Western Pennsylvania’s response to the battles at Lexington and Concord – the West Augusta and Hanna’s Town meetings

On May 16^th 1775, the Virginia inhabitants of the West Augusta District (that part of Western Pennsylvania which then was claimed by Virginia) met in Pittsburgh to discuss alarming news of the battles at Lexington and Concord, word of which had recently reached the frontier. A committee was formed consisting of twenty-eight men, including prominent local leaders such as George Croghan, John Gibson, William Crawford, and John Nevill, who drafted a set of resolutions to express support for the Massachusetts colony and to organize the West Augusta militia in order to oppose this threat to American freedom:

Resolved unanimously, That this Committee have the highest sense of the spirited behaviour of their brethren in New-England, and do most cordially approve of their opposing the invaders of American rights and privileges to the utmost extreme, and that each member of this Committee, respectively, will animate and encourage their neighbourhood to follow the brave example.

The imminent danger that threatens America in general, from Ministerial and Parliamentary denunciations of our ruin, and is now carrying into execution by open acts of unprovoked hostilities in our sister Colony of Massachusetts, as well as the danger to be apprehended to this Colony in particular from a domestick enemy, … added to the menaces of an Indian war, likewise said to be in contemplation, thereby thinking to engage our attention, and divert it from that still more interesting object of liberty and freedom, that deeply, and with so much justice, hath called forth the attention of all America; for the prevention of all, or any of those impending evils, it is

Resolved, That the recommendation of the Richmond Convention, of the 20th of last March, relative to the embodying, arming, and disciplining the Militia, be immediately carried into execution with the greatest diligence in this County, by the officers appointed for that end; ... to collect from their constituents, … so much money as shall be sufficient to purchase half a pound of gunpowder, and one pound of lead, flints, and cartridge paper, for every tithable person in their County, be likewise carried into execution.  …

The committee also chose a seven-man standing committee who were directed to acquire arms and ammunition:

 

Ordered, That the Standing Committee be directed to secure such Arms and Ammunition as are not employed in actual service, or private property, and that they get the same repaired, and deliver them to such Captains of Independent Companies as may make application for the same, and taking such Captain' s receipt for the arms so delivered. …

For the complete resolutions of the meeting, see American Archives, Series 4, Volume 2, pp. 612-614: https://digital.lib.niu.edu/islandora/object/niu-amarch%3A80211

Likewise, on the same day, the Pennsylvanians of Westmoreland County met at Hanna’s Town to also draft a set of resolutions expressing support for Massachusetts and for organizing the Westmoreland militia. In the resolutions, they held the British Parliament responsible for recent events and reaffirmed their loyalty to the King.  These resolutions became known as the Hanna’s Town Resolves:

Resolved unanimously, That the Parliament of Great Britain, by several late acts, have declared the inhabitants of Massachusetts Bay to be in Rebellion, and the ministry, by endeavoring to enforce those acts, have attempted to reduce the said inhabitants to a more wretched state of slavery than ever before existed in any state or country. Not content with violating their constitutional and chartered privileges, they would strip them of the rights of humanity, exposing lives to the wanton and unpunishable sport of licentious soldiery, and depriving them of the very means of subsistence.

Resolved unanimously, That there is no reason to doubt that the same system of tyranny and oppression will (should it meet with success in Massachusetts Bay) be extended to every other part of America: It is therefore become the indispensable duty of every American, of every man who has any public virtue or love for his country, or any bowels for posterity, by every means which God has put in his power, to resist and oppose the execution of it; that for us we will be ready to oppose it with our lives and fortunes. And the better to enable us to accomplish it, we will immediately form ourselves into a military body, to consist of companies to be made up out of the several townships under the following association, which is declared to be the Association of Westmoreland County.

Possessed with the most unshaken loyalty and fidelity to His Majesty, King George the Third, whom we acknowledge to be our lawful and rightful King, and who we wish may long be the beloved sovereign of a free and happy people throughout the whole British Empire; we declare to the world, that we do not mean by this Association to deviate from that loyalty which we hold in our bounded duty to observe, but, animated with the love of liberty, it is no less our duty to maintain and defend our just rights (which, with sorrow, we have seen of late wantonly violated in many instances by a wicked Ministry and a corrupted Parliament) and transmit them to our posterity, for purpose which we do agree and associate together:”

1st. To arm and form ourselves into a regiment or regiments, and choose officers to command us in such proportions as shall be thought necessary. …

For the complete Hanna’s Town Resolves, see this article from the Westmoreland Historical Society: https://westmorelandhistory.org/history-of-the-hannas-town-resolves/