In the Olive Branch Petition, the Continental Congress appealed to King George III to defend their rights and help stop the war. But even before doing that, they decided to appeal to a higher King.
“We have appointed a continental Fast,” wrote John Adams to his wife, Abigail, on June 17, 1775. “Millions will be upon their Knees at once before their great Creator, imploring his Forgiveness and Blessing, his Smiles on American Councils and Arms.” The “day of public humiliation [i.e., publicly humbling oneself before God], fasting and prayer” was set for Thursday, July 20, and the Continental Congress issued a proclamation urging everyone in the American colonies to observe it. The proclamation said that the objective of the fast was
…that we may, with united hearts and voices, unfeignedly confess and deplore our many sins; and offer up our joint supplications to the all-wise, omnipotent, and merciful Disposer of all events; humbly beseeching him to forgive our iniquities, to remove our present calamities, to avert those desolating judgments, with which we are threatned, and to bless our rightful sovereign, King George the third, and inspire him with wisdom to discern and pursue the true interest of all his subjects, that a speedy end may be put to the civil discord between Great Britain and the American colonies, without farther effusion of blood: And that the British nation may be influenced to regard the things that belong to her peace, before they are hid from her eyes: That these colonies may be ever under the care and protection of a kind Providence, and be prospered in all their interests; That the divine blessing may descend and rest upon all our civil rulers, and upon the representatives of the people, in their several assemblies and conventions, that they may be directed to wise and effectual measures for preserving the union, and securing the just rights and priviledges of the colonies; That virtue and true religion may revive and flourish throughout our land; And that all America may soon behold a gracious interposition of Heaven, for the redress of her many grievances, the restoration of her invaded rights, a reconciliation with the parent state, on terms constitutional and honorable to both; And that her civil and religious priviledges may be secured to the latest posterity.
The fast was indeed observed with “strictness and devotion” in many places throughout the colonies. In Newport, Rhode Island, the Reverend Ezra Stiles (who later became president of Yale College) addressed “the most crouded Assembly that I ever preached to in my Meetinghouse.” His sermon was based on 2 Chronicles 20, which tells of how God protected the ancient Jews from their enemies in response to their prayers and fasting. Also in Newport, Rabbi Samuel Cohen “of the holy Land” preached to his congregation, using Numbers 25:11-12 as his text. (Incidentally, the synagogue in Newport is the oldest one in America.)
But not everybody was as enthusiastic as Reverend Stiles or Rabbi Cohen. Some pastors and priests refused to take part in the fast: some of them said it was against their personal convictions; others (particularly those of the Church of England) said they might lose their jobs if they participated. But as it turned out, some of them lost their jobs for not participating.
In our day, when the phrase “separation of church and state” is often taken to mean that religion has little or no place in public life, it may seem strange to us that a congress would tell people to turn to God for help in a time of national crisis. But this was a common practice both during and after the Revolution — and even after the U.S. Constitution was adopted (which, incidentally, sheds some light on what the people who wrote the Constitution thought “separation of church and state” meant).
Sources
John Adams to Abigail Adams, 11 June 1775
Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 2, 87-8
Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles, vol. 1, 590-1