On this day 250 years ago, Royal Governor Dunmore of Virginia summoned the Burgesses, numbering nearly one hundred, to the Council chamber in the Capitol in Williamsburg. Dunmore informed the Burgesses:
I have in my hand a Paper published by Order of your House, conceived in such Terms as reflect highly upon his Majesty and the Parliament of Great Britain; which makes it necessary for me to dissolve you; and you are dissolved accordingly.
The document in Dunmore’s hand was the broadside of the House’s Order for a Day of Fasting and Prayer. The phrase “reflect highly upon” in Dunsmore’s statement sounds to modern Americans like praise, but in the 18th Century it meant “reproach”. The response of the members of the House of Burgesses to Dunmore’s dissolution of the House would be another dramatic step towards Independence.
On this day 250 years ago in Williamsburg, Virginia, Clementina Rind printed a broadside of The Call to Fasting and Prayer in Williamsburg at the request of the House of Burgesses. The date and the printer of the broadside are somewhat uncertain. Either Clementina Rind or her competitors Purdie & Dixon could have printed it, and the printing could have occurred on the evening of May 24 or morning of May 26. Because Clementina Rind was the preferred printer and newspaper publisher for the Patriots of Virginia, most reports indicate that she was the printer. The broadsides were posted at multiple locations in Williamsburg by the next day, so May 25 was the most probable date of the printing. And the broadsides would soon be republished in newspapers in all the Colonies.
Although the Order to the members of the House was literally to attend church for prayer, the Order’s language asking to pray for “averting the heavy Calamity, which threatens Destruction to our civil Rights, and the Evils of civil War; to give us one Heart and one Mind firmly to oppose, by all just and proper Means, every Injury to American Rights” would put Virginia with Massachusetts in the lead on the path to Revolution and Independence for all the American colonies.
On this day 250 years ago in Williamsburg, Robert Carter Nicholas, Member of the House of Burgesses and Treasurer of Virginia introduces an Order for a Day of Fasting and Prayer to Virginia House of Burgesses. The Order passes unanimously but would soon receive a furious response for its revolutionary language:
This House being deeply impressed with Apprehension of the great Dangers to be derived to British America, from the hostile Invasion of the City of Boston, in our Sister Colony of Massachusetts Bay, whose Commerce and Harbour are on the 1st Day of June next to be stopped by an armed Force, deem it highly necessary that the said first Day of June be set apart by the Members of this House as a Day of Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer, devoutly to implore the divine Interposition for averting the heavy Calamity, which threatens Destruction to our civil Rights, and the Evils of civil War; to give us one Heart and one Mind firmly to oppose, by all just and proper Means, every Injury to American Rights, and that the Minds of his Majesty and his Parliament may be inspired from above with Wisdom, Moderation, and Justice, to remove from the loyal People of America all Cause of Danger from a continued Pursuit of Measures pregnant with their Ruin.
The Order was signed by George Wythe as Clerk of the House of Burgesses. During the Revolution Nicholas would go on to serve in all five Virginia Conventions that replaced the House of Burgesses. Wythe, along with the Burgesses who drafted the Order for a Day of Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, and Francis Lightfoot Lee, would all go on to serve in Continental Congresses and other illustrious service during the Revolution.
On this day 250 years ago in Williamsburg, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, Francis Lightfoot Lee and other members of the Virginia House of Burgesses met in the evening to discuss how the Virginia House should respond to the news of the Boston Port Act that had just been received in Virginia. They decided to prepare a resolution for the House to observe a Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer on June 1, when the Boston Port Act would close the Port of Boston. They also asked the very religious and moderate Treasurer of Virginia, Robert Carter Nicholas, to introduce the resolution in the House the next day, in order to disguise the radical nature of the proclamation.
On this day 250 years ago in New York, a specially formed Committee of Fifty-One dispatched their response to Boston declining to join a non-importation pact but instead proposing
that a congress of deputies from the colonies in general is of the utmost moment; that it ought to be assembled without delay, and some unanimous resolution formed in this fatal emergency, not only respecting your deplorable circumstances, but for the security of our common rights.
And also on this day 250 years ago in Chestertown, Maryland, the Chestertown Tea Party supposedly happened. Some scholars question whether the event actually occurred. Based on my research, I think something did happen, but it was probably the dumping of only a small quantity of tea with the consent and participation of the owner of the ship’s cargo that included the tea, James Nicholson, rather than a riot as portrayed in commemoration since the 1960s. Nicholson was a firm Patriot, and was said to have signed the Chestertown Resolves which are an undisputed historical fact, but he may have learned of the calls to block tea imports only after he had already distributed the bulk of the tea to merchants in the area. In signing the Chestertown Resolves and agreeing not to import further tea it would make sense that he would arrange for a public dumping of the tea that remained in his possession.
At any event, the annual commemoration of the Chestertown Tea Party looks like a fun event, and we are going to attend it this weekend.
On this day 250 years ago, the Boston Committee of Correspondence under the pen of Sam Adams wrote to the Marblehead Committee of Correspondence that
We have receivd a Letter from New York dated the Day before the Post came out from that City, advising us that there was to be a meeting of the merchants there on the Tuesday following (last Tuesday)–that by a Vessel which had arrivd there from London the Citizens had receivd the barbarous Act with Indignation–that no Language could express their Abhorrence of this additional Act of Tyranny to all America–that they were fully perswaded that America was attackd & intended to be enslavd by their distressing & subduing Boston–that a Compliance with the provision of the Act will only be a temporary Reliefe from a particular Evil, which must end in a general Calamity–that many timid People in that City who have interrested themselves but very little in the Controversy with Great Britain express the greatest resentment at the Conduct of the Ministry to this Town and consider the Treatment as if done to them–and that this is the general Sense of the Inhabitants– that it was the general Talk that at the Meeting of the Merchants it would be agreed to suspend commercial Connection with Great Britain– . . . and we are to be advisd of the Result of the meeting, which we expect very soon. The Express which we sent to New York had not arrivd when this left the City.
When the letter from the New York Committee of Correspondence was subsequently delivered in Boston by the Express rider (Paul Revere), Adams would learn that the “Letter from New York dated the Day before the Post” was too optimistic in predicting that New York would join Boston in boycotting British goods. Adams did note that towns in other New England colonies were supporting Massachusetts’ call for non-importation:
We have receivd Letters by the post from Portsmt in New Hampshire, from Hartford Newport Providence Westerly &c. all expressing the same Indignation and a Determination to joyn in like measures–restrictions on their Trade.
On this day 250 years ago, the Philadelphia Committee of Correspondence provided Paul Revere (or perhaps a different rider — scholars differ whether Revere personally rode from New York to Philadelphia or dispatched another rider from New York to carry the Boston Committee’s correspondence) with their response to the Boston Committee’s request that other colonies join Massachusetts in pledging not to import any goods from Britain as the response to the closure of the Port of Boston by the Boston Port Act. The Philadelphia Committee’s response was written by the committed, but moderate, Patriot John Dickinson at the suggestion of Joseph Reed, Thomas Mifflin and Charles Thomson, the leading radical Patriots in Philadelphia.
Reed, Mifflin and Thomson were aware that there would be much opposition by Loyalists and by merchants in Philadelphia to the Boston Committee’s request that other colonies join Massachusetts in a non-importation pact. They had approached Dickinson because they knew he was respected by both the Patriots and conservatives for his unwavering commitment since the Stamp Act in 1765 to the defense of Colonial rights coupled with his opposition to radical actions that would inflame the British Government. They explained to Dickinson that they would argue to the mass meeting planned for the evening of May 20 in Philadelphia for full support of the non-importation pact proposed by Boston, but that they wanted him to present a compromise proposal that would offer support to Boston without committing to a non-importation pact in case their proposal was defeated. The plan suggested by Reed, Mifflin and Thomson worked exactly as they had hoped. Dickinson agreed to present his compromise proposal at the mass meeting in Philadelphia, their radical proposal for agreement to non-importation was indeed rejected, and the mass meeting unanimously adopted Dickinson’s moderate proposal.
The letter issued by the Philadelphia Committee of Correspondence on May 21 was considered by many to be only lukewarm in support of Boston. Although the letter offered Bostonians “sincere fellow feelings for your Sufferings”, it declined to endorse non-importation without consultation with the rest of the Province of Pennsylvania. Instead, the Philadelphia Committee’s reply stated that they would request that the Royal Governor of Pennsylvania convene a special session of the Pennsylvania Assembly to consider the “weighty Question” of whether to join a boycott of British goods. As an alternative to a non-importation agreement, the Philadelphia Committee suggested that they could support the convening of a congress of all the Colonies to declare American rights and petition the King.
The Philadelphia Committee’s moderate proposal for an intercolonial congress would, in the long run, turn out to be the more radical proposal. It would lead to the creation of the First Continental Congress — the first government of the United States independent of British control.
Source: Norton, Mary Beth, 1774 the Long Year of Revolution at pp. 93-94.
On this day 250 years ago in London, Parliament passed the Massachusetts Government Act and the ironically named (from the Patriot perspective) Act for the Impartial Administration of Justice. King George III approved both Acts on this same day. The Massachusetts Government Act suspended elected offices in the colony and allowed the Crown to appoint their replacements. The “Administration of Justice” Act suspended trial by jury in Massachusetts and allowed British soldiers and officials to be returned to Britain for trial. These are the second and third of the Intolerable Acts that drove America to Revolution and probably did more to spark the Revolutionary War than any other acts of the British government before the first shots were fired at Lexington.
Also on this day at a meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania became the thirteenth and final colony to form a Committee of Correspondence. That original committee of 19 members would grow to 43, then to 66, and finally to to 200 members during its two years of existence. Hundreds of Pennsylvania Patriots participated in one or more of the committees, but only four were in all of them: Thomas Barclay, John Cox, Jr., John Dickinson, and Joseph Reed.
On this day 250 years ago in Farmington, Connecticut, almost one thousand people assembled to erect a forty-five feet high Liberty Pole. After erecting the Liberty Pole a copy of the Boston Port Act was read to the crowd, and then burned. The assembly then adopted the following resolutions:
1st. That it is the greatest dignity, interest, and happiness of every American to be united with our parent state, while our liberties are duly secured, maintained, and supported by our rightful sovereign, whose person we greatly revere; whose government while duly administered, we are ready with our lives and properties to support.
2d. That the present ministry, being instigated by the devil, and led on by their wicked and corrupt hearts, have a design to take away our liberties and properties, and to enslave us forever.
3d. That the late Act which their malice hath caused to be passed in Parliament, for blocking up the port of Boston, is unjust, illegal, and oppressive; and that we, and every American, are sharers in the insults offered to the town of Boston.
4th. That those pimps and parasites who dared to advise their master to such detestable measures be held in utter abhorrence by us and every American, and their names loaded with the curses of all succeeding generations.
5th. That we scorn the chains of slavery; we despise every attempt to rivet them upon us; we are the sons of freedom, and resolved, that, till time shall be no more, that god-like virtue shall blazon our hemisphere.
Also on that day in Williamsburg, Virginia, Clementina Rind published in her Virginia Gazette, an article she wrote criticizing the Boston Port Act and British despotism and defending “the liberties of the colonies.”
On this day 250 years ago the people of the town of Chestertown, Maryland assembled in a mass meeting and adopted the Chestertown Resolves. These Resolves were modeled on resolutions passed by towns in Massachusetts and other colonies. The Chestertown Resolves declared:
that no duty or taxes can constitutionally be [imposed] on us, but by our own consent given personally, or by our own representatives.
that the act of the British parliament . . . subjecting the colonies to a duty on tea, for the purpose of raising revenue in America, is unconstitutional, oppressive and calculated to enslave the Americas.
that whoever shall import, or in any way aid or assist in importing, or introducing from any part of Great Britain, or any other place whatsoever, into this town or country, any tea subject to the payment of a duty imposed by the aforesaid act of Parliament: or whoever shall willingly and knowingly sell, buy or consume, in any way assist with the sale, purchase or consumption of any tea imported as aforesaid subject to a duty, he or they, shall be stigmatized as enemies to the liberties of America.
that we will not only steadily adhere to the foregoing resolves, but will endeavor to excite our worthy neighbors to a like patriotic conduct, and to whoever, amongst, shall refuse his concurrence, or after complying, shall desert the cause, and knowingly deviate from the true spirit and meaning of these our resolutions, we will mark him out [as] inimical to the liberties of America, and unworthy member of the community, [and] a person not deserving our notice [or] regard.
that the foregoing resolves be printed, that our brothers in this and other colonies may [know] our sentiments as therein contained.
The Maryland Gazette published the Chestertown Resolves a few days latter and added that “The above resolves were entered into upon a discovery of a late importation of dutiable tea, (in the brigantine Geddes, of this port) for some of the neighbouring counties. Further measures are in contemplation, in consequence of a late and very alarming act of parliament.”
The Chestertown Resolves were signed by several prominent citizens of Chestertown including Thomas Ringgold V, Thomas Smyth III, William Carmichael, and James Nicholson. They would all go on to serve in leading roles for the Patriots during the Revolution, but ironically, Nicholson was the owner of the cargo in the Geddes including the “dutiable tea” that supposedly was dumped in the harbor in the Chestertown Tea Party a few days later.
On this day 250 years ago Paul Revere rode into New York carrying a copy of the Boston Port Act and the recommendations of the Boston Committee of Correspondence that New York and other towns join Boston in committing to the non-importation of goods from Britain.
Also on this day, the town meeting of Providence, Rhode Island, instructed its representatives to the General Assembly to enact a law banning the importation of slaves, and to free all slaves born in the colony after they reached maturity.
On This Day In The Revolution 