The Dunmore & Frederick Resolves

The August 4, 1774 issue of Clementina Rind's Virginia Gazette. Rind was the first woman to run a Virginia newspaper, taking over after her husband passed away in 1773. She is also known for printing Thomas Jefferson's tract A Summary View of the Rights of British America, also in 1774. (Colonial Williamsburg)

Clementina Rind's Virginia Gazette reported on August 4, 1774 that more than a dozen resolutions had been received from various Virginia counties objecting to the policies of the Crown. "The Northumberland, Orange, King George, Amelia, Frederick, Lancaster, Mecklenberg, Lunenberg, Accomack, King William, Warwick, and a few other resolves, we have received, but couldn't possibly insert them." The four-page newspaper simply couldn't set that much type. Instead, she summarized: "They profess the greatest loyalty and affection towards his majesty, but at the same time, are spirited and determined in the pursuit of their just rights and privileges."

​Virginia was half-way to war. When news had arrived in May that Britain was blockading the port of Boston, the House of Burgesses announced that June 1 would be a day of fasting and prayer. Lord Dunmore, the Royal governor, was unhappy about it and "prorogued" (dissolved) the legislature. The burgesses reconvened at the Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg to organize a "non-importation" agreement (an embargo), to propose the first Continental Congress, and to schedule the first Virginia Convention. The Convention would not meet until August 1 to allow delegates "an Opportunity of collecting their sense of their respective Counties."

Several counties proceeded to draft "resolves" or resolutions asserting their rights and proclaiming their loyalty to King George III in a sometimes subtly conditional way. Among them was the following declaration from Dunmore County, which was selected from the many at hand by Mrs. Rind for publication. It was drawn up by a committee chaired by Rev. Peter Muhlenberg, the future colonel of the 8th Virginia. Also on the committee were future lieutenant colonel Abraham Bowman, future lieutenant Taverner Beale, and the brother of future captain George Slaughter. They borrowed the text from neighboring Frederick County. The two counties had a shared history: Dunmore was carved out of Frederick in 1772. Muhlenberg may also have felt comfortable borrowing the text in part because Frederick's committee was similarly led by an Anglican clergyman: Rev. Charles Mynn Thruston.

Rind misspelled Muhlenberg's name two different ways, indicating that he was not yet well known in Williamsburg. The word "votes" was set in capital letters where the word "resolves" would make more sense—another apparent error. Dunmore County was renamed "Shenandoah" County during the Revolution.

Only one other 8th Virginia county issued resolves that summer. Culpeper County produced its document on July 7, but the text is evidently lost. The document below predates both the First Virginia Convention and the First Continental Congress. More counties issued resolutions after the First Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Association, formalizing a uniform boycott and calling upon county committees in all of the colonies to enforce it. Augusta, Berkeley, Fincastle, and Hampshire counties issued resolutions 1775 and raised companies for the 8th Virginia the following spring. The resolutions from Augusta and Fincastle survive. Fincastle's resolution is famous for being the first to openly threaten war. 

The Dunmore Resolves

At a meeting of the freeholders and other inhabitants of the county of Dunmore, held at the town of Woodstock, the 16th day of June, 1774, to consider the best mode to be fallen upon to secure their liberties and properties, and also to prevent the dangerous tendency of an act of parliament, passed in the 14th year of his present majesty’s reign, intituled an act to discontinue in such manner and for such time as we therein mention the landing and discharging, lading or shipping of goods, wares, and merchandize, at the town and within the harbour of Boston, in the province of Massachusetts Bay, in North America, evidently has to invade and deprive us of the same, the reverend Peter Mechlenberg being voted moderator, a committee of the following gentlemen, viz.  the reverend Peter Mechlenberg, Francis Slaughter, Abraham Bird, Taverner Beale, John Tipton, and Abraham Bowman were appointed to draw up resolves to the same occasion, who withdrawing, for a short time, returned with the following VOTES, which had been previously agreed to and voted by the freeholders and inhabitants of the county of Frederick:

1. That we will always cheerfully pay due submission to such acts of government as his majesty has a right, by law, to exercise over his subjects, as sovereign to the British dominions, and to such only.
2. That it is the inherent right of British subjects to be governed and taxed by representatives chosen by themselves only, and that every act of the British parliament respecting the internal policy of North America is a dangerous and unconstitutional invasion of our rights and privileges.
3. That the act of parliament above mentioned is not only itself repugnant to the fundamental laws of natural justice in condemning persons for a supposed crime unheard, but also a despotic exertion of unconstitutional power, calculated to enslave a free and loyal people.
4. That the enforcing the execution of the said act of parliament by a military power will have a necessary tendency to raise a civil war, thereby dissolving that union which has so long happily subsisted between the mother country and her colonies, and that we will most heartily and unanimously concur with our suffering brethren of Boston, and every other port of North America, that may be the immediate victims of tyranny, in promoting all proper measures to avert such dreadful calamities, to procure a redress of our grievances, and to secure our common liberties.
5. It is the unanimous opinion of this meeting, that a joint resolution of all the colonies to stop all importations from Great Britain, and exportations to it, till the said act be repealed, will prove the salvation of North America and her liberties; on the other hand, if they continue their imports and exports, there is the greatest reason to fear that power and the most odious oppression will rise triumphant over right, justice, social happiness, and freedom.
6. That the East India Company, those servile tools of arbitrary power, have justly forfeited the esteem and regard of all honest men, and that the better to manifest our abhorrence of such abject compliances with the will of a venal ministry, in ministering all in their power an encrease of the fund of peculation, we will not purchase tea, or any other kind of East India commodities, either imported now, or hereafter to be imported, except saltpetre, spices, and medicinal drugs.
7. That it is the opinion of this meeting, that committees ought to be appointed for the purpose of effecting a general association, that the same measures may be pursued through the whole continent, that [the] committees ought to correspond with each other, and to meet at [such] places and times as shall be agreed on, in order to form such [general] association, and that when the same shall be formed and agreed to by the several committees, we will strictly adhere to, and till the general sense of the continent shall be known, we do pledge ourselves to each other, and to our country, that will inviolably adhere to the votes of this day.
8. Voted, that the reverend Peter Mecklenburg, Francis Slaughter, Abraham Bird, Taverner Beale, John Tipton, and Abraham Bowman, be appointed a committee for the purpose aforesaid, and that they or any three of them are hereby fully empowered to act.

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