The Edge of the Precipice

“I hope the administration will see and be convinced that it is not a little faction, but the whole body of American freeholders from Nova Scotia to Georgia that now complain and apply for redress; And who, I am sure, will resist rather than submit.”


Charles Thomson, secretary of the First Continental Congress, sent the petition of Congress on November 1st, 1774, to the British King George III, with this cover letter to Benjamin Franklin one of America’s agents in London. Thomson wrote that although there was still hope for peace, the colonies were on the “very edge of the precipice.” The petition, which outlined a peaceful redress of grievances, was summarily rejected by the British government.

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/franklin/franklin-congress.html#obj19