The Oaths That Created American Allegiance
The Declaration of Independence did not create the United States of America as the single, consolidated nation we recognize today.
The distinction is visible in the title of the engrossed Declaration itself: “The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America.” The word “united” appeared in lowercase while “States” was capitalized. In that context, “united” described thirteen separate states joined in a common declaration and war—not one consolidated national state. The Declaration’s conclusion likewise proclaimed that “these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States,” using the plural because each former colony was claiming independence and sovereignty.
In 1776, the thirteen colonies declared themselves to be “Free and Independent States.” Each state claimed its own sovereignty and could theoretically have existed as an independent country. They were united by rebellion against Great Britain, common interests and the necessity of coordinating their military and diplomatic efforts.
The word “united” described their relationship. It did not yet mean that they had surrendered their separate sovereignty to one national government.
The Continental Congress coordinated the war, diplomacy and the Continental Army, but it did not possess the full authority later granted to the federal government under the Constitution. State militias primarily defended their home states, while Continental Army regiments were generally organized along state lines even when they served in a shared army.
This raises an important question: If the states were no longer colonies of Great Britain, to whom did their civil and military officers owe allegiance?
In 1778, the Continental Congress provided an answer by requiring officers serving under its authority to take formal oaths of allegiance and fidelity to the free, independent and sovereign states.
Among those who signed these oaths were George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.
From allegiance to a king to allegiance to independent states
Before the Revolution, the inhabitants of Britain’s North American colonies were British subjects. Their formal political allegiance was owed to the British Crown.
The Declaration of Independence severed that relationship. It declared that the former colonies were absolved from allegiance to the British Crown and that all political connection between them and Great Britain was dissolved.
The Declaration repeatedly described the former colonies as states in the plural. Its concluding resolution proclaimed them to be “Free and Independent States” with the authority to wage war, make peace, establish commerce and perform the other acts that independent states could rightfully perform.
They were cooperating in a common cause, but they were not yet a unified nation under a constitutionally empowered federal government.
The states sent representatives to the Continental Congress, raised militia units and supplied regiments for the Continental Army. Those forces coordinated with one another against Britain, but their soldiers remained closely identified with their home states. Back then you didn't self identify as America but rather as Carolinian, Virginian, Georgian, Vermontan, or New Yorker, all of which were actual nationalities at the time until 1789.
The rebellion was therefore both collective and local. The states needed one another to defeat Great Britain, but each was also fighting to secure its own independence.
Congress establishes an oath
On February 3, 1778, the Continental Congress adopted a resolution requiring civil and military officers holding commissions under Congress to take and subscribe to an oath or affirmation of allegiance and fidelity.
The oath required each officer to acknowledge the United States of America as “Free, Independent and Sovereign States.”
That wording matters.
The oath did not describe one sovereign American state. It recognized multiple sovereign states united in resistance to Britain.
Those taking the oath declared that the people of the states owed no allegiance or obedience to King George III. They renounced allegiance to him and promised to support, maintain and defend the states against the king, his successors and their supporters.
They also promised to serve the states faithfully in the offices they held.
The oath transformed the political argument of the Declaration into a personal obligation. Officers were not merely expected to sympathize with independence. They were required to formally reject the king’s authority and pledge themselves to the defense of the independent states.
George Washington takes the oath
George Washington signed his oath at Valley Forge on May 12, 1778. He identified himself as commander in chief of the armies of the United States of America.
Washington’s oath was witnessed by Major General William Alexander, commonly known as Lord Stirling.
The location and timing gave the document particular significance. Washington and the Continental Army had just endured the difficult winter encampment at Valley Forge. Soldiers suffered from shortages, disease and severe conditions while the army attempted to become a more disciplined and effective fighting force.
Although Washington already commanded the Continental Army, he was not exempt from the requirement. He placed his name beneath the same formal renunciation of the British Crown expected of other officers serving under Congress.
Washington swore to support and defend the free, independent and sovereign states. His oath was not directed toward a consolidated federal nation that did not yet exist. It was a commitment to the states whose common army he commanded.
Alexander Hamilton’s oath
Alexander Hamilton signed his oath at Valley Forge on May 12, 1778.
Hamilton identified himself as a lieutenant colonel and aide-de-camp to Washington. He acknowledged the United States as free, independent and sovereign states, renounced allegiance to George III and promised to support and defend them.
Hamilton would later become one of the strongest advocates for replacing the Articles of Confederation with a more powerful federal government. His arguments for the Constitution reflected his belief that the existing union of states was too weak to function effectively.
His 1778 oath came before that constitutional transformation.
At the time, Hamilton was not swearing allegiance to the modern federal government. He was pledging fidelity to the independent states acting together through the Continental Congress.
Aaron Burr also pledged allegiance
Aaron Burr signed an oath while serving as a lieutenant colonel in the Continental Army.
Burr’s later political career and his fatal duel with Hamilton have often overshadowed his service during the American Revolution. His surviving oath places him alongside the other Continental officers who formally renounced obedience to the British monarch and pledged fidelity to the independent states.
Washington, Hamilton and Burr would not remain political allies. Hamilton and Burr eventually became bitter rivals, while Washington and Hamilton became closely associated with the movement for a stronger national government.
In 1778, however, each formally acknowledged the sovereignty of the independent states and accepted an obligation to defend them.
A league of sovereign states
The Articles of Confederation had been adopted by the Continental Congress in November 1777, but they did not take effect until all thirteen states had ratified them in 1781.
The Articles described the relationship among the states as a “firm league of friendship” for their common defense, security and welfare. They also expressly declared that each state retained its “sovereignty, freedom and independence.”
That language helps explain the political world in which the 1778 oaths were signed.
The united States were not simply thirteen administrative divisions inside one country. They were thirteen self-governing political communities participating in a confederation and a shared revolution.
Congress conducted diplomacy and directed the common war effort, while the states retained extensive authority over their own governments, laws, finances, militias and internal affairs.
The Continental Army represented their shared military effort, but the state lines within that army reflected the continuing importance of state identity. Militia forces were even more directly connected to their individual states and local communities.
The early American union was therefore closer to an alliance of rebel states than to the single federal nation that would emerge later.
Did everyone have to take an oath?
These documents require an important distinction.
The resolution adopted by the Continental Congress did not impose one universal oath on every person living in the states. The oaths displayed at the National Archives were principally required of civil and military officers holding commissions under Congress.
Individual states also enacted their own loyalty laws and oath requirements. Depending on the state and the period, these requirements could apply to all public employees, military personnel, attorneys, voters, clergy, property owners or other residents.
Consequences for refusing an oath could include exclusion from public office or political participation, loss of property, expulsion or suspicion of Loyalist sympathies.
It would therefore be inaccurate to claim that every inhabitant had to take one identical national oath before being considered an American.
It would be equally inaccurate to claim that oaths of allegiance were not required during the creation of the United States.
Formal oaths clearly existed.
Allegiance before the modern United States
These oaths record a fundamental political transformation, but not yet the final transformation into the modern United States.
Under the colonial system, allegiance was owed to a hereditary monarch. The Revolutionary oaths rejected that relationship and redirected allegiance toward the free, independent and sovereign states.
The Constitution later created a stronger federal government operating in the name of “We the People of the United States.” It was ratified by the required ninth state in 1788, and the new government began operating in 1789.
Even then, the balance between state and federal authority remained contested.
In 1778, however, the meaning was clearer: the states were united, but they were still states in the older international sense—political communities claiming their own sovereignty and independence.
Documents of commitment
The Declaration of Independence explained why the colonies had separated from Great Britain. The allegiance oaths show individual officers formally accepting the consequences of that separation.
George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr and other officers placed their names beneath promises to renounce the British Crown, defend the independent states and faithfully perform their duties.
These oaths did not create American identity by themselves, nor were they required uniformly of every inhabitant. But they turned independence from a congressional declaration into a personal and enforceable obligation for people entrusted with public authority.
The officers who signed them were not pledging allegiance to the United States as one consolidated nation in the modern sense. They were pledging to support and defend free, independent and sovereign states united in a common war.
Before Great Britain formally recognized their independence through the Treaty of Paris, the states were already defining what allegiance to the united States meant.
If you would like to know more about Revolutionary-era oaths of allegiance and the early relationship among the American states, you can get more information here:
National Archives — George Washington’s Oath of Allegiance:https://www.archives.gov/dc/highlights/washington-oath
National Archives Museum — Washington’s signed oath and the 1778 congressional requirement:https://visit.archives.gov/whats-on/explore-exhibits/opening-vault-washington-and-franklin
Founders Online — Alexander Hamilton’s Oath of Allegiance:https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-01-02-0453
Founders Online — General Orders announcing the required oath:https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-15-02-0060
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