On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress responded to the Proclamation of Rebellion that King George III had issued in August 1775. They asserted:

We know of no laws binding upon us, but such as have been transmitted to us by our ancestors, and such as have been consented to by ourselves, or our representatives elected for that purpose. What laws, stamped with these characters, have we withstood? We have indeed defended them; and we will risk everything, do everything, and suffer everything in their defense. To support our laws, and our liberties established by our laws, we have prepared, ordered, and levied war: But is this traitorously, or against the King? We view him as the Constitution represents him.  . . .

perhaps the principles of reason and justice, and the constitution will not prevail: Experience suggests to us the doubt: If they should not, we must resort to arguments drawn from very different source. We, therefore, in the name of the people of these United Colonies, and by authority, according to the purest maxims of representation, derived from them, declare, that whatever punishment shall be inflicted upon any persons in the power of our enemies for favoring, aiding, or abetting the cause of American liberty, shall be retaliated in the same kind, and the same degree upon those in our power, who have favored, aided, or abetted, or shall favor, aid, or abet the system of ministerial oppression. The essential difference between our cause, and that of our enemies, might justify a severer punishment: The law of retaliation will unquestionably warrant one equally severe.

The Congress provided its justification for taking up arms to defend “our liberties established by our laws” and for retaliating against the British when they punished people “for favoring, aiding, or abetting the cause of American liberty.”

Sources: https://digitalcollections.statelibrary.pa.gov/Documents/Detail/in-congress-december-6-1775/1365959; https://250andcounting.com/2025/12/06/congress-responds-to-king-george-december-6-1775/; https://americanfounding.org/entries/second-continental-congress-december-6-1775/