Autograph manuscript, presumably a draft of a resolution written during the third Virginia Convention, outlining Virginia's grievances against the Crown and affirming their support for the Continental Congress' Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms.
Virginia: July or August 1775]. 1½ pp., both sides of a single sheet (230 x 185 mm). Cross-outs and corrections in the hand of the author. With an early ink inscription at the bottom of the second page identifying the author as Jones. Condition : small chip at one edge with losses to four words, browned. Provenance : William B. Sprague? (pencil annotation at the head of the document "Dr. Sprague" and "Mss Aut. - Revy"). virginia's grievances against the crown drafted by a well-known patriot: "what are a people to do -- either tamely to submit to Slavery or by determined opposition struggle for Freedom -- the last we prefer." Following the dissolution of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1774, a series of five political conventions were held by the colony as a revolutionary provisional government. The third such Convention met from July 17 to August 26, 1775, and Joseph Jones served as a representative from King George County. Jones (1727-1805) James Monroe's uncle, had served in the House of Burgesses, and would go on to serve in the Continental Congress. During the Conventions, he was selected as a member of the Virginia Committee of Safety and during the third Convention served on the committee which drafted "An ordinance for raising and embodying a sufficient force for the defense and protection of this colony." It seems likely that this manuscript was drafted at the time of the debates on that important ordinance. The text of this declaration presents seven grievances, beginning with the Lockian ideal of the need to protect Life, Liberty and Estate, here drafted a year prior to George Mason's use of the concept in the Virginia Declaration of Rights and Jefferson's famous version "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness" found in the preamble of the Declaration of Independence. The text begins (bracketed words struck through): "When Government which has been formed and power wch has been delegated by the People for their Good is perverted from the Original Design and instead of protecting Life Liberty and Estate are employed to their destruction -- When the Parliament of Great Britain assumes and pertinaciously persists in exercising a Right of making Laws to bind the Colonies in all Cases whatsoever thereby taking from us our money without our Consent -- When dutifull [application] petition to the Throne and respectfull applications to the two Houses of Parliament have been repeatedly made and as repeatedly disregarded -- [When assemblies have been dissolved for no apparent cause but deliberating upon and taking the best method, to and transmit to posterity unimpaired our undoubted Rights and privileges.] -- When the Fences raised by our forefathers for the preservation of Life and property from the hand of violence have been thrown down by an extending of the powers of the courts of Admiralty Courts, and depriving the Subject of Tryal by Jury -- When Assemblys have been dissolved for no apparent Cause but asserting the Rights of the people and attempting to pursue such measures as were the most likely to secure them…" The next grievance refers to Virginia Royal Governor Lord Dunmore's threats to emancipate the slaves of Virginia who joined the British (which he would eventually proclaim on 7 November 1775) and his fleeing to a British war ship in the York River in June 1775: " When Government deprives the people of the means of defence and at the same time excites the Savage Nations to assail them on one side and with powerful Fleets and Armies invade them on the other and when the Governor of this Colony hath threatened if he is opposed in these measures he will emancipate our Slaves and endeavour the depopulation of the Country and hath removed himself from the Seat of Government on board a Ship of War under a pretence of danger without any just foundation for his Fears and continues on Board the Man of War to the great interruption of the Public Business…" The final grievance recalls the Battles of Lexington and Conco
Autograph manuscript, presumably a draft of a resolution written during the third Virginia Convention, outlining Virginia's grievances against the Crown and affirming their support for the Continental Congress' Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms.
Virginia: July or August 1775]. 1½ pp., both sides of a single sheet (230 x 185 mm). Cross-outs and corrections in the hand of the author. With an early ink inscription at the bottom of the second page identifying the author as Jones. Condition : small chip at one edge with losses to four words, browned. Provenance : William B. Sprague? (pencil annotation at the head of the document "Dr. Sprague" and "Mss Aut. - Revy"). virginia's grievances against the crown drafted by a well-known patriot: "what are a people to do -- either tamely to submit to Slavery or by determined opposition struggle for Freedom -- the last we prefer." Following the dissolution of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1774, a series of five political conventions were held by the colony as a revolutionary provisional government. The third such Convention met from July 17 to August 26, 1775, and Joseph Jones served as a representative from King George County. Jones (1727-1805) James Monroe's uncle, had served in the House of Burgesses, and would go on to serve in the Continental Congress. During the Conventions, he was selected as a member of the Virginia Committee of Safety and during the third Convention served on the committee which drafted "An ordinance for raising and embodying a sufficient force for the defense and protection of this colony." It seems likely that this manuscript was drafted at the time of the debates on that important ordinance. The text of this declaration presents seven grievances, beginning with the Lockian ideal of the need to protect Life, Liberty and Estate, here drafted a year prior to George Mason's use of the concept in the Virginia Declaration of Rights and Jefferson's famous version "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness" found in the preamble of the Declaration of Independence. The text begins (bracketed words struck through): "When Government which has been formed and power wch has been delegated by the People for their Good is perverted from the Original Design and instead of protecting Life Liberty and Estate are employed to their destruction -- When the Parliament of Great Britain assumes and pertinaciously persists in exercising a Right of making Laws to bind the Colonies in all Cases whatsoever thereby taking from us our money without our Consent -- When dutifull [application] petition to the Throne and respectfull applications to the two Houses of Parliament have been repeatedly made and as repeatedly disregarded -- [When assemblies have been dissolved for no apparent cause but deliberating upon and taking the best method, to and transmit to posterity unimpaired our undoubted Rights and privileges.] -- When the Fences raised by our forefathers for the preservation of Life and property from the hand of violence have been thrown down by an extending of the powers of the courts of Admiralty Courts, and depriving the Subject of Tryal by Jury -- When Assemblys have been dissolved for no apparent Cause but asserting the Rights of the people and attempting to pursue such measures as were the most likely to secure them…" The next grievance refers to Virginia Royal Governor Lord Dunmore's threats to emancipate the slaves of Virginia who joined the British (which he would eventually proclaim on 7 November 1775) and his fleeing to a British war ship in the York River in June 1775: " When Government deprives the people of the means of defence and at the same time excites the Savage Nations to assail them on one side and with powerful Fleets and Armies invade them on the other and when the Governor of this Colony hath threatened if he is opposed in these measures he will emancipate our Slaves and endeavour the depopulation of the Country and hath removed himself from the Seat of Government on board a Ship of War under a pretence of danger without any just foundation for his Fears and continues on Board the Man of War to the great interruption of the Public Business…" The final grievance recalls the Battles of Lexington and Conco
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