[8] Tennent addressed the South Carolina General Assembly on January 11, 1777, "praying for a Constitutional Recognition of the Equal Rights of all Religious Denominations".
[1] He was a member of the South Carolina General Assembly, then known as the provincial Congress, that functioned as the colony's rebel government, and authored political speeches.
He continued as pastor, but successfully segregated his political beliefs in support of the revolution from his preachings,[2]: 368–372 although he strongly believed in both religious and civil liberty.
[9]: 161 Tennent was first elected to the Assembly in 1774 and authored an anti-British jeremiad entitled An Address, Occasioned by the Late Invasion of the Liberties of the American Colonists by the British Parliament.
[9]: 161 Tennent and Drayton arrived at a trading post near Granby on the Congaree River in Orangeburg County in early August 1775, after traveling 130 mi (210 km).
Tennent then proceeded to travel north across the Broad River towards Rocky Creek, preaching to Scotch-Irish who were believed to be ready to join the Patriot cause.
Tennent died August 11, 1777, at High Hills of the Santee near Stateburg in Sumter County after developing a fever;[1][12] he had returned from New Jersey where he had gone to accompany his mother, recently widowed, back to South Carolina.
As a Patriot, he prepared the up country for the Revolution and advocated the dissenters' appeal for equality in religious rights.He is buried in the cemetery of the Unitarian Church in Charleston, which is located a short distance from the Meeting House and was formed by the Society of Dissenters who needed more space and built a second building to complement the Meeting House.
[14] A commemorative inscription there reads:[15] In Memory Of the Rev William Tennent A.M. Pastor of this church; (And principally instrumental in the Erection of this building.
He was distinguished for quickness of perception and solidity of judgement; for energy and firmness of mind; for inflexible patriotism and for ardent public spirit; For sincere and zealous piety, for the boldness with which he enforced the claims of the Deity and vindicated the rights of man.