On this day 250 years ago in London, Benjamin Franklin forwarded his friend Jonathan Shipley, the Bishop of St. Asaph, a copy of the Continental Congress’s Petition to King George IIII. Franklin wrote that he considered

that Congress, as consisting of Men, the free, unbias’d, unsollicited Choice of the Freeholders of a great Country, selected from no other Motives than the general Opinion of their Wisdom and Integrity, to transact Affairs of the greatest Importance to their Constituents, and indeed of as great Consequence as any that have come under Consideration in any great Council for Ages past; and that they have gone thro’ them with so much Coolness, tho’ under great Provocations to Resentment; so much Firmness, under Cause to apprehend Danger; and so much Unanimity, under every Endeavour to divide and sow Dissensions among them; I cannot but look upon them with great Veneration.

Source: https://founders.archives.gov/?q=%227%20January%201775%22&s=1111311111&sa=&r=2&sr=

On this same day, Franklin replied to a letter from Lord Howe that

The people of America conceiving that Parliament has no Right to tax them, and that therefore all that has been extorted from them by the Operation of the Duty Acts, with the Assistance of an armed Force, preceding the Destruction of the Tea, is so much Injury, which ought in order of time to be first repair’d, before a Demand on the Tea can be justly made of them.

Source: https://allthingsliberty.com/2018/01/franklins-secret-efforts-bring-reconciliation/#_ednref24