Posted on 07/03/2017 5:58:02 AM PDT by rktman
Almost everyone knows Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. But did you know he also wrote a Declaration of Arms?
A year prior to Congress’ adoption and ratification of the Declaration of Independence, the members were signing a declaration to pick up arms against the mother country. And Jefferson was again the primary author.
Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence when he was just 33 years old, the youngest member of Congress. He penned the Declaration of Arms when he was just 32 years old.
Jefferson’s eloquence in written expression was apparent to John Adams, who later described him this way in 1822: “Mr. Jefferson came into Congress in June, 1775, and brought with him a reputation for literature, science, and a happy talent of composition. Writings of his were handed about, remarkable for the peculiar felicity of expression. Though a silent member in Congress, he was so prompt, frank, explicit, and decisive upon committees and in conversation – not even Samuel Adams was more so – that he soon seized upon my heart …”
The History Channel explained how on July 6, 1775, just a single day after our founders issued their Olive Branch Petition to King George III, Congress gave just reason for “the causes and necessity of their taking up arms.” In it, they wrote they would rather “die free men rather than live as slaves.”
Four months earlier in April 1775, patriot resistance and the “shot that was heard around the world” fired off in Lexington and Concord. Now, it was time for our founders and Congress to square off against the king himself, so they initiated the Declaration of Arms.
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
BMFL (July 6)
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Was the particular declaration ever ratified?
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.
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/arms.asp#1
In the play and film version of the musical 1776, John Adams quotes from it as an example of why Jefferson should write the Declaration of Independence.
P4L
...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, to dispose our adversaries to reconciliation on reasonable terms, and thereby to relieve the Empire from the calamities of civil war.
By order of Congress,
JOHN HANCOCK,
President
Attested,
CHARLES THOMSON,
Secretary
PHILADELPHIA, July 6th, 1775
In other words, NEVER!
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