.. declare
that... the arms we have been compelled by our enemies to as same, we
will... employ for the preservation of our liberties, being with one
mind resolved to die freemen rather than live as slaves.... We have
not raised armies with ambitious designs of separating from Great
Britain.... We shall lay them down when hostilities shall cease on the
part of the aggressors.... With an humble confidence in the mercies of
the supreme and impartial Judge and Ruler of the Universe, we... implore
his divine goodness to protect us happily through this great conflict,
to dispose our adversaries to reconciliation on reasonable terms, and
thereby to relieve the empire from the calamities of civil war."

In these measures Mr. Dickinson acquiesced, as John Adams had submitted
to the petition. The "perfect" union which was thus attained was
nevertheless a union of wills rather than of opinions; and on July 24,
1775, in a letter to James Warren, John Adams gave a frank account of
the state of mind to which the perfect union had reduced him:

"In confidence, I am determined to write freely to you this time. A
certain great Fortune and piddling Genius, whose Fame has been trumpeted
so loudly, has given a silly Cast to our whole Doings. We are between
Hawk and Buzzard. We ought to have had in our Hands a month ago the
whole Legislative, executive, and judicial of the whole Continent, and
have completely modeled a Constitution; to have raised a naval Power,
and opened our Ports wide; to have arrested every Friend of Government
on the Continent and held them as Hostages for the poor Victims of
Boston, and then opened the Door as wide as possible for Peace and
Reconciliation. After that they might have petitioned, and negotiated,
and addressed, etc., if they would. Is all this extravagant? Is it wild?
Is it not the soundest Policy?"

It seems that Mr. Adams would have presented the sword boldly, keeping
the olive branch carefully concealed behind his back. His letter,
intercepted by the British Government, and printed about the time when
Mr. Dickinson's petition was received in London, did nothing to make
the union in America more perfect, or to facilitate the opening of that
refractory "Door... for Peace and Reconciliation."

The truth is that John Adams no longer believed in the possibility of
opening this door, even by the tiniest crack; and even those who still
had faith in the petition as a means to that end found it somewhat
d