Founding Myths (59 page)

  
5
.
  
Washington to president of Congress, October 27, 1781, in
The Writings of George Washington, from the Original Manuscript Sources
, John C. Fitzpatrick, ed. (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1931–1944), 23: 297.

  
6
.
  
Fitzpatrick,
Writings of George Washington
, 23: 271, 297, 302, 347, 352, 359, 361, 365, 367, 390, 443, 447, 477.

  
7
.
  
Washington to Nathanael Greene, November 16, 1781, in Fitzpatrick,
Writings of George Washington
, 23: 347.

  
8
.
  
Douglas Southall Freeman,
George Washington: A Biography
(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1952), 5: 405, 415.

  
9
.
  
Ibid., 415.

10
.
  
Fitzpatrick,
Writings of George Washington
, 24: 315.

11
.
  
On August 10, 1782, Washington wrote to Chevalier de Chastellux, “The enemy talk loudly, and very confidently of Peace; but whether they are in earnest, or whether it is to amuse and while away the time till they can prepare for a more vigorous prosecution of the War, time will evince.” (Fitzpatrick,
Writings of George Washington
, 24: 496.)

12
.
  
Ibid., 25: 42.

13
.
  
Washington to James McHenry, September 12, 1782, in Fitzpatrick,
Writings of George Washington
, 25: 151. Four days later he wrote again, “I have no doubt on my Mind of the Kings wishes to prosecute the War . . . as long as the Nation will vote Men or Money to carry it on.” (Washington to John Mitchell, September 16, 1782, in Fitzpatrick,
Writings of George Washington
, 25: 166.)

14
.
  
Ibid., 25: 265.

15
.
  
Freeman,
George Washington
, 438; Washington to Chevalier de la Luzerne, March 19,
1783, in Fitzpatrick,
Writings of George Washington
, 26: 236; Washington to president of Congress, March 19, 1783, in Fitzpatrick,
Writings of George Washington
, 26: 238.

16
.
  
Piers Mackesy,
The War for America
,
1775–1783
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1965), 524–25; Freeman,
George Washington
, 5: 513.

17
.
  
Mackesy,
War for America
, 404; Washington to Marquis de Lafayette, November 15, 1781, in Fitzpatrick,
Writings of George Washington
, 23: 341.

18
.
  
Mackesy,
War for America
, 461.

19
.
  
Howard H. Peckham,
The Toll of Independence: Engagements and Battle Casualties of the American Revolution
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974), 3–16, 91–92.

20
.
  
Mackesy,
War for America
, 524–525.

21
.
  
A full rendering of Britain's global contest is in Mackesy,
War for America
.

22
.
  
The Annual Register, or a View of the History, Politics, and Literature, for the Year 1782
(London: J. Dodsley, 1783), 25: 96.

23
.
  
“The Speech of the Right Honourable William Pitt, in the House of Commons, on Friday, February 21, 1783” (London: J. Debrett, 1783), 13–35:
http://www.archive.org/stream/speechrighthono00pittgoog#page/n43/mode/2up
.

24
.
  
Mackesy,
War for America
, 498–500.

25
.
  
Winthrop D. Jordan, Miriam Greenblatt, and John S. Bowes,
The Americans: A History
(Boston: McDougal Littell/Houghton Mifflin, 1996), 115. Although this text is old, it is still in use in many financially strapped schools.

26
.
  
William Gordon,
The History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment, of the Independence of the United States of America
(Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1969; first published in 1788), 4: 196–392.

27
.
  
David Ramsay,
The History of the American Revolution
(Philadelphia: R. Aitken & Son, 1789; reprinted by Liberty Classics in 1990), 2: 290, 293.

28
.
  
Mercy Otis Warren,
History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution, interspersed with Biographical, Political and Moral Observations
(Boston: E. Larkin, 1805; reprinted by Liberty Classics in 1988), 3: 42–436.

29
.
  
John Marshall,
The Life of George Washington
(New York: AMS Press, 1969; first published 1804–1807), 4: 532–537.

30
.
  
These four early historians understood well that what started as America's War for Independence had extended to the West Indies and even to Gibraltar, that it had come to involve the major powers of Europe, and that the conclusion to that war could only be understood in this wider context. Strangely, only Gordon, who published in England, included a running account of events in East India; that was simply too far away, even though it seriously impacted British policies with respect to the United States.

31
.
  
Mason L. Weems,
The Life of Washington
(Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1962; reprint of ninth edition, 1809), 113.

32
.
  
Noah Webster,
History of the United States
(New Haven: Durrie & Peck, 1833), 242.

33
.
  
John Frost,
History of the United States of North America
(London: Charles Tilt, 1838), 255–257. Although the book was published in London, Frost was an American from Philadelphia.

34
.
  
George Bancroft,
History of the United States of America, from the Discovery of the
Continent
(Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1879; first published 1834–1874), 6: 432–484.

35
.
  
I surveyed twenty-three textbooks, published between 1890 and 1955, available at the University of California's Northern Regional Library Facility in Richmond: D.H. Montgomery,
The Leading Fact of American History
(Boston: Ginn and Co., 1891); D.H. Montgomery,
The Student's American History
(Boston: Ginn and Co., 1897); D.H. Montgomery,
The Beginner's American History
(Boston: Ginn and Co., 1899); Edward Eggleston,
The New Century History of the United States
(New York: American Book Company, 1904); Roscoe Lewis Ashley,
American History, for Use in Secondary Schools
(New York: Macmillan, 1907); David Saville Muzzey,
An American History
(Boston: Ginn and Co., 1911); Willis Mason West,
American History and Government
(Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1913); Henry Eldridge Bourne and Elbert Jay Benton,
A History of the United States
(Boston: D.C. Heath and Co., 1913); William Backus Guitteau,
Our United States: A History
(New York: Silver, Burdett and Co., 1919); Reuben Post Halleck,
History of Our Country for Higher Grades
(New York: American Book Company, 1923); Rolla Tryon and Charles R. Lingley,
The American People and Nation
(Boston: Ginn and Co., 1927); William A. Hamm, Henry Eldridge Bourne, and Elbert Jay Benton,
A Unit History of the United States
(Boston: D.C. Heath and Co., 1932); David Saville Muzzey,
The United States of America
(Boston: Ginn and Co., 1933); David Saville Muzzey,
An American History
(Boston: Ginn and Co., 1933); David Saville Muzzey,
History of the American People
(Boston: Ginn and Co., 1934); Harold Underwood Faulkner and Tyler Kepner,
America: Its History and People
(New York: Harper & Brothers, 1934); Ruth West and Willis Mason West,
The Story of Our Country
(Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1935); James Truslow Adams and Charles Garrett Vannest,
The Record of America
(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1935); Harold Rugg and Louise Krueger,
The Building of America
(Boston: Ginn and Co., 1936); William A. Hamm,
The American People
(Boston: D.C. Heath and Co., 1942); George Earl Freeland and James Truslow Adams,
America's Progress in Civilization
(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1942); Gertrude Hartman,
America: Land of Freedom
(Boston: D.C. Heath and Co., 1946); Robert E. Riegel and Helen Haugh,
United States of America: A History
(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1953).

36
.
  
Bourne and Benton,
A History of the United States
, 220.

37
.
  
West and West,
The Story of Our Country
, 171.

38
.
  
Thomas A. Bailey,
The American Pageant: A History of the Republic
(Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1956), 116–17, 121.

39
.
  
The thirteen texts surveyed were displayed at the 2002 annual conference of the National Council for Social Studies in Phoenix, Arizona. They included six elementary and middle-school texts: Sterling Stuckey and Linda Kerrigan Salvucci,
Call to Freedom
(Austin, TX: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2003); Joyce Appleby et al.,
The American Republic to 1877
(New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2003); Michael J. Berson,
United States History: Beginnings
(Orlando: Harcourt, 2003); James West Davidson,
The American Nation: Beginnings through 1877
(Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003); Jesus Garcia et al.,
Creating America: A History of the United States
(Evanston, IL: McDougal
Littell, 2007); and Hakim,
A History of US.
The seven secondary-school texts are: Joyce Appleby et al.,
The American Vision
(New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2003); Gerald A. Danzer et al.,
The Americans
(Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell, 2003); Daniel J. Boorstin and Brooks Mather Kelley,
A History of the United States
(Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002); David Goodfield et al,
The American Journey: A History of the United States
(Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2001); John Mack Faragher et al.,
Out of Many: A History of the American People
(Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003); Robert A. Divine et al.,
America: Past and Present
(New York: Longman, 2003); and Paul Boyer,
American Nation
(Austin, TX: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2003).

40
.
  
Boyer,
American Nation
, 129.

41
.
  
Boorstin and Kelley,
A History of the United States
, 97.

42
.
  
One of these is the latest edition of
American Pageant
, unchanged in this respect for more than half a century despite new authors on the cover: David M. Kennedy and Lizabeth Cohen,
The American Pageant
, volume 1, Fifteenth Edition (Boston: Cengage Learning, 2014). Two others share the same authors, with overlapping texts geared for different markets: James West Davidson, Brian DeLay, Christine Leigh Heyrman, Mark H. Lytle, and Michael B. Stoff,
U.S.: A Narrative History
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012), and
Experience History: Interpreting America's Past
, vol. 1 (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011). One short paragraph here reveals how easily authors can convey the global context, even in a brief survey: “It need not have ended at Yorktown, but timing made all the difference. At the end of 1781 and early in 1782, the British army received setbacks in the other theaters of the war: India, the West Indies, and Florida. The French and the Spanish were everywhere in Europe as well, gathering in the English Channel, preparing a major offensive against Gibraltar. The cost of fighting was already enormous. British leaders recognized that the rest of the empire was at stake and set about cutting their losses in America.” (
Experience History
, 180.) The remaining two texts are Jacqueline Jones, Peter H. Wood, Thomas Borstelmann, Elaine Tyler May, and Vicki L. Ruiz,
Created Equal: A History of the United States
, vol. 1, Third Edition (New York: Pearson Longman, 2009); and John Mack Faragher, Mari Jo Buhle, Daniel Czitrom, Susan H. Armitage,
Out of Many: A History of the American People
, Seventh Edition (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2012).

43
.
  
Eric Foner,
Give Me Liberty! An American History
, Third Edition (New York: W.W. Norton, 2011); David Goldfield, Carl Abbott, Virginia DeJohn Anderson, Jo Ann E. Argersinger, Peter H. Argersinger, William L. Barney, Robert M. Weir,
The American Journey: A History of the United States
, Brief Sixth Edition (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2011); Alan Brinkley,
American History: Connecting With the Past
, vol. 1, Fourteenth Edition (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012).

44
.
  
Texts with no mention of British military involvement elsewhere: Mark C. Carnes and John A. Garraty,
The American Nation: A History of the United States
, Fourteenth Edition (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2012); Kevin M. Schultz,
HIST-3
, volume 1 (Boston: Cengage Learning, 2014); Nancy Hewitt and Steven F. Lawson,
Exploring American History: A Brief Survey with Sources
(New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2013); James Oakes, Michael McGerr, Jan Ellen Lewis, Nick Cullather, and Jeanne Boydston,
Of the People: A History of the United States
, vol. 1, Concise Edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011); Robert A. Divine, T.H. Breen, George M. Fredrickson, R. Hal Williams, Ariela J. Gross, H.W. Brands,
America: Past and Present
, Ninth Edition (New York: Pearson/Longman, 2011); H.W. Brands, T.H. Breen, R. Hal Williams, and Ariela J. Gross,
American Stories: A History of the United States
, Second Edition (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2012); Mary Beth Norton, David M. Katzman, David W. Blight, Howard P. Chudacoff, Fredrik Logevall, Beth Bailey, Thomas Paterson, and William M. Tuttle Jr.,
A People and a Nation: A History of the United States
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007); James Henretta, Rebecca Edwards, and Robert Self,
America: A Concise History
, Fifth Edition (New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2012); James Roark, Michael Johnson, Patricia Cline Cohen, Sarah Stage, Alan Lawson, and Susan M. Hartmann,
The American Promise: A History of the United States
, Fourth Edition (New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009); Michael Schaller, Robert D. Schulzinger, John Bezis-Selfa, Janette Thomas Greenwood, Andrew Kirk, Sarah J. Purcell, and Aaron Sheehan-Dean,
American Horizons: U.S. History in a Global Context
, Concise Edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013); Jennifer D. Keene, Saul Cornell, Edward T. O'Donnell,
Visions of America: A History of the United States
, Second Edition (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2013); Joseph R. Conlin,
The American Past: A Survey of American History
, Tenth Edition (Boston: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2014 ); Carol Berkin, Christopher L. Miller, Robert W. Cherny, James L. Gormly, Douglas Egerton, and Kelly Woestman,
Making America: A History of the United States
, Brief Sixth Edition (Boston: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2014); Paul S. Boyer, Clifford E. Clark Jr., Karen Halttunen, Joseph F. Kett, Neal Salisbury, Harvard Sitkoff, and Nancy Woloch,
The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People
, Eighth Edition (Boston: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2014); Alan Brinkley,
The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People
, vol. 1, Seventh Edition (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2014).