The Sudbury Tea Party Resolves

At the meeting on January 10th, 1774, the resolves were very verbose version of these:

1) No taxation without representation

2) That the British Parliament laying a Duty on Tea is an unjust Taxation

3) That we will lend all the aid and Assistance in our Power to the Town of Boston

4) That the Persons appointed by the East India Company have manifested wickedness

5) That who sells, buys, or uses Tea shall be deemed by us, Enemies to their Country's Welfare

PDF with images of Town Records & Transcriptions

Note that the meeting is held in the West Side Meetinghouse, located in the modern Sudbury Town Center.

Warrant of December 20th, 1773

These Order you to warn all the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of and belonging to Sudbury, (in your Ward) Qualified to Vote in Town Affairs, to meet at the West Meeting House in Sudbury on Monday the third Day of January Next, at one of the Clock in the after Noon on said Day, then and there

1st - To See if the Town wi1l take into consideration the Papers sent to them, by the Town of Boston Relating to the Tea - sent to this Province, by the East India Company, subject to a Duty, or do or Act on said Affair, as the Town shaLl think proper when met

(This version skips the rest of the warrant, the January 3rd meeting which selected a committee to make a report at a meeting a week later)

Report to the Town Meeting on January 10th, 1774

The Town being met According to the aforesaid adjournment Proceeded.

The Committee appointed by the Town to take into consideration the affair relating to the Tea, sent here by the East India Company Reported as follows viz:

Taking into Consideration, the late Conduct of Administration; together with an Act of Parliament, enabling the East India Company, to export their Teas into America, Free of all Duties & Customs in England, but liable to the Rules, Customs, Regulations, & Penalties in America; as are provided by the revenue Act; We are justly Alarmed, at this Detestable Craft and Policy, of the Ministry; to deprive us of our American Liberties, Transmitted to us by our Worthy Ancestors, at no less expense, than that of their Blood and Treasure. That price our Renowned Forefathers freely paid, that they might transmit those Glorious Liberties as a free, full, and fair Inheritance to Posterity; which Liberties, through the Indulgent Smiles of Heaven, We have Possessed in peace and Quietness, till within a few years Past (Excepting in the Reign of the Detestable Stuarts) but now Behold! the pleasing scene is changed, the British Ministry, Assisted by the Inveterate Enemies to American Liberty, on this as well as on the other side of the Atlantick; Combining together to Rob us of our dear Bought freedom; have Brought us to this sad Dilemma, either to Resolve like Men in defence of our just Rights and Liberties or sink under the weight of their Arbitrary and unconstitutional measures, into a State of abject Slavery. - Therefore as Freeborn Americans, Entitled to all the immunities, Liberties and Privileges of Freeborn English Men; we look upon our Selves under the Strongest obligations to use our utmost Exertions in defence of our just Rights, in every constitutional Method within our Power Even though the Cost of the defence should equal that of the Purchase.

Therefore Resolved

1st - That we are Entitled to all the Privileges of British subjects we have an undoubted and exclusive Right to Grant our own monies for the support of Government and that no Power on Earth has a right to Tax or make Laws, binding us, without our consent.

2nd - That the British Parliament laying a Duty on Tea, Payable in America for the express purpose of Raising a Revenue, is in our Opinion an unjust Taxation, and that the Specious method of permitting the East India company to export their Teas, into the colonies has a direct tendency to rivet the chains of Slavery upon us.

3rd - That we will lend all the aid and Assistance in our Power, in every Rational method, to hinder the importations of Teas; so long as it is subject to a Duty; and that this Town are well pleased with and highly approve of that Resolution in particular, entered into by the Town of Boston viz: that they will not Suffer any Tea to be imported into that Town while subject to an unrighteous Duty; and it is the desire and expectation of this Town that said resolution be not relaxed in any Degree; which if it should it would much lessen that confidence (which we hope we may justly say) we have reason to place in that respectable Metropolis -

4th - That the Persons appointed by the East India Company to receive and vend their Teas (by their obstinate refusal to resign their odious Commission) Have shown a ready disposition to become the Tools of our Enemies, to oppress and enslave their Native Country and have manifested such Stupidity and wickedness, to prefer private Interest, to the good of their Country, and therefore can expect no favor or respect from us; but we leave then to accumulate a load of Infamy, proportionate to their Vileness.

5th - That whosoever shall sell, Buy, or otherwise use Tea, while subject to and poisoned with a Duty, shall be deemed by us, Enemies to their Country's Welfare; and shall be treated by us as Such.

Thomas Plympton, Ezekiel How, John Maynard, Sarson Belcher, Phinehas Glezen, Josiah Langdon

The Town by their Vote Ordered the foregoing resolves to be recorded in the Town Book, and a Copy of the same to be forwarded to the Committee of Correspondence, at Boston, with our sincere thanks to that respectable Town, for their Manly Opposition, to every Ministerial Measure to enslave America