Fairfax County Resolves

Fairfax County Resolves. Precursors to Independence. , Resolved that the most important and valuable Part of the British Constitution, upon which it's very Existence depends, is the fundamental Principle of the People's being governed by no Laws, to which they have not given their Consent, by Representatives freely chosen by themselves; who are affected by the Laws they enact equally with their Constituents to whom they are accountable, and whose Burthens they share... , Resolution Number Two, Directly across the street from where you stand, radical and influential ideologies forged a path to revolution. The Fairfax County Resolves, written primarily by George Mason, were issued at the former Fairfax County Courthouse on July 18, 1774, and were the precursors to what ultimately became the Declaration of Independence. Well-known Alexandrians including George Washington, John Carlyle, and Charles Alexander supported the "Resolves," or grievances, which objected to the Coercive Acts of 1774. The Resolves declared that the colonies had the right to govern their own affairs and that Parliament could not tax them without their consent. It went further than the Resolves of other counties when it called for the colonies to unite and permanently abolish the slave trade, arguing this practice was forced on them by Britain as a way to keep the colonies dependent on the British Empire. The Resolves reflected Mason's prioritization of individual liberties, which later resulted in his refusal to sign the Constitution and the creation of the Bill of Rights. While the writers of the Resolves only intended for those individual rights to apply to people like themselves, later generations used their words and ideas to demand those rights for all citizens., Captions , The signing of the Fairfax County Resolves was recreated during the Bicentennial celebrations in 1974. It was held at Gadsby's Tavern Museum and was one of the many activities organized in Alexandria. , Courtesy City of Alexandria, Office of Historic Alexandria, The Fairfax County Resolves were signed by 25 men who owned land within the county. While other counties wrote earlier Resolves, the Fairfax County Resolves set the template for the First Continental Congress' language when it convened in September of 1774 in its dealings with the British Parliament. , Courtesy Library of Congress