Thomas Burke’s importance to the revolutionary generation has primarily lost out in history’s recantation of that generation. Much of that is because the respect that the Halifax Resolves initially brought him amongst his contemporaries would later seem to be forfeited.
Although, initially, as much of an advocate of state sovereignty as any of his contemporaries, as the war against Britain began, he became more nationally focused during the conflict even though his fall from grace has led some to view otherwise.
Burke increasingly began to view that a successful independence movement required a unified effort of the colonies to cooperate in a politically unified effort with less individual colonial political separation.
Where Burke would have come down on the constitution, and whether, had he been a convention delegate, if he would have taken a more compromised approach to state soverignty, or called for a stronger central authority we will never know. Burke would die at the age of 39 in 1783.
An early supporter of independence, who first gained prominence when he wrote tracts against the Stamp Act. At that time, Burke was a practicing attorney in Norfolk, Virginia. Increasingly becoming radicalized in favor of independence, despite Virginia’s many leading statesmen’s advocacy of the movement; the shipping port of Norfolk was much more dependent on Britain and Burke felt himself becoming ostracized in the Norfolk community.
In 1774, he would move to Hillsborough, North Carolina. Hillsborough was both a gateway to the North Carolina mountains and closely connected to the plantation community. His revolutionary calls for a new national independency endeared Burke to his neighbors in Hillsborough, despite being new within it, and they asked him to represent them in the designing of their “state” constitution.
Those efforts were once again accorded due respect and the author of the Halifax Resolves was asked to represent North Carolina at the Second Continental Congress in December of 1776, some months after his resolves had opened congressional debate to the idea of independence and five months after that body had sent the signed declaration for independence to Britain. But while that declaration might have occurred without Burke’s Resolves; they might not have been taken up quite as quickly.
Remember that a month after the declaration, in August, Washington was forced to withdraw from New York City, and thereafter the British pretty much controlled the coastal landscape all the way to Philadelphia. By the fall of ‘77, Congress had to flee even that city.
Had the Halifax Resolves not opened up the debate in the congress that had led to the declaration in July, it is quite possible that the British advances could have strengthened the debate against independence, and possibly led to a conciliatory effort at reconciliation that was less likely to occur once the declaration had been proffered.
The declaration of itself, in no way made the nation a new nation and the country of the United States was not founded on July 4, 1776. The declaration was merely a declaration of desire to do so and not the founding. But it was important to the founding, because the declaration was a resolve that made retreating from the declaration a more problematic issue for those who might not be inclined towards independence to have any influence towards resolutions that might have sacrificed the conflict in a conciliatory reunification with Britain. For that I believe the Halifax Resolves, mostly written by Thomas Burke, should render to him a much greater importance that he is generally accorded.
By September of 1777, the British advance and the seeming inevitable fall of Philadelphia led most of Congress to flee the advancing British. Had they been captured, more than likely the members would have been tried and punished and the revolution would have ceased to be.
Burke, instead, went to join General Nash’s North Carolina troops that were attempting to defend the city in conjunction with Washington. He was present at the Battle of Brandywine, and only after Washington’s retreat did Burke make his way to rejoin the Congress.
I could be incorrect, but I believe he would be the only member of the political independence movement who also participated in the military independence movement. Certainly he was the only one do so during his involvement with the political movement.
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In 1781 North Carolina chose Burke to be their governor and he returned from Congress. He returned home to assume that office in June. As governor, he actively supported and encouraged the militia in its resistance to British and Loyalist forces. Then, in September, he was captured by Tories under the command of Col. David Fanning. After a failed rescue attempt by a patriot militia commanded by John Butler at the Battle of Lindley’s Mill. Burke was imprisoned by the British and sent to James Island off the South Carolina coast.
Burke was allowed to live freely on the island under parole, but he suffered a great deal of mistreatment as a political rebel and the deplorable conditions of the encampment were not strongly suggestive for anyone’s survival.
But now we find ourselves in the territory of how Burke became historically minimalized. Supposedly learning of an assassination attempt on January 16, 1782, he escaped and returned to North Carolina. He wrote to the British that he still considered himself under the terms of his parole. He resumed his governor duties before being released from parole through an exchange.
Accordingly, many North Carolinians and Continental officers considered that he had broken his word and remained under a cloud of dishonor.
However Burke's health would never recovered from his term of imprisonment and he would die on December 2 of 1783. But his dishonor has never been restored to the honorable place it deserves in the pantheon of the revolutionary generation, either.
J.D. Lewis, "Thomas Burke". The American Revolution in North Carolina. Retrieved May 26, 2019
John S. Watterson, (1980). Thomas Burke, Restless Revolutionary. Washington, D. C.: University Press of America.