CHAPTER 839
STATE OF DELAWARE
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT
DOVER
PROCLAMATION
WHEREAS, on December 16, 1773, patriots in the City of Boston in the Colony of Massachusetts did destroy a shipment of British tea docked in the Boston Harbor in protest of the British law requiring taxation of tea imported by the American Colonies; and
WHEREAS, on March 31, 1774, King George III approved the Boston Port Bill, passed by the British House of Commons, which closed the Port of Boston in retaliation for this Boston Tea Party; and
WHEREAS, during the summer of 1774, mass meetings were held in the Counties of New Castle, Kent and Sussex for the purpose of urging Caesar Rodney, the Speaker of the General Assembly of the House of Representatives of the Governments of the Counties of New Castle, Kent and Sussex upon Delaware, to call a special session of these eighteen representatives with the mission of appointing delegates to the First Continental Congress to begin in Philadelphia on September 5, 1774; and
WHEREAS, a Convention of the Representatives of the Freemen of the Governments of the Counties of New Castle, Kent and Sussex on Delaware did indeed meet on August 1, 1774, in the town of New Castle and did appoint Caesar Rodney, Thomas McKean and George Read to serve as delegates to the First Continental Congress representing the three counties on Delaware; and
WHEREAS, on August 2, 1774, these representatives meeting in defiance of the British Governor, John Penn, did pass instructions to Delaware's three delegates including the instruction to urge the Continental Congress to petition King George III for redress of grievances, while at the same time embargoing all British trade in protest of the Boston Port Bill; and
WHEREAS, Delaware's three delegates did attend the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia beginning on September 5, 1774, and did represent the people of the Colony of Delaware at this historic meeting; and
WHEREAS, beginning on September 5, 1974, the Governors of the thirteen original states will celebrate the Bicentennial of the First Continental Congress with a reenactment of this historical event; and
WHEREAS, each of these Governors will lead a delegation of four representatives from each of the thirteen original states to this new Continental Congress to be held at Carpenters Hall in Philadelphia;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, Sherman W. Tribbitt, by virtue of the authority vested in me as Governor of the State of Delaware during this Bicentennial celebration, do hereby proclaim the delegates accompanying me to the reenactment of the First Continental Congress, representing the three counties on Delaware, to be the Honorable J. Caleb Boggs, the Honorable J. Allen Frear, and the Honorable Elbert N. Carvel.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I, SHERMAN W. TRIBBITT, Governor of the State of Delaware, have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the said State to be hereunto affixed at Dover this 22nd day of August
(GREAT SEAL) in the year of our Lord, one thousand nine hundred and seventy-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the one hundred and ninety-ninth.
SHERMAN W. TRIBBITT, Governor
Attest: ROBERT H. REED, Secretary of State