Berks County Resolves, 1774

At a meeting of a very respectable body of freeholders and others, inhabitants of the county of Berks, at Reading, the 2d of July, 1774, Edward Biddle, Esq., in the chair.

This assembly, taking into their very serious consideration the present critical situation of American affairs, do unanimously resolve as follows, viz:

1. That the inhabitants of this county do owe, and will pay due allegiance to our rightful Sovereign, King George the Third.
2. That the powers claimed, and now attempted to be put into execution by the British Parliament, are fundamentally wrong and cannot be admitted wihout the utter destruction of the liberties of America.
3. That the Boston Port Bill is unjust and tyrannical in the extreme, and that the measures pursued against Boston are intended to operate equally against the rights and liberties of the other colonies.
4. That this assembly doth concur in opinion with their respective brethren of Philadelphia, that there is an absolute necessity for an immediate congress of the deputies of the several colonies in order to deliberate upon and pursue such measures as may radically heal our present unhappy disturbances, and settle with precision the rights and liberties of America.
5. That the inhabitants of this county, confiding in the prudence and ability of the deputies intended to be chosen for the general congress will cheerfully submit to any measures which may be found by the said congress best adapted for the restoration of harmony between the mother-country and the colonies, and for the security and firm establishment of the rights of America.
6. That as the people of Boston are now suffering in the grand and common cause of American liberty;

Resolved, That it is the duty of all inhabitants to contribute to the support of the said sufferers, and that the committee hereafter named do open subscriptions for their relief. And further, that the said committee do lay out the amount of such subscription in purchasing flour and other provisions to be sent by them to our suffering brethren.

7. That Edward Biddle, James Reed, Daniel Brodhead, Henry Christ, Esqs., Christopher Schultz, Thomas Dundas and Jonathan Potts, gentlemen, be, and they are hereby appointed a committee to meet and correspond with the committees from the other counties of the Province.

Source: Pennsylvania in the War of the Revolution, Associated Battalions and Militia, 1775-1783. Pennsylvania Archives, Series 2, Volume XIV, William H. Egle, ed., Harrisburg: E.K. Meyers, State Printer, 1888, pp. 306-307.

Submitted by: Nancy.