On this day 250 years ago in Camden, South Carolina, a Grand Jury of 22 men elected by the people of Camden District responded to a speech on the “Rights of Man under the Law” delivered to them on the previous day, November 5, 1774, by Justice William Henry Drayton on the Rights of Man under the Law with the following “Presentment”
We present, as a grievance of the most dangerous and alarming nature, the power exercised by the Parliament to Tax and to make Laws to bind the American Colonies in all cases whatsoever. We conceive such a power is destructive of our birth-rights as freemen, . . . [who] cannot be constitutionally taxed or bound by any law, without their consent, expressed by themselves or implied by their Representatives of their own election; a consent which the good people of this Colony never have signified, to be taxed or bound by laws of the British Parliament, in which they never have had any constitutional representation.
And whereas we rather choose to die freemen than to live slaves bound by laws, in the formation of which we have no participation; so now, that the body of this District are legally assembled, as one step towards the defence of our constitutional rights, which are dearer to us than our lives and fortunes, we think it our indispensable duty to the people of the District, to ourselves, the Grand Jurors for the body of the people, and to our posterity, thus clearly to express the sense of this large and populous District, touching our constitutional rights, and the very imminent danger to which they are exposed from the usurped power of the British Parliament, taxing and by law binding the Americans in all cases whatsoever; being resolved to maintain our constitutional rights at the hazard of our lives and fortunes, we do most earnestly recommend that this Presentment in particular be laid before our constitutional Representatives in General Assembly, who, we doubt not, will do all in their power to support us in our just rights.
And lastly, in testimony of the satisfaction we feel, and the high estimation in which we hold the charge given by his Honour the Judge, at the opening of the Court, and the principles of loyalty and liberty in which the same is manifestly founded; and also, that a lasting evidence may remain of that true and constitutional language, which it is the duty of every Judge to adopt, in the exercise of an office instituted solely for the preservation of the laws, we make it our request that his Honour will be pleased to direct the said charge to be printed and made publick, fully persuaded that every man will read it with applause who wishes a lasting security to the British constitutional establishment of civil and religious liberty; we also recommend the publication of these our Presentments.
MATTHEW SINGLETON, Foreman.
Joshua English,
John Gamble,
Samuel Bradley,
Silvester Dunn,
Robert Carter,
James Conyers,
Jasper Sutton,
Henry Hunter,
David Wilson,
John Payn,
David Neilson,
Aaron Frierson,
Isham Moore,
Thomas Cassity,
Moses Gordon
John Cantey,
John Perkins, Sen˙
Samuel Cantey,
John Witherspoon,
Henry Cassels,
Edward Dickey.
The foreman of the Grand Jury Matthew Singleton would go on to raise a company of mounted militia in the Revolution and would rise to the rank of Colonel, and some, maybe most, of the other men of the Camden Grand Jury would also serve in the militia. But the contributions of these 22 men to American Liberty are little remembered except by their descendants.
Yet we should take note that these ordinary citizens, not an assembly of our celebrated Founding Fathers, issued this resolve to “to maintain our constitutional rights at the hazard of our lives and fortunes.” And further that these jurors were demanding that judges be instructed that “it is the duty of every Judge to adopt . . . constitutional establishment of civil and religious liberty.” These citizens were not waiting on a convention of leaders to draft a Constitution to establish their rights, nor were they waiting for judges to tell them what constitutional rights they do and do not have.
Sources: https://experiencecamdensc.com/the-camden-resolves-first-in-the-state/
https://experiencecamdensc.com/the-camden-resolves-first-in-the-state/
On This Day In The Revolution 