Meeting of the Freeholders and Inhabitants of the County of Chester, Pennsylvania

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At a Meeting of a respectable body of the Freeholders, inhabitants of the County of Chester, on Saturday, the 18th of June, 1774, the following Resolutions were deliberately and unanimously agreed on, viz:

1. That it is an absolute right, Inherent in every English subject, to have the free use, enjoyment, and disposal of all his property either by himself or Representatives; and that no other power on earth can legally divest him of it.

2. That we apprehend the Act of Parliament for shutting up the port of Boston, (until his Majesty' s duties be duly collected, &c˙,) is highly arbitrary and oppressive to the inhabitants of that town, and in its consequences may endanger the liberties of all the British Colonies in America.

3. That the two Bills mentioned in the last advices from London to be passing in Parliament, one changing the chartered Constitution of the Province of Massachu setts Bay into a military Government, and the other empowering the Governour, or Lieutenant Governour to send any person or persons to England to be tried for actions committed in that Colony, are subversive of every idea of liberty, and serve as a prelude to the fate of each chartered British Colony on this Continent.

4. That a Congress of Deputies from the said Colonies is the most probable and proper mode of procuring relief for our suffering brethren; obtaining redress, and preserving our natural rights and liberties, and the establishing peace and mutual confidence between the mother country and her Colonies on a constitutional foundation.

5. That we will concur and join with our brethren of the City and County of Philadelphia in desiring the Speaker of the honourable House of Representatives of this Province, to write to the several members of Assembly, requesting them to meet in the City of Philadelphia on any day not later than the first of August next, to take into their serious consideration our very alarming situation; to appoint Deputies to attend at a general Congress for the Colonies, at such time and place as shall be agreed on.

As the notice of this meeting was but short; it is agreed that a general meeting be fixed on Saturday, the 25th instant, at the dwelling house of Jacob James, at the sign of the Turk' s Head, in Goshen, at one o' clock, P˙ M˙, in order to choose a Committee of Correspondence, and to resolve on such other modes or propositions as may be most likely to attain redress of those grievances that the Colonies now groan under; at which time and place all those who are entitled to vote for members of Assembly, and wish well to their posterity and American liberty, are requested to attend, and give their advice on this alarming crisis.