America's Greatest 19th Century Presidents by Charles River Editors Read Free Book Online Page A

Massachusetts, reverse the trend of colonial resistance to parliamentary authority that had begun with the 1765 Stamp Act. Naturally, the Coercive Acts only triggered more outrage in the colonies..
     
    By 1774, revolution was clearly in the air in Virginia, and while Madison was still far too young to be involved in the politics, he was extremely interested in them. Madison was quickly swept up by this tide of colonial politics and became a loyal Patriot before the war started. Madison's first political office also came in 1774 with his appointment to the Orange County Committee of Safety, an appointment that was likely made due to his position as the son of a prominent citizen.  The Committee of Safety served Orange County by forming militias and ensuring that, in the event of Revolution, the county would be able to self-govern.  By the end of 1774, Madison was heavily involved with building up a local militia to defend his county.
     
    First Continental Congress
     
    In response to the Coercive Acts, delegates from 12 colonies met in Philadelphia in the summer of 1774. The 56 men, who had been chosen by their colonial legislatures, met to craft a united response to what they called the Intolerable Acts. At the First Continental Congress, the delegates debated the merits of a boycott of British trade, while also declaring their rights and demanding redress. The First Continental Congress eventually petitioned the British government to end the Intolerable Acts, while also determining to convene again the following summer. Little did they know that the Revolutionary War would start by then. 
     
    Lexington and Concord
     
    While Virginians like Jefferson and Henry hotly debated British oppression, it was Massachusetts that had been the biggest thorn in Britain’s side during the first half of the 1770s, dating all the way back to the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770. The Boston Massacre had been indirectly caused by a chain of events that had involved the quartering of British regulars in order to quell unrest in Boston as a result of the unpopular acts of Parliament in the previous decade. After the Boston Tea Party in December 1773, the British took a series of steps to impose order, including establishing military command over Boston.
    In early 1775, General Thomas Gage, the military commander in charge of Boston, heard that colonists were keeping a store of weapons near Concord, Massachusetts. Gage made plans to send out a force of about 700 British soldiers to seize the weapons on the morning of April 19, 1775. However, patriot leaders in Boston got news of the planned raid the day before, and Paul Revere and other riders alerted the militias of Lexington and Concord during the night before, hours in advance of the marching British.

     
    Portrait of General Gage
     
    By the time the British regulars reached Lexington, a small part of the local militia met the British regulars on the village green. It’s unclear who fired first, but either way, shots were exchanged. While a handful of militia men lay wounded or dying, the British continued on toward Concord, where they encountered far more organized resistance. As militia men swarmed toward the action from neighboring towns and villages, the British forces began the march back to Boston, coming under fire alongside the road. By the time the British made it back to the safety of Boston, thousands of militia men had surrounded the city, beginning what would become a nearly year long siege.
    The American Revolution had officially begun.
    The Battle of Bunker Hill
     
    Immediately after the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, the militia men who had poured in from across the countryside converged on Boston, which at the time was a peninsula with a small neck attaching it to the rest of Massachusetts. With the Charles River surrounding it on three sides, Boston was an ideal city to lay siege to. The militias blocked off the land approaches to Boston, but