Summary of the Declaration and Resolves
The Declaration and Resolves is a document that was adopted by the First Continental Congress on October 14, 1774. It was issued in response to the passage of the Coercive Acts.
Congress held its first meeting on September 5, 1776. In that meeting, the members decided to form a committee for the purpose of writing a document to “State the rights of the Colonies in general, the several instances in which these rights are violated or infringed, and the means most proper to be pursued for obtaining a restoration of them.”
The next day, Congress decided the committee to create the document should include two delegates from each colony. Among the men chosen for the committee were:
- John Sullivan, New Hampshire
- Samuel Adams, Massachusetts
- John Adams, Massachusetts
- Stephen Hopkins, Rhode Island
- Eliphalet Dyer, Connecticut
- Roger Sherman, Connecticut
- John Jay, New York
- Joseph Galloway, Pennsylvania
- Caesar Rodney, Delaware
- Thomas McKean, Delaware
- Richard Henry Lee, Virginia
- John Rutledge, South Carolina
Several sub-committees were formed out of the full committee. One of them was set up on September 14 for the purpose of stating the “infringement of…rights.”
On September 19, new members were added to the committee, including Patrick Henry of Virginia.
The committee worked on the document and presented several drafts to Congress throughout the proceedings. The work was delayed several times, while the members dealt with the Suffolk Resolves, the trade boycott against Britain, and news that General Thomas Gage had placed Boston under military rule and fortified the city.
A draft of the subcommittee’s report on “violations of rights,” which was prepared by John Sullivan, was presented on October 14. After some debate and changes, the document was approved by Congress.
The document provided a roadmap for Congress to follow. It clearly outlined the rights members believed had been violated. It also set a course of action for the colonies to take if the British government did not address the grievances.
The document was similar in nature to the Declaration of Rights and Grievances that had been issued by the Stamp Act Congress in 1765.
Rights of the Colonists
The English colonies in North-America, by the immutable laws of nature, the principles of the English constitution, and the several charters or compacts, have the following RIGHTS:
Resolved, N. C. D. 1. That they are entitled to life, liberty and property: and they have never ceded to any foreign power whatever, a right to dispose of either without their consent.
Resolved, N. C. D. 2. That our ancestors, who first settled these colonies, were at the time of their emigration from the mother country, entitled to all the rights, liberties, and immunities of free and natural-born subjects, within the realm of England.
Resolved, N. C. D. 3. That by such emigration they by no means forfeited, surrendered, or lost any of those rights, but that they were, and their descendants now are, entitled to the exercise and enjoyment of all such of them, as their local and other circumstances enable them to exercise and enjoy.
Resolved, 4. That the foundation of English liberty, and of all free government, is a right in the people to participate in their legislative council: and as the English colonists are not represented, and from their local and other circumstances, cannot properly be represented in the British parliament, they are entitled to a free and exclusive power of legislation in their several provincial legislatures, where their right of representation can alone be preserved, in all cases of taxation and internal polity, subject only to the negative of their sovereign, in such manner as has been heretofore used and accustomed: But, from the necessity of the case, and a regard to the mutual interest of both countries, we cheerfully consent to the operation of such acts of the British parliament, as are bona fide, restrained to the regulation of our external commerce, for the purpose of securing the commercial advantages of the whole empire to the mother country, and the commercial benefits of its respective members; excluding every idea of taxation internal or external, for raising a revenue on the subjects, in America, without their consent.
Resolved, N. C. D. 5. That the respective colonies are entitled to the common law of England, and more especially to the great and inestimable privilege of being tried by their peers of the vicinage, according to the course of that law.
Resolved, 6. That they are entitled to the benefit of such of the English statutes, as existed at the time of their colonization; and which they have, by experience, respectively found to be applicable to their several local and other circumstances.
Resolved, N. C. D. 7. That these, his majesty’s colonies, are likewise entitled to all the immunities and privileges granted and confirmed to them by royal charters, or secured by their several codes of privincial laws.
Resolved, N. C. D. 8. That they have a right peaceably to assemble, consider of their grievances, and petition the king; and that all prosecutions, prohibitory proclamations, and commitments for the same, are illegal.
Resolved, N. C. D. 9. That the keeping a standing army in these colonies, in times of peace, without the consent of the legislature of that colony, in which such army is kept, is against law.
Resolved, N. C. D. 10. It is indispensably necessary to good government, and rendered essential by the English constitution, that the constituent branches of the legislature be independent of each other; that, therefore, the exercise of legislative power in several colonies, by a council appointed, during pleasure, by the crown, is unconstitutional, dangerous and destructive to the freedom of American legislation.
All and each of which the aforesaid deputies, in behalf of themselves, and their constituents, do claim, demand, and insist on, as their indubitable rights and liberties; which cannot be legally taken from them, altered or abridged by any power whatever, without their own consent, by their representatives in their several provincial legislatures.
In the course of our inquiry, we find many infringements and violations of the foregoing rights, which, from an ardent desire, that harmony and mutual intercourse of affection and interest may be restored, we pass over for the present, and proceed to state such acts and measures as have been adopted since the last war, which demonstrate a system formed to enslave America.
British Laws and Actions that Violated the Rights of the Colonists
Resolved, N. C. D. 11. That the following acts of parliament are infringements and violations of the rights of the colonists; and that the repeal of them is essentially necessary, in order to restore harmony between Great-Britain and the American colonies, viz.
The several acts of 4 Geo. III. ch. 15, and ch. 34.–5 Geo. III. ch. 25.–6 Geo. III. ch. 52.–7 Geo. III. ch. 41. and ch. 46.–8 Geo. III. ch. 22. which impose duties for the purpose of raising a revenue in America, extend the power of the admiralty courts beyond their ancient limits, deprive the American subject of trial by jury, authorise the judges certificate to indemnify the prosecutor from damages, that he might otherwise be liable to, requiring oppressive security from a claimant of ships and goods seized, before he shall be allowed to defend his property, and are subversive of American rights.
Also 12 Geo. III. ch. 24. intituled, “An act for the better securing his majesty’s dockyards, magazines, ships, ammunition, and stores,” which declares a new offence in America, and deprives the American subject of a constitutional trial by jury of the vicinage, by authorising the trial of any person, charged with the committing any offence described in the said act, out of the realm, to be indicted and tried for the same in any shire or county within the realm.
Also the three acts passed in the last session of parliament, for stopping the port and blocking up the harbour of Boston, for altering the charter and government of Massachusetts-Bay, and that which is entitled, “An act for the better administration of justice, etc.”
Also the act passed in the same session for establishing the Roman Catholic religion, in the province of Quebec, abolishing the equitable system of English laws, and erecting a tyranny there, to the great danger (from so total a dissimilarity of religion, law and government) of the neighbouring British colonies, by the assistance of whose blood and treasure the said country was conquered from France.
Also the act passed in the same session, for the better providing suitable quarters for officers and soldiers in his majesty’s service, in North-America.
Also, that the keeping a standing army in several of these colonies, in time of peace, without the consent of the legislature of that colony, in which such army is kept, is against law.
Reaction of the Colonists if Grievances Were Not Addressed
To these grievous acts and measures, Americans cannot submit, but in hopes their fellow subjects in Great-Britain will, on a revision of them, restore us to that state, in which both countries found happiness and prosperity, we have for the present, only resolved to pursue the following peaceable measures:
- To enter into a non-importation, non-consumption, and non-exportation agreement or association.
- To prepare an address to the people of Great-Britain, and a memorial to the inhabitants of British America: and
- To prepare a loyal address to his majesty, agreeable to resolutions already entered into.