July 5, 1775-The Olive Branch Petition

Though American independence began on July 4, 1776, we should remember that a state of armed rebellion had existed between Great Britain and 13 of its American colonies since April 19, 1775. And during that time, the Americans were fighting to preserve their rights as Englishmen. It took over a year of fighting for that to change to a war for independence.

On this day 247 years ago, on July 5, in 1775, the Continental Congress adopted the Olive Branch Petition. It took the form of a letter to King George III, from members of the Second Continental Congress; it was the last attempt by the moderate party in North America to avoid a war of independence against Britain.?

Written by John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, it appealed directly to King George III and expressed hope for reconciliation between the colonies and Great Britain. It was phrased to notify the king that American colonists were unhappy with ministerial policy, not his own. They concluded their plea with a final statement of fidelity to the crown: “That your Majesty may enjoy long and prosperous reign, and that your descendants may govern your Dominions with honour to themselves and happiness to their subjects, is our sincere prayer.”

Signed by representatives of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, it was shipped to England on July 8, 1775, and received by King George III six weeks later. When George III refused to read the petition, Patriots realized that Parliament was acting with royal knowledge and support.

The militia that had fired upon Redcoats at Lexington and Concord in April 1775 had been angry with Parliament, not the king, who they still trusted to desire only good for his subjects. Patriots had hoped that Parliament had curtailed colonial rights without the King’s full knowledge, and that the petition would cause him to come to his subject's defense.?

Over the next year, there was a seismic shift in attitude in the colonies, from blaming Parliament to holding the King solely responsible. By July 1776, the Declaration of Independence proclaimed: “The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.” The language change is critical to understanding how big the mindset shift was. When he was drafting the Declaration of Independence, Congress insisted that Thomas Jefferson remove any language from the declaration that implicated the people of Great Britain or their elected representatives in Parliament. The fundamental grounds upon which Americans were taking up arms had shifted

https://historyofmassachusetts.org/what-was-the-olive-branch-petition/