On this day 250 years ago, from Mount Vernon George Washington wrote to his brother John Augustine Washington about meetings in Alexandria to draft and approve the Fairfax Resolves:

We have not, as yet had a meeting of the Inhabitants of this County; owing in the first place, to my not getting up from Wmsburg till towards the last of June & their paying me the Compliment of waiting my arrival; & in the second place, to an unfavourable appointment of last Tuesday for the meeting, which being in Harvest and the day preceeded by heavy & powerful Rains, the Wheat as well as Plants requird all the care and attention that could be bestowd on them. Upon the occasion however we appointed a Committee to frame such Resolves as we thought the Circumstances of the Country would permit us to go into, & have appointed the 18 for a day of Meeting to deliberate on them. The Committee have accordingly done this; they have attempted to define our Constitutional Rights, but have not gone so far in respect to our Exports & Imports as you have done. They have resolved to stop the latter except as to German Oznabrigs, Woolens of two shillg Sterg pr Yard & Nails wch are also to be prohibited after two years & the former, if our Grievances are not fully redressed before Sept. 1775, to great Britain; but to the West Indies (so far as relates to Lumber) immediately after the genl Congress if such a Measure shall be adopted by them. We have also resolvd that no judgments should be rendered for Debts, if the Congress should enter into a Measure of Non-exportation nor any Tobaco made after this year. that all Teas now in the Country should be deliverd up upon Oath, Stor’d & Burn’t, so soon as money sufficient shall be subscribd to pay for it. That all Goods ship’d from Great Britain after the first of Septr (except as above) shall be returned or delivered to the sevl Committees to be stored—That if the People of Boston, by being immediately under the Lash, should give way we shall not consider it as having any influence upon our Conduct. that the Association shall be taken upon Oath, & in short a number of Resolves too tedious to recite, & Improper to Copy as they cannot, as yet, be calld the Resolves of the County were come to;2 Deputies will assuredly go from this County (I hope from all) to the intended Meeting in Wmsbg, the first of August, Assembly or no Assembly, for I have not the most ⟨illegible⟩ doubt myself but that the return day of the Writs was hit upon with no more design than to perplex if not to defeat this meeting. ⟨I be⟩lieve it is not intended that the Assembly should Meet at that time their being positive Instruction against it. A Subscription was opend at our intended Meeting on Tuesday last, for the Receipt of the poor of Boston when there was Cash (& Grain ⟨illegible⟩ few hours to the ⟨illegible⟩ I expect will be a good deal ⟨increased⟩ by the Inhabitants of this County, & sent off by the last of the Month.

This long paragraph in Washington’s letter to his brother is the best source on the drafting and adoption of one of the seminal documents that lay the groundwork for American Independence. I discussed this letter on this night in 2024 at a lecture on the significance of the Fairfax Resolves sponsored by the Arlington Historical Society and Arlington’s Virginia250 Committee at Marymount University in Arlington.

https://founders.archives.gov/?q=%2211%20July%201774%22&s=1111311111&sa=&r=3&sr=

July 11, 2024 — Fairfax Resolves 250th lecture

https://arlingtonhistoricalsociety.org/events/revolutionary-arlington/ In the next few days I will post on this blog the PowerPoint that I prepared for this lecture but could not present due to technical difficulties.