My hopes are that Ministry will be afraid of negotiation as well as we and therefore refuse it. If they agree to it, we shall have occasion for all our wit vigilance and virtue to avoid being deceived, wheedled threatened or bribed out of freedom.
If we strenuously insist upon our liberties, as I hope and am pretty sure we shall however, a negotiation, if agreed to, will terminate in nothing. It will effect nothing.
The petition then declared that, despite their complaints, the colonists were still loyal to the British government:. The petition then goes on to ask the king to give the colonists their rights by repealing the unjust laws and taxes waged on them:.
On August 21, , the second copy of the petition was also sent to Lord Dartmouth, the Secretary of State for the colonies. When he later received the original petition from Penn and Lee on September 1, Dartmouth attempted to deliver the petition to King George III but the king refused to read it. We thought it our duty to press his Lordship to obtain an answer; but we were told that his Majesty did not receive it on the throne, no answer would be given. The British losses at Bunker Hill in June were especially stunning; an incredibly high percentage of British soldiers who participated in the battle were either wounded or killed.
The death rate among the British officers was especially high. General Howe, the British commander at Bunker Hill, realized how difficult it would be to suppress the Americans after his shocking losses at Bunker Hill and wrote King George III asking for a substantial number of reinforcements and suggesting the possibility of hiring foreign troops. The Proclamation indicated persons now in open arms and rebellion should be turned over to the government for punishment.
In addition, all American ships and cargoes were to be treated as if they belonged to an enemy power and were subject to seizure. 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 misfor tunes 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 royal magnanimity and benevolence may make the most favourable construction 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 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 dissentions, 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.
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 men tioned, 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.
Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. On July 5, , Arthur Ashe defeats the heavily favored Jimmy Connors to become the first Black man ever to win Wimbledon, the most coveted championship in tennis. Arthur Ashe began playing tennis as a boy in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia.
After winning a tennis scholarship On July 5, , President Andrew Johnson signs an executive order that confirms the military conviction of a group of people who had conspired to kill the late President Abraham Lincoln, then commander in chief of the U. With his signature, Johnson ordered four of the
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