The Augusta Resolves was a statement adopted on February 22, 1775 by six representatives of

Augusta County Augusta County is a county in the Shenandoah Valley on the western edge of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The second-largest county of Virginia by total area, it completely surrounds the independent cities of Staunton and Waynesboro. Its county ...

Colony of Virginia The Colony of Virginia, chartered in 1606 and settled in 1607, was the first enduring English colonial empire, English colony in North America, following failed attempts at settlement on Newfoundland (island), Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey GilbertG ...

, in the early stages of the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolu ...

. The resolves expressed support for Congress' resistance to the

Intolerable Acts The Intolerable Acts were a series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party. The laws aimed to punish Massachusetts colonists for their defiance in the Tea Party protest of the Tea Act, a tax measure ...

, issued in 1774 by the

British Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the Parliamentary sovereignty in the United Kingdom, supreme Legislature, legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of We ...

, and a commitment to risk 'lives and fortune' in preservation of natural rights.

Background and drafting

After Parliament passed the

Coercive Acts The Intolerable Acts were a series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party. The laws aimed to punish Massachusetts colonists for their defiance in the Tea Party protest of the Tea Act, a tax measure ...

, also known as the

, to punish

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

for the

Boston Tea Party The Boston Tea Party was an American political and mercantile protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1773. The target was the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, which allowed the British East India Company to sell ...

, the Virginia

House of Burgesses The House of Burgesses was the elected representative element of the Virginia General Assembly, the legislative body of the Colony of Virginia. With the creation of the House of Burgesses in 1642, the General Assembly, which had been established ...

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 Earl of Dunmore is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. History The title was created in 1686 for Lord Charles Murray, second son of John Murray, 1st Marquess of Atholl. He was made Lord Murray of Blair, Moulin and Tillimet (or Tullimet) and ...

, 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 legislators ...

on May 27 and called for Virginia's counties to elect delegates to a special convention to meet in August. Thomas Lewis and Samuel McDowell were elected as Augusta County's representatives to the convention. On February 22, 1775, the six authors of the Augusta Resolves met in Staunton, Virginia, where they drafted a statement that asserted their commitment "to enjoy the free exercise of conscience, and of human nature. These rights were are fully resolved, with our lives and our fortune, inviolably to preserve..." The resolves were endorsed in a meeting of freeholders of Augusta County and published in Pinkney's March 16, 1775

Virginia Gazette ''The Virginia Gazette'' is the local newspaper of Williamsburg, Virginia. Established in 1930, it is named for the historical ''Virginia Gazette'' published between 1736 and 1780. It is published twice a week in the broadsheet format. Historica ...

Text summary and effect

The resolves expressed a respect for Great Britain and a desire to repair relations between the mother county and the colonies, and made the following assertions and recommendations to the Virginia Convention: * a commitment to risk 'life and fortune' to retain natural rights * an intent to ally with the colonies at large, if necessary, in order to secure these rights * a proposal to institute domestic manufacture of salt, steel, wool cards, paper, and gunpowder for use of colonial militias * a recommendation to the militia officers of all counties to make themselves "masters of the military exercises"

Context and legacy

At least fifty-nine of sixty-four Virginia jurisdictions passed similar resolutions from between June 1774 and winter 1775. Two 'waves' of resolutions occurred, the first being from June–August 1774 and the second from December 1774 – March 1775. The Augusta Resolves were part of the 'second wave', the delay owing to the county's involvement in

Dunmore's War Lord Dunmore's War—or Dunmore's War—was a 1774 conflict between the Colony of Virginia and the Shawnee and Mingo American Indian nations. The Governor of Virginia during the conflict was John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore—Lord Dunmore. He a ...

from May–October 1774. Historian Jim Glanville states that the resolutions of Virginia's four western counties (Augusta, Botetourt, Fincastle, and Pittsylvania) are best viewed as a whole and are "by far the most significant statements in support of American liberty" of those from the second wave, and were precursors to the

Declaration of Independence A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood or proclamation of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of ...

issued by the

Second Continental Congress The Second Continental Congress was a late-18th-century meeting of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that united in support of the American Revolutionary War. The Congress was creating a new country it first named " United Colonies" and in ...

on July 4, 1776. George Washington is said to have responded to the revolutionary spirit of these counties:

"Strip me of the dejected and suffering remnants of my army; take from me all that I have left; leave me but a banner; give me but the means to plant it upon the mountains of West Augusta, and I will yet draw around me the men who will lift up their bleeding country from the dust and set her free."

Authors

* Alexander Balmain *

Sampson Mathews Sampson Mathews (c. 1737 – January 20, 1807) was an American merchant, soldier, and legislator in the colony (and later U.S. state) of Virginia. A son of John and Ann (Archer) Mathews, Mathews was an early merchant in the Shenandoah Va ...

* Alexander M'Clenachan * Michael Bowyer * William Lewis * George Mathews Waddell, p. 148

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

{{Virginia during the American Revolutionary War History of Virginia Virginia in the American Revolution 1775 in the Thirteen Colonies