Useless employees, large and small - Part 2

July 5th, 1775 saw the Second Continental Congress making what was to be the final attempt at reconciling with the mother country. Penned by John Dickenson, who thought Thomas Jefferson’s original draft was too aggressive, the Olive Branch Petition was the second attempt on the part of the Congress to head off all-out war. King George III, being the thoughtful fellow he was, wouldn’t even read it, although a private letter from John Adams to a friend that had been confiscated and delivered to the King didn’t help any. In it, Mr. Adams said that war was inevitable, and that the colonies should have already raised a Navy and begun capturing British officers. This put something of a negative spin on the Petition…
As history shows, and the cliché declares, things got worse before they got better.
History also shows something else, although you would spend a long time waiting to hear about it in a government-school history class. In December of the same year, Parliament, King George agreeing, passed what was known as the Prohibitory Act. Foolishly intending to bring the Colonies to their knees by imposing economic sanctions, the Act was meant to hit the troublemakers where Parliament thought it would hurt the most: the pocketbook. Didn’t work, though. You’d think those jokers would have figured that out after the tea party, but then politicians usually do their best work as pictures beside the word “obtuse” in the dictionary. There’s something about true freedom and prosperity that make people thumb their noses at folks who want to oppress them, a simple truth that proves we are no longer truly free or prosperous; we let D.C. oppress us quite regularly.
When next we meet, we’ll talk about something else the Act accomplished, and boy, is it a doozy.