Here are a few quotes and writings from prominent Presbyterians of the time that offer justifications for the American Revolution:

1. John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian minister and signer of the Declaration of Independence, wrote in his sermon "The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men" (May 17, 1776):

"It is certainly lawful to resist the unjust violence of tyrants, and the violence of a whole people united together in a just and necessary cause cannot possibly be unjust. [...] [The colonists] have been driven to the unhappy necessity of taking up arms in their own defense, and have exerted themselves with courage and resolution, without being guilty of anything that deserves the name of rebellion."

1. The Rev. Samuel West, a prominent Congregationalist minister and ally of the Presbyterians, wrote in his sermon " On the Right to Rebel Against Governors" (1776):

"When rulers become absolute and tyrannical, when they are deaf to the voice of reason, and dead to the feelings of humanity, they may be resisted, and even punished, for such resistance is not only warranted by natural justice, but also by the express precepts of Christianity."

1. The Rev. John Joachim Zubly, a Swiss-born Presbyterian minister and member of the Continental Congress, wrote in his "Address to the People of Georgia" (1775):

"When the good of the whole is invaded, every individual owes to the state and to posterity, his best services in their defense; and when the authority of a king or of a people is employed against their essential interests, such an authority may and ought to be withstood."