On this day 250 years ago, Patriots met at the Coffeehouse in New York City to prepare resolutions in response to the Boston Port Act and the Intolerable Acts. The conservative leaders in New York most of whom would end up as Loyalists, opposed a radical response and the resolutions adopted in New York did not go as far as many of the resolutions adopted in the other colonies. However New York did join the other colonies in calling for a continental congress.
On this day 250 years ago “a general Meeting of the Freeholders and Inhabitants of the County of Fairfax” at the courthouse in Alexandria adopted the Fairfax Resolves. These resolutions were drafted primarily by George Mason with the assistance of George Washington. The meeting was presided over by George Washington and recorded by Robert Harrison as Clerk. The meeting named Washington and Charles Broadwater as Fairfax’s delegates to the Virginia Convention scheduled for August 1 in Williamsburg. The meeting also named a Committee of 25 members including Washington, Mason, and Broadwater that became the governing body of Fairfax County during the Revolution.
The Fairfax Resolves were considered by many as the most comprehensive and cogent of the scores of resolutions that were adopted by counties and towns in all of the colonies in response to the closure of the Port of Boston and the other Intolerable Acts. They became the basis for the Virginia Convention’s instructions to its delegates to the First Continental Congress and set the agenda for the acts of the Congress.
On this day 250 years ago, George Mason and George Washington make final edits to the draft Fairfax Resolves at Mount Vernon. They spend the night at Mount Vernon and ride into Alexandria the next day to present the proposed Resolves to the Fairfax County meeting.
On this day 250 years ago a Newton, New Jersey, the freeholders of Sussex County adopted resolutions urging the repeal of the Boston Port Bill and the other Intolerable Acts.
On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia “a Provincial Meeting of [75] Deputies Chosen by [11 Pennsylvania] Counties” met to adopt resolutions in support of Boston and Massachusetts. The Pennsylvania Resolutions proclaimed the Intolerable Acts “unconstitutional,” pledged aid to Boston, and declared
that there is an absolute necessity, that a congress of deputies from the several colonies be immediately assembled, to consult together, and form a general plan of conduct to be observed by all the colonies, for the purposes of procuring relief for our suffering brethren, obtaining redress of our grievances, preventing future dissensions, firmly establishing our right, and restoring harmony between Great-Britain and her colonies on a constitutional foundation.
and that
if the congress shall judge agreements of non-importation and non exportation expedient, the people of this province will join with the other principal and neighbouring colonies, in such an association of non-importation from and non-exportation to Great-Britain as shall be agreed on, at the congress.
On this day 250 years ago, a meeting of the inhabitants of Fairfax County, Virginia at the county courthouse in Alexandria elected George Washington and Charles Broadwater as Burgesses to the next session of the Virginia Assembly. The meeting lasted two hours and was “conducted with great order and regularity” according to an observer. The candidates provided a “Hogshead of Toddy” to the voters, and George Washington that evening hosted at an expense of 8 Pounds, 5 Shillings and 6 Pence “a Ball to the Freeholders and Gentlemen of the town . . . [with] Coffee and Chocolate, but no Tea. This Herb is in disgrace amongst them at present”
Also on this day, 109 men from Lenox, Massachusetts signed the Non-Importation Agreement circulated by the Boston Committee of Correspondence. There were only 181 families living in Lenox 15 years later so the 109 men represented a clear majority of the population. 55 of these men would go on to serve in the Militia or Continental Army during the Revolution.
And also on this day 250 years ago, the Patriots of both Chesterfield and Gloucester Counties, Virginia separately adopted Resolves in support of Massachusetts and in opposition to the Intolerable Acts.
On this day 250 years ago, approximately 75 citizens of Attleboro, Massachusetts signed the Solemn League and Covenant circulated by the Boston Committee of Correspondence. About sixty of their names are still legible but all should be remembered for their commitment to the Patriot cause.
On this day 250 years ago, “a Meeting of the Freeholders and Inhabitants of the County of New Kent, at the Courthouse of the said County” in Virginia adopted the New Kent Resolves. These resolutions were similar to the resolutions adopted by other counties in Virginia and the other American colonies in protest against the Intolerable Acts. The meeting elected Thomas Adams as Moderator, William Clayton as Clerk, and Burwell Bassett and Bartholomew Dandridge as Delegates to the upcoming Virginia Convention to be held on August 1. The Resolves “earnestly recommended to the Deputies at the said general Convention to nominate and appoint fit and proper Persons, on Behalf of this Colony, to meet such Deputies as shall be appointed by the other Colonies in General Congress, to consult and agree upon a firm and indissoluble Union and Association, for preserving, by the best and most proper Means, their common Rights and Liberties.”
Dandridge and Bassett were both brothers-in-law to George Washington; Dandridge was Martha Washington’s brother and Bassett was married to her sister. Dandridge, Bassett, Clayton and Adams would all serve in the Virginia Conventions and other political office throughout the Revolution with Adams elected to the Continental Congress and signing the Articles of Confederation.
Also on this day 250 years ago, The Connecticut Courant and Hartford Weekly Intelligencer reported that a seventy-eight foot liberty pole flying a huge scarlet flag emblazoned with the phrase “Liberty and Property” has been erected in Litchfield County, Connecticut
And also on this day 250 years ago at the Presbyterian Church (now First Presbyterian) in Carlisle, “a respectable gathering of the freeholders and freemen from several townships of Cumberland County in the province of Pennsylvania” adopted resolutions in support of the people of Boston and in opposition to the Boston Port Act. One of the signers was James Wilson, who would go on to sign both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. A lesser knowns signer was William Hays, a barber from Carlisle who would enlist in the Continenta Army as an artilleryman and whose wife Mary Ludwig Hay would join him in camp and supposedly on the battlefield at Monmouth Courthouse where she was one of women immortalized by history as “Molly Pitcher”.
On this day July 12, 2024, the First Presbyterian Church of Carlisle hosted a special program to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the adoption of Cumberland declaration and the church will hold special services on Sunday, July 14, 2024 to continue the commemoration.
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.
On This Day In The Revolution 