After reading this, I think that most of you who believe that yesterday marked the anniversary of a great moment in our Nation’s history will probably agree that today is a date that the proud patriots among you would rather forget.

The second paragraph of the Declaration Of Independence includes the sentence, “Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.”

Just a year earlier, it would seem, they were more disposed to suffer, while evils were sufferable.

That was despite a long train of abuses and usurpations, beginning with the Sugar Act in 1764. The following year it was the Stamp Act and the Quartering Act.

Due to boycotts and difficulties in enforcing the Stamp Act, it was repealed less than a year later. However, on the day it was repealed, Parliament passed the Declaratory Act, asserting its “full power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the colonies and people of America, subjects of the crown of Great Britain, in all cases whatsoever.”

In 1767, the Townsend Acts imposed taxes on imports such as paper, glass and tea. They also reduced taxes on tea imported to Britain by the British East India Company, effectively giving it a monopoly in the colonies, and suspended the New York Assembly until it complied with the Quartering Act.

On March 5, 1770 British soldiers fired into an unruly crowd on King Street in Boston, killing five colonists. The Boston Massacre greatly amplified the anti-British sentiment that had previously been kept to a relative simmer.

The 1773 Tea Act, of course, led Boston’s Sons of Liberty to famously  dump 342 chests of tea, imported by the British East India Company into the city’s harbor.

In response to that act of rebellion, Parliament enacted the Coercive Acts, a series of laws meant to punish the people of Massachusetts. The acts closed the Port of Boston, revoked the colony’s charter and expanded the requirements to house British officers pursuant to the Quartering Act.

When you reflect on all of this, you have to wonder what took the colonies so long to rebel.

It wasn’t until April 19, 1775 that the shot heard ’round the world was fired. American casualties at the battles of Lexington and Concord totaled 49 killed, 39 wounded, and 5 missing.

Two months later, at Bunker Hill, 115 Americans were killed, more than 300 wounded and 30 captured.

And yet…

On May 10, 1775, the Second Continental Congress convened at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia and the mood of the delegates, like that of the general public, was divided. Some favored severing ties with Great Britain while others clung to the notion that reconciliation with the Crown was still achievable.

Interestingly, most members of Congress believed —at the time, at least— that the problem back in London was Parliament and not the king. So, somebody came up with the idea of sending Georgie and love letter.

Well, that wasn’t their original intent.

On June 3, a committee was formed to draft a petition to the king. It included Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, William Livingston, Thomas Johnson and John Dickinson. Not surprisingly they asked Thomas Jefferson to write the missive to the king, a last ditch effort to end the crisis between the British government and the American colonists.

Just like he would a year later, in pretty much single-handedly writing the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson went to work.

However, when he delivered his finished product to the committee, its members concluded that it was way too aggressive.

Ben Franklin was quoted as saying, simply, “Dude.”

Jefferson’s draft explicitly condemned the British government’s actions and policies that infringed upon colonial rights. He detailed the specific grievances that had led to the colonial unrest, such as the imposition of taxes without consent and the dissolution of colonial assemblies.

He emphasized the natural rights of the colonists, arguing that they had the same rights as British citizens and that these rights had been systematically violated by the British government.

Jefferson’s version also conveyed a sense of urgency, highlighting the escalating tensions and the dire consequences if the King failed to intervene. Jefferson warned of the potential for continued conflict and bloodshed if the colonial grievances were not addressed.

Remember, not everyone in Congress wanted to become independent from Great Britain and even fewer wanted a war. So the committee decided to call the bullpen, bringing in Pennsylvania’s John Dickinson, a strong advocate for peaceful a reconciliation with the Crown.

John Dickinson

On July 5, Dickinson presented his version of the petition to Congress. Bearing little in common with Jefferson’s antagonistic draft, the document begins:

To the king’s most excellent Majesty: Most gracious sovereign,

We, your Majesty’s faithful subjects of the colonies…in behalf of ourselves, and the inhabitants of these colonies, who have deputed us to represent them in general Congress, entreat your Majesty’s gracious attention to this our humble petition.

The body of the document is a sycophantic, shameless and obsequious litany of brown-nosing.

As an American —even 249 years later— it’s really quite embarrassing to read.

It closes with:

That your Majesty may enjoy a long and prosperous reign, and that your descendants may govern your dominions with honor to them selves and happiness to their subjects, is our sincere and fervent prayer.

What’s maybe more upsetting than the petition itself is the fact that our patriotic founding fathers signed it. Hancock, Franklin, the Adams boys, John Jay and even Richard Henry Lee, who the following year would introduce the independence language to the Declaration.

When all was said and done, it turns out that it didn’t matter which version of the petition Congress dispatched to London.

When the king received it, on August 21, he simply refused to read it, or even to have it read to him. Instead, two days later, he declared the colonies to be in a state of “open and avowed rebellion,” issuing an official edict to that effect. The document, entitled, “A Proclamation for suppressing Rebellion and Sedition,” was a declaration of war against the rebellious colonists.

While many citizens and members of Congress had long believed that their problem was with Parliament, they were now thoroughly disabused of that misconception.

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