
The plan to send French officers (as well as other aid) to America comes to nothing when the British hear of it and threatened war.
Lafayette's father-in-law, de Noailles, had scolded the young man and told him to go to London and visit the Marquis de Noailles, the ambassador to Britain and Lafayette's uncle by marriage, which he did in February 1777.
In the interim, he did not abandon his plans to go to America.
Lafayette had been presented to George III, and spent three weeks in London society.
On his return to France, he goes into hiding from his father-in-law (and superior officer), writing to him that he is planning to go to America.
De Noailles is furious, and persuades Louis to issue a decree forbidding French officers from serving in America, specifically naming Lafayette.
Vergennes may have persuaded the king to order Lafayette's arrest, though this is uncertain.
He journeys to Bordeaux, where Victoire is being prepared for her trip, and sends word asking for information on his family's reaction.
The response, including letters from his wife and other relatives, throws Lafayette into emotional turmoil.
Soon after departure, he orders the ship turned around and returns to Bordeaux, to the frustration of the officers traveling with him.
The army commander here orders Lafayette to report to his father-in-law's regiment in Marseilles.
De Broglie, who hopes to become a military and political leader in America, meets with Lafayette in Bordeaux and persuades him that the government actually wants him to go.
This is not true, though there is considerable public support for Lafayette in Paris, where the American cause is popular.
Lafayette wants to believe it, and pretends to comply with the order to report to Marseilles, going only a few miles east before turning around and returning to his ship.
Victoire sets sail for the United States on April 20, 1777.
A British victory at Willistown leaves Philadelphia, the revolutionary capital, undefended and Howe captures the city unopposed on September 26.
The British begin an occupation that will last until June, 1778.
The Continental Congress, after sixteen months of debate, approves the Articles of Confederation in the temporary American capital at York, Pennsylvania, on November 15 and submits them the following day to the states for ratification.
The French and Americans decide to make an attempt on the British garrison at Newport, Rhode Island; this first attempt at coordination is a notable failure.