North Carolina
At a General meeting of Deputies of the Inhabitants of this Province at New Bern the 25th. Day of August Anno Dom 1774.
We His Majesty’s most dutiful and Loyal Subjects, the Deputies from the Several Counties and Towns of the Province of North Carolina, impressed with the most sacred respect for the British Constitution, and Resolved to maintain the Succession of the House of Hanover as by Law Established, and avowing our inviolable and unshaken Fedility to our Sovereign, and entertaining a sincere regard for our fellow Subjects in Great Britain, Viewing with the utmost abhorrence every attempt which may tend to disturb the peace and good order of this Colony, or to shake the Fedility of His Majesty’s Subjects resident here, but at the same time Conceiving if a duty which we owe to ourselves and posterity in the present alarming state of British America, when our most essential rights are invaded by Powers unwarrantable assumed by the Parliament of Great Britain, to declare our Sentiments in the most public Manner lest our Silence should be Construed as Acquiescence, and that we patiently submit to the Burthen which they have thought fit to impose upon us.
Resolved that His Majesty George the Third is Lawful and rightful king of Great Britain, and the Dominions thereunto belonging, and of this Province as part therof, and that we do bear faithful and true allegiance unto him as our Lawful Sovereign, and that we will to the utmost of our power maintain and Defend the Succession of the House of Hanover as by Law Established against the open or private attempts of any person or power Whatsoever.
Resolved that we claim no more than the rights of Englishmen without Demunition or abridgment, That it is our indispensable duty, and our Constant endeavour to maintain those rights to the utmost of our Power Consistently with the Loyalty which we owe our Sovereign, and a Sacred regard to the British Constitution.
Resolved That it is the very essence of the British Constitution that no Subject should be Taxed but by his own Consent freely given by himself in person, or by the Legal Representatives, and that any other than such a Taxation is highly Derogatory to the rights of a Subject, and a gross Violation of the grand Charter of our Liberties.
Resolved That as the British Subjects resident in North America have not nor can have any Representation in the Parliament of Great Britain, That therefore any Act of Parliament imposing a tax upon them is illegal and unconstitutional; but that our Provincial Assemblies (the King by His Governors Constituting one Branch thereof) solely and Exclusively possess that right.
Resolved That the Duties imposed by Several Acts of the British Parliament upon Tea and other Articles consumed in America, for the Purpose of raising a Revenue, are highly illegal and oppressive, and that the late exportation of Tea by the East India Company to different parts of America, was intended to give effect to one of the said Acts, and thereby establish a president highly Dishonorable to America, and to obtain an implied assent to the powers which Great Britain had unwarrantly assumed, of levying a Tax upon us without our Consint.
Resolved That the Inhabitants of the Massachusetts Province have Distinguished themselves in a manly Support of the rights of America in General, and that the cause in which they now suffer, is the cause of every honest American, who deserves the blessings which the Constitution holds forth to him. That the Grievances under which the Town of Boston Labours at present, are the effect a resentment levelled at them, for having stood foremost in an opposition to measures which must eventually have involved all British America in a State of abject Dependence and Servitude.
The Act of Parliament commonly called the Boston Port Act, as it tends to shut up the Port of Boston and thereby effectually to destroy its Trade, and deprive the Merchants and Manufacterers of a Subsistance which they have hitherto procured by an honest industry, as it takes away the Wharves, Quays, and other property of many individuals, by rendering it useless to them, and as the Duration of this Act depends upon Circumstances founded merely in opinion, and in their nature indeterminate and thereby may make the Miseries it carries with it even perpetual, Resolved therefore that it is the most crud infringement of the rights and privileges of the people of Boston, both as men and Members of the British Government.
Resolved That the late Act of Parliament for regulating the Police of the Province is an infringement of the Charter right granted them by their Majesty’s King William and Queen Mary, and tends to lessen that Sacred Confidence which ought to be placed in the Acts of Kings.
Resolved That Trial by Juries of the Vicinity, is the only lawful inquest that can pass upon the life of a British Subject, and that it is a right handed down to us from the earliest ages, Confirmed and Sanctified by Magna Charta itself, that no freeman shall be taken & imprisoned, or Dispossessed of his free Tenement and Liberties, or outlawed, or banished, or anywise hurt or injured, unless by the legal Judgement of his Peers, or by the Law of the Land, and therefore all who suffer otherwise, are not Victims to public Justice, but fall a Sacrifice to the powers of Tyranny and high handed oppression.
Resolved That the Bill for altering the administration of Justice in Certain Criminal cases within the Province of Massachusetts Bay, as it impowers the Governors thereof to send to Great-Britain for Trial all persons who in aid of His Majestys officers, shall commit any Capital offence, is fraught with the highest injustice and Partiality, and will tend to produce frequent Bloodshed of the Inhabitants, as this act furnishes an opportunity to commit the most atrocious crimes, with the greatest probability of impunity.
Resolved That we will not Directly or indirectly after the first Day of January One Thousand Seven and Seventy five, import from Great Britain any East India Goods, or any Merchandize whatever (Medicines excepted) nor will we after that Day import from the West Indies or elsewhere any East India or British Goods or Manufactures, nor will we purchase any such articles so imported of any Person or persons whatever, except such as are now in the Country, or may arrive on or before the said first Day of January one Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy five.
Resolved That unless American Grievances are redressed before the first Day of October One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy five, we will not after that Day directly or indirectly Export Tobacco, Pitch, Tar, Turpintine or any other Article Whatever to great Britain, nor will we sell any such Articles as we think can be exported to Great-Britain with a prospect of gain to any person or persons whatsoever with a Design of putting it in his or their powers to export the same to Great Britain, either on our own his or their account.
Resolved That we will Neither import any Slave or Slaves nor purchase any Slave or Slaves imported or brought into the province by others from any part of the world after the first day of November Next.
Resolved That we will not use nor Suffer East India Tea to be used in our Families after the Tenth Day of September next, and that we will consider all persons in this province not complying with this Resolve to be enemies to their Country.
Resolved That the Venders of Merchandize within this Province ought not to take advantage of the Resolves relating to nonimporation in this province or elsewhere, but ought to sell their Goods and Merchandize which they have or may hereafter import at the same rates they have been accustomed to sell them within three months last part.
Resolved that the people of this Province will break of all Trade Commerce and Dealing, and will not maintain any the least trade Dealing or Commersial Intercourse with any Colony on this Continent or with any City or Town or with any Individual in such Colony, City, or Town which shall refuse decline or Neglect to adopt and Carry into Execution such General plan as shall be agreed to, in the Continental Congress.
Resolved that we approve of the proposal of a General Congress to be held in the City of Philadelphia on the Twentieth Day of September next, then and there to deliberate upon the present state of British America, and to take such measures as they may seem prudent, to effect the purposes of Discribing with Certainty the rights of Americans, repairing the Breaches made in those rights, and for guarding them for the future from any such Violations done under the Sanction of Public Authority.
Resolved That William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, and Richard Caswell Esquires and every of them be Deputies to attend such Congress, and they are hereby invested with such powers as may make any Acts done by them or Consent given in behalf of this province obligatory in honor upon every Inhabitant thereof, who is not an alien to his Countrys good, and an apostate to the Liberties of America.
Resolved that they view the attempt made by the Minister upon the Town of Boston as a prelude to a General attack upon the rights of the other Colonies, and that upon the Success of this, Depends in a great measure the happiness of America in its present Race, and in Posterity, and that therefore it becomes our duty to Contribute in proportion to our abilities to ease the Burthen imposed upon that Town for their Virtuous opposition to the Revenue Acts; that they may be enabled to resist in a prudent and manly opposition to the Schemes of Parliament and under its Dangerous Designs abortive.
Resolved that Liberty is the Spirit of the British Constitution, and that it is the duty and will be the endeavuor of us as British Americans to Transmit this happy Constitution to our posterity, in a state if possible better than we found it, and that to suffer it to undergo a change which may impair that invaluable blessing would be to disgrace those Ancestors, who at the expence of their blood purchased those Privileges which their Degenerate posterity are too weak or too wicked to maintain inviolate.
Resolved that every future Provincial meeting when any Division shall happen, the method to be observed, shall be to vote by the Counties and Towns (having a right to send Members to Assembly) that shall be represented at every such meeting, and it is recommended to the Deputies of the Several Counties that a Committee of five persons be Chosen in each County by such persons as accede to this association, to take effectual care that these Resolves be properly observed, and to Correspond Occasionally with the Provincial Committee of Correspondence of this Province.
Resolved that each and every County in this Province raise as speedily as possible the sum of Twenty pounds proclamation Money, and pay the same into the hands of Richard Caswell Esquire to be by him equally divided among the Deputies appointed to attend the General Congress at Philadelphia as a Recompence for their Trouble and expence in attending the said Congress.
Resolved that the Moderator of this meeting and in case of his Death, Samuel Johnston Esquire be impowered on any future Occasion that may in his opinion require it, to convene the several Deputies of this Province (which now are or hereafter shall be chosen) at such time & place as he shall think proper, and in case of the Death or absence of any Delegates, it is recommended that another be chosen in his stead.
Resolved that the following be Instructions for the Deputies appointed to meet in General Congress on the part of this Colony, to wit,
That they express our sincere attachment to our most Gracious Sovereign King George the third, and our Determined Resolution to support his Lawful authority in this province, at the same time, that we cannot depart from a steady adherence to the first Law of Nature, a firm and Resolute defence of our persons and properties against all Unconstitutional incroachments whatsoever.
That they assert our right to all the Privileges of British Subjects, particularly that of paying no Taxes or duties but with our own Consent, and that the Legislature of this Province have the exclusive power of making Laws to regulate our Internal polity, subject to His Majesty’s disallowance.
That should the British Parliament Continue to exercise the power of Levying Taxes and duties on the Colonies, and making Laws to bind them in all cases whatsoever; such Laws must be highly Unconstitutional and oppressive to the Inhabitants of British America, who have not, and from their Local Circumstances cannot have a fair and equal representation in the British Parliament, and that these disadvantages must be greatly inhanced by the Misrepresentations of designing men inimical to the Colonies, the influence of whose reports cannot be guarded against by reason of the Distance of America from them, or as has been unhappily experienced in the care of the Town of Boston, when the Ears of Administration have been shut against every attempt to Vindicate a people who claimed only the right of being heard in their own Defence.
That therefore 'till we obtain an Explicit Declaration and Acknowledgment of our rights, we agree to stop all imports from Great Britain after the first day of January One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy five, and that we will not export any of our Commodities to Great Britain after the first Day of October One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy five.
That they Concur with the Delegates or Deputies from the others Colonies in such Regulations, Addresses or Remonstrances as [may be deemed] most probable to restore a lasting Harmony and good Understanding with Great Britain, a Circumstance we most sincerely and Ardently desire, and that they agree with the majority of them in all Necessary Measures for promoting a redress of such Grievances, as may come under their Consideration.
Resolved that the Thanks of this meeting be given to the Honble John Harvey Esquire Moderator, for his faithful exercise of that office, and the Services he has thereby rendered to this province, and the friends of America in General.
John Harvey Moderator
By order
Andrew Knox Clk.
25 Aug 1774
(a Copy)