DECLARATION OF COLONIAL RIGHTS:
RESOLUTIONS OF THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
OCTOBER 14, 1774
Following the Boston Tea Party and the adoption of the Intolerable
Acts, delegates gathered on September 5, 1774, at Philadelphia, in what
was to become the First Continental Congress. Every colony but Georgia
was represented. They voted on September 6 to appoint a committee "to
state the rights of the Colonies in general, the several instances in
which these rights are violated or infringed, and the means most proper
to be pursued for obtaining a restoration of them" (Journals of the
Continental Congress, 1774-1789, Washington, 1904, I, 26).
Joseph Galloway (173l -1803), a Philadelphia merchant and lawyer, led a
conservative attempt to unite the colonies within the Empire. He had
served as speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly from 1776 to 1774. In the
war Galloway supported the British cause and after 1778 became spokesman
for the Loyalists in England. In the First Continental Congress the more
radical delegates thrust aside Galloway's proposal and on October 14
adopted instead, by unanimous action, the Declaration of Colonial Rights
reproduced here. The first draft of these resolutions was written by
Major John Sullivan (1740-95 ), delegate from New Hampshire, lawyer,
major of the New Hampshire militia, major general in the Continental
Army, judge, and eventually governor of his state.
Before they dissolved, on October 26, the members voted to meet again in
the same city on May 10, 1775, "unless the redress of grievances ... be
obtained before that time" (ibid., p. 102).
The Congress met according to adjournment, and resuming the
consideration of the subject under debate -- came into the following
resolutions:
SULLIVAN'S DRAUGHT
... Whereas, since the close of the last war, the British Parliament,
claiming a power of right to bind the people of America, by statute in
all cases whatsoever, hath in some acts expressly imposed taxes on them,
and in others, under various pretenses, but in fact for the purpose of
raising a revenue, hath imposed rates and duties payable in these
colonies, established a board of commissioners, with unconstitutional
powers, and extended the jurisdiction of courts of admiralty, not only
for collecting the said duties, but for the trial of causes merely
arising within the body of a county.
And whereas, in consequence of other statutes, judges, who before held
only estates at will in their offices, have been made dependent upon the
crown alone for their salaries, and standing armies kept in times of
peace:
And it has lately been resolved in Parliament, that by force of a
statute, made in the thirty-fifth year of the reign of King Henry the
Eighth, colonists may be transported to England, and tried there upon
accusations for treasons, and misprisions, or concealments of treasons
committed in the colonies; and by a late statute, such trials have been
directed in cases therein mentioned.
And whereas, in the last session of Parliament, three statutes were
made; one, entitled "An act to discontinue, in such manner and for such
time as are therein mentioned, the landing and discharging, lading, or
shipping of goods, wares and merchandise, at the town, and within the
harbor of Boston, in the province of Massachusetts Bay, in North
America"; another, entitled "An act for the better regulating the
government of the province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England"; and
another, entitled "An act for the impartial administration of justice,
in the cases of persons questioned for any act done by them in the
execution of the law, or for the suppression of riots and tumults, in
the province of the Massachusetts Bay, in New England." And another
statute was then made, "for making more effectual provision for the
government of the province of Quebec, etc." All which statutes are
impolitic, unjust, and cruel, as well as unconstitutional, and most
dangerous and destructive of American rights.
And whereas, assemblies have been frequently dissolved, contrary to the
rights of the people, when they attempted to deliberate on grievances;
and their dutiful, humble, loyal, and reasonable petitions to the crown
for redress have been repeatedly treated with contempt by His Majesty's
ministers of state:
The good people of the several colonies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts
Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Newcastle, Kent and Sussex on Delaware, Maryland,
Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, justly alarmed at these
arbitrary proceedings of Parliament and administration, have severally
elected, constituted, and appointed deputies to meet and sit in General
Congress, in the city of Philadelphia, in order to obtain such
establishment, as that their religion, laws, and liberties may not be
subverted:
Whereupon the deputies so appointed being now assembled, in a full and
free representation of these colonies, taking into their most serious
consideration, the best means of attaining the ends aforesaid, do, in
the first place, as Englishmen, their ancestors in like cases have
usually done, for asserting and vindicating their rights and liberties,
declare,
That the inhabitants of the English Colonies in North America, by the
immutable laws of nature, the principles of the English constitution,
and the several charters or compacts, have the following rights:
Resolved, N.C.D. [2] 1. That they are entitled to life, liberty, and
property, and they have never ceded to any sovereign power whatever, a
right to dispose of either without their consent.
Resolved, N.C.D. 2. That our ancestors, who first settled these
colonies, were, at the time of their emigration from the mother-country,
entitled to all the rights, liberties, and immunities of free and
natural-born subjects, within the realm of England.
Resolved, N.C.D. 3. That by such emigration they by no means forfeited,
surrendered, or lost any of those rights, but that they were, and their
descendants now are, entitled to the exercise and en joyment of all such
of them, as their local and other circumstances enable them to exercise
and enjoy.
Resolved, 4. That the foundation of English liberty, and of all free
government, is a right in the people to participate in their legislative
council: and as the English colonists are not represented, and from
their local and other circumstances, cannot properly be represented in
the British Parliament, they are entitled to a free and exclusive power
of legislation in their several provincial legislatures, where their
right of representation can alone be preserved, in all cases of taxation
and internal polity, subject only to the negative of their sovereign, in
such manner as has been heretofore used and accustomed. But, from the
necessity of the case, and a regard to the mutual interest of both
countries, we cheerfully consent to the operation of such acts of the
British Parliament, as are bona fide, restrained to the regulation of
our external commerce, for the purpose of securing the commercial
advantages of the whole empire to the mother-country, and the commercial
benefits of its respective members; excluding every idea of taxation,
internal or external, for raising a revenue on the subjects in America,
without their consent.
Resolved, N.C.D. 5. That the respective colonies are entitled to the
common law of England, and more especially to the great and inestimable
privilege of being tried by their peers of the vicinage, according to
the course of that law.
Resolved, 6. That they are entitled to the benefit of such of the
English statutes as existed at the time of their colonization; and which
they have, by experience, respectively found to be applicable to their
several local and other circumstances.
Resolved, N.C.D. 7. That these His Majesty's colonies, are likewise
entitled to all the immunities and privileges granted and confirmed to
them by royal charters, or secured by their several codes of provincial
laws.
Resolved, N.C.D. 8. That they have a right peaceably to assemble,
consider of their grievances, and petition the king; and that all
prosecutions, prohibitory proclamations, and commitments for the same
are illegal.
Resolved, N.C.D. 9. That the keeping a standing army in these colonies,
in times of peace, without the consent of the legislature of that
colony, in which such army is kept, is against law.
Resolved, N.C.D. 10. It is indispensably necessary to good government,
and rendered essential by the English constitution, that the constituent
branches of the legislature be independent of each other; that,
therefore, the exercise of the legislative power in several colonies, by
a council appointed, during pleasure, by the crown, is unconstitutional,
dangerous, and destructive to the freedom of American legislation.
All and each of which the aforesaid deputies, in behalf of themselves
and their constituents, do claim, demand, and insist on, as their
indubitable rights and liberties; which cannot be legally taken from
them, altered or abridged by any power whatever, without their own
consent, by their representatives in their several provincial
legislatures.
In the course of our inquiry, we find many infringements and violations
of the foregoing rights, which, from an ardent desire, that harmony and
mutual intercourse of affection and interest may be restored, we pass
over for the present, and proceed to state such acts and measures as
have been adopted since the last war, which demonstrate a system formed
to enslave America.
Resolved, N.C.D. That the following acts of Parliament are infringements
and violations of the rights of the colonists; and that the repeal of
them is essentially necessary in order to restore harmony between Great
Britain and the American colonies, viz.:
The several acts of 4 Geo. 3, ch. 15, and ch. 34. -- 5 Geo. 3, ch. 25.
-- 6 Geo. 3, ch. 52. -- 7 Geo. 3, ch. 41, and ch. 46. -- 8 Geo. 3, ch.
22, which impose duties for the purpose of raising a revenue in America,
extend the powers of the admiralty courts beyond their ancient limits,
deprive the American subject of trial by jury, authorize the judges'
certificate to indemnify the prosecutor from damages, that he might
otherwise be liable to, requiring oppressive security from a claimant of
ships and goods seized, before he shall be allowed to defend his
property, and are subversive of American rights.
Also the 12 Geo. 3, ch. 24, entitled "An act for the better securing His
Majesty's dockyards, magazines, ships, ammunition, and stores," which
declares a new offense in America, and deprives the American subject of
a constitutional trial by a jury of the vicinage, by authorizing the
trial of any person, charged with the committing any offense described
in the said act, out of the realm, to be indicted and tried for the same
in any shire or county within the realm.
Also the three acts passed in the last session of Parliament, for
stopping the port and blocking up the harbor of Boston, for altering the
charter and government of the Massachusetts Bay, and that which is
entitled "An act for the better administration of justice," etc.
Also the act passed in the same session for establishing the Roman
Catholic religion in the Province of Quebec, abolishing the equitable
system of English laws, and erecting a tyranny there, to the great
danger, from so total a dissimilarity of religion, law, and government
of the neighboring British colonies, by the assistance of whose blood
and treasure the said country was conquered from France.
Also the act passed in the same session for the better providing
suitable quarters for officers and soldiers in His Majesty's service in
North America.
Also, that the keeping a standing army in several of these colonies, in
time of peace, without the consent of the legislature of that colony in
which such army is kept, is against law.
To these grievous acts and measures, Americans cannot submit, but in
hopes that their fellow-subjects in Great Britain will, on a revision of
them, restore us to that state in which both countries found happiness
and prosperity, we have for the present only resolved to pursue the
following peaceable measures:
Resolved, unanimously, That from and after the first day of December
next, there be no importation into British America, from Great Britain
or Ireland of any goods, wares or merchandise whatsoever, or from any
other place of any such goods, wares or merchandise.
1st. To enter into a nonimportation, nonconsumption, and nonexportation
agreement or association.
2. To prepare an address to the people of Great Britain, and a memorial
to the inhabitants of British America, and
3. To prepare a loyal address to His Majesty; agreeable to resolutions
already entered into.
____________
1. Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789 (Washington, 1904),
I, 63-73.
2. I.e., nemine contradicente, meaning without a dissenting vote or
unanimously. Commenting on these proceedings before a committee of the
British House of Commons, in June, 1779, Galloway stated that, although
the resolutions were recorded as having been passed unanimously, this
meant not that they were approved by every member present but by a
majority of each delegation (The Examination of Joseph Galloway ...
before the House of Commons ... , 2d ed.; London, 1780, p. 61).
3. This paragraph was struck out.
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