There were a number of circumstances that led to the colonists' rebellion against England and the monarchy. Tensions began to rise when King George III issued the Proclamation of 1763, banning English settlements west of the Appalachian mountains and ordering anyone in those regions to return east.1 In 1764, the Sugar Act was passed, increasing duties on imported good, and established a court to deal with custom matters.2 The Currency Act prohibited colonists from issuing paper money as legal tender, thus, destabilizing the colonial economy, and colonists called for a boycott of British luxury goods.3 The Stamp Act of 1865 ordered colonists to pay tax directly to England and the Quartering Act ordered colonists to house and feed British troops.4 That same year, the Sons of Liberty was formed to rebel against the Acts, and more merchants join in the boycotts.5 Over the course of the next several years, numerous incidents of frictions and often violence broke between the colonists and British troops, each Act passed by England met with rebellion and each act of rebellion met with ne

By the time of the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863, several major cities such as Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, were under threat of attack from General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army which had crossed the Potomac River and marched into Pennsylvania.16 The Battle of Gettysburg was the most important and decisive battle of the American Civil War, for due to miscalculations and error in judgement by Lee, what began as a skirmish ended up involving some 160,000 Americans, pushed Lee in retreat, and turned the tide of the war.17 By the end of the three day battle, "Confederate causalities in dead, wounded and missing were 28,000 out of 75,000. Union casualties were 23,000 out of 88,000."18 As Lee met the survivors of his army, he uttered, "It is all my fault...Upon my shoulders rests the blame."19 This battle not only turned the tide of the war, but became the reason for one of the most famous speeches in American history, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

A month after Abraham Lincoln was elected President in November 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union, followed within two months by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.13 Lincoln had stated that "Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free" and so a month before Lincoln was sworn in as president, Jefferson Davis was named as president of the Confederate States of America.14 And when the Confederate soldiers opened fire at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, on April 12, 1861, America was once again at war, however, this time the enemy was its own.15

From the Declaration of Independence, seeking "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," to the Constitution, declaring, "in order to form a more perfect union," to Lincoln address, reminding the country's citizens that this was a nation, "of the people, by the people, for the people," America has proved to be a union of freedom fighting people.

Again, the language of the Constitution is as si

Some common words found in the essay are:
Civil War, Lincoln Gettysburg, Declaration Independence8, Declaration Independence, Sons Liberty, Founding Fathers, Currency Act, George III, Texas13 Lincoln, George Washington7, people people, declaration independence, people people people, liberty pursuit happiness, perfect union, founding fathers, liberty pursuit, pursuit happiness, act passed, south carolina, life liberty pursuit, form perfect, form perfect union, civil war,
Approximate Word count = 1340
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)