SUFFOLK RESOLVES

(Sept. 9, 1774), in U.S. colonial history, most famous of many meetings vigorously protesting the Intolerable Acts enacted by the British Parliament the same year. Because representative provincial government had been dissolved in Massachusetts, delegates from Boston and neighbouring towns in Suffolk county met at Dedham and later at Milton to declare their refusal to obey either the acts or the officials responsible for them. They urged fellow citizens to cease paying taxes or trading with Britain and to undertake militia drill each week. Passed unanimously, the resolves were carried by Paul Revere to Philadelphia, where they were endorsed by the First Continental Congress.