Books and Manuscripts

A week before adopting the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress defines treason

(Philadelphia, ca. June 24, 1776). One sheet, 8 x 6 3/8 in. (203 x 162 mm). Contemporary manuscript resolution in a secretarial hand, signed by Secretary of the Continental Congress, Charles Thomson, certifying it as an official copy of an extract from the minutes of the Continental Congress record, and pertaining to the definition of treason. Creasing from old folds, some separations along same; integral leaf separated and lacking; scattered edge-wear, repairs to same.

"In congress 24 June, 1776

Resolved, that all persons abiding within any of the united colonies, and deriving protection from the laws of the same owe allegiance to the said laws, and are members of such colony; and that all persons passing through visiting, or make a temporary stay in any of the said colonies, being intitled to the protection of the laws during the time of such passage, visitation, or temporary stay, owe during the same time allegiance thereto.

That all persons members of or owing allegiance to any of the united colonies as before described who shall levy war against any of the said colonies within the same or be adherent to the king of Great Britain or others the enemies of the said colonies or any of them within the same giving to him or them aid and comfort are guilty of treason against such colony.

That it be recommended to the legislatures of the several united colonies to pass laws for punishing in such manner as to them shall seem fit such persons before described as shall be provably attainted of open deed by people of their condition of any of the treasons before described.

Extract from the minutes,

Chas Thomson secy"

As the conflict with Great Britain reached a critical phase in the late spring and early summer of 1776, a week before the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress approved a resolution defining treason against the "United Colonies".

On May 25 a large committee, including John Adams of Massachusetts, as well as Richard Henry Lee and Benjamin Harrison of Virginia, was appointed to confer with the Continental Army's military leaders, General George Washington, Horatio Gates, and Thomas Mifflin, to organize a plan for the next military campaign. The committee convened on May 30, and by June 5, they recommended to Congress the following: "That a committee of five be appointed to consider what is proper to be done with persons giving intelligence to the enemy, or supplying them with provisions." The resolution was adopted by Congress, and a committee comprising, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Rutledge of South Carolina, Robert L. Livingston of New York, and James Wilson of Pennsylvania, was appointed and convened, starting on June 17. Called the Committee on Spies in the congressional record, they drafted two resolutions, one defining treason (the above), as well as a shorter second one concerning counterfeiting. The first resolution was significant in its implications, and as Adams's grandson, Charles Francis Adams, recognized in his The Works of John Adams, Vol. 1: The Life of John Adams (Boston, 1856): "Under the semblance of a provision against spies and informers, here was a clear attribution of all the rights of absolute sovereignty which had belonged only to George the Third, to the new and self-constituted American people. These resolutions drew a sharp line between all persons who should and all who should not recognize this new authority, subjecting the latter class, whether natives or strangers temporarily present, to the penalties of treason in case they were found adhering to the British king, or to any person abetting his cause. No chance was left open for the profession of neutrality, for even that was assumed to imply citizenship, and therefore to be embraced within the new jurisdiction. The effect of such a stroke upon all those persons, and they were not a few in the middle colonies, who were inclined to persevere in keeping out of the Union, is obvious. It made them aliens and strangers, and subjected their action to rigid supervision. Thus many were thought likely to become far better reconciled to an immediate declaration of independence, when it had been made clear that no equivocal position could be longer maintained by pushing it off."

Espionage within the ranks of the Patriot army and amongst the civilian population in the American colonies was a persistent threat to the success of American forces for the duration of the Revolution. Spy rings abounded, and the means to uncover and intercept acts of espionage formed a crucial shadow war conducted by both the British and the Americans. In mid- to late-1775 Congress established secret committees to foster foreign alliances as well as to conduct covert operations abroad and at home to further the war effort. Espionage was a major concern for George Washington, and he recognized that intelligence gathering and counterintelligence operations were crucial to the Patriot's ultimate success. The previous summer's episode involving Surgeon General and Patriot-turned-British collaborator Benjamin Church, who likely fed information to British General Thomas Gage, had taught Washington that even the most vocal sympathizers of the American cause could also work both sides of the conflict. As the nation's first spymaster, Washington was likely the voice urging the formation of the Committee on Spies. By the summer of 1776, the means to properly deal with soldiers or citizens caught spying was not completely defined under the current Articles of War. Parliamentary statutes at the time defined treason as disloyalty to the King, and as the Americans were waging a rebellion against him, they were considered the treasonous offenders. This gray area obviously needed a solution, and language drafted, to handle this problem. This resolve, as well as another act passed by Congress later in August, gave Washington the power he needed to prosecute spies. The day following the passage of this resolution, on June 25, President of Congress John Hancock sent letters concerning the resolves to each colony as well as to Washington.

Rare. We are unable to locate any contemporary manuscript copies of this resolution.