On May 31, 1775, the county of Mecklenburg, North Carolina signed 20 resolutions or “Resolves.” They start by saying that a recent address by Parliament had stated that “the American Colonies are declared to be in an actual State of rebellion.”
Whereas by an Address presented to his Majesty by both Houses of Parliament in February last, the American Colonies are declared to be in a State of actual Rebelion, we conceive that all Laws and Commissions confirmed by, or derived from the Authority of the King or Parliament, are annulled and vacated, and the former civil Constitution of these Colinies for the present wholly suspended. To provide in some Degree for the Exigencies of the County in the present alarming Period, we deem it proper and necessary to pass the following Resolves . . . .
The Resolves called on all the American colonies to start their own governments. And it laid out just how the county of Mecklenburg would be run in the absence of the British. (For a complete copy of the Resolves see the Avalon Project of the Lillian Goldman Law Library at Yale.)
The Resolves identified the county itself as the legislative and executive branch. It set up a military organization and identified a plan to appoint judges and constables (two each for the county). It directed that all taxes go to the committee authorizing the resolves for safekeeping and usage.
The committee did not write off all hope of reconciliation. They intended this outline to be the new government of the colonies unless “the legislative Body of Great-Britain resign its unjust and arbitrary Pretentions with respect to America.”
The Resolves are sometimes confused with the Mecklenburg Declaration. Doubt is rife about the authenticity of the Mecklenburg Declaration, but not of the Resolves. The Declaration, supposedly signed on May 20, 1775 (11 days before the Resolves) by the same county delegates, resonate with words like independence, rights, and liberties.
In contrast, the Mecklenburg Resolves were statements laying out a practical plan for the difficult days that lay ahead. They were one of the very first statements calling on the fellow colonists to start their own governments, and taking concrete steps to put their county on a wartime footing. They left open the possibility that Parliament would “resign its unjust and arbitrary Pretentions with respect to America,” but, as we know, that dicd not happen.