Petition of Congress to King George III

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Newspaper, a complete and authentic issue of The Weekly Magazine, or Edinburgh Amusement, January 26, 1775, 32pp., disbound. From the interior and running three pages is a full printing of the First Congressional Petition to the King, in part, “MOST GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN, — We, your majesty's faithful subjects, ...on behalf of ourselves and the inhabitants of these colonies ...beg leave to lay our grievances before the throne. A standing army has been kept in these colonies ever since the conclusion of the late war, without the consent of our Assemblies ...The commander-in-chief of all your majesty's forces in North America has, in time of peace, been appointed governor of a colony....The officers of the customs are empowered to break open and enter houses without the authority of any civil magistrate, founded on legal information. ....Assemblies have been repeatedly and injuriously dissolved. ...Commerce has been burdened with many useless and oppressive restrictions ... In the last session of Parliament, an act was passed for blocking up the harbor of Boston.... From this destructive system of colony administration, adopted since the conclusion of the last war, have flowed those distresses, dangers, fears, ... Had our Creator been pleased to give us existence in a land of slavery, the sense of our condition might have been mitigated by ignorance and habit. But, thanks be to his adorable goodness, we were born the heirs of freedom ... Duty to your majesty, and regard for the preservation of ourselves and our posterity, ... command us to entreat your royal attention; and, as your majesty enjoys the signal distinction of reigning over freemen we apprehend the language of freemen will not be displeasing. Your royal indignation, we hope, will rather fall on those designing and dangerous men, who, ...by abusing your majesty's authority, misrepresenting your American subjects, and prosecuting the most desperate and irritating projects of oppression, have at length compelled us, by the force of accumulated injuries, too severe to be any longer tolerable, to disturb your majesty's repose by our complaints....Had we been permitted to enjoy in quiet the inheritance left us by our forefathers, we should at this time have been peaceably, cheerfully, and usefully employed in recommending ourselves by every testimony of devotion to your majesty, ....We ask but for peace, liberty, and safety. We wish not a diminution of the prerogative, nor do we solicit the grant of any new right in our favor. ...we solemnly profess that our councils have been influenced by no other motives than a dread of impending destruction....We, therefore, most earnestly beseech your majesty that your royal authority and interposition may be used for our relief, and that a gracious answer may be given to this petition..

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