Definition
The Second Continental Congress adopted the Olive Branch Petition on July 5, 1775, and delegates signed it on July 8, even though its army was already fighting British troops. John Dickinson of Pennsylvania wrote most of it. The petition professed loyalty to George III, blamed the king's ministers for the quarrel, and asked him to help secure peace and protect colonial rights. In August 1775 the king proclaimed the colonies in open rebellion, never answered the petition, and in December Parliament cut off all trade with the colonies.
Why it matters on the AP exam
The petition shows that in mid-1775 most members of Congress still wanted to keep their rights as British subjects, not to leave the empire, even after Lexington and Concord. Congress followed two tracks at once: it raised the Continental Army and on July 6 issued the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, while it petitioned the king for peace. George III's refusal to receive the petition, his proclamation of rebellion, and the Prohibitory Act pushed moderates toward independence, and six months later Common Sense attacked the king himself. Questions use it to show change over time in colonial attitudes from 1763 to 1776 and to correct the belief that colonists wanted independence as soon as the fighting began.
In the sources
“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.”
Connections
- Common Sense: Paine's pamphlet of January 1776 attacked the king whom Congress had petitioned
- Declaration of Independence: Congress moved from this petition to independence within a year
- Minutemen: the fighting at Lexington and Concord came less than three months before the petition
- Second Continental Congress: the body that adopted the petition while it also raised an army