Hanover Resolves
By now you should be familiar with the ongoing story of colonial resistance to the Tea Tax and other laws. The Boston Tea Party kicked it off on December 16, 1773. When Parliament got news of this event, they proceeded to enact a series of punitive laws, not only punishing Boston but putting the rest of the colonies on notice that they needed to shape up. Three weeks ago I wrote about what happened in Rhode Island as a result of these acts, two weeks ago I wrote about the Chester Town, Maryland, (maybe) tea party, and last week I wrote about the First Virginia Convention.
This week the location is Hanover, Pennsylvania. The date is June 4, 1774. While I was researching this event, I discovered that these various acts of rebellion were not necessarily spontaneous; the Boston Committee of Correspondence wrote a Circular Letter on May 13, 1774, to be sent to all of the colonies requesting that they join with Boston in resisting British power and boycotting trade with Great Britain. Many counties, cities, and towns passed resolves in response to this letter. Between June 4 and July 9, Pennsylvanians in several towns – Hanover, Middletown, Lebanon, Reading, Lancaster, Newtown, Philadelphia, and an unspecified town in Chester County – held public meetings to decide how to respond to the situation in Boston. All eight communities passed resolutions condemning the Coercive Acts.
The resolves passed by Hanover merit specific attention, because they were the only resolves that mentioned military resistance:
“4th. That in the event of Great Britain attempting to force unjust laws upon us by the strength of arms, our cause we leave to heaven and our rifles.”
One of the tasks of these community meetings was to appoint men to meet in Philadelphia with other local representatives to pass a set of state-approved Resolves. This meeting, which occurred on July 15, 1774, voted not only to pass a set of Resolves but to send them to the Pennsylvania Assembly. Several colonies – Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Virginia – also sent letters to the Pennsylvania Assembly, joining in the call for a congress of all the colonies to discuss the current situation and develop unified plans to restore colonists’ rights and to restore unity and harmony between Great Britain and the colonies. This First Continental Congress would convene in Philadelphia in September of 1774, with representatives from 12 of the 13 colonies (only George did not participate).
The Hanover Resolves were a bigger deal than I thought them to be – which is not surprising, given that I had never heard of them before last week.
Very interesting, including the phrase…..”the cause we leave to heaven and our rifles…..” 😎