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Open Anthology of The American Revolution: The Charlotte Town Resolves

Open Anthology of The American Revolution
The Charlotte Town Resolves
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table of contents
  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Table Of Contents
  5. Introduction
  6. Questions to Guide Your Reading
  7. The Virginia Settlement
    1. Starving Time
    2. An Indentured Servant’s Letter Home
    3. Bacon’s Manifesto
  8. The Puritans of New England
    1. Early Education Laws
    2. Limits of Toleration
    3. Prologue to “The Tenth Muse”
    4. Connecticut’s “Blue Laws”
    5. Records of the Trial and Execution of Sarah Good
    6. Two Letters of Gov. William Phips
  9. The Old Colonial System
    1. Articles of Confederation of the United Colonies of New England
    2. The Navigation Act of 1660
    3. Commission of Sir Edmund Andros for the Dominion of New England
    4. Boston Revolt of 1689
    5. Bars Fight
    6. Albany Plan of Union
    7. The Way to Wealth
  10. The Revolution
    1. Second Treatise of Government
    2. Chart of Battles, Leaders, and Congresses During the Revolutionary War
    3. Petition from the Massachusetts House of Representatives to the House of Commons (in response to the Sugar Act)
    4. Patrick Henry’s Resolutions Against the Stamp Act
    5. Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, To the Inhabitants of the British Colonies
    6. After the Boston Tea Party: Cartoons
    7. Continental Congress’s Declaration of Rights and Grievances against Great Britain
    8. Articles of Association
    9. The Alternative of Williamsburg
    10. Petition of the New York Assembly to George III
    11. Address from Joseph Warren
    12. The Charlotte Town Resolves
    13. The Olive Branch Petition
    14. His Excellency General Washington
    15. Oath of Allegiance to the King George III
    16. Letter from George Washington to John Hancock
    17. Common Sense
    18. Resolve of the Continental Congress Regarding State Governments
    19. Richard Henry Lee Resolution for Independence
    20. Appointment of Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams to Draft the Declaration of Independence
    21. Adoption of the Lee Resolution
    22. The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America
    23. The American Crisis
    24. Draft Notice
    25. Treaty of Alliance with France
    26. Address of the Congress to the Inhabitants of the United States of America
    27. Establishment of the American Army
    28. Marquis de Lafayette’s Oath of Allegiance
    29. Letter of John Adams to the President of Congress
    30. Details from a Providence (RI) Town Meeting About Quartering of Troops
    31. Letter from Elizabeth Burgin to Reverend James Calville
    32. Letter from General George Washington to Congress Announcing the Victory at Yorktown, Virginia
    33. Benjamin Franklin’s Draft of Preliminary Articles of Peace
    34. Treaty of Paris
    35. Minutes of a Conference between George Washington and Guy Carleton
    36. Letter from Joseph Warren to Benjamin Franklin
    37. Articles of Confederation
    38. Northwest Ordinance
    39. Thomas Walke’s Account of Capturing his Runaway Slaves in New York City
    40. General Washington’s Instructions to Commissioners of Embarkation
    41. Letter from Embarkation Commissioners to General Washington
    42. An Address to the Negroes In the State of New-York
    43. Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery
    44. Testimony of Deborah Sampson Gannett
  11. Appendix 1: More Readings

28

The Charlotte Town Resolves

May 31, 1775

Laura Lyons McLemore

Background

Following the clashes at Lexington and Concord, tensions heightened throughout the colonies. On May 31, 1775, the Mecklenburg County Committee of Safety, at Charlotte, North Carolina, drew up a set of resolves annulling the authority of the British King and Parliament and investing the congress of each colony with all legislative and executive powers within their respective provinces under the direction of the Continental Congress. The committee then reorganized local government, elected county officials, provided for nine militia companies, and ordered these companies to provide themselves with arms in readiness to carry out the commands of the Provincial Congress. Anyone who refused to obey the resolves was to be deemed “an enemy to his country.”  This document is not to be confused with the so-called Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, the authenticity of which has never been established. The resolves of May 31 did not declare independence.

Resolves Adopted in Charlotte Town,
Mecklenburg County, North
Carolina, May 31, 1775

This Day the Committee met, and passed the following

RESOLVES:

Whereas by an Address presented to his Majesty by both Houses of Parliament in February last, the American Colonies are declared to be in a State of actual Rebelion, we conceive that all Laws and Commissions confirmed by, or derived from the Authority of the King or Parliament, are annulled and vacated, and the former civil Constitution of these Colinies for the present wholly suspended. To provide in some Degree for the Exigencies of the County in the present alarming Period, we deem it proper and necessary to pass the following Resolves, viz.

1. That all Commissions, civil and military, heretofore granted by the Crown, to be exercised in these Colonies, are null and void, and the Constitution of each particular Colony wholly suspended.

2. That the Provincial Congress of each Province, under the Direction of the Great Continental Congress, is invested with all legislative and executive Powers within their respective Provinces; and that no other Legislative or Executive does or can exist, at this time, in any of these Colonies.

3. As all former Laws are now suspended in this Province, and the Congress have not yet provided others, we judge it necessary, for the better Preservation of good Order, to form certain Rules and Regulations for the internal Government of this County, until Laws shall be provided for us by the Congress.

4. That the Inhabitants of this County do meet on a certain Day appointed by this Committee, and having formed themselves into nine Companies, to wit, eight for the County, and one for the Town of Charlotte, do choose a Colonel and other military Officers, who shall hold and exercise their several Powers by Virtue of this Choice, and independent of Great-Britain, and former Constitution of this Province.

5. That for the better Preservation of the Peace, and Administration of Justice, each of these Companies do choose from their own Body two discreet Freeholders, who shall be impowered each by himself, and singly, to decide and determine all Matters of Controversy arising within the said Company under the Sum of Twenty Shillings, and jointly and together all Controversies under the Sum of Forty Shillings, yet so as their Decisions may admit of Appeals to the Convention of the Select Men of the whole County; and also, that any one of these shall have Power to examine, and commit to Confinement, Persons accused of Petit Larceny.

6. That those two Select Men, thus chosen, do, jointly and together, choose from the Body of their particular Company two Persons, properly qualified to serve as Constables, who may assist them in the Execution of their Office.

7. That upon the Complaint of any Person to either of these Select Men, he do issue his Warrant, directed to the Constable, commanding him to bring the Aggressor before him or them to answer the said Complaint.

8. That these eighteen Select Men, thus appointed, do meet every third Tuesday in January, April, July, and October, at the Court-House, in Charlotte, to hear and determine all Matters of Controversy for Sums exceeding Forty Shillings; also Appeals: And in Cases of Felony, to commit the Person or Persons convicted thereof to close Confinement, until the Provincial Congress shall provide and establish Laws and Modes of Proceeding in all such Cases.

9. That these Eighteen Select Men, thus convened, do choose a Clerk to record the Transactions of said Convention; and that the said Clerk, upon the Application of any Person or Persons aggrieved, do issue his Warrant to one of the Constables, to summon and warn said Offender to appear before the Convention at their next sittinbg, to answer the aforesaid Complaint.

10. That any Person making Complaint upon Oath to the Clerk, or any Member of the Convention, that he has Reason to suspect that any Person or Persons indebted to him in a Sum above Forty Shillings, do intend clandestinely to withdraw from the County without paying such Debt; the Clerk, or such Member, shall issue his Warrant to the Constable, commanding him to take the said Person or Persons into safe Custody, until the next sitting of the Convention.

11. That when a Debtor for a Sum below Forty Shillings shall abscond and leave the County, the Warrant granted as aforesaid shall extend to any Goods or Chattels of the said Debtor as may be found, and such Goods or Chattels be seized and held in Custody by the Constable for the Space of Thirty Days; in which Term if the Debtor fails to return and discharge the Debt, the Constable shall return the Warrant to one of the Select Men of the Company where the Goods and Chattels are found, who shall issue Orders to the Constable to sell such a Part of the said Goods as shall amount to the Sum due; that when the Debt exceeds Forty Shillings, the Return shall be made to the Convention, who shall issue the Orders for Sale.

12. That all Receivers and Collectors of Quitrents, Public and County Taxes, do pay the same into the Hands of the Chairman of this Committee, to be by them disbursed as the public Exigencies may require. And that such Receivers and Collectors proceed no farther in their Office until they be approved of by, and have given to this Committee good and sufficient Security for a faithful Return of such Monies when collected.

13. That the Committee be accountable to the County for the Application of all Monies received from such public Officers.

14. That all these Officers hold their Commissions during the Pleasure of their respective Constituents.

15. That this Commission will sustain all Damages that may ever hereafter accrue to all or any of these Officers thus appointed, and thus acting, on Account of their Obedience and Conformity to these Resolves.

16. That whatever Person shall hereafter receive a Commission from the Crown, or attempt to exercise any such Commission heretofore received, shall be deemed an Enemy to his Country; and upon Information being made to the Captain of the Company where he resides, the said Captain shall cause him to be apprehended, and conveyed before the two Select Men of the said Company, who, upon Proof of the Fact, shall commit him the said Offender, into safe Custody, until the next setting of the Convention, who shall deal with him as Prudence may direct.

17. That any Person refusing to yield Obedience to the above Resolves shall be deemed equally criminal, and liable to the same Punishments as the Offenders above last mentioned.

18. That these Resolves be in full Force and Virtue, until Instructions from the General Congress of this Province, regulating the Jurisprudence of this Province, shall provide otherwise, or the legislative Body of Great-Britain resign its unjust and arbitrary Pretentions with Respect to America.

19. That the several Militia Companies in this county do provide themselves with proper Arms and Accoutrements, and hold themselves in Readiness to execute the commands and Directions of the Provincial Congress, and of this committee.

20. That this committee do appoint Colonel Thomas Polk, and Doctor Joseph Kennedy, to purchase 300 lb. of Powder, 600 lb. of Lead, and 1000 Flints, and deposit the same in some safe Place, hereafter to be appointed by the committee.

Signed by Order of the Commitee.

EPH. BREVARD, Clerk of the Committee[1]


  1. Accessed at https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/charlott.asp ↵

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