Continental Congress (July 6, 1775) passed the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity for Taking Up Arms, composed by Thomas Jefferson, to explain to the British why militiamen from several Colonies began to gather near Boston:
<But a reverence for our great Creator, principles of humanity, and the dictates of common sense, must convince all those who reflect upon the subject, that government was instituted to promote the welfare of mankind, and ought to be administered for the attainment of that end....
Our cause is just. Our union is perfect. Our internal resources are great, and if necessary, foreign assistance is undoubtedly attainable....
We gratefully acknowledge, as signal instances of the Divine favour towards us, that His Providence would not permit us to be called into this severe controversy, until we were grown up to our present strength, had been previously exercised in warlike operation, and possessed of the means of defending ourselves.
With hearts fortified with these animating reflections, we most solemnly, before God and the world, declare, that, exerting the utmost energy of those powers, which our beneficent Creator hath graciously bestowed upon us, the arms we have been compelled by our enemies to assume, we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverance, employ for the preservation of our liberties; being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live slaves.....
With a humble confidence in the mercies of the Supreme and impartial Judge and Ruler of the Universe, we most devoutly implore His divine goodness to protect us happily through this great conflict, and to dispose our adversaries to reconciliation on reasonable terms, and thereby to relieve the empire from the calamities of civil war.> 1775CC003
--
American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1775CC003. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Continental Congress, July 6, 1775, passed the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity for Taking Up Arms, composed by Thomas Jefferson. Journals of the American Congress-From 1774 to 1788, Vol. I, Thursday, July 6, 1775. Henry Steele Commager, ed., Documents of American History, 2 vols. (NY: F.S. Crofts and Company, 1934; Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., 1948, 6th edition, 1958; Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc., 9th edition, 1973), Vol. I, p. 95. Richard L. Perry, ed., Sources of Our Liberties: Documentary Origins of Individual Liberties in the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights (Chicago: American Bar Foundation, 1978; New York: 1952). Charles E. Rice, The Supreme Court and Public Prayer (New York: Fordham University Press, 1964), p. 165. The Annals of America, 20 vols. (Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1968), Vol. 2, pp. 337-341. Richard Maxfield, K. De Lynn Cook, and W. Cleon Skousen, The Real Thomas Jefferson (Washington, D.C.: National Center for Constitutional Studies, 2nd edition, 1981, 1983), p. 403. Marshall Foster and Mary-Elaine Swanson, The American Covenant-The Untold Story (Roseburg, OR: Foundation for Christian Self-Government, 1981; Thousand Oaks, CA: The Mayflower Institute, 1983, 1992), p. 33. John Eidsmoe, Christianity and The Constitution-The Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1987), p. 227. Peter Marshall & David Manuel, The Glory of America (Bloomington, MN: Garborg's Heart 'N Home, 1991), 7.6.