Relive the Revolutionary War!
July 1st, 1776: The final debate began on whether to declare independence from Great Britain. Most delegates in the Continental Congress were in favor of it, but a few were still against it. They had postponed the debate for three weeks, but now the time was up, and the decision had to be made.
Why were some people still opposed to declaring independence? Here are some of the reasons they gave:
Continue reading “To Be or Not To Be Independent”
In general, American political leaders wanted peace — but they were determined to keep fighting, if necessary, in order to protect their liberties. They wanted to be united with Britain, but they also wanted to enjoy the same rights as the people in Britain did. So, in early July 1775, the Continental Congress published a declaration of why they had taken up arms against the British, a petition asking King George III to step in and solve the problem, and an address asking the British people to stand up for them. Here are some excerpts from these documents:
We are reduced to the alternative of chusing an unconditional Submission to the tyranny of irritated Ministers, or resistance by Force. The latter is our choice. We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary Slavery. 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.
We therefore beseech your Majesty, that your royal authority and influence may be graciously interposed to procure us releif 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lives of your Majesty’s subjects; and that such statutes as more immediately distress any of your Majestys colonies be repealed…
A Cloud hangs over your Heads and ours; ‘ere this reaches you, it may probably burst upon us; let us then (before the remembrance of former Kindness is obliterated) once more repeat those Appellations which are ever grateful in our Ears; let us entreat Heaven to avert our Ruin, and the Destruction that threatens our Friends, Brethren and Countrymen, on the other side of the Atlantic.
