Conciliatory Resolution

[1] It allowed any colony that agreed to contribute to the public defense, as well as to support civil government and the administration of justice, as approved by the Crown and the two Houses of Parliament, to be exempt from taxation.

[citation needed] The bill also followed shortly after a failed proposal by Lord Chatham, which was heavily defeated in Parliament due to its favorability towards America.

[1] A number of members of Parliament, however, saw the proposal as fair and believed that if it was rejected, it would prove that Americans truly only desired independence, and that taxation was only a cover.

[citation needed] By doing this, Lord North hoped to divide the colonists amongst themselves and thus weaken any revolution/independence movements (especially those represented by the Continental Congress).

[1] The Continental Congress convened a committee to consider it on July 22, 1775, over a month after the Battle of Bunker Hill, rejecting with a response similar to Virginia's.

[2][better source needed] The Continental Congress did eventually receive the Conciliatory Resolution in the form of a communication from the assembly of New Jersey on May 26, 1775,[4] and, perhaps for a number of reasons (not limited to the early successes of the Revolution),[citation needed] released a report (written by Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Richard Henry Lee in committee after they had finished with other papers including the declaration of causes,[4]), dated July 31, 1775, rejecting it on behalf of the colonies: