That’s how the founders responded to the British in 1775.
2 months after Lexington and concord – and the shot heard round the world – General Thomas Gage made an offer he thought the revolutionaries couldn’t refuse.
Lay down your arms. And you all get a pardon. Except Samuel Adams and John Hancock.
In other words – give up your guns and give up your friends – and we won’t kill you.
Unsurprisingly, the Patriots weren’t on board.
With John Hancock as President, the 2nd Continental congress responded with a Declaration drafted by John Dickinson and Thomas Jefferson.
against violence actually offered, we have taken up arms. We shall lay them down when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, and all danger of their being renewed shall be removed, and not before.
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