Declaration Project

Editor’s Note: The picture of brevity, this declaration by the inhabitants of the town of Murrayfield, in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, makes clear that they cast their lot “to a man, to be declared an independent State,” whenever the Second Continental Congress deems it best to do so.

 

Murrayfield, Hampshire County, Massachusetts Declaration to Become an Independent State

June 17, 1776

At a legal meeting of the inhabitants of the Town of Murrayfield, regularly assembled, on the third article in the warrant with regard to Independency from Great Britain:

Voted, (in a nearly full meeting,) That, under the present circumstances of the Thirteen United Colonies, and the treatment of Great Britain towards America, we view it necessary, and are willing, to a man, to be declared an independent State, whenever the honourable Continental Congress shall judge best.

Source: American Archives, A Documentary History of the English Colonies of North America, Vol. 6, Fourth Series, Peter Force, ed., Washington, D.C.: M. St. Claire Clark and Peter Force, 1846, pp. 702-3.

Image source:

http://dionneford.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/800px-BattleofLongisland-1.jpg

Recommended Reading:  American Scripture: The Making of the Declaration of Independence, Pauline Maier, New York: Knopf, 1997