The Fairfax Resolves were a set of resolutions adopted by a committee in Fairfax County in the

Colony of Virginia The Colony of Virginia was a British Empire, British colonial settlement in North America from 1606 to 1776. The first effort to create an English settlement in the area was chartered in 1584 and established in 1585; the resulting Roanoke Colo ...

on July 18, 1774, in the early stages of the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

. Written at the behest of

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

and others, they were authored primarily by

George Mason George Mason (October 7, 1792) was an American planter, politician, Founding Father, and delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, where he was one of three delegates who refused to sign the Constitution. His wr ...

. The resolutions rejected the British Parliament's claim of supreme authority over the American colonies. More than thirty counties in Virginia passed similar resolutions in 1774, including the Loudoun Resolves issued in June, "but the Fairfax Resolves were the most detailed, the most influential, and the most radical."

Background and drafting

After Parliament passed the

Coercive Acts The Intolerable Acts, sometimes referred to as the Insufferable Acts or Coercive Acts, were a series of five punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party. The laws aimed to punish Massachusetts colonists fo ...

, also known as the

Intolerable Acts The Intolerable Acts, sometimes referred to as the Insufferable Acts or Coercive Acts, were a series of five punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party. The laws aimed to punish Massachusetts colonists fo ...

, to punish

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

for the

Boston Tea Party The Boston Tea Party was a seminal American protest, political and Mercantilism, mercantile protest on December 16, 1773, during the American Revolution. Initiated by Sons of Liberty activists in Boston in Province of Massachusetts Bay, colo ...

, the Virginia

House of Burgesses The House of Burgesses () was the lower house of the Virginia General Assembly from 1619 to 1776. It existed during the colonial history of the United States in the Colony of Virginia in what was then British America. From 1642 to 1776, the Hou ...

proclaimed that June 1, 1774, would be a day of "fasting, humiliation, and prayer" as a show of solidarity with Boston. In response, Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, dissolved the House of Burgesses. The burgesses reconvened at the

Raleigh Tavern The Raleigh Tavern was a tavern in Williamsburg, Virginia, and was one of the largest taverns in colonial Virginia. It gained some fame in the pre-American Revolutionary War Virginia Colony, Colony of Virginia as a gathering place for legislator ...

on May 27 and called for Virginia's counties to elect delegates to a special convention to meet in August.

and Charles Broadwater were elected as Fairfax County's representatives to the convention. On July 5, 1774, Washington and others from Fairfax County met in

Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city (United States), independent city in Northern Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of Washington, D.C., D.C. The city's population of 159,467 at the 2020 ...

, to appoint a committee to draft a statement that would, as Washington described it, "define our Constitutional Rights." The statement would also formally serve as instructions to Fairfax County's delegates to the Virginia Convention. The committee wrote a draft that was, in all likelihood, primarily the work of George Mason. Mason and Washington met at Washington's

Mount Vernon Mount Vernon is the former residence and plantation of George Washington, a Founding Father, commander of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, and the first president of the United States, and his wife, Martha. An American landmar ...

home on July 17, and perhaps revised the resolutions. The following day in Alexandria, the Fairfax Resolves were endorsed in a meeting of freeholders chaired by Washington.

Text summary and effect

In the Resolves, the freeholders expressed a desire to remain subjects of the British Empire, but they insisted that "we will use every means which Heaven hath given us to prevent our becoming its slaves." The short document provided the following: * a concise summary of American constitutional concerns on such issues as taxation, representation, judicial power, military matters and the colonial economy * a proposal for the creation of a nonimportation effort to be levied against British goods * a call for a general congress of the colonies to convene for the purpose of preserving the Americans' rights as Englishmen * a condemnation of the practice of importing slaves as a "wicked, cruel, and unnatural trade"; its termination was urged The Resolves directed Washington and Broadwater to present the resolutions to the Virginia Convention. The Fairfax Resolves, like the many other similar resolutions passed in county meetings throughout the colonies, summarized the feelings of many colonists in mid-1774 — a conviction that their constitutional rights were being violated by British policies. The Resolves also marked a step forward in inter-colonial cooperation as more Americans began to realize that a threat against one colony was a threat against all. Finally, political rivalries in Virginia were muted to some degree, allowing such figures as Washington and Mason to work productively with the more radical

Patrick Henry Patrick Henry (May 29, 1736 ld Style and New Style dates, O.S. May 18, 1736une 6, 1799) was an American politician, planter and orator who declared to the Virginia Conventions, Second Virginia Convention (1775): "Give me liberty or give m ...

Richard Henry Lee Richard Henry Lee (January 20, 1732June 19, 1794) was an American statesman and Founding Father from Virginia, best known for the June 1776 Lee Resolution, the motion in the Second Continental Congress calling for the colonies' independence fr ...

and others. The non-importation protest called for in the Resolves recalled, with some modifications, the Virginia Association, which in turn provided the pattern for the

Continental Association The Continental Association, also known as the Articles of Association or simply the Association, was an agreement among the Thirteen Colonies, American colonies, adopted by the First Continental Congress, which met inside Carpenters' Hall in Phi ...

which was passed by the

First Continental Congress The First Continental Congress was a meeting of delegates of twelve of the Thirteen Colonies held from September 5 to October 26, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia at the beginning of the American Revolution. The meeting was organized b ...

on October 20, 1774.Ammerman, ''Common Cause'', 86.

Signatories

* Robert Adam * Charles Alexander * Philip Alexander * Charles Broadwater * William Brown * John Carlyle * Martin Cockburne * Townsend Dade, Jr. * John Dalton * George Gilpin * Henry Gunnell * Robert Hanson Harrison * William Hartshorne * James Kirk * Thomas Lewis *

* Lee Massey * Edward Payne * William Payne * Thomas Pollard * William Ramsay * William Rumney * Thomas Triplett *

, Esq. * John West

References

External links

Text of the Fairfax Resolves
presented online by the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

Press Books Division
Manuscript images of the Fairfax Resolves
Library of Congress {{Virginia during the American Revolutionary War 1774 in the Thirteen Colonies Documents of the American Revolution Fairfax County, Virginia George Mason George Washington Virginia in the American Revolution 1774 in the Colony of Virginia 1774 documents

Background and drafting

Text summary and effect

Signatories

References

Further reading

External links