SATURDAY
JULY 8, 1775
The Congress met according to adjournment.
The Petition to the King being engrossed,
was compared, and signed by the several members.(1)
To the King's most excellent Majesty:
MOST GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN,
We, your Majesty's faithful subjects
of the colonies 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 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 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 extension(2) 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 honorable acknowledgments 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 offense, 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 tendency in this system to promote the welfare of the Mother
country. For tho' 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, practiced by many
of your Majesty's Ministers, the delusive presences, 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 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(3) royal magnanimity and benevolence may make the most
favourable construction of our expressions on so uncommon an occasion.
Could 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 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 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 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 relief 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 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 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 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
colony of New hampshire
John Langdon
colony of Massachusetts bay
Thomas Chushing
Saml Adams
John Adams
Robt Treat Paine
colony of Rhode island and providence
plantations
Step Hopkins
Sam: Ward
colony of Connecticut
Elipht Dyer
Roger Sherman
Silas Deane
colony of New York
Phil. Livingston
Jas Duane
John Alsop
Frans Lewis
John Jay
Robt R Livingston junr
Lewis Morris
Wm Floyd
Henry Wisner
New Jersey
Wil: Livingston
John De Hart
Richd Smith
Pennsylvania
John Dickinson
B Franklin
Geo: Ross
James Wilson
Chas Humphreys
Edwd Diddle
counties of New Castle Kent and Sussex
on delawar
Caesar Rodney
Thos M° Kean
Geo: Read
Maryland
Mat. Tilghman
Ths Johnson Junr
W Paca
Samuel Chase
Thos Stone
colony of Virginia
P. Henry Jr
Richard Henry Lee
Edmund Pendleton
Bend Harrison
Th: Jefferson
North Carolina
Will Hooper
Joseph Hewes
South Carolina
Henry Middleton
Tho Lynch
Christ Gadsden
J. Rutledge
Edward Rutledge(4)
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