Ch. 1.7. Primary Source: The Olive Branch Petition, July, 1775
Although Dickinson and the moderates had less influence in the Continental Congress after the battles of Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill, they were still important. They persuaded Congress to send the Olive Branch Petition excerpted below.
Philadelphia, July 8, 1775.
To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty: Most Gracious Sovereign, We, your Majesty’s faithful subjects of the Colonies…, in behalf of ourselves and the inhabitants of these Colonies, who have deputed us to represent them in General Congress, entreat your Majesty’s gracious attention to this our humble petition.
The union between our Mother Country and these Colonies, and the energy of mild and just government, produce benefits so remarkably important, and afforded such an assurance of their permanency and increase, that the wonder and envy of other nations were excited, while they beheld Great Britain rising to a power the most extraordinary the world had ever known…
Your loyal colonists…were alarmed by a new system of statutes and regulations adopted for the administration of the Colonies that filled their minds with the most painful fears and jealousies… We shall decline the ungrateful task of describing the irksome variety of artifices practiced by many of your Majesty’s ministers…in their attempts to execute this impolitic plan… Your Majesty’s Ministers, persevering in their measures, and proceeding to open hostilities for enforcing them, have compelled us to arm in our own defense, and have engaged us in a controversy so peculiarly abhorrent to the affections of your still faithful colonists…
…We think ourselves required by indispensable obligations to Almighty God, to your Majesty, to our fellow-subjects, and to ourselves, immediately to use all the means in our power, not incompatible with our safety, for stopping the further effusion of blood, and for averting the impending calamities that threaten the British Empire.
Attached to your Majesty’s person, family, and government, with all devotion that principle and affection can inspire; connected with Great Britain by the strongest ties that can unite societies, and deploring every event that tends in any degree to weaken them, we solemnly assure your Majesty, that we not only most ardently desire the former harmony between her and these Colonies may be restored… We beg further leave to assure your Majesty, that notwithstanding the sufferings of your loyal Colonists during the course of this present controversy, our breasts retain too tender a regard for the kingdom from which we derive our origin, to request such a reconciliation as might, in any manner, be inconsistent with her dignity or welfare…
We therefore beseech your Majesty, that your royal authority and influence may be graciously interposed to procure us relief from our afflicting fears and jealousies, occasioned by the system before-mentioned, and to settle peace through every part of our dominions…; and that, in the meantime…such statutes as more immediately distress any of your Majesty’s Colonies may be repealed.
That your Majesty may enjoy long and prosperous reign, and that your descendants may govern your Dominions with honor to themselves and happiness to their subjects, is our sincere prayer.