jul 6, 1775 - Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms

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The Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms was a Resolution adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 6th, 1775. Written by Thomas Jefferson and revised by John Dickinson, the Declaration describes what colonists viewed as the effort of the British Parliament to extend its jurisdiction into the colonies following the Seven Years' War. Objectionable policies listed in the Declaration include taxation without representation, extended use of vice admiralty courts, the several Coercive Acts, and the Declaratory Act. The Declaration describes how the colonists had, for ten years, repeatedly petitioned for the redress of their grievances, only to have their pleas ignored or rejected. Even though British troops have been sent to enforce these unconstitutional acts, the Declaration insists that the colonists do not yet seek independence from the mother country. They have taken up arms "in defense of the Freedom that is our Birthright and which we ever enjoyed until the late Violation of it", and will "lay them down when hostilities shall cease on the part of the Aggressors".

The opening paragraph likens the colonies as being enslaved to the Legislature of Great Britain by violence, against its own constitution, and gives that as the reason for the colonies taking up arms:
"The Legislature of Great Britain, however, stimulated by an inordinate passion for power, not only unjustifiable, but which they know to be peculiarly reprobated by the very Constitution of that Kingdom, and desperate of success in any mode of contest where regard should be had to the truth, law, or right, have at length, deserting those, attempted to effect their cruel and impolitic purpose of enslaving these Colonies by violence, and have thereby rendered it necessary for us to close with their last appeal from reason to arms."

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