Read the Olive Branch Petition text. The Olive Branch Petition was the last effort of the Continental Congress to avoid war with Great Britain in 1775. Some delegates to the Continental Congress wanted to break with England at this time, but they yielded to the majority who weren't ready yet. Those who were more moderate wanted to explain their position clearly to King George, in hopes that he had been misinformed about their intentions. They made it clear that they were loyal subjects to Great Britain and they wanted to remain so, as long as their grievances were addressed. The king eventually refused to even receive their petition, which eventually came to be known as "The Olive Branch Petition." This set the stage for the American Declaration of Independence a year later. The names of each delegate who signed the Olive Branch Petition are at the bottom.
Approved by the Continental Congress on July 5, 1775
To the King's Most Excellent Majesty:
MOST EXCELLENT SOVERIEIGN: We your Majesty's faithful subjects of the colonies of New-hampshire, Massachusetts-bay,
Rhode island and Providence plantations, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey,
Pennsylvania, the counties of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex on Delaware, Maryland,
Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, 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, produced 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 riseing to a power the most
extraordinary the world had ever known.
Her rivals observing, that there
was no probability of this happy connection being broken by civil dissentions,
and apprehending its future effects, if left any longer undisturbed, resolved to
prevent her receiving such continual and formidable accessions of wealth and strength,
by checking the growth of these settlements from which they were to be derived.
In the prosecution of this attempt events so unfavourable to the design took place,
that every friend to the interests of Great Britain and these colonies entertained
pleasing and reasonable expectations of seeing an additional force and extention
immediately given to the operations of the union hitherto experienced, by an
enlargement of the dominions of the Crown, and the removal of ancient and warlike
enemies to a greater distance.
At the conclusion therefore of the late war,
the most glorious and advantagious that ever had been carried on by British arms,
your loyal colonists having contributed to its success, by such repeated and strenuous
exertions, as frequently procured them the distinguished approbation of your Majesty,
of the late king, and of Parliament, doubted not but that they should be permitted
with the rest of the empire, to share in the blessings of peace and the emoluments
of victory and conquest. While these recent and honorable acknowledgments of their
merits remained on record in the journals and acts of the august legislature the
arliament, undefaced by the imputation or even the suspicion of any offence, they
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;
and to their inexpressible astonishment perceived the dangers of a foreign quarrel
quickly succeeded by domestic dangers, in their judgment of a more dreadful kind.
Nor were their anxieties alleviated by any tendancy in this system to promote the welfare
of the Mother Country. For 'tho its effects were more immediately felt by them, yets
its influence appeared to be injurious to the commerce and prosperity of Great Britain.
We shall decline the ungrateful task of describing the irksome variety of artifices
practised by many of your Majestys ministers, the delusive pretences, fruitless terrors,
and unavailing severities, that have from time to time been dealt out by them, in their
attempts to execute this impolitic plan, or of traceing thro' a series of years past the
progress of the unhappy differences between Great Britain and these colonies which have
flowed from this fatal source.
Your Majestys ministers persevering in their measures
and proceeding to open hostilities for enforcing them, have compelled us to arm in our own
defence, and have engaged us in a controversy so peculiarly abhorrent to the affection of
your still faithful colonists, that when we consider whom we must oppose in this contest,
and if it continues, what may be the consequences, our own particular misfortunes are
accounted by us, only as parts of our distress.
Knowing, to what violent resentments
and incurable animosities, civil discords are apt to exasperate and inflame the contending
parties, 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.
Thus called upon to address your Majesty on affairs of such moment to America, and probably
to all your dominions, we are earnestly desirous of performing this office with the utmost
deference for your Majesty; and we therefore pray, that your royal magnanimity and benevolence
may make the most favourable construction of our expressions on so uncommon an occasion. Could
we represent in their full force the sentiments that agitate the minds of us your dutiful
subjects, we are persuaded, your Majesty would ascribe any seeming deviation from reverence,
and our language, and even in our conduct, not to any reprehensible intention but to the
impossibility of reconciling the usual appearances of respect with a just attention to our
own preservation against those artful and cruel enemies, who abuse your royal confidence and
authority for the purpose of effecting our destruction.
Attached to your Majestys person,
family and government with all the 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 but
that a concord may be established between them upon so firm a basis, as to perpetuate its
blessings uninterrupted by any future dissentions to succeeding generations in both countries,
and to transmit your Majestys name to posterity adorned with that signal and lasting glory
that has attended the memory of those illustrious personages, whose virtues and abilities
have extricated states from dangerous convulsions, and by securing happiness to others, have
erected the most noble and durable monuments to their own fame.
We beg leave further to
assure your Majesty that notwithstanding the sufferings of your loyal colonists during the
course of the 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 her welfare. These, related as we are to her, honor and duty, as well as
inclination induce us to support and advance; and the apprehensions that now oppress our hearts
with unspeakable grief, being once removed, your Majesty will find your faithful subjects on this
continent ready and willing at all times, as they ever have been with their lives and fortunes to
assert and maintain the rights and interests of your Majesty and of our Mother Country.
We therefore beseech your Majesty, that your royal authority and influence may be graciously
interposed to procure us releif [sic] from our afflicting fears and jealousies occasioned by
the system before mentioned, and to settle peace through every part of your dominions, with
all humility submitting to your Majesty's wise consideration, whether it may not be expedient
for facilitating those important purposes, that your Majesty be pleased to direct some mode
by which the united applications of your faithful colonists to the throne, in pursuance of
their common councils, may be improved into a happy and permanent reconciliation; and that
in the meantime measures be taken for preventing the further destruction of the lives of your
Majesty's subjects; and that such statutes as more immediately distress any of your Majestys
colonies be repealed: For by such arrangements as your Majesty's wisdom can form for collecting
the united sense of your American people, we are convinced, your Majesty would receive such
satisfactory proofs of the disposition of the colonists towards their sovereign and the parent
state, that the wished for opportunity would soon be restored to them, of evincing the sincerity
of their professions by every testimony of devotion becoming the most dutiful subjects and the
most affectionate colonists.
That your Majesty may enjoy a long and prosperous reign, and
that your descendants may govern your dominions with honor to themselves and happiness to their
subjects is our sincere and fervent prayer.
JOHN HANCOCK,
JOHN LANGDON,
THOMAS CUSHING, New-Hampshire
SAMUEL ADAMS,
JOHN ADAMS,
ROBERT TREAT PAINE, Massachusetts
STEPHEN HOPKINS,
SAMUEL WARD,
ELIPHALET DYER, Rhode-Island
ROGER SHERMAN,
SILAS DEANE, Connecticut
PHILIP LIVINGSTON,
JAMES DUANE,
JOHN ALSOP,
FRANCIS LEWIS,
JOHN JAY,
ROBERT LIVINGSTON, JR.,
LEWIS MORRIS,
WILLIAM FLOYD,
HENRY WISNER, New-York
WILLIAM LIVINGSTON,
JOHN DE HART,
RICHARD SMITH, New-Jersey
JOHN DICKINSON,
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN,
GEORGE ROSS,
JAMES WILSON,
CHARLES HUMPHREYS,
EDWARD BIDDLE, Pennsylvania
CAESAR RODNEY,
THOMAS McKEAN,
GEORGE READ, Delaware Counties
MATTHEW TILGHMAN,
THOMAS JOHNSON, JR.,
WILLIAM PACA,
SAMUEL CHASE,
THOMAS STONE, Maryland
PATRICK HENRY, JR.,
RICHARD HENRY LEE,
EDMUND PENDLETON,
BENJAMIN HARRISON,
THOMAS JEFFERSON, Virginia
WILLIAM HOOPER,
JOSEPH HEWES, North-Carolina
HENRY MIDDLETON,
THOMAS LYNCH,
CHRISTOPHER GADSDEN,
JOHN RUTLEDGE,
EDWARD RUTLEDGE, South-Carolina
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