On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution, Governor Joseph Wanton of Rhode Island issued written instructions to the two delegates that “the General Assembly of the Colony . . . nominated and appointed . . . to represent the people of this Colony in general congress of representatives from this and the other Colonies”:

I do therefore hereby authorize, impower, and commissionate you the said Stephen Hopkins & Samuel Ward, to repair to the city of Philadelphia, it being the place agreed upon by the major part of the colonies; and there, in behalf of this Colony, to meet and join with the commissioners or delegates from the other colonies, in consulting upon proper measures to obtain a repeal of the several acts of the British parliament, for levying taxes upon his Majesty’s subjects in America, without their consent, and particularly an act lately passed for blocking up the port of Boston, and upon proper measures to establish the rights and liberties of the Colonies, upon a just and solid foundation, agreable to the instructions given you by the general Assembly.

Source: https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/rhode-island-delegates-first-continental-congress/

Also on this date in 1774, thirty Sons of Liberty met at Peter Tondee’s Tavern in Savannah, Georgia. Although they did not name delegates to the Continental Congress, they did adopt eight resolutions that included that “his Majesty’s subjects in America . . . are entitled to the same rights, privileges, and immunities with their fellow subjects in Great Britain” and that Parliament “hath not, nor ever had, any right to tax his Majesty’s American subjects.”

Sources: https://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/georgia-patriots-meet-at-tondees-tavern.html; https://jeannetteaustin.medium.com/tondees-tavern-in-savannah-georgia-9789801042f8

https://www.taraross.com/post/tdih-tondees-tavern

Sons of Liberty Meet in Savannah