The Liberty Point Resolves and the Tryon Resolves and the meaning of "Association"

Patriots in present-day Fayetteville, North Carolina, on June 20, 1775, signed a document they called "The Association." Patriots meeting near present-day Cherryville, North Carolina on August 14, 1775, signed a document they called "An Association." One thing I learned from working so long on Herman Melville is to be alert to words which meant something to people in the 19th century that they do not immediately mean to me. Association?

as·so·ci·a·tion

əˌsōsēˈāSHən,-SHē-/

noun

noun: association; plural noun: associations; noun: assn.

1. 1.

   (often in names) a group of people organized for a joint purpose.

   "the National Association of Broadcasters"

   synonyms:

   alliance, consortium, coalition, union, league, guild, syndicate, federation, confederation, confederacy, conglomerate, cooperative, partnership, affiliation, organization; More club, society, congress "a trade association"

   • Ecology

     a plant community defined by a characteristic group of dominant plant species.
2. 2.

   a connection or cooperative link between people or organizations.

   "he developed a close association with the university"

   synonyms:

   relationship, relation, interrelation, connection, interconnection, link, bond, union, tie, attachment, interdependence, affiliation More "the association between language and nationalism"

   • the action or state of becoming a member of an organization with subordinate status.

     "Slovenia signed association agreements with the European Union"
   • Chemistry

     the linking of molecules through hydrogen bonding or other interaction short of full bond formation.
3. 3.

   a mental connection between ideas or things.

   "the word bureaucracy has unpleasant associations"

   • the action of making a mental connection.

     "the association of alchemy with “hieroglyphics” and “cabala.”"
   • the fact of occurring with something else; co-occurrence.

     "cases of cancer found in association with colitis"
     
     

     LUCKILY, I still have, and consult almost daily, an unabridged dictionary more than 100 years old. "Association" meant a written pledge to execute an undertaking. The men who met at Barge's Tavern in Cross Creek (as it was called then) and at Christy Mauney's log house at a crossroads in Tryon County were putting their fortunes and their lives at risque (as the Tryon document says) when they signed their names.