Draft of the Newton Resolves, 1773-1774

This manuscript document may have served as the rough draft of the "Newton Resolves," adopted by the town of Newton, Massachusetts on January 6, 1774, following the Boston Tea Party, which took place on December 16, 1773.

This document appears to have been written after December 16, 1773 as the text makes reference to the Boston Tea Party ("this town do approve of the opposition to the Landing [of] the East India Company's teas made by the people of Boston and other towns...and that who ever obstructed and frustrated these rational and laudable efforts reduce the people to the necessity of either destroying the property of the East India Company or suffer that to be the means of Riviting their slavery..."

The text also references the Tea Act of 1773: "Resolved that the acts of Parliament made in the last session impowering the East India Company to ship their teas to america subject to a Duty for the purpose of raising a Revenue appears to have been designed to confirm and establish the greivance the americans have so long and justly complained of..."

This document was in the Hammond family of Newton for many years, among papers pertaining to John Hammond. It carries the date April 13, 1772 on reverse, among what appear to be accounting figures.