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America’s First Constitutions and Declarations of Rights
Broadside Issued by Governor Dunmore of Virginia
against Patrick Henry, 1775.
When the Governor seized a large store of gunpowder in Williamsburg to prevent a
rebellion, Henry and his followers marched on the capital and successfully demanded
its return. Dunmore proclaimed Henry an outlaw, but was forced to flee a month later
when Royal government collapsed in Virginia. (Courtesy of the Library of Congress.)
the troops at Cambridge. The Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of
Taking up Arms of July 6, 1775, is the product of that committee.
Although probably all of the members of the Second Continental Congress were agreed that military resistance against Great Britain was necessary for the protection of American rights, they were far from unanimous with respect to the ends sought. One group of delegates, led by
John Dickinson, favored reconciliation, still hoping that the Americans
might remain in the British Empire. There were others, however, who