The Olive Branch Petition

After everything we've learned in 1775, things were definitely heating up. Kign George was upset and unwilling to give colonists the rights they felt were theirs. War was almost upon them! This would have been a frightening time--without knowing what would come of it. If you were a Patriot you were a traitor to the king and could be killed!

After Lexington and Concord there were some other battles, including Bunker Hill (where Joseph Warren died). The Second Continental Congress met to discuss what to do. George Washington was appointed the commander-in-chief (even though they hadn't yet formally declared independence)!

And so in one last ditch effort, the delegates determine to write The Olive Branch Petition.

I have been so excited to talk about this part of the history!

I remember learning about the Olive Branch Petition when I was nine or ten years old. Mean Grandpa taught a family home evening lesson about it and I want to share it.

During the Second Continental Congress with war looming before them, the delegates from the thirteen colonies again met. This time war was imminent. The King was not willing to negotiate, he wanted all power. The patriots were disappointed and frustrated by this.

They met at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. It was hot. Really hot. It was June and July of 1775 and they spent hours meeting to discuss what to do.

In a last ditch effort, they drafted what became known as the Olive Branch Petition. As an Olive Branch is a symbol of peace (think Noah's Ark) it was meant to represent pleading for peace and a resolution. They hoped it would resolve the problem without formal war being declared.

Written by John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, the petition was very proper and respectful, it began: "To the king's most excellent Majesty: Most gracious sovereign,"

It was signed on July 8, 1775 by several prominent figures in American History; John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Dickinson, Benjamin Franklin, and still others.

The Olive Branch petition was then sent to King George III and he utterly refused to even read it! He was so angry at the American Colonists and declared that they were in complete revolt. There was no going back.

A lesson from thirty years ago!

Now, why is this family home evening lesson etched in my memory? Because of what Mean Grandpa said next. I was probably about nine and this is what we looked like back then!

I'll record it to the best of my memory:

He told us that this was a significant part of history. They were trying to keep the peace, they wanted to prevent a war. They wrote the document, signed it and sent it across the ocean with the hope that King George III would reconcile. This was an important act by the Second Continental Congress, a group of intelligent men from twelve of the thirteen American Colonies. (Georgia sent delegates later in 1775).

BUT (he said), this was not the most significant thing that took place on July 8, 1775. No, there was something of even greater significance...

I remember waiting anxiously to see what else could be more important that what he had just spent ten minutes talking about...

He continued: "On July 8th 1775 in Gilsum, New Hampshire, Lucy Mack, the mother of the Prophet Joseph Smith was born!"

I was blown away. The Prophet Joseph Smith was everything--he is everything. Without him, there would be no restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And so without her--Lucy Mack--there would be no Joseph. We are indebted to her, to her parents, to that ancestry for getting Joseph Smith here. On the earth. At this time. And in this miraculous place. A free land.

Nevermind that the Lord used brilliant men to seek after their rights, to declare liberty, to fight for freedom and then to write an inspired document, even a constitution that would preserve religious liberty for all who set foot upon this land. All this? Was done so that His Gospel and His covenants might be restored to the earth through a young, but righteous, fourteen year old boy, the would-be prophet, Joseph Smith, Junior.

Too often we teach secular or we teach spiritual. The truth is, they are intertwined. We should be teaching American History, science and faith and religion all at the same time! After all,

“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” ~Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.