The Olive Branch Petition was adopted by the Second Continental Congress on 5 July 1775 in a final attempt to avoid a full war between Britain and the Thirteen Colonies in America. Congress passed a Canadian invasion more than a week earlier, but the petition affirmed America's loyalty to Great Britain and appealed to King George III to prevent further conflict. The petition was followed by 6 July Declarations of the Cause and Need for Taking Arms, however, which made its success impossible in London. In August 1775, the colonies were officially declared an insurrection by the Proclamation of the Uprising, and the petition was rejected by the Great Britain - though King George had refused to read it before declaring the traitors to the colonists.
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Drafting
The Second Continental Congress was held in May 1775, and most delegates followed John Dickinson in an attempt to make peace with King George III of Great Britain. However, a small group of delegates led by John Adams believed that war was inevitable. During the Second Continental Congress, Adams and his allies decided that the wisest action was to remain silent and wait for the right time to mobilize the people.
This decision allows Dickinson and his followers to pursue their own path to reconciliation. Dickinson is the lead author of the petition, though Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, John Rutledge, and Thomas Johnson also serve on the stretching committee. Dickinson claimed that the colony did not want independence but wanted fairer trade and tax laws. He suggested that the King devise a plan to resolve the trade dispute and grant the invaders both free trade and taxes equal to those imposed on the British people or strict trade regulations in lieu of taxes. The letter's introductory paragraph lists twelve of the thirteen colonies, all except Georgia. The letter was approved on 5 July and signed by John Hancock, President of the Second Congress, and by representatives of the twelve named colonies. It was sent to London on July 8, 1775, in the care of Richard Penn and Arthur Lee. Dickinson hopes news of the Battle of Lexington and Concord combined with a "humble petition" will persuade the King to respond with a reply proposal or to open negotiations.
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Reception and rejection
Adams wrote to a friend, stating that the petition was useless, that war was inevitable, and that the colonies should have appointed a navy and taken prisoners of British officials. The letter was intercepted by British officials and its contents reached Britain at almost the same time as the petition itself. British supporters of the military response to the invaders use Adams's letter to claim that the petition itself is insincere.
On August 21, Penn and Lee gave a copy of the petition to Lord Dartmouth, the colonial secretary, followed by the original on 1 September. Penn and Lee report back on September 2: "We were told that since His Holiness did not receive him on the throne, no answer would be given." In response to the Battle of Bunker Hill, the King has issued a Proclamation to Suppress the Rebellion and Rebellion on August 23 , declared the North American colonies to be in a state of rebellion and ordered "all our officers... and all our obedient and faithful Subjects, to use their utmost effort to restrain and suppress such rebellion." The enmity predicted by Adams weakened the petition; The king had answered it even before it reached him.
Consequences
The King's refusal to consider the petition gave Adams and others a chance to encourage independence, and it denotes the King as stubborn and uninterested in dealing with colonists' grievances. This polarized the problem in the minds of many invaders, who realized that the choice of the future was between complete independence and complete surrender to British rule, realization crystallized a few months later in a much-read pamphlet of Thomas Paine Common Sense.
References
External links
- Works related to the Olive Branch Petition on Wikisource
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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