250 years ago in August 1775 most of the British subjects in the 13 Colonies of America were astonished that their own 'Mother Parliament' in London had turned on them. For decades many of them had worked for the government, as lawyers, administrators, land surveyors and of course as soldiers. For the government to turn their own army against them was too much to contemplate.
So, still not desiring to be independent, the Second Continental Congress issued their "Olive Branch Petition" on 5th July - a final plea to King George III for "a happy and permanent reconciliation".
Written by John Dickinson (a pupil of Donegal Presbyterian tutor Francis Alison), it was carried from Philadelphia and arrived in England at Bristol on 13 August 1775. Here's the Wikipedia entry. Dickinson's serialised Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, written nearly a decade before, had prepared the colonists for the potential of resistance and revolution - and within them he referred a number of times to the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
• The text of the Olive Branch Petition is online here.
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However the very next day, another Dickinson document was published – the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms (Wikipedia here). It's tremendous stuff, accusing "the legislature of Great Britain" of reprobating "the very constitution of that kingdom" –
"Our forefathers, inhabitants of the island of Great-Britain, left their native land, to seek on these shores a residence for civil and religious freedom. At the expense of their blood, at the hazard of their fortunes, without the least charge to the country from which they removed, by unceasing labour, and an unconquerable spirit, they effected settlements in the distant and unhospitable wilds of America, then filled with numerous and warlike barbarians. -- Societies or governments, vested with perfect legislatures, were formed under charters from the crown, and an harmonious intercourse was established between the colonies and the kingdom from which they derived their origin...
Honour, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them, if we basely entail hereditary bondage upon them..."
It was signed off by Ulster-born Charles Thomson in his role as Secretary of the Continental Congress.
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And on the 8th July, a further Petition was issued, this time not to the King, but from The Twelve United Colonies, by their Delegates in Congress, to the Inhabitants of Great Britain - yet again denying any interest in independence. Here's an extract –
"Remembrances of former friendships, pride in the glorious achievements of our common ancestors, and affection for the heirs of their virtues, have hitherto preserved our mutual connection...
... Yet conclude not from this that we propose to surrender our Property into the Hands of your Ministry, or vest your Parliament with a Power which may terminate in our Destruction. The great Bulwarks of our Constitution we have desired to maintain by every temperate, by every peaceable Means; but your Ministers (equal Foes to British and American freedom) have added to their former Oppressions an Attempt to reduce us by the Sword to a base and abject submission. On the Sword, therefore, we are compelled to rely for Protection.
Should Victory declare in your Favour, yet Men trained to Arms from their Infancy, and animated by the Love of Liberty, will afford neither a cheap or easy Conquest.
Of this at least we are assured, that our Struggle will be glorious, our Success certain; since even in Death we shall find that Freedom which in Life you forbid us to enjoy..."
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There was of course a cultural community in America who watched these escalations and saw their ancestral history repeating itself - the Ulster-Scots.
One of the Ulster-born Presbyterian community leaders living in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia was William Preston. He had been born in Limavady and subsequent family tradition is that three of his ancestors had died at the Siege of Derry in 1689 (see page 130 here). More about him in a future post.
In 1775 Preston wrote to Edmund Pendleton (one of the Virginia delegates to the Congress) about the community's collective folk memory of the Glorious Revolution and the tyranny of King James II, and that they were prepared for another revolution –
"Many of them are descended from those brave men who so nobly defended their religion & liberty in Ireland in a late inglorious & despotick reign, & were so instrumental in supporting the Revolution in that kingdom.
Those transactions almost every descendant from the Protestant Irish is well acquainted with either by history or tradition.
Therefore they cannot bear the thought of degenerating from their worthy forefathers, whose memory ought to be held very dear to them.”
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