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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Resolutions by inhabitants of Anson County concerning resistance to Parliamentary taxation and the Provincial Congress of North Carolina
Wade, Thomas, 1720-1786; Et Al.
August 18, 1774
Volume 09, Pages 1032-1034

Proceedings of Freeholders in Anson County, 18th August 1774.

At a meeting of the Freeholders of the County of Anson, in the Province of North Carolina, held at the Court House of the said County, on the 15th day of August 1774, Thomas Wade Esqre Chairman,

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this Meeting, that the late arbitrary and cruel Acts of the British Parliament, and other unconstitutional and oppressive measures of the British Ministry, against the Town and Port of Boston, and province of Massachusetts Bay, are no other than the most alarming prelude to that yoke of slavery already manufactured by the said Ministry, and by them intended to be laid on all the Inhabitants of British America, and their Posterity for ever.

Resolved, That in order to disappoint the machinations of the said Ministry, and to secure the Rights of British Subjects in America, the Members of this Meeting are fully sensible of the expediency of sending Deputies to represent them at a General Convention of Deputies from the several Counties of this Colony to be held at Johnston Court House on the 25th inst., and likewise of sending Delegates from thence to act for and represent the Inhabitants of this Colony at a General Congress of Delegates from all the Colonies on this Continent

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to be held at Philadelphia on the 20th of September next, or at such time and place as shall be generally agreed upon.

Resolved, That Samuel Spencer & William Thomas Esqres be and they are hereby appointed Deputies on behalf of this County, to act for and represent the Inhabitants thereof at the said general Convention of Deputies, from the several Counties of this Colony to be held at Johnston Court House aforesaid, on the 20th of this instant August or at such other time and place as shall be generally agreed upon, then and there to consult on the great and important Subject of American Freedom, and thence to appoint Delegates to act on behalf of this Colony at the said general Congress, to be held as aforesaid, and to pursue such measures, in union with the rest of the Colonies, as may be thought most conducive to the preservation of the Rights and Liberties of this Colony and those of America in general. And that the conduct of the Deputies hereby appointed on behalf of this County, in conjunction with that of the Deputies appointed to represent the several Counties of this Colony in full convention, as aforesaid, shall be taken and deemed to be obligatory on us the Freeholders and Inhabitants of this County.

Resolved, That Thomas Dockery, Thomas Wade, Samuel Spencer, William Thomas, Charles Robinson, Charles Medlock, William Pickett and James Auld be, and they are hereby appointed a Committee for this County to correspond with any Committee of Correspondence in this Colony, and to appoint meetings of the Freeholders in this County as often as they, or a majority of them, shall conceive the exigency of the times may require.

Resolved, That as in the opinion of this meeting the cause wherein the Inhabitants of Boston and Massachusetts Bay are now suffering, in consequence of the aforesaid arbitrary and cruel Acts, is the common cause of all North America, the Committee hereby appointed be instructed to open and promote a subscription for contributing towards the relief of those indigent Inhabitants of the Town of Boston, whom the operation of one of the aforesaid Acts has deprived of the means of subsisting themselves, and that the money or other Articles collected by such subscription be transmitted by the above Committee to the said Committee of Correspondence appointed for this Colony, to be laid out and disposed of in such manner as the said last mentioned Committee shall conceive to be best adapted to answer the design thereof.

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Resolved, That it be an Instruction to the Deputies above appointed on behalf of this County, that it is the opinion of this meeting, that the speediest, most constitutional and effectual way to obtain redress of the grievances above mentioned will be for the several American Colonies on this Continent to stop all trade and commerce with Great Britain, and every part of America that shall continue any trade or commerce with the same (except in some necessary articles such as salt) until the above said Acts be repealed, and other unconstitutional measures of the British Ministry be discarded, and that it is the opinion of this meeting that such stoppage of commerce will indispensibly involve the necessity of stopping the commencement and prosecution of suits for the recovery of the greatest part of such debts as are now due from persons residing in the said Colonies, and that it is the desire of this Meeting, that a line may be properly drawn and ascertained between such suits as ought and such as ought not to be commenced and prosecuted for the recovery of debts in said Colonies, upon the Principles of such stoppage of commerce, as aforesaid.