1720s: Early records of colonial interests in constitutionalism and the legitimacy of state

assemblies, including claims to the privileges of Magna Carta and the rights of English-born subjects

1763: Victorious England moves to tighten administrative control of its empire.

12/73: Boston Tea Party

03-06/74: Coercive, or Intolerable Acts passed in England

10/74: Dissolved assembly of Massachusetts Bay meets as a provincial congress under

the presidency of John Hancock; minute-men begin to be organized.

09-10/74: 1st Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia; Coercive Acts declared

unconstitutional and void; Galloway plan for a parallel American Parliament

dropped; Declaration of Rights claims colonists “entitled to all English liberties”;

John Adams, James Wilson, and Thomas Jefferson write pamphlets advocating

“dominion” status for the colonies.

04/19/75: Military confrontations at Lexington and Concord.

05/10/75: Second Continental Congress opens, becomes de facto government.

11/16/75: House of Commons rejects Burke’s act for reconciliation 2-1.

12/22/75: Parliament prohibits “all manner of trade and commerce” with the 13 Colonies.

01/1776: Publication of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense.

05/15/76: Virginia Resolution to ask Congress to declare independence

06/12/76: Virginia Declaration of Rights incorporates clauses derived from Magna Carta

(1215), the Petition of Right (1628), and the English Bill of Rights (1689).

07/02-04/76: Congress adopts Richard Henry Lee’s motion to declare independence

02/17/78: Lord North’s conciliatory bill passes Parliament, offering “dominion” status to

colonies and repeal of all revenue acts dating from 1763.