Meeting of the Freeholders and Inhabitants of Poughkeepsie Precinct

v1:702

At a Meeting of the Freeholders and Inhabitants of Poughkeepsie Precinct, in Dutchess County, in consequence of an advertisement of the Supervisor of said Precinct, on the 10th of August, 1774:

The question was put, "Whether we will choose a Committee agreeable to a request contained in a Letter from Mr˙ Isaac Low, Chairman of the Committee of Correspondence in New-York?"

Which was carried in the Negative.

The following Resolves were then unanimously entered into:

1st˙ Resolved, That although the members of this meeting (and they are persuaded the inhabitants of America in general) are firm and unshaken in their allegiance to his Majesty King George, and are entirely averse to breaking their connection with the mother country, yet they think it necessary to declare, that they agree fully in opinion with the many respectable bodies who have already published their sentiments, in declaring that the unlimited right claimed by the British Parliament, in which we neither are, or can be represented, of making laws of every kind to be binding on the Colonies, particularly of imposing taxes, whatever may be the name or form under which they are attempted to be introduced, is contrary to the spirit of the British Constitution, and consequently inconsistent with that liberty which we, as British subjects, have a right to claim, and, therefore,

2d˙ Resolved, That it is the opinion of this meeting that letters of Instruction be directed to the Members of the General Assembly for the County of Dutchess, desiring that at the next meeting of the General Assembly for the Province of New-York, they will lay before that honourable House the dangerous consequences flowing from several late Acts of the British Parliament imposing duties and taxes on the British Colonies in America, for the sole purpose of raising a revenue, and that they use their influence in the said House, and with the several branches of the Legislature, to lay before his Majesty an humble Petition and Remonstrance, setting forth the state of our several grievances, and praying his Royal interposition for a repeal of the said Acts.

3d˙ Resolved, That it is the opinion of this meeting, that they ought, and are willing to bear and pay such part and proportion of the national expenses as their circumstances will admit of, in such manner and form as the General Assembly of this Province shall think proper; and that like sentiments, adopted by the Legislatures of the other Colonies, will have a tendency to conciliate the affections of the mother country and the Colonies, upon which their mutual happiness, we conceive, principally depends.

v1:703

Ordered, That the Chairman of this meeting forward a copy of these our proceedings to the Chairman of the Committee of Correspondence in New-York, as also a copy to one of the Printers of the public papers in New-York, to be forthwith published.

By order of the Meeting.

JOHN DAVIS, Clerk.