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The Independent
04-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
A year before declaring independence, colonists offered 'Olive Branch' petition to King George III
Alarmed by the policies of President Donald Trump, millions turned out last month for protests around the United States and overseas. Mindful of next year's 250th anniversary of American independence, organizers called the movement 'No Kings.' Had the same kind of rallies been called for in the summer of 1775, the response likely would have been more cautious. 'It ('No Kings') was probably a minority opinion in July 1775,' says H.W. Brands, a prize-winning scholar and chair of the history department at the University of Texas at Austin. 'There was a lot of passion for revolution in New England, but that was different from the rest of the country,' says Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Joseph Ellis. 'There were still people who don't want to drawn into what they feared was an unnecessary war.' This month marks the 250th anniversary — the semiquincentennial — of a document enacted almost exactly a year before the Declaration of Independence: 'The Olive Branch Petition,' ratified July 5, 1775 by the Continental Congress. Its primary author was John Dickinson, a Pennsylvanian whose writing skills led some to call him the 'Penman of the Revolution,' and would stand as a final, desperate plea to reconcile with Britain. They put forth a pre-revolutionary argument The notion of 'No Kings' is a foundation of democracy. But over the first half of 1775 Dickinson and others still hoped that King George III could be reasoned with and would undo the tax hikes and other alleged abuses they blamed on the British Parliament and other officials. Ellis calls it the 'Awkward Interval,' when Americans had fought the British in Lexington and Concord and around Bunker Hill, while holding off from a full separation. 'Public opinion is changing during this time, but it still would have been premature to issue a declaration of independence,' says Ellis, whose books include 'Founding Brothers,' 'The Cause' and the upcoming 'The Great Contradiction." The Continental Congress projected unity in its official statements. But privately, like the colonies overall, members differed. Jack Rakove, a professor of history at Stanford University and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning 'Original Meanings,' noted that delegates to Congress ranged from 'radicals' such as Samuel Adams who were avid for independence to such 'moderates' as Dickinson and New York 's John Jay. The Olive Branch resolution balanced references to 'the delusive pretences, fruitless terrors, and unavailing severities' administered by British officials with dutiful tributes to shared ties and to the king's 'royal magnanimity and benevolence.' '(N)otwithstanding the sufferings of your loyal Colonists during the course of this present controversy, our Breasts retain too tender a regard for the Kingdom from which we derive our Origin to request such a Reconciliation as might in any manner be inconsistent with her Dignity or her welfare,' the sometimes obsequious petition reads in part. The American Revolution didn't arise at a single moment but through years of anguished steps away from the 'mother' country — a kind of weaning that at times suggested a coming of age, a young person's final departure from home. In letters and diaries written in the months before July 1775, American leaders often referred to themselves as children, the British as parents and the conflict a family argument. Edmund Pendleton, a Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress, urged 'a reconciliation with Our mother Country.' Jay, who would later help negotiate the treaty formally ending the Revolutionary War, proposed informing King George that 'your majesty's American subjects' are 'bound to your majesty by the strongest ties of allegiance and affection and attached to their parent country by every bond that can unite societies.' In the Olive Branch paper, Dickinson would offer tribute to 'the union between our Mother country and these colonies.' An early example of 'peace through strength' The Congress, which had been formed the year before, relied in the first half of 1775 on a dual strategy that now might be called 'peace through strength,' a blend of resolve and compromise. John Adams defined it as 'to hold the sword in one hand, the olive branch in the other.' Dickinson's petition was a gesture of peace. A companion document, 'The Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms," was a statement of resolve. The 1775 declaration was drafted by Thomas Jefferson, who a year later would be the principal writer of the Declaration of Independence, revised by Dickinson and approved by the Congress on July 6. The language anticipated the Declaration of Independence with its condemnation of the British for 'their intemperate Rage for unlimited Domination' and its vows to 'make known the Justice of our Cause.' But while the Declaration of Independence ends with the 13 colonies 'absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown,' the authors in 1775 assured a nervous public 'that we mean not to dissolve that Union which has so long and so happily subsisted between us, and which we sincerely wish to see restored.' 'Necessity has not yet driven us into that desperate Measure, or induced us to excite any other Nation to war against them,' they wrote. John Adams and Benjamin Franklin were among the peers of Dickinson who thought him naive about the British, and were unfazed when the king refused even to look at the Olive Branch petition and ruled that the colonies were in a state of rebellion. Around the same time Dickinson was working on his draft, the Continental Congress readied for further conflict. It appointed a commander of the newly-formed Continental Army, a renowned Virginian whom Adams praised as 'modest and virtuous ... amiable, generous and brave." His name: George Washington. His ascension, Adams wrote, "will have a great effect, in cementing and securing the Union of these Colonies.'
Associated Press
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
A year before declaring independence, colonists offered 'Olive Branch' petition to King George III
NEW YORK (AP) — Alarmed by the policies of President Donald Trump, millions turned out last month for protests around the United States and overseas. Mindful of next year's 250th anniversary of American independence, organizers called the movement 'No Kings.' Had the same kind of rallies been called for in the summer of 1775, the response likely would have been more cautious. 'It ('No Kings') was probably a minority opinion in July 1775,' says H.W. Brands, a prize-winning scholar and chair of the history department at the University of Texas at Austin. 'There was a lot of passion for revolution in New England, but that was different from the rest of the country,' says Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Joseph Ellis. 'There were still people who don't want to drawn into what they feared was an unnecessary war.' This month marks the 250th anniversary — the semiquincentennial — of a document enacted almost exactly a year before the Declaration of Independence: 'The Olive Branch Petition,' ratified July 5, 1775 by the Continental Congress. Its primary author was John Dickinson, a Pennsylvanian whose writing skills led some to call him the 'Penman of the Revolution,' and would stand as a final, desperate plea to reconcile with Britain. They put forth a pre-revolutionary argument The notion of 'No Kings' is a foundation of democracy. But over the first half of 1775 Dickinson and others still hoped that King George III could be reasoned with and would undo the tax hikes and other alleged abuses they blamed on the British Parliament and other officials. Ellis calls it the 'Awkward Interval,' when Americans had fought the British in Lexington and Concord and around Bunker Hill, while holding off from a full separation. 'Public opinion is changing during this time, but it still would have been premature to issue a declaration of independence,' says Ellis, whose books include 'Founding Brothers,' 'The Cause' and the upcoming 'The Great Contradiction.' The Continental Congress projected unity in its official statements. But privately, like the colonies overall, members differed. Jack Rakove, a professor of history at Stanford University and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning 'Original Meanings,' noted that delegates to Congress ranged from 'radicals' such as Samuel Adams who were avid for independence to such 'moderates' as Dickinson and New York's John Jay. The Olive Branch resolution balanced references to 'the delusive pretences, fruitless terrors, and unavailing severities' administered by British officials with dutiful tributes to shared ties and to the king's 'royal magnanimity and benevolence.' '(N)otwithstanding the sufferings of your loyal Colonists during the course of this present controversy, our Breasts retain too tender a regard for the Kingdom from which we derive our Origin to request such a Reconciliation as might in any manner be inconsistent with her Dignity or her welfare,' the sometimes obsequious petition reads in part. The American Revolution didn't arise at a single moment but through years of anguished steps away from the 'mother' country — a kind of weaning that at times suggested a coming of age, a young person's final departure from home. In letters and diaries written in the months before July 1775, American leaders often referred to themselves as children, the British as parents and the conflict a family argument. Edmund Pendleton, a Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress, urged 'a reconciliation with Our mother Country.' Jay, who would later help negotiate the treaty formally ending the Revolutionary War, proposed informing King George that 'your majesty's American subjects' are 'bound to your majesty by the strongest ties of allegiance and affection and attached to their parent country by every bond that can unite societies.' In the Olive Branch paper, Dickinson would offer tribute to 'the union between our Mother country and these colonies.' An early example of 'peace through strength' The Congress, which had been formed the year before, relied in the first half of 1775 on a dual strategy that now might be called 'peace through strength,' a blend of resolve and compromise. John Adams defined it as 'to hold the sword in one hand, the olive branch in the other.' Dickinson's petition was a gesture of peace. A companion document, 'The Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms,' was a statement of resolve. The 1775 declaration was drafted by Thomas Jefferson, who a year later would be the principal writer of the Declaration of Independence, revised by Dickinson and approved by the Congress on July 6. The language anticipated the Declaration of Independence with its condemnation of the British for 'their intemperate Rage for unlimited Domination' and its vows to 'make known the Justice of our Cause.' But while the Declaration of Independence ends with the 13 colonies 'absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown,' the authors in 1775 assured a nervous public 'that we mean not to dissolve that Union which has so long and so happily subsisted between us, and which we sincerely wish to see restored.' 'Necessity has not yet driven us into that desperate Measure, or induced us to excite any other Nation to war against them,' they wrote. John Adams and Benjamin Franklin were among the peers of Dickinson who thought him naive about the British, and were unfazed when the king refused even to look at the Olive Branch petition and ruled that the colonies were in a state of rebellion. Around the same time Dickinson was working on his draft, the Continental Congress readied for further conflict. It appointed a commander of the newly-formed Continental Army, a renowned Virginian whom Adams praised as 'modest and virtuous ... amiable, generous and brave.' His name: George Washington. His ascension, Adams wrote, 'will have a great effect, in cementing and securing the Union of these Colonies.'
CTV News
16-05-2025
- CTV News
Man who killed stranger after Victoria bar fight gets life sentence, 13 years without parole
The courthouse in Victoria is shown in this file photo (CTV News) A man who killed a stranger after fighting with him in a Victoria nightclub in 2022 has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 13 years. Mohamed Daud Omar was sentenced in B.C. Supreme Court late last month, and Justice Anthony Saunders' reasons for his decision were published online Friday. A jury convicted Omar of second-degree murder last year. The conviction comes with an automatic life sentence, it was up to Saunders to determine when parole eligibility would begin. Crown prosecutors asked the judge to impose an ineligibility period of 12 to 13 years, while Omar's defence asked for the minimum of 10 years. The crime Omar was 27 years old on March 1, 2022, when he got into an altercation with 29-year-old John Dickinson at Lucky Bar nightclub on Yates Street. According to Saunders' decision, the fight began verbally, though Dickinson 'put his hands on Mr. Omar and began to lead him towards the exit, saying words to the effect of, 'You can get this guy out.'' One of the bar's security guards escorted Omar out of the venue, and another told the court he heard Omar muttering 'I'm going to f*** this guy up' under his breath while he was outside. 'When Mr. Dickinson and his girlfriend exited shortly after that, Mr. Dickinson saw Mr. Omar, yelled at him, and rushed at him,' the decision reads. 'The two of them tussled and then tripped or fell with Mr. Dickinson on top. The two security guards had been attempting to intervene. At some point, while they were down, Mr. Omar stabbed Mr. Dickinson twice in the torso.' Dickinson suffered 'massive blood loss,' collapsed and never regained consciousness, according to the decision. Omar fled on foot to an Airbnb he was renting in the Vic West neighbourhood, where he called 911 and reported that he had stabbed a man and claimed he was acting in self-defence. He left his knife – described in the decision as 'a replica combat knife with a fixed blade, 12-and-a-half centimetres long' – at the scene. Police recovered the weapon and arrested him, and he has been in custody ever since. Killer was out on bail Six days before he killed Dickinson, Omar was arrested for what Saunders' decision describes as 'charges of serious, violent crime,' which are still before the court. He was released from custody with a variety of conditions, including a curfew requiring him to be at home between the hours of 11 p.m. and 5 a.m., as well as a ban on possessing any weapons, including knives. 'Those bail terms were in effect six days later when Mr. Omar committed the murder of Mr. Dickinson,' the decision reads. Omar did not testify in his defence during the trial, and Saunders' decision notes multiple times that the killer's state of mind and motivation when committing the crime remain unknown. A Black Muslim man born in Toronto to Somali immigrants, Omar suffered bullying and racism in school when he was growing up, according to the decision. He began drinking and using cannabis to cope with anxiety while he was still in high school, and he dropped out in Grade 11. 'Given the lack of evidence as to Mr. Omar's motivation and state of mind, and in particular the complete absence of any explanation for why Mr. Omar had chosen to arm himself with a deadly weapon, it is difficult to relate the offence to the racism and discrimination Mr. Omar has experienced throughout his life,' the decision reads. 'I will add that even if such a connection could properly be found, I consider the gravity of the offence and the danger to society posed by Mr. Omar … to be such that the impact of those factors on assessing Mr. Omar's moral blameworthiness would be slight at best.' A pre-sentencing report submitted in the case found Omar to be at 'an elevated risk of violence' compared to other offenders, according to the decision. It noted that he has gotten into fights with other inmates while in custody during his trial. The judge added he was not optimistic about Omar's prospects for rehabilitation. In addition to sentencing Omar to 13 years of parole ineligibility, Saunders imposed mandatory orders prohibiting him from possessing weapons and requiring him to provide DNA samples, as well as an order prohibiting from communicating directly or indirectly with any member of Dickinson's family.
