The Rowan Resolves

At a meeting of the Committee [of Safety, Rowan County, North Carolina], August 8, 1774, the following resolves were unanimously agreed to:

RESOLVED, That we will at all times whenever we are called upon for that purpose, maintain and defend, at the expense of our lives and fortunes, His Majesty's rights and title to the crown of Great Britain and his dominions in America, to whose royal person and government we profess all due obedience and fidelity.

RESOLVED, That the right to impose taxes or duties, to be paid by the inhabitants within this Province, for any purpose whatsoever, is peculiar and essential to the General Assembly, in whom the legislative authority of the colony is vested.

RESOLVED, That every attempt to impose such taxes or duties by any other authority is an arbitrary exertion of power, and an infringement of the constitutional rights and liberties of the colony.

RESOLVED, That to impose a tax or duty on tea by the British Parliament, in which the North American Colonies can have no representation, to be paid upon importation by the inhabitants of the said colonies, is an act of power without right. It is subversive to the liberties of the said colonies, deprives them of their property without their own consent, and thereby reduces them to a state of slavery.

RESOLVED, That the late cruel and sanguinary acts of Parliament, to be executed by military force and ships of war upon our sister colony of Massachusetts Bay and town of Boston, is a strong evidence of the corrupt influence obtained by the British Ministry in Parliament, and a convincing proof of their fixed intention to deprive the colonies of their constitutional rights and liberties.

RESOLVED, That the cause of the town of Boston is the common cause of the American Colonies.

RESOLVED, That it is the duty and interest of all the American Colonies firmly to unite in an indissoluble union and association, to oppose by every just and proper means the infringement of their common rights and privileges.

RESOLVED, That a general association between all the American Colonies not to import from Great Britain any commodity whatsoever (except such things as shall be hereafter exempted by the General Congress of this Province) ought to be entered into, and not dissolved till the just rights of the colonies are restored to them, and the cruel acts of the British Parliament against the Massachusetts Bay and the town of Boston are repealed.

RESOLVED, That no friend of the rights and liberties of America ought to purchase any commodity whatsoever, except such as shall be exempted, which shall be imported from Great Britain after the General Association shall be agreed upon.

RESOLVED, That every kind of luxury, dissipation, and extravagance ought to be banished from among us.

RESOLVED, That manufacturers ought to be encouraged by opening subscriptions for that purpose, or by any other proper means.

RESOLVED, That the African slave trade is injurious to this colony, obstructs the population of it by free men, prevents manufacturers and other useful immigrants from Europe from settling among us, and occasions an annual increase of the balance of trade against the colonies.

RESOLVED, That the raising of sheep, hemp, and flax ought to be encouraged.

RESOLVED, That to be clothed in manufactures fabricated in the colonies ought to be considered as a badge of distinction, or respect, and true patriotism.

RESOLVED, That Messrs. Samuel Young and Moses Winslow, for the County of Rowan, and for the town of Salisbury, William Kennon, Esq., be, and they are hereby, nominated and appointed Deputies upon the part of the inhabitants and freeholders of this county and town of Salisbury, to meet such Deputies as shall be appointed by the other counties and corporations within this colony, at Johnston Courthouse, the twentieth of this instant.

RESOLVED, That, at this important and alarming crisis, it be earnestly recommended to the said Deputies at their General Convention, that they nominate and appoint one proper person out of each district of this Province, to meet Continental Colonies in America, to consult and agree upon a firm and indissoluble union and association for preserving, by the best and most proper means, their common rights and liberties.

RESOLVED, That this colony ought not to trade with any colony which shall refuse to join in any union and association that shall be agreed upon by the greater part of the other colonies on this continent, for preserving their common rights and liberties.

Signed:

James McCay
Andrew Neal
George Cathey
Alexander Dobbins
Francis McCorkle
Matthew Locke
Maxwell Chambers
Henry Harmon
Abraham Denton
William Davidson
Samuel Young
John Johnson
John Brevard
William Kennon
George Henry Barringer
Robert Bell
John Bickerstaff
John Cowden
John Lewis Beard
John Nesbit
Charles McDowell
Robert Blackburn
Christopher Beekman
William Sharpe
Morgan Bryan

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