Meeting of Committee at Broad Creek, Delaware

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The new County proposed in the Delaware Government not having yet obtained Representatives in Assembly, have elected a very large Committee of respectable persons to transact all their affairs, to preserve the peace and a constitutional regard to the Sovereign, and to defend and secure the natural, civil, chartered, and sacred rights of the people. This Committee, at a meeting at Broad Creek, June 20, 1775, fifty members being present, came to the following determinations, among many others:

That this Assembly, taking into serious consideration the present distressed situation and unparalleled hardships that our brethren at Boston are now suffering in consequence of their determined resolution to support the great cause of liberty, conceive ourselves, and all American freemen, to be bound by all the principles of humanity and justice to prevent them, if possible, from sinking under the hand of ministerial oppression.

That though we had not a legal representation, in the Assembly of the three lower Counties on Delaware when they were elected to represent us, yet confiding in the known wisdom, prudence, and abilities of Caesar Rodney, Thomas McKean, and George Read, Esquires, whom our brethren of Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex, have appointed to represent them in the honourable Continental Congress, now sitting at Philadelphia, we hereby do bind ourselves and our constituents, by every thing that is sacred, collectively and separately, to preserve and strictly enforce and carry into execution whatever measures have or may be recommended by them for the relief of our said brethren, and for the preservation of the liberties of America, with as much cheerfulness and zeal as though they had been appointed by us.

And we resolve that any artful or designing person or persons whatsoever, that shall attempt to defeat the purpose of this Association, shall be faithfully painted in their proper colours, and be hung up in the publick prints, or be otherwise stigmatized, and bear that load of odium that such miscreants justly merit.

And further to support the union of the Colonies, on which, under God, our safety depends, we unanimously Resolve, That John Dagworthy, John Jones, John Tennant, John Collins, Simon Kollock, William Holland, Samuel Slosse, Joshua Polk, Clement Bayley, William Polk, John Mitchcll, Peter Hubbard, and Elijah Cannon be, and they are hereby appointed a Committee, to meet and correspond with the other Committees of this and the other Governments, and that any seven of them may act.

And whereas disadvantageous conclusions may probably be drawn from the conduct of the people here, with respect to their entering into this Association at this late period, this Committee does with pleasure embrace this opportunity to satisfy our fellow-subjects in general, that our backwardness in this affair has been totally and wholly owing to the fluctuating or unsettled state of the lines OR boundaries between the two Governments of Pennsylvania and Maryland, and not from the influence of any Tories among us, or any disregard to the common cause. But as these lines are now happily established, we hope to evince to the world that we have as proper a sense, and as

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A true extract from the Minutes:

SIMON KOLLOCK, Clerk.

Head of Indian River, June 23, 1775.

N˙ B˙ In this new County military preparations for self-defence against the bloody attacks of the infatuated British Ministry are carried on with great spirit. It is expected we shall soon have fifteen hundred or more of a well trained militia; and the Committee are endeavouring to obtain the necessary supplies of warlike stores.