The resolutions passed by this Congress were circulated throughout the colonies for their approval. All sections of the Virginia colony approved them, even sections as far west as the area now occupied by the State of Kentucky. Two illustrations of such approval are the Fairfax Resolutions and the Fincastle Resolutions. The freeholders of Fairfax County met in Alexandria in July 1774 and passed the so-called Fairfax Resolutions, written by George Mason. The Fairfax Resolutions or Resolves, as they are sometimes called, reflected Virginia's attitude toward taxation, Parliament and even the King. In January 1775, at Lead Mines, Fincastle County seat, the freeholders met and prepared a paper congratulating and thanking the Virginia delegates for their part in the First Continental Congress. These Fincastle Resolutions also included strong written opposition to English tyrannical power. In November 1774, Virginia had a tea party, similar in purpose to Boston in that it was an act of defiance against Great Britain's tea tax. On November 7, the Virginians discovered that a British ship, "Virginia," which had docked in the York River at an earlier date, contained tea cargo. The Committee of Safety for York County immediately sent to the House of Burgesses (which was meeting at Williamsburg) a message in the form of a protest against accepting this tea for sale in the colony. The Committee received a reply to the effect that the matter would be discussed in the House and an answer would be forthcoming the next Monday morning. Large groups of people gathered at Yorktown where the boat had been docked and waited for the reply. The House of Burgesses failed to send the reply, and the captain of the ship declared that he had received no message. The Committee waited a while longer and then proceeded to throw the tea out of the ship's hold into the York River. By this time, the Yorktown inhabitants had been informed of the "Intolerable Acts" which had been passed to punish the inhabitants of Boston. Therefore, they filled the ship with necessary supplies and sent it to the Bostonians. This incident was another example of the methods by which the colonists were learning to unite and to help each other in their common objectives. When the American colonists began to carry out the non-importation agreement, the British merchants were very much affected: for example, the import trade from Great Britain to the American colonies declined about 95% by 1775. The Americans had some great British leaders on their side, but they were definitely in the minority. Edmund Burke and William Pitt urged that the "Intolerable Acts" be repealed and predicted that war was approaching with the American colonies if most of the objectionable laws were not repealed at this time. Burke and Pitt were overruled, however, in Parliament. Thus, the breach between the American colonies and the mother country became wider as time passed.