History
Preface:
When the territory, which included what is now the County of Wythe (Virginia), began to be settled, the region claimed by Virginia west of the Blue Ridge was in the bounds of Augusta County. After twenty-five years of settlement in the Great Valley and its western extensions, the section west of present Lexington, Virginia was formed in 1770 into a new county called Botetourt, and in only two years all that part of the county lying west of the waters of the Roanoke and New River was constituted as a new county known as Fincastle, with the Lead Mines, near Austinville in present Wythe County desginated as the seat of Justice. It was here the Fincastle Resolutions were written.
The Background of the Resolutions:
These ringing pre-Revolutionary words of defiance leading up to American independence didn't come out of Philadelphia in 1776. They were voiced and written by the hardy pioneers of southwest Virginia meeting at the Lead Mines in January 1775. They came from the Fincastle resolutions, one of the forerunners of the more famous Declaration of Independence agreed to by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.
The French and Indian Wars had ended, but troubles with England began to really boil throughout the Colonies in 1774 and 1775. The British government was forcing the issue of whether the colonies should become sovereign, independent governments or be compelled to remain as dependencies of Great Britain.
In March 1774, the British Parliament passed the Boston Port Bill blocking off all shipping to and from Boston, a retaliatory measure to punish the people of Boston for their famous "Tea Party." The bill threatened the ports of all the colonies with similar embargo, if they followed Boston's example of resistance to the notorious Tea Tax.
When news of the Port Bill reached Williamsburg, the Virginia House of Burgesses went on record with a vigorous protest against the outrageous measure. This so provoked the Royal Governor, Lord Dunmore, that he dissolved the assembly and ordered them to return home.
In spite of these actions, the Virginia legislators met in the Raleigh Tavern and drafted messages to all other colonies. They recommended cessation of trade with the East India Company, a special congress of deputies from all the colonies, and a special convention of the people of Virginia.
The Virginians met in Williamsburg again on August 1, 1774, and the Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia in September. The delegates, representing all the colonies, passed some strong and defiant resolutions condemning excessive taxation, the Port Bill embargo and the disolving of colonial legislative bodies by the Royal Governors.
Historians say that nowhere had the thought of independence and democracy taken deeper root than with the brave and hardy pioneers of the Virginia mountain country. Among the first to act upon the suggestions of the Continental Congress were the men of old Fincastle County. A meeting was held at the Lead Mines in January, 1775, to consider the resolutions and articles of association adopted by the Continental Congress.
The first step taken at the meeting was a selection of a Committee of Safety, and the further proceedings which follow which was reported from the Minutes of the meeting:
The Resolutions
In obedience to the resolves of the Continental Congress, a meeting of the Freeholders of Fincastle County, in Virginia, was held on the 20th day of January 1775, who after approving of the Association framed by that august body in behalf of the Colonies, and subscribing thereto, proceeded to the election of a Committee to see the same carried punctually into execution, when the following gentlemen were nominated: The Reverent Charles Cummings, Colonel William Preston, Colonel William Christian, Captain Stephen Trigg, Major Arthur Campbell, Major William Ingles, Captain Walter Crockett, Captain John Montgomery, Captain James McGavock, Captain William Campbell, Captain Thomas Madison, Captain Daniel Smith, Captain William Russell, Captain Evan Shelby, and Lieutenant William Edmonsdon. After the election the committee made the choice of Colonel William Christian for their chairman and appointed Mr. David Campbell to the clerk.
It was also by the meeting that an address expressing the thanks and congratulations of the people of Fincastle County by prepared and sent to the citizens who had represented Virginia at the recent session of the Continental Congress. The address was promptly written and addressed to following:
To the honorable Peyton Randolph Esquire, Richard Henry Lee, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Junior, Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison, and Edmund Pendleton, Esquires, the Delegates from the Colony who attended the Continental Congress at Philadelphia:
Gentlemen, - Had it not been for our remote situation and the Indian War which we were lately engaged in to chastise those cruel and savage people for the many murders and depredations they have committed against us, now happily terminated under the auspices of our present worthy Governor, His Excellency, the Right Honorable Earl of Dunmore, we would before this time have made known to you our thankfulness for the very important service you have rendered to your country, in conjunction with the worthy Delegates from the other Provinces. Your noble efforts for reconciling the mother country and the Colonies, on rational and constitutional principles, and your pacifick, steady and uniform conduct in that ardous work entitle you the esteem of all British America, and will immortalize you int he annals of your country. We heartily concur in your resolutions, and shall, in every instance, strictly and invariably adhere thereto.
"We assure you, gentlemen, and all our countrymen, that we are a people whose hearts overflow with love and duty to our lawful Sovereign, George the Third, whose illustrious House for several successive reigns have been both the guardians of the civil and religous rights and liberties of British subjects, as settled at the glorious revolution: that we are willing to risk our lives in the service of his Majesty for support of the Protestant Religion and their rights and liberties of his subjects, as they have been established by the compact, law and ancient charters. We are heartily grieved at the differences which now subsist between the parent state and the Colonies and most ardently wish to see harmony restored on an equitable basis and by the most lenient measures that can be devised by the heart of man. Many of us and our forefathers left our native land, considering it as a kingdom subjected to inordinate power and greatly abridged of its liberties; we crossed the Atlantic and explored this uncultivated wilderness bordering on many nations of savages and surrounded by mountains almost inaccessible to any but those very savages who have incessantly been committing barbarities and depredations on us since our first seating in the country. These fatigues and dangers we patiently encountered, supported by the pleasing hope of enjoying those rights and liberties which had been granted to Virginians, and were denied in our native country, and of transmitting them inviolate to our posterity: but even to these remote regions the hand of unlimited and unconstitutional power hath pursued us to strip us of that liberty and property which God, nature and rights of humanity have vested us. We are ready and willing to contribute all in our power for the support his Majesty's government, if applied to constituionally, and when the grants are made by our own Represenatives, but cannot think of submitting our liberty or property to the power of a venat British parliament or to the will of a corrupt Ministry. We by no means desire to shake off our duty or allegiance to our lawful sovereign, but, on the contrary, shall ever glory in being the loyal subjects of a Protestant prince, descended from such illustrious progenitors, so long as we can enjoy the free exercise of our religion as Protestants, and our liberties and properties as British subjects.
But if no pacifick measures shall be proposed or adopted by Great Britain, and our enemies will attempt to dragoon us out of these inestimable privileges, which we are entitled to as subjects, and to reduce us to a state of slavery, we declare that we are deliberately and resolutely determined to never to surrender them to any power upon earth but at the expense of our lives.
These are real, though unpolished, sentiments of liberty and loyalty, and in them we are resolved to live or die.
We are gentlemen, with the most perfect esteem and regard, your most obedient servants."