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Open Anthology of The American Revolution: Resolve of the Continental Congress Regarding State Governments

Open Anthology of The American Revolution
Resolve of the Continental Congress Regarding State Governments
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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

34

Resolve of the Continental Congress Regarding State Governments

May 15, 1776

The Second Continental Congress

Background

In this Resolution of the Continental Congress, the delegates state that since the British Crown and Parliament had excluded the colonies from its protection, had not sent an answer to their petitions, and that the force of the kingdom (including foreign mercenaries) were being “exerted for the destruction of the good people of these colonies,” that all authority from the British Crown should be totally suppressed. Instead, that the United Colonies must adopt their own government for the “happiness and safety” of Americans..

John Adams thought of it as “independence itself” and called it “the most important Resolution, that ever was taken in America.”

Background Information: “Resolve of the Continental Congress Regarding State Governments” from the National Archives, Original License CC 4.0 BY NC SA

WHEREAS his Britannic Majesty, in conjunction with the Lords and Commons of Great-Britain, has by a late Act of Parliament excluded the inhabitants of these United Colonies from the protection of his Crown: AND WHEREAS no answer whatever to the humble Petitions of the Colonies for redress of grievances and reconciliation with Great-Britain, has been or is likely to be given; but the whole force of that kingdom, aided by foreign mercenaries, is to be exerted for the destruction of the good people of these Colonies: AND WHEREAS it appears absolutely irreconcileable to reason and good conscience, for the people of these Colonies now to take the oaths and affirmations necessary for the support of any government under the Crown of Great-Britain, and it is necessary that the exercise of every kind of authority under the said Crown should be totally suppressed, and all the powers of government exerted under the people of the Colonies, for the preservation of internal peace, virtue and good order, as well as for the defense of their lives, liberties and properties against the hostile invasions and cruel depredations of their enemies:–

RESOLVED therefore, That it be recommended to the respective Assemblies and Conventions of the United Colonies, where no government sufficient to the exigencies of their affairs has been hitherto established, to adopt such government as shall in the opinion of the Representatives of the people best conduce to the happiness and safety of their constituents in particular and America in general.

Extract from the Minutes,

CHARLES THOMSON, Secretary.[1]

  1. Accessed at https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/resolve-of-the-continental-congress-regarding-state-governments ↵

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