Role of Declaration of Independence of 1776 and the Olive Branch Petition of 1775 in the American Revolution

There are many important things we can learn from the Declaration of Independence of 1776 and the Olive Branch Petition of 1775. Many people don’t know or haven’t even read or heard of both of these events. So questions like who wrote it and what they are about come up all the time.

The Olive Branch petition was written by John Dickinson of Pennsylvania and signed by the Thirteen Colonies for final attempt at reconciliation. The Olive branch petition was created because many people didn’t want Great Britain to declare formal war. They thought they could stop it by creating a petition telling Great Britain that they were still loyal to the royal crown and their rights as citizens. Even though the citizens didn’t like great Britain, they also didn’t want to go to war with them. They understood the task that in order to keep peace with Great Britain they needed to obey their rules, this allowed for them to keep making a better argument to Great Britain.

Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of independence, it was also later changed by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, other people of the committee, and congress. The Declaration of Independence was created because they didn’t want to be part of Great Britain anymore.The document was to explain to all nations that they didn’t want any part. In the document it states how Great Britain has put laws that do not show any kind of mercy toward the people of the colonies.  They hated the fact that they were being taxed without representation in their colonies, this was one of the main reasons as to why they created the declaration of independence. This one document played a major role in starting the American Revolution. They wanted to express how they had rights and that Great Britain's rule over the colonies was not liked because of this. 

There are many differences between the declaration of independence of 1776 and the Olive Branch petition, like how the constitution was more about how they didn’t want to be ruled by The king but the Olive Branch petition was about how they didn’t want the king to declare war against colonies. The declaration of independence differs when it was more about how the colonies want to go to war against Great Britain over there right but in the Olive Branch Petition it is more about how they want to express their right, but not go to war hence the petition pleading their loyalty to the king. Both of these Documents have some similarities, one is how they both wrote these documents to state about the rights they had as people and how the king couldn’t do anything since he wasn’t here to represent himself. These Documents both wanted to express their rights that they had and how they were being oppressed.  Many settlers would agree with both of these documents due to the fact that they both wanted to protect their colonies. 

Therefore, both of these documents help play a major role in the American Revolution. If I had to choose one it would be the declaration of independence because they want their rights to be established, something that Great Britain wasn’t doing. The Olive Branch Petition was more about staying out of war but I would rather go to war over my rights.