5 lugl 1775 anni - Olive Branch Petition

Descrizione:

The Olive Branch Petition was adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 5th, 1775, in a final attempt to avoid war between Great Britain and the Thirteen Colonies in America. The Congress had already authorized the invasion of Canada more than a week earlier, but the petition affirmed American loyalty to Great Britain and entreated King George III to prevent further conflict.

John Adams, a delegate to the Second Continental Congress and advocate of full independence from the British Empire, wrote a friend, saying that the petition served no purpose, that war with the British was inevitable, and that the Thirteen Colonies should have already raised a navy and taken British officials as prisoners. Adams' letter was intercepted by British officials, and news of its contents reached Great Britain at about the same time as the petition itself arrived. British advocates of a military response used Adams' letter to argue that the petition itself was insincere.

It was followed by the July 6th, 1775 Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, however, which made its success unlikely in London. In August 1775, the colonies were formally declared to be in rebellion by the Proclamation of Rebellion, and the petition was rejected by the British government; King George had refused to read it before declaring the colonists traitors.

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