The Movement Toward Independence
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American grievances were redressed. To enforce the ban on all commerce
with the mother country, the Congress established a continental association of local communities; but a proposal to establish a central government of united colonies was rejected.
The Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress reveals
the state of political thought of American colonial leaders at this stage of
their quest for liberty. The Declaration was the product of the ‘‘Committee
for States Rights, Grievances and Means of Redress’’ that was appointed
on September 7, 1774, ‘‘to state the rights of the colonies in general, the
several instances in which these rights are violated or infringed, and the
means most proper to be pursued for obtaining a restoration of them.’’
The committee consisted of two delegates from each colony (except Georgia), and included Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, John Jay of New York,
John Rutledge of South Carolina, Edmund Pendleton of Virginia, William
Livingston of New York, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Joseph Galloway
of Pennsylvania, and the two Adamses from Massachusetts.
A conciliatory tone of loyalty to the Crown, reflecting the conservatism of these reluctant rebels, pervades the document, despite the gravity
of the charges it contains. Above all, the Declaration is a rudimentary
statement of conflicting theories about the origin and nature of American
freedom. In a single breath, the delegates affirmed their natural rights as
men, their prescriptive rights as Englishmen, and their chartered rights
as Americans. Thus they declared that, ‘‘by the immutable laws of nature, the principles of the English Constitution, and the several charters,’’
the American people were ‘‘entitled to life, liberty and property . . . all
the rights, liberties, and immunities of free and natural born subjects
within the realm of England . . . [and] to the common law of England.’’
These sweeping assertions, it must be emphasized, are more the resu