Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms

Summary

On 6 July 1775, a year before the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress adopted A Declaration by the Representatives of the United Colonies of North-America, Now Met in Congress at Philadelphia, Setting Forth the Causes and Necessity of Their Taking Up Arms. The text is primarily the work of Thomas Jefferson and John Dickinson, as later accounts and the Avalon source note record. It is not yet a declaration of independence. It explains why the colonies have closed, in the document’s words, with Britain’s last appeal from reason to arms, while still asking God to dispose their adversaries to reconciliation on reasonable terms and to relieve the empire from the calamities of civil war. The opening argument is moral and political. If it were possible to believe that the divine Author of our existence intended some people to hold unbounded power over others, the colonists might at least ask Parliament for evidence of such a grant. But reverence for the Creator, principles of humanity, and common sense, the authors say, must convince reflective people that government was instituted to promote the welfare of mankind. Parliament, they charge, has attempted to effect a cruel purpose of enslaving the colonies by violence. The practical choice is stated without ornament: “We are reduced to the alternative of chusing an unconditional submission to the tyranny of irritated ministers, or resistance by force.” The declaration prefers resistance, and it adds, in a short sentence often quoted later, “Our cause is just.” The close is a prayer: with humble confidence in the mercies of the supreme and impartial Judge, Congress implores protection through the conflict and a disposition to reconciliation, not the destruction of Britain. Students should read this text beside the Olive Branch Petition, signed two days later on 8 July 1775. The same Congress, in the same week, both justified taking up arms and petitioned the king for redress. The pairing shows a dual strategy, not a simple march toward July 1776. Dickinson, already known for Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, was a principal author of both documents; Jefferson would, a year later, draft the Declaration of Independence. The library’s Founding Documents collection begins with 1776; this page supplies the 1775 justification of arms that collection does not include.

Top Lessons

• Not yet independence

  The text justifies taking up arms and still prays for reconciliation within the empire. It should not be read as if July 1776 had already arrived.

• A stated alternative

  Congress names the alternative of unconditional submission or resistance by force. The sentence makes the moral claim of the document unmistakable.

• Two documents in one week

  Two days later the same Congress signed a petition to the king. The pairing is part of the meaning of each text.

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