The Olive Branch
Petition
July 8, 1775
To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty.
MOST GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN: We, your Majesty’s faithful subjects of the Colonies of
New-Hampshire, Massachusetts-Bay, Rhode-Island, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, the
Counties of Newcastle, 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, 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
extra-ordinary the world had ever known.
Her rivals, observing that there was no probability of this happy connexion
being broken by civil dissensions, 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 those
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 exertion 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
advantageous 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 honourable acknowledgements of their merits remained on
record in the Journals and acts of that august Legislature, the Parliament,
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
danger of a foreign quarrel quickly succeeded by domestick danger, in their
judgment of a more dreadful kind.
Nor were these anxieties alleviated by any tendency in this system to promote
the welfare of their Mother Country. For though its effects were more
immediately felt by them, yet 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 Majesty’s Ministers, the delusive pretences,
fruitless terrours, and unavailing severities, that have, from time to time,
been dealt out by them, in their attempts to execute this impolitick plan, or of
tracing through a series of years past the progress of the unhappy differences
between Great Britain and these Colonies, that have flowed from this fatal
source.
Your Majesty’s 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 affections 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 Majesty’s royal magnanimity and benevolence may make the most favourable
constructions 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 in our language, and even in our conduct, not to any reprehensible
intention, but to the impossibility of reconciling the usual appearance 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 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, but that a concord may be established between them upon so firm a
basis as to perpetuate its blessings, uninterrupted by any future dissensions,
to succeeding generations in both countries, and to transmit your Majesty’s 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 the happiness to
others, have erected the most noble and durable monuments to their own fame.
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. These, related as we are to her,
honour 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 our faithful subject on this Continent ready and
willing at all times, as they have ever 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 relief from our afflicting fears and
jealousies, occasioned by the system before-mentioned, and to settle peace
through every part of our 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 counsels, may be improved into a happy and permanent
reconciliation; and that, in the mean time, measures may 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 Majesty’s Colonies may be
repealed.
For 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 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 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.
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