**°* •> f% V^V <5 /.tfttfe>* **.:itt..V ^•aai£r>- * ^ 0° ° • ^°- ♦•To ^ %*CT s\ •■ ,7557.* *, - .y.~. *▼ ^ *'T7i« \portunities of information, and for keeping in his memory the events of Mecklenburg. He formed one of the party to arrest and convey into South Carolina the Tory law- yers of Salisbury a few weeks after this declaration — was under Col. Thomas Polk in the expedition against the Highlanders and other Tories on the Cape Fear in February, 1776 ; in that of Eutherford against the Cherokee Indians in the summer of the same year; under Sumter and Irwin at Hanging Kock; ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 45 under Col. William Polk in the South Carolina State troops at Eutaw ; he, too, was familiar with the men of the county as comrades in arms, and as their public servant almost to the close of life — succeeded his brother in the office of sheriff — was clerk of the Supe- rior Court, Major General of Militia, and a member of the Legislature in the one or the other House from this county, for more than twenty years — terminating in 1813. His death occurred, in 1826, with mental faculties unimpaired to the last. With Messrs. Wil- liam Hutchison, Jonas Clark, and Robert Robinson, w r ho united with him in the testimonial given to Col. Polk in 1820, my inferiority in age allowed no per- sonal acquaintance, but I have assurance that they had all been good soldiers of the Revolution, and. en- joyed the entire respect and confidence of their con- temporaries. Equal to these in their claims to credibility were Capt. James Jack, of Georgia, Clerk Isaac Alexan- der, Capt. Samuel Wilson, Maj. John Davidson, of Mecklenburg, Mr. James Johnston, of Tennessee, and the Rev. Francis Cummins, of Georgia. It is to be observed, that no one of these witnesses in testi- fying sought to magnify his own consequence. Major Davidson was the only one among them all, who had been a delegate in the meeting. He had reached a very old age at the time of deposing, but gives an intelligent narrative, and did not assume to have acted a conspicuous part. All the others declare that they were spectators merely, at the council of the grave and elderly men of their county — and bear 46 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. witness of the patriotism and heroism of others, not of their own. It may be also confidently asserted that this mass of testimony would, at the time it was given, have de- termined the title of any estate in that county ; and if the question were whether a deed which had been lost was designed to convey the absolute property in law or only an estate for years, or on condition, there would have been no difficulty in this evidence in maintaining that the entire fee had passed ; and, as little that it bore date on the 20th of May, 1775 ; and an impartial Chancellor would have directed the conveyance to be renewed accordingly. It is, how- ever, not a question at nisi prius, to be tried on the testimony alone of the witnesses whose certificates were taken. The witnesses who gave written evidence are but a tithe of those who testify to the Declaration of Independence, and on the 20th of May, 1775. Where are those Revolutionary soldiers, who ap- peared, as we have seen, at the celebration of 1825, sixty to seventy in number; of whom twenty-seven again attended at the celebration of 1835, the sur- vivors of the fields of Stono, Eutaw, Camden and Hanging Rock at the South, and some of them at least of White Plains, Brandywine, and German- town at the North ? They were old enough to re- member what had occurred in their own county in 1775, and though, it may be, not personally present at the meeting on the 20th of May in that year, to have heard by current report of every public event ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 47 of the times ; and if they had not heard of, and be- lieved, this from 1775 onward, who supposes they would have joined in the celebrations, or not contra- dicted the error ? Moreover, the juniors of these who were of middle or younger age, the descendants of those, among whom almost every man had been a soldier in no holiday sense, and who from the tradi- tions of their fathers, knew the story of the Revolu- tion by heart, if they had not heard of it, as they did of the expeditions of 1775 and '76, who presumes they would have yielded an universal belief upon the announcement of the fact in a newspaper supported by a half dozen testimonials from sources however respectable ? The truth is, the publication of Dr. Alexander, in 1819, announced nothing that was new to Mecklenburg. Her people had this Declaration in memory as they had the fame of the men they had sent forth to battle for Independence, to whom even yet history has never done justice, and therefore they seconded its assertion with a unanimous voice. Critics may amuse their ingenuity by strictures on the certificates of veterans who, as I knew one to re- mark, were " better at fiiditino* than writing, and could make better marks with their swords than with their pens," but they can make no satisfactory plea to that grand certificate of the concurrence of all the surviving soldiers of the Revolution from 1819 to 1835, and the harmonious concord of the sons of those who had perished in the struggle or died prior to the publication in 1819. The old men knew it from recollection or common report, the younger by 48 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. tradition. It is hardly possible that a whole people, who may have their subjects of dispute as to other matters, should be deceived and deluded into an un- divided belief on this. Let us illustrate by an ex- ample. It is within the remembrance of many now •living, that in 1814 a Regiment of Militia under Col. Jesse A. Pearson, being part of a Brigade commanded by the above-named Gen. Joseph Graham, was levied in Mecklenburg and the adjacent counties, and served for six months under Jackson against the Creek Indians in Alabama Territory. It is also a fact that owing to the want of a timely provision of funds by the United States, these troops were delayed a month or more at Salisbury, their place of rendez- vous, and were therefore too late in arriving at the seat of war for the battle of the Horse-Shoe, in which they would otherwise have participated. Suppose after the lapse of forty-live years, or even now at the end of sixty years, a pretension had been set up that this Regiment had won laurels, by bearing an active part in the battle of the Horse-Shoe, and it had been proposed to celebrate it by a public demonstration. Independently of other evidence to the contrary, who believes that the officers and soldiers of that expedi- tion who survived, or the children of the dead, could have been engaged in any such imposture or delusion % If a contemporaneous exposition is generally the best construction of a statute made long ago, because it gives the sense of a community living at the time of enactment, of the terms made use of by the Legis- lature, surely the acquiescence of a people in the real- ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 49 ity of a transaction, which was asserted more than fifty years back, and when, if untrue, there were scores of living persons who could and would have contradicted it, is equally convincing proof of its actual occurrence.* Curiosity, however, is excited to learn in what manner the memorial of this declaration of inde- pendence was preserved to later times. The expla- nation is, that the journal of the proceedings of the Mecklenburg Committee, originating at the incipi- ent period of the Revolution and continued long years afterwards as a county organization, which con- tained the Declaration of Independence of 20th of * At the mass meeting in Charlotte, February 4th, 1875, I was shown a number of the Catawba Journal, published in that town October 19th, 1824, containing a copy of an Oration by Dr. M. W. Alexander, at Hopewell Church in Mecklenburg, deliv- ered on the 4th of July in that year, in which the Resolutions of Independence by that county on the 20th of May, 1775, are inserted in full, with a narration of the circumstances of their adoption. The speaker then proceeds as follows: "These are transactions with which you, together with the citizens of the neighboring counties, have long been familiar ; that have been the frequent topics of conversation among us for fifty years. These were the proceedings of our fathers, our relatives, and fellow-citizens, every individual of whom has descended to the tomb — but these are their living deeds of patriotism/' etc. This oration also recites the resolutions of the Provincial Con- gress at Halifax, on the 12th of April, 1776, empowering* the delegates from North Carolina in the Continental Congress to vote for absolute independence in advance of the other Colonies, and corrects the claim, in Wirt's Life of Patrick Henry, that the Virginia resolutions of like import, on the 15th of May, 1776, were prior to those of any other State. Upon which, the editor re- marks that the fact that the instruction of North Carolina to her 50 ADDRESS OF \VM. A. GRAHAM. May, 1775, was preserved in the care of John McKnitt Alexander, as Secretary, and was consumed in the destruction of his mansion by fire in the year 1800. And that prior to its destruction he had endeavored to give this document publicity by furnishing one copy to Dr. Hugh Williamson, w T ho had announced his purpose to publish a history of North Carolina, and another to Gen. Wm. E. Davie, a distinguished soldier of the Revolution, and subsequently Governor of the State. It is probable, also, that he or his son, before-named, who w T as of mature years and head of a family before 1800, retained still another copy delegates in Congress to vote for independence as early as 12tli of April, 1776, was new to him, but is verified by a copy of the Journal of the Congress which had been left in his office. But the Mecklenburg, proceedings, being a well known transaction, called forth no comment. At the same meeting, the Hon. J. Harvey Wilson, of Char- lotte, a former Speaker of the State Senate, in a public speech, stated that, as a young lawyer, he had drawn the declarations for pensions, under the Act of Congress of 1832, of from twenty to thirty Revolutionary soldiers in Mecklenburg, recently after the passage of that act, and that nearly all of them in giving ac- counts of their lives, as required by the regulations of the Pen- sion Office, made allusion to the Declaration of Independence in that county on the 20th of May, 1775, and verified the state- ment by their affidavits. He further mentioned, that about the same time, he had heard a description of the scene, at the adoption of the resolutions of Independence on the 20th of May, 1775, and the demonstrations of the populace which ensued, from Mrs. Smart, a Mecklenburg lady of remarkable intelligence, then surviving, who was in Char- lotte on that day, and that her narrative corresponded with those of the witnesses who gave written evidence of the transaction. ADDRESS OF WM. A. GEAHAM. 51 which escaped the conflagration of his house. The averment which we* have from Mr. Alexander of his delivering the copies to Williamson and Davie is con- firmed : 1st. By the testimony of Gov. Stokes, already cited, stating in substance that in the year 1793 Dr. Wil- liamson exhibited to him, in Fayetteville, !N". C, a copy of the said Mecklenburg Declaration in the hand- writing of John McKnitt Alexander, which was known to Governor Stokes. 2d. By the statement of Duncan Cameron, then a practicing lawyer, subsequently a Judge of the Superior Courts and President of the Bank of the State, to the effect that Mr. Alexander had informed him of the circumstances of tills declaration, and of his placing a copy in the possession of Gen. Davie ; and that after the destruction of the original in his dwelling, he referred again to the same topic, remark- ing that by reason of this deposit " the document was safe." Dr. Williamson was a Pennsylvania!], w r ho came to the State about the close of the Revolution- ary War, and resided in Edenton. He represented North Carolina in the Continental and first Federal Congress, and in the Federal Convention, after which he went to reside in New York. His work, entitled a History of North Carolina, published in 1812, is confined to the colonial period, and extends only to the time of the Regulators in 1771. 3d. It is likewise corroborated by a letter from Mr. D. G. Stinson, a gentleman now above 80 years of age, who in a recent letter from Rock Hill, S. C, in- 52 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. forms me that in 1813, when himself a student in the Academy of the Rev. Mr. Wallace of Providence, Mecklenburg, a son-in-law of John McKnitt Alexan- der, he heard said Alexander, upon occasion of a visit of a month at that place, relate the circumstances of the Declaration of Independence on the 20th of May, 1775 ; and the further fact, that having been in Philadelphia afterwards in that year, he communi- cated the facts and circumstances to Dr. Franklin. who expressed approbation of the act. Of John McKnitt Alexander, I have no personal recollection. That he was one of the leading spirits in those days of peril and revolution appears from the tes- timony of Gen. George Graham, and others, already recited, and from the facts stated by Wheeler, that he was one of the delegates from Mecklenburg to the Provincial Congress at Hillsboro' in August, 1775, at Halifax in April, 1776, her first senator under the republican Constitution, in 1777, one of the Trustees of the College of " Queen's Museum," subsequently changed to " Liberty Hall," and from the correspon- dence of the Board of War that Gen. Davidson, at the head of the militia in 1780, named his encampment in Mecklenburg, " Camp McKnitt Alexander." Mr. Wheeler also extracts from a Charlotte news- paper of 1837, a paper entitled Instructions for the delegates of Mecklenburg county, proposed to the con- sideration of the county, dated 1st of September, 1775, stated to have been found among his papers, doubt- less furnished by his son already mentioned, begin- ning thus : " You are instructed to vote that the late ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 53 Province of North Carolina is, and of right ought to be, a free and independent State, invested with all power of Legislation, capable of making laws to regu- late all its internal policy, subject only in its external connections and foreign commerce, to a negative of a Continental Senate.' 7 Whether this was adopted by the county does not appear, but the spirit of it was fully carried out at the Congress, in April, 1776, of which Mr. Alexander was a member, in the resolutions instructing the North Carolina delegates in the Continental Con- gress to concur in voting for absolute independence. That this striking event was not made the subject of commentary in our newspapers until published in 1819, should occasion no surprise to those who have studied the history of the State, and know in what a confused and neglected mass all its materials then lay. If so well informed an American as Mr. Jefferson must be conceded to have been, in 1819, did not know the position of Mecklenburg on the map, and supposed it might adjoin Buncombe, the locality of the fictitious volcano played off as a newspaper hoax, from which it is one hundred miles distant, with the Blue Ridge towering between, who except her own people should be expected to know her history ? The historians to whom he refers — Williamson, whose work- extends but to 1771, Horry, Ramsay, Marshall, Jones, Girardin, Wirt, — not one of them had pene- trated so far into our public history as to be aware of the Resolutions of the 31st of May, 1775, or to discover the well-established fact, that North Caro- 54: ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. lina in her Provincial Congress at Halifax on the 12th of April, 1776, instructed her delegates in the Conti- nental Congress to vote for absolute independence of the British Crown. (I impute no unjust design ; it was perhaps our own fault in not causing it to be made generally known.) Some of them do mention that Virginia gave such instruction in May succeed- ing, and suppose that to have been the earliest move- ment of the kind. If they were thus uninformed as to our public and general history, how are their omis- sions authority in respect to a popular meeting, a local assemblage in the county of Mecklenburg, some months earlier ? The fact is, the revival of the know- ledge of the Resolutions at Halifax was made about the same time and by the same individual, Dr. Jos. McKnitt Alexander, with the publication of the Mecklenburg Declaration in the Raleigh Register: and it produced as much surprise among writers of history, and as much satisfaction among the people of the State, as the declaration at Charlotte. It was permitted to pass unchallenged upon the authority of the Journal of the Congress which Alexander had inherited from his father, as would, in my belief, the Mecklenburg proceeding, except that the latter was questioned by Mr. Jefferson, and was supposed by some to lay claim to a domain in which he was en- titled to a monopoly — a domain to which in -May, 1775, as will presently appear, he had set up no claim in mind or heart. The first forty-five years of the Republic of North Carolina did not produce even a pamphlet on any sub- ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 55 ject of her history, except the abortive effort of Wil- liamson, heretofore noticed. This utter want of a history was felt as a public misfortune by the intelli- gent men of the State, and by none more than the surviving officers and soldiers of the Revolution. In 1819, or 1820, the Hon. Archibald D. Murphey, who in the preceding seven or eight years, as a senator from the county of Orange in the State Legislature, had aroused the pride and spirit of the people of the State on the subject of internal improvement and popular education, at the instance of many friends undertook the task of writing her history — an office to which he was eminently adapted by scholarship, patience, and capacity for research, facility in compo- sition, a philosophic mind and a zealous patriotism. Although, from causes not necessary to be related, Mr. Murphey failed in the brief remainder of his life to execute this work, the very undertaking accom- plished for the State, though in an inferior degree, what had been done by historical societies for other States, in collecting materials for history, from the recollections of old men then alive, the correspond- ence and papers found with the families of the dead, the public records, and other sources. How barren Mr. Murphey then found the field he undertook to till, though with abundant materials for improvement if sought out from their hidden recesses, we shall re- late in his own words, in a correspondence, July 20th, 1821, with General Joseph Graham, from whom he requested reminiscences of the military history of the State during the Revolution : 56 ADDKESS OF WM. A. GKAHAM " Your letter to Col. Conner," says he, " first sug- gested to me the plan of a work which I will execute if I live. It is a work on the history, soil, climate, legislation, civil institutions, literature, etc., of this State. Soon after reading your letter, I turned my attention to the subject in the few hours I could snatch from business, and I was surprised to find what abundant materials could, with care and dili- gence, be collected ; materials which, if well disposed, would furnish matter for one of the most interesting works that has been published in this country. We want such a work. We neither know ourselves nor are we known to others. Such a work, well execu- ted, would add very much to our standing in the Union, and make us respectable in our own eyes. I love North Carolina ; and love her the more because so much injustice has been done to her. We want pride ; we want independence ; we want magnanimity. Knowing nothing of ourselves, we have nothing in our history to which we can turn with conscious pride. We know nothing of our State, and care nothing about it. I feel some zeal upon the subject, for a large portion of our history now lives only in the re- collection of a few survivors of the Eevolution. We must soon embody it, or it will be entirely lost." * With so much of the materials of the history of the State thus in the condition of waifs, floating in the memories of a few surviving veterans of the war of independence, does it surprise any one that the brave * University Magazine, Dec, 1854. ADDEESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 57 men of Mecklenburg, who proclaimed independence on the 20th of May, 1775, should thus long have shared the fate of those who lived before Agamemnon, in not finding an author to celebrate their deeds? Caswell, Hooper and Hewes, the delegates in Congress to whom the paper was conveyed in Philadelphia by Captain Jack, and who might have given it publicity had their lives been prolonged, all passed away with- in six or seven years after the close of the war, before the general government had become settled under the Federal Constitution, or the State had even fixed a permanent seat of government. Col. Thomas Polk, after an active and useful mili- tary career, died within the same period. Brevard fell a victim to confinement in a British prisonship after the surrender of Charleston in 1780, living only to reach the house of John McKnitt Alexander in Mecklenburg. The College at Charlotte was broken up by the British invasion ; no newspaper was published in all the State west of Raleigh, from the Revolution down till the Summer of 1820, unless it was one very tem- porarily in Salisbury, and the general impoverishment of the country induced by the war was such as to en- gross all in the ordinary avocations of business, so that no one in that region turned attention to author- ship, either in history or any branch of letters. The men who had served their country either in council or in the field, left to others the task of commemo- rating their acts. The historians in other States had given but little attention to Revolutionary events in 58 ADDKESS OF \YM. A. GRAHAM. this; and one of the difficulties of illustrating our subject at present, is the uncertainty as to how much acquaintance with local history in that section is to be presumed in the mind of the reader or hearer. Of the battle of Kamsour's Mill, no written notice was ever taken, until the account furnished by Gen- eral Graham to Judge Murphey, and by him to the pub- lic in 1820, which has been republished by Wheeler. Yet but for this timely and decisive blow by Locke and his brave associates in dispersing a body of loyal- ists, thirteen hundred in number, and which would have grown to thousands, then assembling under Moore and Welsh, in order to join the British in South Carolina, when exulting in the fall of Charleston, and the subsequent massacre of Buford's command on our own frontier, the result might have sealed the doom of the American cause in the South in the Summer of 1780. In its salutary effect it was like to the brilliant victory at King's Mountain three months later, and that at Moore's Creek in New Hanover in February, 1776. Of King's Mountain, though generally known as a decisive victory, no details had been given of the campaign which it terminated, the levies of men un- der the several commanders, the number of each or- ganization, their pursuit of Ferguson, the order and incidents of the battle, with a diagram of the field, until collected and brought out by the same hand, in the report which has been republished in Foote's Sketches of North Carolina. Again, where are the particulars of the service of the men of Mecklenburg, Kowan, and Gaston, in the ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 59 two British invasions of the State in 1780-81 — the action at Charlotte, and skirmishing before and after — Mclntire's farm — Cowan's Ford — Torrence's Tav- ern — Trading Ford — the investment of General Pickens, of South Carolina, with the command of Davidson's Brigade after the fall of their General (which occasions them to be mistaken by Lee, in his "Memoirs of the War in the South," for South Carolina troops)— of Clapp's Mill— Whitsell's Mill— the expedition of Rutherford against Wilmington in the autumn of 1781, when held by Major Craig and his Tory allies ? Where are these to be found, ex- cept in these Murphey memoranda, written in 1820- '21, and published in the University Magazine in 1856? If, therefore, the Mecklenburg Declaration was destined to a long night of negligence and ob scurity before being presented to the muse of history, it slept by the side of military exploits, the traditions of which form no inconsiderable part of the Revolu- tionary fame of the State. In the process of ex- humation it came out of the rubbish a year or two in advance of them. And let it not be forgotten, that its authenticity rests upon the evidence of other witnesses in addition to his, who is the author of these narratives. And the incredulity which rejects it is much more prepared to blot out all that we have heard and believed in relation to the military inci- dents in the same part of the country, by which it was in no long time followed. All history is but the narration of the author, from personal knowledge or upon information from credible sources. We believe 60 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. that Caesar invaded Gaul, because lie so wrote two thousand years ago. We believe that Davie slaughtered a Tory regiment on the very edge of the British camp, near Hanging Rock, having not time to give quarter and take prisoners ; we believe that he made a gallant stand in Charlotte against the ad- vance of Tarleton's cavalry ; but among American historians we first had these events from Lee, who did not join the Southern army till months after their occurrence, in memoirs not published till thirty years later. And it requires no strain on credulity to be- lieve the followers of Davie who bear witness of the Declaration of Mecklenburg, as an incident of which they had the evidence of their senses only five years earlier than of these achievements in arms. It is deemed hardly necessary to notice the objec- tion that the courts of justice were at this time held under the authority of the King, and that the inci- dent related of the reading of the declaration borne by Captain Jack in court at Salisbury could not have been true. Any one acquainted with the history of the period, knows that the royal authority in the State was everywhere in the feeblest condition. The Provincial Congresses, since August, 1774, had been composed of members of the Legislature who, while sitting as such, found intervals to carry forward their patriotic work notwithstanding inhibiting Proclama- tions from the Governor; and the Governor himself, as early as July, made his exit from our shores at Wilmington to a refuge on board the Cruiser. Magis- trates, if they did not sympathize in the proceeding, ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 61 observed only ordinary prudence in stepping aside for the occasion lest the breezes that passed over them should rise into gales. But, say our objectors, if such resolutions were ever sent to Philadelphia, there should be found some evidence of the fact iu the journals of Congress. It requires but little research to show that this is but a cavil, proceeding from an utter ignorance of the mode of conducting business in the Congress, and the state of sentiment then prevailing among its members. It was among the first rules of order of the body, adopted in September, 1774, "that the door be kept shut during the time of business, and that members consider themselves under the strongest obligations of honor to keep the proceedings secret, until the ma- jority shall direct them to be made public." But there was a far more potential reason than this ; and Congress at that time, say May or June, 1775, would as soon have thought of entering on their Journal a proposition to assassinate King George, or to burn the city of London, as to declare independence of Great Britain. No single member favored it, or, judging from the best evidence afforded us, desired it. Here I approach considerations pertaining to this topic which I am surprised should have been over- looked in all former discussions, and which appear to have faded entirely from the memory of Mr. Jefferson, and also, as now appears, from that of Mr. Adams at the date of the letter from which we have quoted. The second Continental Congress met on the 10th of Mav, 1775. Mr. Jefferson then first took his seat 62 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. as a member, and successor to Peyton Randolph. It is a fact, capable of the clearest demonstration, that Congress were more nearly unanimous against inde- pendence during this entire session, and I know not how much longer, than they were for it on the 4th of July, 1776. That this was then the feeling of Mr. Jefferson, we have more than general evidence. It has been fashionable among historians and fourth of July orators to treat of Independence as if it had been with our Congress a foregone conclusion, and a mere question of policy as to the time of proclaiming it, and that in this sentiment the whole country par- ticipated. There is no more gross and unfounded error. Independently of the danger and uncertainty of the issue of such a revolution, the feeling of loyalty to the King and attachment to the mother country was warm ; and though blood had been shed and hostile armies had been levied and were facing each other at Boston, the expectation and desire of recon- ciliation w r as ardently entertained in Congress, and by many citizens who a year later became the most de- voted adherents of independence and a Republic, Let us look into the Journal of Congress, now no longer secret, but then wisely kept as a sealed book from public view. On the 8th of July, 1775, a Petition to the King was signed by every member of Congress, praying for re- dress of grievances, as. British subjects, in the hum- blest terms ; and referring to the accusation which had been made in England, that they desired separation, they declare, " We have not raised armies with the ADDEESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM". 63 ambitious design of separating from Great Britain and establishing independent States." At the same time an address of like import was drawn np, and signed, to the people of Great Britain, a species of appeal from the King and Parliament, which had been made on more than one occasion already. These documents, containing the unanimous expression of denial by Congress of aspiring to independence, were despatched to England by Pi chard Penn— the his- torian Bisset calls him the celebrated Mr. Penn — a grand-son of the founder of Pennsylvania, himself an ex-Governor, and a brother of her then Chief Magis- trate. (Hiklreth's History, vol. 3, p. 87-88.) Upon Penn's arrival in England, he procured the Petition to the King to be presented through Lord Dartmouth, the Colonial Secretary, who informed Penn that no answer would be returned. On the 16th of November, 1775, Penn, through the agency of Lord Dartmouth, was introduced be- fore the House of Lords, and examined as a witness touching affairs in America, and he testified to a pos- itive opinion that "no designs of independency had been formed by Congress " — and, says Hildreth, (p. 112,) " as he had been lately a resident of Philadelphia, and was personally acquainted with many of the mem- bers, his opinion seemed entitled to great weight." Bisset informs us that, after Penn's examination, the Duke of Richmond moved that the petition from the Continental Congress to the King was a ground for conciliation of the unhappy differences subsisting between Great Britain and America, and argued that 64 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. the Americans wished for reconcilement, and desired no concession from us derogatory to the honor of the mother country. But the motion was lost by a vote of 86 to 33 — upon which the historian expatiates on the folly of Lord North and the Ministry, in not em- bracing the overture of Congress, and saving America to Great Britain. As a further evidence that public sentiment in America generally was still on the side of adhesion to Britain, the Colonial Assemblies of three States sever- ally recommended to the attention of Congress at this session, Lord North's conciliatory proposition, and it was not until the 31st July that a committee, to whom it was referred, reported it to be unsatisfactory. That Mr. Jefferson had not yet embraced the idea of independence, I conceive to be asserted in the fol- lowing passage of a letter addressed by him to John Kandolph, dated Aug. 25, 1775 — Jefferson's Works, 2d edition, vol i., p. 151. " I am sincerely one of those. I would rather be in dependence on Great Britain, properly limited, than on any nation on earth, or than on no nation." General Washington made it no secret that such were his sentiments. In Mr. Irving' s Life we are treated to a ludicrous scene, in the narrative, that in June 1775, when Washington was on his way from Philadelphia to take command of the army before Boston, the authorities of the city of New York, through which he had to pass, were in a great dilemma upon the question, whether they should compliment him or Gov. Tryon, then their Governor, who had ADDRESS OF WI. A. GRAHAM. G5 just arrived in the harbor from a visit to England ; and that the perplexity was solved by ordering out a Regiment of militia with instructions to the colonel to pay military honors to whichever of these function- aries should first arrive. Washington happened to be prior in time — and in an address to him by Mr. Livingston, President of the Provincial Congress of New York, it was said : " We have the fullest assur- ance, that whenever this important contest shall he de- cided, by that fondest wish of each American soul, an accommodation with our mother country, you will cheerfully resign the important deposit committed into your hands and reassume the character of our wor- thiest citizenP In the General's reply he says : " We shall sincerely rejoice with you in that happy hour when the estab- lishment of American liberty on the most firm and solid foundations, shall enable us to return to our private station in the bosom of a free, peaceful and happy country. " A most earnest aspiration for reconcilement in the address — and not the 'most dis- tant allusion to independence in the reply ; and within eight hours afterwards, Tryon was received with like military honors and demonstrations of respect, by the city authorities and the royalist inhabitants. Again, in February, 1776, Washington writes : " I am entirely of your opinion that, should an accom- modation take place, the terms will be severe or favorable in proportion to our ability to resist, and that we ought to be on a respectable footing to receive their armaments in the spring." Thus, says a great QQ ADDEESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. authority in history, " the possibility of conciliation seems here taken for granted ; that is, independence was not then the idea of Washington, five months before the declaration." But in May, 1776, we have his own emphatic words : " A reconciliation with Great Britain is im- possible When I took command of the army (June, 1775) I abhorred the idea of independence, but I am now fully satisfied that nothing else will save us." They who incline to trace the progress of opinion in respect to independence, will find in the pages of Hildreth particulars of the proceedings in Congress from the 28th of June, the date of the report of the committee on that subject, till the 4th of July, 1776, and subsequently, tending to show at last, " Quanta} molis erat, ad finem condere gentem." " The fact seems to have been, (says the historical authority before referred to,) that resistance ripened gradually and insensibly into rebellion. The leaders had incurred the penalties of treason, before they could well have asked themselves to what lengths they were prepared to go — they always debated with closed doors, so that what were their exact views and the progress of their opinions cannot now be known." And the same authority states it as the most curious and difficult question which the whole contest affords, " Whether the American leaders did not hurry into positive rebellion before they had sufficient grounds to suppose they could resist what was then the great- est empire upon earth.''* ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 67 Dr. Ramsay, of South Carolina, himself a member of Congress, in his history of the United States, pub- lished no long time after the war, says, " the affair of Lexington in April, 1775, exhibited the mother country in an odious point of view ;" yet he thinks, " for twelve months after, a majority wished only to be re-established as subjects of Great Britain in their ancient rights." It is far from my purpose to make invidious com- parisons, or to disparage the action of any State or individual, much less to insinuate that any State did not perform her full duty in maintaining the cause of independence after it was made a national measure. But the point in dispute is, who first proclaimed inde- pendence ; not the wisdom or prudence of the step, but its priority in point of time \ And the objection that the records of Congress made no mention of the early action of Mecklenburg, has rendered the expo- sition of the state of opinion in that body in regard to Independence in May or June, 1775, and the slow progress of its conception and development there, down to July, 1776, an indispensable duty. It now appears, since the Journals of Congress have been published and we are admitted behind the scenes, that when the Mecklenburg messenger arrived in Philadelphia in June, 1775 (the time is fixed by wit- nesses who show that it was about the time that Washington set out to take command of the army), that Congress was not at all in accord with the spirit of the people by whom he had been sent. How could that august assembly give countenance to a declaration 68 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. of independence, albeit in a remote region of the country, when their thoughts still clung to reconcili- ation, and every member was about to set his hand to a petition professing loyalty to the King, love for the mother country, and disclaiming, as an unjust impu- tation, the " ambitious design " of independence, which their enemies had ascribed to them ? ' No closed doors upon a deliberative assembly ever served a more valuable purpose, than those of the Continental Congress in this emergency against their most confiding friends. The message was doubtless most unwelcome, and might have met with rebuke but that war was already begun ; it was necessary to keep the spirit of the people up to the fighting point; the co-operation of all would probably be needed, even in a war such as was then being waged for the rights of British subjects in America ; and it would not do to send back a discouraging reply to men whose con- duct implied that they were ready for the most des- perate conflict. The North Carolina delegation in Congress were authorized to return for answer, that Congress admired the spirit and patriotism of the people, but deemed their action premature. It is ob- vious that Congress, with its then sentiments and views of policy, while speaking words of encourage- ment in their ears, would gladly pass over the affair in a manner to attract to it as little of public attention as possible. It was, as it were, afire opened upon the enemy, when Congress was sending out a flag of truce with professions of fraternization. And if the Mecklenburg resolutions were not published in the ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 69 newspapers of the time, or if so printed, measures were taken to destroy the copies, so that they have not come down to ns, it is no violent presumption, that such measures were prompted by the agency of Congress in aid of the policy of reconciliation in which that body was then so earnestly engaged. Certainly in the mind of no impartial judge, with the information now open to us, can the credit of the testimony in favor of the authenticity of the Mecklenburg declara- tion suffer any impairment from the failure of Con- gress to leave some memorial of it. But it is asked, where is the letter or message re- turned by the delegates in Congress ? If this mes- sage were in writing, and the chairman or clerk of the meeting could rise from the grave, he probably could answer. But the whole proceeding was that of a popular assembly, having no official depository of its minutes. If there was such a paper, and it did not share the fate of the original declaration in being con- sumed by fire, the attention of those to whom it was addressed was too earnestly devoted to maintaining the independence they had proclaimed, and they passed through too many vicissitudes of war, to give heed to the preservation of the evidence of their deeds. They forthwith established a surveillance over the neighboring country, arresting disaffected persons, and sending them to places of confinement beyond the sphere of their influence, and organizing a police by which passports were required as to the sen- timents of the bearer when he chanced to be a stranger in the neighborhood where he was found — ■ (Jones's Defence. 303). 70 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. The autumn of 1775 found these men of Mecklen- burg, as militia under their leader, Col. Thomas Polk, in an expedition against the Scovilite Tories, in north- western South Carolina, whom, with the patriot troops of that State, they assisted to disperse and subdue. With but a brief interval from this service, early in February, 1776, they were on the march to encounter the Tory forces levied on the Cape Fear and Yadkin? under McDonald and McLeod, to restore Gov. Mar- tin to authority — a call from which they were relieved at Cross Creeks (Fayetteville), on receiving there in- telligence of the decisive victory over the enemy at Moore's Creek by Caswell and Lillington. The writer has a manuscript journal of this expedi- tion, by Dr. John Graham, a volunteer with 19 others, all then students of Queen's Museum, under Ephraim Brevard, their tutor, as captain, in Col. Thos. Polk's Regiment. Again, ere the summer had opened, they are seen under Rutherford, scaling our western mountains into Tennessee, and chastising and subduing the Cherokee Indians, who, under British influence, had commenced murdering the inhabitants of the frontiers — thus taking a prominent part in three diverse military ex- peditions made by the militia of the State, besides furnishing contingents to the Continental troops of North Carolina, under Moore and Nash, for the de- fence of Charleston against Sir Peter Parker's attack in June, 1776, — all anterior to the national declara- tion of independence on the 4th of July, 1776. These glimpses of contemporaneous events are necessary to ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 71 be taken, in order to comprehend and apply the evidence touching the point in dispute. It may be appropriate here also to call to mind : 1. That the first Provincial Congress of North Carolina, called to consider grievances alleged against the mother country, convened at Newbern on the 25tli of August, 1774, the same day being that for the meeting of the colonial assembly, and elected Caswell, Hooper, and Hewes, delegates to the first Continental Congress. 2. That the second Provincial Congress met at the same place on the 4th of April, 1775, the day of the meeting of the colonial assembly ; and the latter body being rebuked by Governor Martin for insubordina- tion, especially in approving the reappointment of delegates to the Continental Congress, made a spirited reply in maintenance of their rights, for which, after a session of five days, they were dissolved by the proc- lamation of the Governor, and no legislative assem- bly under the crown ever again convened in the State. 3. The Governor himself within a brief period became a fugitive on board the Cruiser in Cape Fear river, and never afterwards exercised any of the ex- ecutive powers, except in the issuance of proclama- tions from his places of retreat. 4. The law for the establishment of superior courts of justice having expired by limitation, and the Legis- lature and Governor, by reason of disagreement on a clause subjecting the lands of debtors residing in England to process of attachment, failed to re-enact any statute on this head, so that from 1774 to 1777, 72 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. no Superior Courts were held in the Province, and the office of a Royal Judge was a sinecure. Thus, by ab- dication, as it were, English authority, in every depart- ment of Government, ceased in the Province, from, say, May 1775 : and the Provincial Congress assumed and held every function, Legislative, Executive and Judicial, except in the very limited jurisdiction of the Inferior Courts, held by justices of the peace.* There was therefore everything in the situation to invite re- volution as a refuge from anarchy. It will be recollected that Mr. Jefferson, in his letter before quoted, denied knowledge of any resolutions of the description alleged, from Mecklenburg, and appealing to Mr. Adams, continues : " Armed with "this bold example, would you not have addressed "our timid brethren in peals of thunder on their "tardy fears? Would not every advocate of inde- " pendence have rung the glories of Mecklenburg county in North Carolina ? " etc. And it appears, since the publication of the correspondence of Mr. Adams, that although crediting its authority at first, he sub- sequently expressed his disbelief. In transmitting the paper to Mr. Jefferson on the 22d of June, 1819, he says : " Had it been communicated to me in the time " of it, I know if you do not know that it would have " been printed in every Whig newspaper upon the " continent. You know that if I had possessed it, 1 " would have made the halls of Congress echo and re- * Jones's Defence, and McRee's Life of Iredell. Martin, vol. 2. ADDKESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 73 " echo with it, fifteen months before your declaration " of independence. What a poor, ignorant, malicious, "and short-sighted, crapulous mass is Tom Paine' s " Common Sense, in comparison with this paper. "Had I known it, I would have commented upon it " from the day you entered Congress till the 4th of " July, 1776."' The whirl of events in a revolution, independently of the access of age, is well calculated to confuse and impair the memory. And without detracting from the reverence due to either of these venerable ex-Presi- dents, it is manifest that the memory of both was sadly at fault as to the views of Congress, and in re- gard to their own individual sentiments, at least in all the year 1775, and how much later is unknown. Their letters both imply that they were eager for independ- ence as early as the date of this paper, and were de- layed by the doubts and fears of others ; whereas, at the very time of the arrival of the messenger from Mecklenburg, the Congress was, no doubt, employed in the preparation of a petition to the King for re- dress of grievances, disclaiming any design of inde- pendence, which was signed by these two, with all the other members, on the 8th of July, 1775. While the whole mind and heart of Congress (so far as we have any means of judging) were intent on reconcil- iation, the agitation of independence from a single county on the continent would not have called forth the appeals in tones of thunder imagined. On the contrary, it would have been regarded, at most, as an inopportune and embarrassing demonstration, which 74 ADDKESS OF WM. A. GRAT^AM. it was most hazardous and inconsistent to encourage, and yet not expedient to rebuke. The emergency, therefore, required politic treatment, and would have sent out from the closed doors of Congress, or the chambers of the delegates from the State, just such an answer as that borne by Capt. Jack, to wit : that Congress admired the patriotism and courage of the people, but the step was as yet premature. Moreover, it is now conceded, nay insisted upon by our critics, that Mecklenburg did pass resolutions in this month of May, 1775, (the 31st) far transcending in revolutionary purpose those of Mr. Henry in the colonial assembly of Virginia ; yet neither Mr. Adams nor Mr. Jefferson remembered to have heard of them. But nevertheless, such resolutions there were. They were caught up by the Royal Governors of other colo- nies than North Carolina, and transmitted to the Brit- ish ministry. * Gov. Martin, on the 30th of June, also sent de- spatches to the Colonial Secretary, with the denuncia- tion that " The resolves of the Committee of Mecklen- burg, which your Lordship will find in the inclosed newspaper, surpass all the horrid and treasonable pub- lications the inflammatory spirits of this Continent have yet produced ; and your Lordship may depend its authors and abettors will not escape my notice, whenever my hands are sufficiently strengthened to attempt the recovery of the lost authority of Govern- ment. A copy of these resolves, I am informed, was * Gov. Wright of Ga. Wheeler, 254. ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 75 sent off to the Congress at Philadelphia as soon as they were passed in the committee."* Not content with this, the Governor, on the 8th of August, on board the Cruiser, issued a Proclamation, reciting that " Whereas, I have seen a most infamous publication in the Cape Fear Mercury, importing to be resolves of a set of people styling themselves a Committee of the County of Mecklenburg, most traitorously declar- ing the entire dissolution of laws, Government, and Constitution of this country, and setting up a system of rule and regulation repugnant to the laws, and sub- versive of His Majesty's Government," etc. The resolves, though thus publicly denounced, and though published at the time in the papers of South Caro- lina, New York, and Massachusetts, and sent to Con- gress, were never heard of or if heard of totally for- gotten by its two eminent members, whose correspon- dence we have before us. If either of them was so intent at that time on independence as their letters in 1819 would indicate, the resolves of the 31st of May, declaring that " all Commissions civil and mil- itary heretofore granted by the Crown to be exercised in these Colonies, are null and void, and that whatev- er person should receive an office from the Crown in future, should be deemed an enemy of his country," etc., would have furnished ample material for that eloquence which it seems was but waiting on popu- lar demonstrations for independence. Of these, at least, they must have. had knowledge in June, 1775, * Wheeler, 257. 76 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. according to all reasonable probability, as well as the instructions of the Provincial Congress of North Car- olina to her Continental delegates, to unite in voting for independence, in advance of the other Colonies, April 12th, 1 776 ; but no allusion is made to either of these daring measures to which the correspondence naturally led ; and both of the writers seem to have passed from the stage of human existence, in perfect obliviousness that either Mecklenburg or North Caro- lina had taken any advanced position in favor of throwing off British authority. Now, upon every principle of evidence, upon the ground that a witness who makes positive affirmation of an event is to be credited in preference to one who does not remember it, that forty-five years added to the lives of men, the one forty and the other thirty- three (the ages of Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson), will more tend to impair their recollections than the same term added to those of youths and men from fifteen to twenty-five (the ages of the Mecklenburg witnesses with two exceptions), as well as upon the documentary proof of the despatches and Proclamation aforesaid, we claim it as established, that resolutions were adopted at Charlotte in Mecklenburg, in May, 1775, declaring " the entire dissolution of the laws, Govern- ment and Constitution of Great Britain," which had theretofore obtained, and that a copy of these pro- ceedings was transmitted to Philadelphia by a special messenger, and delivered to the delegation of North Carolina in the Continental Congress ; and that in return an approving message was received by the ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 77 same messenger, but with the admonition that the movement was too early. And if in history, as in law, it is sufficient to prove the substance of the issue, our position is established. In professional phrase we have prevailed on the general issue — the only issue originally made. But a new ground is more recently assumed, that conceding the affirmation to be true, there is error in the clay of the month on which the alleged meeting was held, and in the import of the resolutions, for that it was not the 20th but the 31st of May ; and that the resolutions adopted, though very spirited and defiant, did not import permanent separation from Great Britain. The day is not at all material, in so small a difference in the dates ; and we are thankful to the last learned critic in the North American Review, that " the people of Mecklenburg were the first to cut the ' Gordian knot,' of the political situa- tion by their incisive declaration made on the 31st of May, 1775." If this were all that had been done, it would be an event worthy of commemoration to re- mote a^es. But we contend that the resolutions adopted were resolutions of independence. The word implies so grand and stupendous an idea to the sub- jects of a monarchy, that there is little liability to mistake it for anything else, on the part of a witness of ordinary intelligence. Governor Martin unques- tionably so understood them — " Most traitorously declaring the dissolution of the laws, Government and Constitution, and setting up a system of rule and regulation, repugnant to the laws and subversive of 78 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. His Majesty's Government," the words of which he made use, are satisfied by no other meaning than that of independence. Such is the concurrent recollection of every witness at the scene, of every one who was heard to speak of it afterwards, among the then inhabitants of that country. And no one, we appre- hend, even at a remote period, could probably mis- take the four or five resolutions of the 20th, for the series of twenty on the 31st, arranging details in mat- ters civil and military. Such is the evidence of tradi- tion, and of those who desired to have it kept in re- membrance. But why were not the resolutions of the 20th print- eel in the gazettes? The Cape Fear Mercury, in which were seen the resolutions denounced with such severity by Governor Martin, and referred to in his despatch, as transmitted with it, the only North Car- olina paper in which we are informed of any such publication, was lost from the British Colonial Office before Mr. Sparks made his researches therein — and Mr. Wheeler states that he found a memorandum upon his visit there in 1858, or thereabout, informing that it had been lost from the files since 1837. What series of resolutions it contained is therefore unknown. But if they were the series of the 31st of May, and those of the 20th were not published by printing till 1819, is it not manifest that their publication shortly after their date would have thwarted the unanimous policy of Congress, flying as they did in the very teeth of its professions of loyalty and desire for re- conciliation ? And is it any violent presumption ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 79 that the non-publication, if none was made, was oc- casioned by the advice and influence of that body ? Very serious question is also made as to the genu- ineness of the copy of the resolutions, the original having been destroyed as is alleged by the conflagra- tion of a building in the year 1800 — and Judge Mar- tin in his history of North Carolina having published a series not identical with the copy published by the legis- lature — (See Appendix for copy.) The difference be- tween the two is not a matter of substance — both de- clare independence. And I esteem the production of a separate and slightly varied copy by Martin as corrobo- ration rather than impeachment of the verity of the transaction ; especially when coupled with the state- ment of Dr. Hawks, that he had conversed with Judge Martin on this subject when both were resid- ing in New Orleans, and learned from him that he had obtained his copy in manuscript from the West- ern part of North Carolina, before the year 1800. But the integrity of the copy mainly depends upon the testimony of John McKnitt Alexander, and that' of the witnesses sustaining him. His account was, that as Secretary, he had preserved the record of it, from the time of adoption till it was destroyed with his dwelling by fire in 1800 ; that he had furnished a copy to Dr. Hugh Williamson, who had undertaken to write a history of the State, in order that the dec- laration might be noticed in that work — that he fur- nished another copy to Gen. Davie. Williamson did publish a History of North Carolina in 1812, and in his preface asserts that he "had received much inf or- 80 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. mation from some of the most ancient and respectable citizens of the State, who continue to serve the country, and from others who had lately been numbered with the great majority." He says further that he con- templated to bring the history of the State down to 1790, but declined from the arduousness of the task and confined his work to Colonial history prior to 1771* ]N"ow Alexander is corroborated in the foregoing statement, as we have seen : 1st, by the evidence of Gov. Stokes, who testified that Dr. Williamson had exhibited to him a copy of the Mecklenburg Declara- tion of Independence, in the handwriting of John Mc- Knitt Alexander, in 1793. 2d, by the testimony of Judge Cameron to Dr. Foote, that Alexander had in formed him of such a declaration in 1800, and that copies had been delivered to Dr. Williamson and Gen. Davie. 3d, by the testimony of D. G. Stinson, Esq., as already rehearsed. 4th, by the testimony of Dr. Samuel Henderson as to the finding of the copy in Alexanders handwriting in the mansion of Gen. Davie after the General's death. 5th, by his char- acter, public and private. He seems to have made * Mr. Jefferson in his letter asserts, that Dr. Williamson M in the history he has written of North Carolina did not recollect this gigantic step of its county of Mecklenburg." Williamson himself informs us in his preface that he had collected much historical matter with a view to continue his history to 1790 ; but as his narrative stops with 1771, we do not know what he would have written of events of 1775. We have shown, it is submitted, convincingly, that he had a copy of the Mecklenburg Declaration in his possession in 1793. ADDEESS OF WM. A. GEAHAM. 81 continual claim to this transaction for the people of Mecklenburg : was solicitous to see it incorporated into history, at least as early as 1793 and 1800 — ex- pected to see it in Williamson's promised work, or in some other, to which Davie from his eminence in en- acting history might be called on to contribute ; and of course, as we infer, to make satisfactory proof of it, if called in question in his day, which, according to Wheeler, lasted nearly a quarter of a century after 1793. There was an ingenuousness and confidence in the assertion of this claim on his part, while it could have been readily settled by living witnesses, which indicate no dread of controversy as to its rightfulness, if any had then arisen, and which well comports with the character of an actor in the transaction itself. But it is contended that the resolutions of the 31st of May are so incompatible with those alleged to have been passed on the 20th, that they negative the adop- tion of the last-mentioned altogether ; and this, in my conception, is the onl}^ plausible argument adduced against our position. The resolutions of the 31st fol- low very well as an appropriate sequence to those of the 20th, in everything except in a single particular. It was natural, that after having annulled and thrown off the British authority and dominion in a public meeting in the presence of, and w r ith shouts of ap- probation from the multitude, inflamed by the intel- ligence just received of the battle of Lexington, that the Committee should hold a subsequent meeting to establish a system of government adequate to the ex- igency of the crisis. This was the more necessary 82 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. since by their resolutions of the 20th, " all, each and every military officer was reinstated in his former command and authority, he acting conformably to these regulations, and every member of the Com- mittee was made a civil officer, namely, a justice of the peace in the character of a committee man ; " while upon the popular principle which governed their proceedings, it should have been, and no doubt was, more satisfactory, to choose all these officers by popular election. Accordingly we find that on the 31st, provision was made for a new organization of the military into companies, " and for the choice of a Colonel and other officers by the inhabitants of the county, and for the choosing in like manner of two discreet freeholders from each company with the juris- diction of justices of the peace, with sundry other wise regulations, for the administration of justice, the pre- servation of the peace, the suppression of disloyalty to the new governing power by adherence to Britain, and in preparation for war. But the 18th resolution, in the series of twenty, is as follows : " That these resolves be in full force and virtue until instructions from the Provincial Con- gress regulating the jurisprudence of the Province shall provide otherwise, or until the Legislative body of Great Britain resign its unjust and arbitrary pre- tensions with respect to America." These last words constitute the only seeming inconsistency between the two sets of resolutions. They present a thread of apparent connection with. British authority in a re- mote contingency, to which our opponents point, as ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 83 proof that there was no dissolution on the 20th, and as if the previous resolutions of the same series had not rendered reconcilement to that authority impos- sible. As has been already remarked, we have no tradi- tions of the resolutions of the 31st, and know noth- ing of them except as they appear in contemporary newspapers, discovered at a comparatively recent date ; and though Tory papers, transmitted by Royal Governors, we assume the copies to be correct. We are left, therefore, very much to conjecture in the solution of the question how these words became in- corporated in the resolutions of a Committee which had already pronounced for independence. The most probable one which occurs to us, is, that when the Committee came to more deliberate consideration than was practicable in the excitement of the 20th, under the influence of the news that blood had al- ready begun to flow, and to frame regulations under which every man was required to array himself against the dominion of England at the hazard of be- ing seized as a prisoner, it was deemed humane as well as politic towards the doubtful or disaffected, to leave them the hope that the regulations to which they were required to conform might be terminated by the abandonment of its oppressive policy by the British Parliament. These regulations are essential- ly municipal laws, in which the lawgiver might well prescribe conditions to those over whom he exercised jurisdiction, which he would not observe towards an alien Government. 84 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. It is certain this limitation could not have been designed as a loop-hole for future retreat from the po- sition of independence which had been assumed. On the contrary, the requirement that " The Legislative body of Great Britain resign its unjust and arbitrary pretensions with respect to America," renders this resolution more provokingly offensive to British authority than if that clause had been omitted alto- gether. To that authority it was a defiance, with epithets of opprobrium, while to the wavering, irres- olute, or loyalist citizen, it may have afforded a dis- tant expectation of reconcilement. However this may be, the verbal and circumstantial evidence of in- dependence, is too powerful to be overcome by the unexplained passage in one of the resolutions of the 31st of May. There are some of us who can look back through many years of recollection, and, if blessed with ordi- nary faculties, can test the capacity and extent of hu- man memory in retaining a knowledge of facts and events. Fifty years carries us back to 1825, the year of the election of John Quiney Adams to the Presi- dency, by the House of Representatives, over Jackson and Crawford, and of the visit of Gen. Lafayette to this country and his reception in Raleigh. While forty-five years transports us to the second year of Jack- son's administration, the great debate between Hay no and Webster, the incipiency of nullification, and a year or two later to the agitation of that question in the State Legislature and in popular assemblies. Who, between the ages of 60 and 75 does not rem em- ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 85 ber at least this latter period, the public meetings and discussions, and the parts taken by the several public men then upon the stage ? Yet none of these equalled in magnitude, or were so adapted deeply to impress the memory, as the determination of the people of a colony to dissolve its connection with the parent kingdom, and incur the hazards of treason and of war. There are two most striking points of difference be- tween the resolutions of the 20th and those of the 31st. The first breathe the spirit of a popular assem- bly, by which we are informed the committee was surrounded, just possessed of the news of the battle of Lexington, which is denounced in one of the reso- lutions as the " inhuman shedding of American blood at Lexington," are impassioned in tone, and declara- tive merely of position and principles. The latter are business-like, considerate and minute, providing for the necessities of a civilized community which had cast off its former organism. They make no reference to the battle of Lexington, the startling event of the times, which no public assembly would have failed to notice in the existing state of public feeling, unless they had given expression to their indignation al- ready. For aught that is known, or apparent in them, they may be the offspring of a session of the Com- mittee held in Dr. Brevard's private office, and there being no printing press at hand, were promulged among the people by sending out copies, some of which were procured by spies and forwarded to the royalist paper of Wells in Charleston, and to Governor 86 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. Wright in Georgia, by whom they were so speedily posted off to London. We can therefore say with confidence, that of the resolutions of the 31st we have no information except as they are printed with the signature of a clerk in a contemporary paper ; while as to those of the 20th we have a detailed account from witnesses of character, of capacity to understand the transaction, as our intercourse with them and our own experience abundantly prove, with the best op- portunities for observation ; and confirmed in their recollection by a life-long conversancy with the actors in the scene, among whom it was doubtless a topic of not infrequent conversation, with the other incidents of the revolution, in their camps and marches, court- yards, public assemblages, and at their hospitable fire- sides. The learned have a theory, that upon presenting to a naturalist a bone of one of the extremities of an animal, he can thence infer the structure, form, and habits of the animal, and whether he subsists on flesh or grass. This, in the absence of more convincing in- formation, may answer very well. But to the practi- cal common mind, the description of a witness who had seen the beast, clothed in his skin, pasturing in the fields or roaming the forest, would be more satis- factory than the opinion on these points of Cuvier himself. The political or literary philosophers who undertake to tell us what Mecklenburg should have done, or abstained from doing, on the 20th of May, by inference from the fragment of a resolution passed on the 31st, must excuse us for preferring the account ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. hi of veritable witnesses, who testify what she did do. I regret to understand that the manuscript of that copy of the resolutions of the 20th of May, known as the Davie paper, cannot be found. I remember to have seen it in the Executive office at Raleigh, in 1845, considerably soiled, probably from having passed through the hands of the printers of 1831. I do not recollect to have read it, having often seen the copies in print, and am sure that my attention was not at- tracted to an} 7 certificate to the effect that the copy was made from memory by John McKnitt Alexander, as is alleged in the recent article on this topic in the North American Review — a circumstance implying an imputation at least of negligence on the part of the Committee, by whom the publication of 1830-31 was made, not at all consistent with the characters of the gentlemen composing it. If it were so, however, it probably accounts for the discrepancy between the Davie and Martin copies, in both of which the battle of Lexington is referred to, and in both of which in- dependence is declared. No one in an attempt to re- produce the series of twenty resolutions of the 31st, could ever have brought forth those four or five de- posited with either Davie or Martin ; while the two latter are very nearly identical with each other. And in the absence of the copy furnished to Williamson, it may be that that of Martin, which we have seen was obtained before the year 1800, is the more accurate. But either is sufficient to establish the great fact of the declaration of independence on the 20th of May, 1775, under the circumstances detailed in the oral evidence. 88 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. The coincidence of certain language in these reso- lutions, with that employed in the national declara- tion of independence on the 4th of July, 1776, from which it is insisted that they are of subsequent ori- gin, is, when properly considered, an argument of little weight. And here let me remark that the fame of Mr.- Jefferson, as one of the very first of American writers, will not suffer diminution even by the estab- lishment of the fact, that in the national document lie used language and expressions which had been before employed to express like sentiments in this and other countries — even with the knowledge that they had been so employed. In the phrase of Governor Stokes, in the pamphlet already mentioned, it was but the expression of the common feeling, and was the com- mon language of the country at that eventful period. The learned writer of the article in the North Ameri- can Review brings forward the fact, that Richard Henry Lee, in his resolutions of the 7th of June, 1776, had employed the words, "That these united colonies are, and of right ought to he, free and in- dependent States ; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown ; and that all politi- cal connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and of right ought to be, dissolved." Yet nothing improper can be imputed upon finding that these expressions are adopted into the national de- claration ; and as little, we presume, in discovering in the concluding sentence the pledge of "lives, for- tunes," etc., all of which, in substance, we maintain had been previously used in the Mecklenburg resolu- ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 89 tions. Whether this prior use had ever come to the knowledge of the writer of the national declaration or not, is wholly immaterial. No nation or people ever went to war without in fact staking up their lives and fortunes and honor, and it requires no ex- traordinary rhetorical skill to give expression to the idea. Without going out of our way in the search for examples, we accidentally find that Gibbon, vol. 1, p. £16, speaks of Constantine as a popular leader, to whose service, from a principle of conscience, the early Christians had devoted their " lives and for- tunes." In Martin's History of North Carolina it is mentioned, that after the departure of the Regulat- ors, who had broken up the session of the Superior Court at Hillsborough and compelled the judges to flee, an association paper was drawn up by the sup- porters of the Crown, in which the subscribers sol- emnly engaged to support the government against the insurgents at the risk of their " lives and for- tunes," etc.* This is an American precedent of the use of these terms as early as September, 1770. The essay of the Rev. Dr. Smy the, of Charleston, to which reference has been already made, in the use of like words and phrases to those contained in either de- claration, in the Scottish document, which he men- tions, as early as 1670, may likewise be consulted for many expressions similar to those in these papers, notwithstanding the summary and not very respect- ful manner in which it is passed over by the North American Review. * Vol. 2, 276. 90 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. The reviewer apparently considers himself fortu- nate in finding an expression of Judge Iredell, of North Carolina, to the effect, " that until very near the time when the arbitrary obstinacy of the King left no other alternative than indefinite submission or unreserved resistance, he never heard a man speak on the subject of independence who did not speak of it with abhorrence and indignation." And the emi- nent character of Judge Iredell is very justly com- mented on. The time for decision on this alternative is left very indefinite, and might be fixed at different periods by different minds. But where is this asseveration found ? It is in a document addressed to His Majesty George the Third, King of Great Britain, etc., and signed, "A British American, March, 1777" — never for- warded to the King nor printed till 1857, but circu- lated in manuscript among the friends of Mr. Iredell, as what has since come to be known as a campaign document, to reconcile the people to independence and rouse them to its defence. It is, at most, a rhe- torical effusion in the argument of an an on vinous ad- vocate, never expected to be seen by his correspondent, and not heavily taxing his memory for facts, but in- tent on exposing the tyranny and folly of the King. It so turns out that in the same first volume of Iredell's Life and Correspondence, p. 193-4-6, quoted by the reviewer, we find independence shadowed forth in a letter from William Hooper to Iredell, bearing date April 26th, 1774, in which the writer says: "With you I anticipate the important share which the colo- ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 91 nies must soon have in regulating the political bal- ance. They are striding fast to independence, and ere long will build an empire upon the ruins of Great Britain" The letter is copied at length in the Defence of J. SeawellJones, p. 312, who remarks, " I look upon this letter as not inferior to any event in the history of the country, and in the boldness and originality of it, a document without a rival at the period of its date. It takes precedence of the Meck- lenburg declaration, as that does of the national de- claration of independence." Mr. McKee, the biog- rapher of Iredell, copies these remarks of Jones ap- provingly, and in his work refers often to the Meck- lenburg declaration as a historical event, especially in the mention of Waightstill Avery as a delegate at its adoption. It is quite probable that Mr. Iredell, had the matter been called to his recollection, would have admitted that he had heard of the resolution of the Provincial Congress urging independence on the 12th of April, 1776, and possibly also of the proceeding in Mecklenburg in 1775, though three hundred and fifty miles distant, with no business intercourse between Edenton and Charlotte, and no printing press at either point. But whatever may be our conjectures on this head, it is demonstrated that Mr. Iredell had known of a suggestion of independence in no equivocal, but in an approving sense, and apparently in reply to a like meditation on his own part. It remains to take some notice of the arguments of the reviewer drawn from the proceedings of the Pro- vincial Congress at Hillsborough on the 20th of 9'2 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. August, 1775, in which he seems to suppose that he has found a dilemma, from which there can be no escape. The journal of this Congress, which was printed and published at that time, has ever bee-n re- garded as a noble monument of the patriotism and wis- dom of the men who were its members. It is very copi- ously extracted from by Martin and Jones, neither of whom discovered in it anything irreconcilable with the Mecklenburg declaration of independence, which they both affirm. But the reviewer raises upon it a ques- tion of conscience, and goes so far as to declare it in- famous, if Mecklenburg had made the declaration in question, that her delegates should have concurred in the action of this Congress. To this we have to reply, first, that the casuistry of a professor's chair would be as well ajyplicable to the sailing of a ship in a storm, as to measures of war and revolution. It has never been presumed to aid in planning expeditions, win- ning battles, or overturning governments ; and second, that although Mecklenburg had declared her inde- pendence of Great Britain, there were two other authorities from which she had no purpose to break, and on which she acknowledged her dependence in her very declaration, namely, the Continental Con- gress of the United States, and the Provincial Con- gress of North Carolina. It was, therefore, in entire consonance with her attitude towards Great Britain, that she should appoint her delegates as theretofore, to this Congress, consisting, as we are told, of Thomas Polk, John McKnitt Alexander, John Phifer and Waightstill Avery, and conform her conduct to the ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 93 decrees of that Assembly, which was then the sole depository of the sovereign powers of government in the Province, legislative, executive and judicial. She was not quite so demented or obstinate as to have her delegates withdraw or protest whenever a measure should be proposed or carried, which compromised the independence she had set np for herself; after the example of certain fanatical Jews commented on by Yattel, who, when attacked by their enemies on Sunday, suffered themselves to be cut to pieces, rather than be considered as violating the fourth command- ment in making defence. This is the position the argument of the reviewer would have had them to assume, rather than permit the representation of the whole Province, consisting of nearly all its most illus- trious men, to control the destinies of the whole peo- ple in the perils which environed them. The same fanaticism would have required them, on the return of Capt. Jack from Philadelphia, to denounce the Continental Congress as dastards, and resolve to prosecute the war and maintain independence with- out allies outside of the limits of their own county, or at least of the Province. But they were advised it was too early for the united colonies to venture so far, and they abided by the counsel then given by the authority to which they had appealed. And when their delegates went to Hillsborough, less than two months after Jack's return, they there found Cas- well, Hooper and Hewes, who sent the message from Philadelphia to Mecklenburg, all members of the Provincial Congress from their respective counties. 94 ADDKESS OF WI. A. GRAHAM. In the interim, on the 8th of July they had eacli set his name, with all the other members of the Conti- nental Congress to the petition to the King for a redress of grievances and disclaiming designs of inde- pendence. This we now see, though it was probably not revealed to the Provincial Congress, and we can readily understand, that in a body of which they were members, to which they brought intelligence, doubt- less, as to the state of sentiment in all the colonies, and in which they from their station would exert a decisive influence, there was no likelihood of a pro- clamation of independence. JSTo one has ever pre- tended that the whole colony was then ready for inde- pendence. And, as Mecklenburg had deferred to the views of the Continental Congress, so she but yielded a like deference through her delegates to this Provin- cial Congress in not making a demonstration of her local sentiment, which she was doubtless advised would not be seconded, and could but lead to dissen- sion. No yeas and nays were taken on any question. No one desired to make up a journal to be afterwards quoted to exhibit his personal consistency. All were intent only on the deliverance of their country — some doubtless with views of policy far more advanced than others — and an undivided vote in all important sub- jects was of great moment* But what did this Congress do that was so deroga- tory to the honor of the delegates from Mecklen- burg, that they should have withheld from it their * See Journal of Congress, August, 1775. ADDRESS OF WI. A. GRAHAM. 95 consent ? We are told that, 1st, a test was established to which they submitted. A test of what ? of loy- alty to the King, or of fidelity to the Continen- tal and Provincial Congresses ? This paper is copied but in part, in the article in the North American Review, and that which we may term the British part. Its full import is not to be comprehended from the Review, We therefore give it in full, as follows : " We the subscribers, professing our allegiance to the King, and acknowledging the Constitutional, Ex- ecutive power of Government, do solemnly profess, testify and declare, that we do absolutely believe that neither the Parliament of Great Britain, nor any member or constituent branch thereof, have a right to impose Taxes upon the colonies to regulate the in- ternal policy thereof, and all attempts, by fraud or force, to establish and exercise such claims and pow- ers, are violations of the peace and security of the people, and ought to be resisted to the utmost." [So far goes the copy in the Review.'] " And that the people of this Province, singly and collectively, are bound by the acts and resolutions of the Continental and Provincial Congress, because in both they are freely represented by persons chosen by themselves ; and we solemnly and sincerely promise and engage, under the sanction of virtue and honor, and the sacred love of liberty and our country, to maintain and sup- port all and every the acts, resolutions and regulations of the said Continental and Provincial Congresses, to the utmost of our power and abilities. In testimony 96 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. whereof we have hereto set our hands, this 23d of August, 1775." Saving the first two lines, thrown in for the sake of the scrupulous or disaffected, to afford a semblance of remaining loyalty to the King as an Executive power, this test contains an emphatic denial of all authority of Parliament over the colonies — a declaration that it should be resisted to the utmost, and a solemn engage- ment to maintain and support all and every the acts, re- gulations and resolutions of the Continental and Pro- vincial Congresses. It is in these latter particulars quite equal to the oath now required of a foreigner upon his naturalization as a citizen of the United States, to renounce his native allegiance and be faithful to his new government. There was among the people of the Province, a large number who had been engaged in the Regulation, been overcome at Alamance — some punished capitally, and all the survivors compelled to take anew the oath of allegiance to the King : another large settlement of Scotch Highlanders, recently arrived, and still arriving from their native country, who remembered a like defeat at Culloden in the year '45. Both of these were inclined to the support of the Crown, as well from scruples of conscience as from dread of punishment. The first object of this Con- gress, no doubt, was to exact a bond of obedience to itself and the Continental Congress, " to the utmost of his power and abilities," from every citizen ; but so to attemper the requirement that these classes might be brought into the engagement, and that even the disaffected should have no excuse for refusal. ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 97 Thus understood it excites a smile to see this test treated by our reviewer as a test of loyalty to the King, the more especially when we read in the Jour- nals of many individuals being arrested and brought before the Congress under this test, charged with dis- affection to its authority, but of no one charged with disloyalty to the King, nor of any military or police force, to hunt out such, and make arrests.* It is need- less to add, that a force of this latter class would have been itself promptly arrested, if not summarily exe- cuted. This test was deemed so essential that it was administered to all officials under the Congress, with- out distinction of person, in this and the succeeding body of April 4th, 1776. Even after the passage of the famous resolutions, on the 12th of April, 1776, instructing the delegates of the Province in the Con- tinental Congress to vote for independence, we read in the Journal of April 15th, 1776, that " William Hooper and John Penn, Esqs., delegates of the Con- tinental Congress, and members of this House, appeared, subscribed the test and took their seats." And it may be a matter of surprise to the scrupulous of a later day, that Messrs. Hooper and Penn should thus unnecessarily involve their consciences by taking this test to the King, if it was such, after they had been instructed to vote for independence, and then, within three months, giving their votes and sub- scription to the national declaration. But thus it appears of record. * See in Journal cases of Coulson, Farq'd, Campbell and others. 98 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 2. But the Congress resolved unanimously (Meck- lenburg included) that "the Proclamation of Governor Martin, of the 8th of August inst., is & false, scanda- lous, scurrilous, malicious and seditious libel, tending to disunite the good people of this Province, and stir up tumults and insurrections, dangerous to the peace of his Majesty's government, and the safety of the in- habitants, and highly injurious to the character of several gentlemen of acknowledged virtue and loyalty — and further, that the paper be burned by the com- mon hangman." This Proclamation, which is copied in "Jones's De- fence " (p. 183), and covers near ten pages of that vol- ume, is too long for minute comment here. It is sufficient to say, that in applying to it the term " false," it was not to be implied that the facts recited in it were untrue* In the criminal law of that time it was a maxim, " The greater the truth the greater the libel," if the publication tended to expose the subject of it " to public hatred, contempt or ridicule," and the term " false " was but a formula for charac- terizing a libel. The Congress, therefore, did not in- tend by the resolution to deny that " a committee for the county of Mecklenburg had passed resolves declaring the entire dissolution of the laws, govern- ment and constitution of this country," etc., (as Gov- ernor Martin alleged,) any more than to deny that John Ashe and his associates had burned Fort John- ston, or that Caswell, Hooper and Hewes had writ- ten the letter imputed to them, for the purpose of carrying into effect the resolutions of the Continental ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 99 Congress, or that Samuel Johnston had convoked this Congress (all which with many other acts and per- sons were denounced in the Proclamation) : but the libel consisted in holding up the several acts and per- sons mentioned to public hatred and contempt, by the publication. As to the loyalty the resolution may imply, we have seen how far that extended in the test, into which the members of the Congress had en- tered, and which they prescribed to all the inhabi- tants of the Province. Measured by this it was not a span in length. 3. We have not space or time to investigate the ad- dress to the people of Britain, which does not appear ever to have been transmitted — or the rejection of the proposition for a plan of confederation of the American colonies, mentioned in the Peview. Let it suffice to say, that the new Whig Government, through the Provincial Congresses, and in their vaca- tion by the Provincial Council, w T ith the standard of political duty established by the test before recited, ruled the country with a bold yet politic and in- dulgent hand. Great pains were taken, through com- mittees and otherwise, to explain the situation to the people ; but those who were friends to the King, rather than to this Provincial authority, were sought out and arrested, and then imprisoned or exiled, until they renounced such adhesion or gave pledges for right behavior. Not only this, the Congress organized a war establishment upon a substantial footing — made expeditions, fought battles, and won victories over the King's friends, in South Carolina and Virginia, in con- 100 ADDBESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. junction with the patriot troops of those States, as well as at Moore's Creek, within our own borders ; and by the time the Congress met again the ensuing Spring, was prompt to reward these exploits with the honors of a triumph, in votes of thanks to her heroic commanders.* If the delegates from Mecklenburg did not find an echo to her declaration of principles, and made com- pliances which may appear to have occasioned them chagrin, in practical results they could have desired nothing better than was planned and executed by this Congress. They might well have said to their people at home, " Our strength is to sit still." The Congress was ef- fecting all that they desired, and at this Spring ses- sion they had the great satisfaction to see the Congress nobly resolve on independence, as they had done on the 20th of May, 1775, before the representatives of any *1. The tliauks of Congress were voted to Brigadier Genl. Howe for his manly, generous and warlike conduct in these un- happy times : more especially for the reputation which our Pro- vincial troops acquired under him at the conflagration of Nor- folk (Deer., 1775). Journal, p. 33. 2. Likewise to Col. Richard Caswell, and the brave officers and soldiers under his command, for the very essential service by them rendered this country, at the battle of Moore's Creek (Feb. 27th, 1776). Journal, p. 12. 3. The expedition of Cols. Polk, of Mecklenburg, Rutherford, of Rowan, Neel, of Tryon, and two companies of N. C. Conti- nental troops under Col. Alexander Martin, in conjunction with the troops of South Carolina, against the Scovilites in that State, called the Snow Campaign, was also made in December, 1775. — Oenl. Graham's Memoranda. ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 101 other colony had taken this decisive step. Congress met at Halifax on the 4th of April, 1776. " On the 8th it was resolved, that Mr. Harnett, Mr. Allen Jones, Mr. Burke, Mr. Nash, Mr. Kinchen, Mr. Per- son and Mr. Thomas Jones, be a select committee to take into consideration the usurpations and vio- lences attempted and committed by the King and Parliament of Great Britain against America, and the further measures to be taken for frustrating the same, and for the better defence of this Province." On the 12th of April, 1776, the select committee re- ported as follows, to wit : " It appears to your com- mittee that pursuant to the plan concerted by the British Ministry for the subjugation of America, the King and Parliament of Great Britain have usurped a power over the persons and properties of the peo- ple unlimited and uncontrolled; aud disregarding their humble petitions for peace, liberty and safety, have made divers legislative acts denouncing war, famine and every species of calamity against the con- tinent in general. The British fleets and armies have been and still are daily employed in destroying the people, and committing the most horrid devastations on the country. The Governors in different colonies have declared protection to slaves who should imbrue their hands in the blood of their masters. That the ships belonging to America are declared prizes of war, and many of them have been violently seized and confis- cated. In consequence of all which, multitudes of the people have been destroyed, or from easy circum- stances reduced to the most lamentable distress. And 102 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. whereas, the moderation hitherto manifested by the united colonies, and their sincere desire to be recon- ciled to the mother country on constitutional princi- ples, have procured no mitigation of the aforesaid wrongs and usurpations, and no hopes remain of ob- taining redress by these means alone, which have been hitherto tried, your committee are of opinion the House should enter into the following resolve, to wit : Resolved, "that the delegates from this colony in the Continental Congress be empowered to concur with the delegates of the other colonies in declaring Independency, and forming foreign alliances, reserv- ing to the colony the sole and exclusive right of form- ing a constitution and laws for this colony, and of appointing delegates from time to time, (under the direction of a general representation thereof) to meet the delegates of the other colonies, for such purposes as shall be hereafter pointed out." " The Congress taking the same into consideration unanimously concurred therewith." Our progress to independence then, was by these steps : 1st. Mecklenburg dissolved her connection on the 20th May, 1775, from the mother country, but was still subject to the government of the Provincial Congress which was in alliance with the Continental Congress. 2d. The test adopted by the Provincial Congress on the 23d of August, 1775, in effect cut the cord of connection between the Province of North Carolina and Great Britain, and required an obligation of al- legiance to the Provincial and Continental Con- ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 103 gresses, without limit of time — a transfer of fealty, but as yet, without a change of flag. 3d. This severance was acknowledged, and pro- posed for the adoption of the Continent, by the re- port and resolution of the 12th April, 1776. 4th. Other colonies subsequently adopted like reso- lutions, and the great National Declaration followed on the 4th July, 1776, converting Provinces into States, and uniting all in bonds of harmony, and mu- tual defence and protection. The learned, elaborate, and minute criticism in the North American JReview, controverting the truth of the Mecklenburg Declaration of the 20th May, though conceding and allowing due credit for the resolutions of the 31st, will, I trust, plead due apology for the prolixity of this vindication. Perhaps it may be well, even irrespective of this commentary, on the approach of the hundredth birthday of the event, when all of the old thirteen States seem to be brushing off the dust from their armor, and brightening their escutcheon for display on the great Centennial of the Union, that we should review history and see the foundations on which our faith in it may rest. This I have sought to do by the lights within our approach, candidly and without a particle of vanity or envy towards any of our sister States. All stood bravely side by side in the achievement of the end proclaimed ; and with- out the material resources, the gallant armies, the sages and heroes of all, and even with these, without the repeated favors of a benign Providence, any De- claration of Independence would have been but an empty sound. DOCUMENTS CITED IN PRECEDING ADDRESS. A. — The Davie Copy of the Declaration. (See p. 12.) 1st. Resolved, That whosoever directly or indi- rectly abetted, or in any way, form, or manner, coun- tenanced the unchartered and dangerous invasion of our rights, as claimed by Great Britain, is an enemy to this country, to America, and to the inherent and inalienable rights of man. 2d. Resolved, That we, the citizens of Mecklen- burg county, do hereby dissolve the political bands which have connected us to the mother country, and hereby absolve ourselves from all allegiance to the British Crown, and abjure all political connection, contract, or association, with that nation, who have wantonly trampled on our rights and liberties, and inhumanly shed the blood of American patriots at Lexington. 3d. Resolved, That we do hereby declare ourselves a free and independent people ; are, and of right ought to be, a sovereign and self-governing Associa- tion, under the control of no power other than that of our God and the general government of the Con- gress ; to the maintenance of which independence, we solemnly pledge to each other our mutual co- operation, our lives, our fortunes, and our most sacred honor. 4th. Resolved, That as we now acknowledge the existence and control of no law or legal officer, civil or military, within this county, we do hereby ordain 108 DOCUMENTS CITED IN PRECEDING ADDRESS. and adopt as a rule of life, all, each and every of our former laws, — wherein, nevertheless, the Crown of Great Britain never can be considered as holding- rights, privileges, immunities, or authority therein. 5th. Resolved, That it is further decreed, that all, each and every military officer in this county, is here- by reinstated in his former command and authority, he acting conformably to these regulations. And that every member present, of this delegation, shall henceforth be a civil officer, viz., a Justice of the Peace, in the character of a " Committee-man" to issue process, hear and determine all matters of con- troversy, according to said adopted laws, and to pre- serve peace, union and harmony in said county ; — and to use every exertion to spread the love of country and fire of freedom throughout America, until a more general and organized government be established in this province. B. — Resolutions as in Martin's History, Vol. 2, Page 373. (See p. 14.) Resolved. — That whosoever directly or indirectly abets or in any way, form or manner countenances the invasion of our rights, as attempted by the Parlia- ment of Great Britain, is an enemy to his country, to America, and the rights of men. Resolved. — That we the citizens of Mecklenburg county do hereby dissolve the political bands which have connected us with the mother country, and ab- DOCUMENTS CITED IN PRECEDING ADDRESS. 107 solve ourselves from all allegiance to the British crown, abjuring all political connection with a nation that has wantonly trampled on our rights and liber- ties and inhumanly shed the innocent blood of Ameri- cans at Lexington. Resolved. — That we do hereby declare ourselves a free and independent people, are, and of right ought to be, a sovereign and self-governing people, under the power of God and the General Congress ; to the main- tenance of which independence, we solemnly pledge to each other our mutual co-operation, our lives, our for- tunes, and our most sacred honor. Resolved. — That we hereby ordain and adopt as rules of conduct, all and each of our former laws, and the crown of Great Britain cannot he considered hereafter as holding any rights, privileges or immu- nities amongst us. Resolved. — That all officers, both civil and military, in this county, be entitled to exercise the same powers and authorities as heretofore : that every member of this delegation shall henceforth be a civil officer and exercise the powers of a justice of the peace, issue pro- cess, hear and determine controversies according to law, preserve peace, union and harmony, in the county, and use every exertion to spread the love of liberty and of country, until a more general, and better or- ganized system of Government be established. Resolved. — That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted by express to the President of the Conti- nental Congress assembled in Philadelphia, to be laid before that body. 108 DOCUMENTS CITED IN PRECEDING ADDRESS. C— KESOLUTKWS OF 31st MAY. (See p. 19.) Extract from the South Carolina Gazette and County Journal, of June, 1775, No. 498 — Printed at Charlestoion by Charles Crouch, on the Bay, corner of Elliott Street. Charlottetown, Mecklenburg County, May 31st, .1775. This day the Committee of this county met and passed the following resolves : — Whereas, By an address presented to His Majesty by both Houses of Parliament in February last, the American Colonies are declared to be in a state of ac- tual rebellion, we conceive that all laws and commis- sions confirmed by or derived, from the authority of the King and Parliament are annulled and vacated, and. the former civil constitution of these colonies for the present wholly suspended. To provide in some degree for the exigencies of this county in the present alarming period, we deem it proper and necessary to pass the following resolves, viz : — I. That all commissions, civil and military, hereto- fore granted by the crown to be exercised in these colonies, are null and void, and the constitution of each particular colony wholly suspended. II. That the Provincial Congress of each Province, under the direction of the Great Continental Con- gress, is invested with all legislative and executive powers within their respective provinces, and that no other legislative or executive power does or can exist at this time in any of these colonies. III. As all former laws are now suspended in this DOCUMENTS CITED IN PRECEDING ADDRESS. 109 Province, and the Congress has not yet provided others, we judge it necessary for the better preserva- tion of good order, to form certain rules and regula- tions for the Internal Government of this county, un- til laws shall be provided for us by the Congress. IV. That the inhabitants of this county do meet on a certain day appointed by the Committee, and having formed themselves into nine companies (to wit : eight for the county and one for the town), do choose a colonel and other military officers, who shall hold and exercise their several powers by virtue of the choice, and independent of the crown of Great Bri- tain, and former constitution of this province. V. That for the better preservation of the peace and administration of justice, each of those companies do choose from their own body two discreet free- holders, who shall be empowered each by himself, and singly, to decide and determine all matters of contro- versy arising within said company, under the sum of twenty shillings, and jointly and together all contro- versies under the sum of forty shillings, yet so as their decisions may admit of appeal to the Convention of the Select Men of the County, and also that any one of these men shall have power to examine and commit to confinement persons accused of petit larceny. VI. That those two select men thus chosen do jointly and together choose from the body of their particular company two persons to act as constables, who may assist them in the execution of their office. VII. That upon the complaint of any persons to either of these select men, he do issue his warrant di- 110 DOCUMENTS CITED IN PRECEDING ADDRESS. rected to the constable, commanding him to bring the aggressor before him to answer said complaint. VIII. That these select eighteen select men thus appointed do meet every third Thursday in January, April, July and October at the Court House in Charlotte, to hear and determine all matters of con- troversy for sums exceeding 40s., also appeals ; and in case of felony to commit the persons convicted thereof to close confinement until the Provincial Congress shall provide and establish laws and modes of proceeding in all such cases. IX. That these eighteen select men thus convened do choose a clerk, to record the transactions of said convention, and that said clerk, upon the application of any person or persons aggrieved, do issue his war- rant to any of the constables of the company to which the offender belongs, directing said constable to sum- mon and warn said offender to appear before said convention at their next sitting, to answer the afore- said complaint. X. That any person making complaint, upon oath, to the clerk, or any member of the convention, that he has reason to suspect that any person or persons indebted to him in a sum above forty shillings intend clandestinely to withdraw from the county without paying the debt, the clerk or such member shall issue his warrant to the constable, commanding him to take said person or persons into safe custody until the next sitting of the convention. XI. That when a debtor for a sum above forty shil- lings shall abscond and leave the county, the warrant DOCUMENTS CITED IN PRECEDING ADDEESS. Ill granted as aforesaid shall extend to any goods or chat- tels of said debtor as may be found, and such goods or chattels be seized and held in custody by the con- stable for the space of thirty days, in which time, if the debtor fail to return and discharge the debt, the constable shall return the warrant to one of the select men of the company where the goods are found, who shall issue orders to the constable to sell such a part of said goods as shall amount to the sum due. That when the debt exceeds, forty shillings, the re- turn shall be made to the convention, who shall issue orders for sale. XII. That all receivers and collectors of quit rents, public and county taxes, do pay the same into the hands of the chairman of this committee, to be by them disbursed as the public exigencies may require, and that such receivers and collectors proceed no further in their office until they be approved of by, and have given to this committee good and sufficient security for a faithful return of such moneys when col- lected. XIII. That the committee be accountable to the county for the application of all moneys received from such public officers. XIY. That all these officers hold their commissions during the pleasure of their several constituents. XY. That this committee will sustain all damages to all or any of their officers thus appointed, and thus acting, on account of their obedience and conformity to these rules. 112 DOCUMENTS CITED IN PRECEDING ADDEESS. XYI. That whatever person shall hereafter receive a commission from the crown, or attempt to exercise any such commission heretofore received, shall be deemed an enemy to his country; and upon confir- mation being made to the captain of the company in which he resides, the said company shall cause him to be apprehended and conveyed before two select men, who, upon proof of the fact, shall commit said offender to safe custody, until the next sitting of the committee, who shall deal with him as prudence may direct. XYIL That any person refusing to yield obedience to the above rules shall be considered equally crimi- nal, and liable to the same punishment, as the offenders above last mentioned. XVIII. That these resolves be in full force and virtue until instructions from the Provincial Congress regulating the jurisprudence of the province shall provide otherwise, or the legislative body of Great Britain resign its unjust and arbitrary pretensions with respect to America. XIX. That the eight militia companies in this county provide themselves with proper arms and accoutrements, and hold themselves in readiness to execute the commands and directions of the Gen- eral Congress of this province and this Commit- tee. XX. That the Committee appoint Col. Thomas Polk and Dr. Joseph Kennedy to purchase 300 pounds of powder, 600 pounds of lead, 1000 flints, for the use of the militia of this county, and deposit the DOCUMENTS CITED IN PKECEDINCr ADDRESS. 113 same in such place as the Committee may hereafter direct. Signed by order of the Committee, EPIL BEEYAED, Clerk of the Committee. D.— (See page 38.) Letter from Hon. C. Tait, Member of Congress from Georgia. Washington, Jan'y 25th, 1819. Dear Sir : — Of late an inquiry, and in some instances a controversy, has arisen respecting the origin of the American Revolution. Some say it be- gan in Virginia, and for this honor the Virginians strenuously contend. The people of New England assert that it commenced in the Town of Boston, and much has been written of late on the subject. This controversy has been dignified by a correspond- ence between two ex-Presidents of the U. S., — Adams and Jefferson. Other parts of the country begin to put in their pretensions to an early mo vein' t in this great event, which is destined to influence the affairs of mankind. North Carolina thinks she has some claims in this regard ; and Mr. Macon of the Senate is collect- ing what information he can on the subject. It appears by a document lately furnished him that the people of the county of Mecklenburg of that State, so early as on the 20th of May, 1775, declared themselves inde- 114 DOCUMENTS CITED IN PRECEDING ADDRESS. pendent in due form in a Convention at the town of Charlotte. That Adam or Abram Alexander was the President of this Convention, and that John Mc- 'Nitt Alexander was its Secretary or Clerk. It also appears by this curious Document that Capn James Jack was the person chosen to cany the proceedings of this Convention to the Continental Congress sit- ting at Philadelphia. Presuming that the Cap'n Jack is no other person than your respected father, I informed Mr. Macon he is still living in the County of Elbert and State of Georgia. This information has produced a request from Mr. Macon that I w T ould write to you and request it as a favour of you to for- ward to him any Document, or copy of a Document, which has any relation to the Mecklenburg Conven- tion, or of the revolutionary movements in that part of the country, at that early period. This I persuade myself you will with pleasure do. By possibility your father may have preserved, as a precious relic of those clays, some papers relating to the proceed- ings alluded to, and in which he bore an honorable part. If this is the case it will gratify Mr. Macon very much to get them or a copy of them. Present my respects to Mrs. Jack, to your father and mother, and believe me, Yours, &cT; &c., (Signed.) C. Tait. Gen. P. Jack. P. S. — Mr. Macon will be very glad to hear from you before the adjournment of Congress; his given name is Nathaniel. C. T. APPENDIX THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE By the Citizens of Mecklenburg County, on the tioentieth day of I, 1775, with accompanying documents, published by the Governor, under the authority and direc- tion of the General Assembly of the State of North Carolina. PREFACE. The resolution of the General Assembly directing this publication, makes it the duty of the Governor to cause to be published in pamphlet form the Report of the Committee relative to the Declaration of Independ- ence, and the accompanying documents, in the follow- ing order, viz. : 1. The Mecklenburg Declaration, with the names of the Delegates composing the meeting. 2. The certificates testifying to the circumstances at- tending the Declaration; and 3. The proceedings of the Cumberland Association. In the discharge of this duty, the Governor has deemed it proper to prefix to the publication the following brief review of the evidence by which the authenticity of this interesting portion of the history of North Carolina is controverted and sustained. On the 30th of April, 1819, the publication marked A, made its appearance in the Raleigh Register. It was communicated to the editors of that paper by Doct. Joseph McKnitt, then and now a citizen of the county of Mecklenburg, and was speedily republished in most of 116 APPENDIX. the newspapers in the Union. A paper containing it (the Essex Register) was, it seems, on the 22d June, 1819, enclosed to Mr. Jefferson, by his illustrious com- patriot, John Adams, accompanied with the remark, that he thought it genuine ; and this suggestion of Mr. Adams elicited the following reply, which was at that time published in various newspapers, and has been since given to the world in the 4th volume of Mr. Jefferson's Works, page 311: TO JOHN ADAMS. "Monticello, July 9, 1819. " Dear Sir, — I am in debt to you for your letters of May the 21st, 27th, and June the 22nd. The first, de- livered me by Mr. Greenwood, gave me the gratification of his acquaintance ; and a gratification it always is, to be made acquainted with gentlemen of candor, worth, and information, as I found Mr. Greenwood to be. That on the subject of Mr. Samuel Adams Wells, shall not be forgotten in time and place, when it can be used to his advantage. "But what has attracted my peculiar notice, is the paper from Mecklenburg county, of North Carolina, published in the Essex Eegister, which you were so kind as to enclose in your last, of June the 22nd. And you seem to think it genuine. I believe it spurious. I deem it to be a very unjustifiable quiz, like that of the volcano, so minutely related to us as having broken out in North Carolina, some half dozen years ago, in that part of the country, and perhaps in that very county of Mecklenburg, for I do not remember its precise locality. If this paper be really taken from the Raleigh APPENDIX. 117 Register, as quoted, I wonder it should have escaped Ritchie, who culls what is good from every paper, as the bee from every flower; and the National Intelligencer, too, which is edited by a North Carolinian ; and that the fire should blaze out all at once in Essex, one thou- sand miles from where the spark is said to have fallen. But if really taken from the Raleigh Register, who is the narrator, and is the name subscribed real, or is it as fictitious as the paper itself? It appeals, too, to an orig- inal book, which is burnt, to Mr. Alexander, who is dead, to a joint letter from Caswell, Hewes, and Hooper, all dead, to a copy sent to the dead Caswell, and another sent to Doctor Williamson, now probably dead, whose memory did not recollect, in the history he has written of North Carolina, this gigantic step of its county of Mecklenburg. Horry, too, is silent in his history of Marion, whose scene of action was the country- bordering on Mecklenburg. Ramsay, Marshall, Jones, Girardin, Wirt, historians of the adjacent States, all silent. When Mr. Henry's resolutions, far short of in- dependence, flew like lightning through every paper, and kindled both sides of the Atlantic, this flaming declaration of the same date, of the independence of Mecklenburg county, of North Carolina, absolving it from the British allegiance, and abjuring all political connection with that nation, although sent to Congress, too, is never heard of. It is not known even a twelve- month after, when a similar proposition is first made in that body. Armed with this bold example, would not you have addressed our timid brethren in peals of thun- der, on their tardy fears ? Would not every advocate of independence have rung the glories of Mecklenburg conntv, in North Carolina, in the ears of the doubting 118 APPENDIX. Dickinson and others, who hung so heavily on us ? Yet the example of independent Mecklenburg county, in North Carolina, was never once quoted. The paper speaks, too, of the continued exertions of their delega- tion (Caswell, Hooper, Hewes,) 'in the cause of liberty and independence.' Now, you remember as well as I do, that we had not a greater tory in Congress than Hooper ; that Hewes was very wavering, sometimes firm, sometimes feeble, according as the day was clear or cloudy ; that Caswell, indeed, was a good whig, and kept these gentlemen to the notch, while he was pres- ent ; but that he left us soon, and their line of conduct became then uncertain until Penn came, who fixed Hewes, and the vote of the State. I must not be un- derstood as suggesting any doubtfulness in the State of North Carolina. No State was more fixed or forward. Nor do I affirm, positively, that this paper is a fabrica- tion, because the proof of a negative can only be pre- sumptive. But I shall believe it such until positive and solemn proof of its authenticity shall be produced. And if the name of McKnitt be real, and not a part of the fabrication, it needs a vindication by the production of such proof. For the present, I must be an unbeliever in the apocryphal gospel. "I am glad to learn that Mr. Ticknor has safely re- turned to his friends ; but should have been much more pleased had he accepted the Professorship in our Uni- . versity, which we should have offered him in form. Mr. Bowditch, too, refuses us; so fascinating is the vin- culum of the duke natale solum. Our wish is to pro- cure natives, where they can be found, like these gen- tlemen, of the first order of acquirement in their respect- ive lines; but preferring foreigners of the first order to APPENDIX. 119 natives of the second, we shall certainly have to go, for several of our Professors, to countries more advanced in science than we are. " I set out within three or four days for my other home, the distance of which, and its cross mails, are great impediments to epistolary communications. I shall remain there about two months; and there, here, and everywhere, I am and shall always be, affectionately and respectfully yours, " TH : JEFFERSON." The republication of this letter in a work which is intended for, and will go down to posterity, recom- mended alike by its intrinsic excellence, and the illus- trious name of the author, has imposed upon the Legis- lature the task of proving that, with regard to this particular fact, Mr. Jefferson was mistaken, and that his opinion was made up from a very superficial and inaccurate examination of the publication in the Raleigh Register, the only evidence then before him, and upon which his letter is a commentary. The letter itself was evidently written car rente cala- mo, and for that reason may not be regarded as a fair subject for severe criticism. It is not intended to subject it to such a test, nor is it designed to examine it further than may be necessary to the ascertainment of truth. Of the ability, the purity, the patriotism of the author, it is unnecessary to speak. His love of country was not bounded by the confines of Virginia; but it is no dis- credit to his memory that her institutions, her heroes and her statesmen occupied the first place in his affec- tions. She was emphatically /the mother of great men.' and ' his own, his native land ; ' and it is no mat- 120 APPENDIX. ter of surprise that he should be unwilling, without the most ample -proof, to transfer the brightest page of her history to emblazon the records of a sister State. Mr. Wirt's Life of Patrick Henry had just been published, and for the latter was claimed the high distinction of having been the first to give motion to the ball of the Eevolution. Mr. Jefferson himself was the author of the Declaration of Independence by Congress, and was not disposed to share in any degree the immortality with which it had crowned him, with a comparatively obscure citizen of North Carolina; and, therefore, the evidence which was at once satisfactory to Mr. Adams, is by him pronounced " to be a very unjustifiable quiz." The grounds for this opinion, in the order in which they are given to Mr. Adams, are, 1. That the story is "like that of the volcano* having broken out in that part of the country, and perhaps in thai very county of Mecklenburg" 2. "If this paper be really taken from the Raleigh Register, as quoted, I wonder it should have escaped Ritchie," &c, " and that the fire should blaze out all at once in Essex, one thousand miles from where the spark is said to have fallen." 3. " But if really taken from the Raleigh Register, ivlio is the narrator, and is the name subscribed real, or is it as fictitious as the paper itself?" 4. "It appeals, too, to an original book, which is burnt, to Mr. Alexander, who is dead, to a joint letter from Caswell, Hewes, and Hooper, all dead, to a copy sent to the dead Casivell, and another * The hoax alluded to was published in 1812, and represented the volcano as having broken out in the neighborhood of the Warm Springs, in Buncombe, a point nearly as distant from the county of Mecklenburg as from Monticello. APPENDIX. 121 sent to Doctor Williamson, now probably dead, whose memory did not recollect, in the history he has written of North Carolina, this gigantic step of its county of Mecklenburg? &c, &c. Without further remark with regard to the first point — the quiz about the volcano — or the second, whether the "spurious" paper was really published in the Raleigh Register, it is proper to say, in reply to the third argument, that the name subscribed is real, that the individual still lives, that he is moreover a credible witness, and that it is to his laudable attention and ex- ertions that the State is indebted for the preservation of much of the testimony which is now offered to the public. The fourth argument demands, and will re- ceive more particular attention and examination. The paper appeals to a book, which is burnt; to Mr. Alexander, wdio is dead; to Messrs. Caswell, Hooper, and Hewes, all dead; to a copy sent to "the dead Caswell," and another, sent to Doct.Williamson, proba- bly dead, are the consecutive facts which Mr. Jeffer- son states, and on which he relies. Admit the premises, and the conclusion would be probable, though not inevi- table ; and a writer of much less ability, if permitted to assume his facts, might predicate upon them not only a very plausible, but an unanswerable argument. The very fact, however, on which Mr. Jefferson rests, as the climax of improbabilities, is not only not proved to exist, but, upon his own showing, does not exist ; and justifies the remark in the outset, that his letter was written in haste, upon a very superficial and imperfect view of the subject. The paper does not appeal "to the dead Caswell," but to the then living Davie, a native of the section of country in which the event 122 APPENDIX. occurred, like the former, a distinguished hero of the Revolution, and, in every respect, a proper depositary of the record. The following is the statement in question : (See the paper A.) ("The foregoing is a true copy of the papers, on the above subject, left in my bands by John McKnitt Alexander, dec'd. I find it mentioned on file, that the original book was burned April, 1800. That a copy of the proceedings was sent to *Hugh Williamson, in New York, then writing a history of North Carolina, and that a copy was sent to Gen. W. It. Davie.") Gen. Davie died shortly after the date of Mr. Jefferson's let- ter; but this identical copy, known by the writer of these remarks to be in the hand-writing of John McKnitt Alexander, one of the Secretaries of the Mecklenburg meeting, is now in the Executive Office of this State. (See Doct. Henderson's certificate, B.) Caswell, Hooper, and Heives are all dead ; but Capt. Jack, who was appointed to carry to them, at Philadelphia, this Mecklenburg Declaration, lived long enough to bear testimony to the truth; and his statement (C) is circumstantial, expli- cit and satisfactory. If it needed confirmation, it would be found to be fully sustained by the interesting communication (D) of the late Rev. Francis Cummins, D.D., of Georgia, to the Hon. Nathaniel Macon. More * This copy the writer well recollects to liave seen in the pos- session of Doct. Williamson, in the year 1793, in Fayetteville, together with a letter to him from John McKnitt Alexander, and to have conversed with him on the subject. Why it is not men- tioned in his History, is not strange to any one who knows the State, and has read the book. It cannot be regarded as a history of any country. The memorable Report and Resolutions of the Congress of April, 1776, are alike unnoticed. A correct and sat- isfactory account of both proceedings will be found in the last chapter of Martin's History of North Carolina. APPENDIX. 123 satisfactory evidence, drawn from more respectable sources, Mr. Jefferson, if alive, could not, and would not require. It is not hazarding too much to say, that there is no one event of the Revolution which has been, or can be more fully or clearly authenticated. It is, perhaps, needless to multiply proofs, or to ex- tend this article. Col. William Polk is a resident of this city, a venerable remnant of the Revolutionary stock, has passed the common boundary of human life, and in a green old age, is in the full possession of his faculties. His compatriots, Caswell, and Hooper, and Hewes, are dead, hut he lives, was present, heard his father proclaim the Declaration to the assembled multitude ; and need it be inquired, in any portion of this Union, if lie will be believed ? The letter (E) of Gen. Joseph Graham, another sur- viving officer of the Revolution, a citizen and a soldier worthy of the best days of the Republic, will be read with pleasure and perfect confidence throughout the wide range of his acquaintance. The extract from the memoir of the late Rev. Hum- phrey Hunter (F), of Lincoln, is equally explicit, full and satisfactory. He, with several other respectable gentlemen, whose statements are appended, was an eye- witness of what he relates ; and the combined testimony of all these individuals prove the existence of the Mecklenburg Declaration, and all the circumstances connected with it, as fully and clearly as any fact can be shown by human testimony. The following extract from "The Journal of the Provincial Congress of North Carolina, held at Halifax, on the 4th April, 1776 " (pp. 11, 12), shows that the first legislative recommendation of a Declaration" of Inde- 124 APPENDIX. pendence by the Continental Congress, originated likewise in the State of North Carolina. It is worthy of remark, that John McKnitt Alexander, the Secretary of the meeting, Waightstill Avery, John Pfifer and Robert Irwin, who were conspicuous actors in the pro- ceedings in Mecklenburg, were active and influential members of this Provincial Congress. " The select committee to take into consideration the usurpations and violences attempted and committed by the King and Parliament of Britain against America, and the further measures to be taken for frustrating the same, and for the better defence of this Province, re- ported as follows, to wit : " It appears to your committee, that pursuant to the plan concerted by the British Ministry for subjugating America, the King and Parliament of Great Britain have usurped a power over the persons and properties of the people unlimited and uncontrolled; and disregarding their humble petitions of peace, liberty, and safety, have made divers legislative acts, denouncing war, famine, and every species of calamity, against the Continent in general. The British fleets and armies have been, and still are daily employed in destroying the people, and committing the most horrid devastations on the coun- try. That Governors in different Colonies have de- clared protection to slaves who should imbrue their hands in the blood of their masters. That the ships belonging to America are declared prizes of war, and many of them have been violently seized and confisca- ted. In consequence of all which multitudes of the people have been destroyed, or from easy circumstances reduced to the most lamentable distress. APPENDIX. 125 " And whereas the moderation hitherto manifested by the United Colonies, and their sincere desire to be reconciled to the mother country on constitutional prin- ciples, have procured no mitigation of the aforesaid wrongs and usurpations, and no hopes remain of ob- taining redress by those means alone which have been hitherto tried, your committee are of opinion that the House should enter into the following resolve, to wit: "Resolved, That the Delegates for this Colony in the Continental Congress be impowered to concur with the delegates of the other colo- nies in declaring independency, and forming foreign alliances, reserving to this Colony the sole and exclusive right of forming a Constitution and laws for this Colony, and of appointing Delegates from time to time (mider the direction of a general representation thereof), to meet the Delegates of the other Colonies, for such purposes as shall be hereafter pointed out. " The Congress taking the same into consideration, unanimously concurred therewith." The striking similarity of expression in the conclud- ing sentences of the Mecklenburg Declaration, and the Declaration by Congress on the 4th of July, 1776, has been repeatedly urged and relied upon as disproving the authenticity of the former. It is scarcely necessary to reply to this suggestion. It is not very strange that men who think alike should speak alike upon the same subject, more especially when high-toned patriotic feeling seeks for utterance. This similarity of expres- sion is not confined, however, to these two papers. A comparison of the foregoing resolutions with the Dec- laration, as drawn by Mr. Jefferson, will satisfy the 126 APPENDIX. most credulous upon this subject. Who suspects Mr. Jefferson of intentional plagiarism? and yet he might be charged with having appropriated the language of the Provincial Legislature, Avith at least as much pro- priety as Mr. Alexander with having forged the Meck- lenburg Declaration. The sentiments embodied by Mr. Jefferson were not peculiar to himself, but adopted by him as expressive of the common feeling in the common language of that eventful period. REPORT AND RESOLUTIONS, ADOPTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY AT THE SESSION" OF 1830-31, UPON" WHICH THIS PUBLICATION IS PREDICATED. The committee to whom it was referred to examine, collate and arrange in proper order such parts of the Journals of the Provincial Assemblies of North Caro- lina, as relate to the Declaration of American Independ- ence ; also such documents as relate to the Declaration of Independence made by the patriotic men of Mecklen- burg in May, 1775 ; and also such measures as relate to the same cause, adopted by the freemen of Cumberland county, previous to the 4th of July, 1776, in order to the publication and distribution of such documents, having performed the duty assigned them, respectfully report : That upon an attentive examination of the Journals of the Provincial Assembly of North Carolina, which met at Halifax in the month of April, 1776, the com- mittee are of opinion, that no selection could be made APPENDIX. 127 from the said Journal to answer the purpose of the House. But as everything relating to that period must be interesting to those who value the blessing of national independence, the committee recommend that the whole of the Journal be printed, and receive the same extended distribution which the resolution of the House contemplates for the proceedings in Mecklen- burg and Cumberland. This course is deemed by the committee the more proper, because the Journal is now out of print, and it is highly probable that the copy in the possession of the committee is the only one now extant. Your committee have also examined, collated, and ar- ranged all the documents which have been accessible to them, touching the Declaration of Independence by the citizens of Mecklenburg, and the proceedings of the freemen of Cumberland. By the publication of these papers, it will be fully verified, that as early as the month of May, 1775, a por- tion of the people of North Carolina, sensible that their wrongs could no longer be borne, without sacrificing both safety and honor, and that redress so often sought, so patiently waited for, and so cruelly delayed, was no longer to be expected, did, by a public and solemn act, declare the dissolution of the ties which bound them to the crown and people of Great Britain, and did estab- lish an independent, though temporary government for their own control and direction. The first claim of Independence evinces such high sentiments of valor and patriotism, that we cannot, and ought not, lightly to esteem the honor of having made it. The fact of the Declaration should be announced, its language should be published and perpetuated, and 1 2S APPENDIX. the names of the gallant representatives of Mecklen- burg, with whom it originated, should be preserved from an oblivion, which, should it involve them, would as much dishonor us, as injure them. If the thought of Independence did not first occur to them, to them, at least, belongs the proud distinction of having first given language to the thought; and it should be known, and, fortunately, it can still be conclusively es- tablished, that the Eevolution received it first impulse towards Independence, however feeble that impulse might have been, in North Carolina. The committee are aware that this assertion has elsewhere been received with doubt, and at times met with denial ; and it is, therefore, believed to be more strongly incumbent upon the House to usher to the Avorld the Mecklenburg Dec- laration, accompanied with such testimonials of its genuineness, as shall silence incredulity, and with such care for its general diffusion, as shall forever secure it from being forgotten. And in recounting the Causes, the origin and the progress of our Revolutionary strug- gle, till its final issue in acknowledged independence, whatever the brilliant achievements of other States may have been, let it never be forgotten, that at a period of darkness and oppression, without concert with others, without assurances of support from any quarter, a few gallant North Carolinians, all fear of consequences lost in a sense of their country's wrongs, relying, under Heaven, solely upon themselves, nobly dared to assert, and resolved to maintain, that independence, of which, whoever might have thought, none had then spoken ; and thus earned for themselves, and for their fellow- citizens of North Carolina, the honor of giving birth to the first Declaration of Independence. APPENDIX. 129 The committee respectfully recommend the adoption of the following resolutions. All of which is submitted. THOS. G. POLK, Chr'n, JOHN BRAGG, EVAN ALEXANDER, LOUIS D. HENRY, ALEX. M'NEILL. Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor be di- rected to cause to be published in pamphlet form the above Report and the accompanying documents, in the manner and order following, viz. : After the Report, first, the Mecklenburg Declaration, with the names of the Delegates composing the meeting; second, the Cer- tificates, testifying to the circumstances attending the Declaration ; third, the proceedings of the Cumberland Association. And that he be further directed to have reprinted, in like manner, separate and distinct from the above, the accompanying Journal of the Provincial Assembly, held at Halifax in 1776. Resolved further, That after publication, the Govern- or be instructed to distribute said documents as follows, to wit: Twenty copies of each to the Library of the State ; to each of the Libraries at the University, ten copies; to the Library of the Congress of the United States, ten copies ; and one copy to each of the Execu- tives of the several States of the Union. 130 APPENDIX. DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. . May 20, 1775. names of the delegates present. Col. Thomas Polk:, Jno. M'Knitt Alexander, Ephraim Brevard, Hezekiah Alexander, Hezekiah J. Balch, Adam Alexander, John Phifer, Charles Alexander, James Harris, Zacheus Wilson, Sen., William Kennon, Waightstill Ayery, John Ford, Benjamin Patton, Richard Barry, Matthew M'Clure, Henry Downs, Neil Morrison, Ezra Alexander, Robert Irwin, William Graham, John Flenniken, John Queary, David Reese, Abraham Alexander, Richard Harris, Sen. Abraham Alexander, was appointed Chairman, and John M'Knitt Alexander, Clerk. The follow- ing resolutions were offered, viz. : 1st. Resolved, That whosoever directly or indirectly abetted, or in any way, form, or manner, countenanced the unchartered and dangerous invasion of our rights, as claimed by Great Britain, is an enemy to this coun- try, to America, and to the inherent and inalienable rights of man. 2d. Resolved, That we, the citizens of Mecklenburg county, do hereby dissolve the political bands which have connected us to the mother country, and hereby absolve ourselves from all allegiance to the British Crown, and abjure all political connection, contract, or association, APPENDIX. 131 with that nation, who have wantonly trampled on onr rights and liberties, and inhumanly shed the blood of American patriots at Lexington. 3d. Resolved, That we do hereby declare ourselves a free and independent people; are, and of right ought to be, a sovereign and self-governing Association, under the control of no power other than that of our God and the general government of the Congress ; to the main- tenance of which independence, we solemnly pledge to each other our mutual co-operation, our lives, our for- tunes, and our most sacred honor. 4th. Resolved, That as we now acknowledge the exist- ence and control of no law or legal officer, civil or mili- tary, within this county, we do hereby ordain and adopt as a rule of life, all, each and every of our former laws, — wherein, nevertheless, the Crown of Great Bri- tain never can be considered as holding rights, privil- eges, immunities, or authority therein. 5th. Resolved, That it is further decreed, that all, each and every military officer in this county, is hereby reinstated in his former command and authority, he acting conformably to these regulations. And that every member present, of this delegation, shall hence- forth be a civil officer, viz., a Justice of the Peace, in the character of a " Committee-man," to issue process, hear and determine all matters of controversy, accord- ing to said adopted laws, and to preserve peace, union and harmony in said county; — and to use every exertion to spread the love of country and lire of freedom throughout America, until a more general and organ- ized government be established in this province. After discussing the foregoing resolves, and arranging bye-laws and regulations for the government of a Stand- 132 APPENDIX. ing Committee of Public Safety, who were selected from these delegates, the whole proceedings were unani- mously adopted and signed. A select committee was then appointed to draw a more full and definite state- ment of grievances, and a more formal Declaration of Independence. The Delegation then adjourned about 2 o'clock, A.M., May 20. A. FROM THE RALEIGH REGISTER OF APRIL 30, 1819. It is not, probably, known to many of our readers, that the citizens of Mecklenburg county, in this State, made a Declaration of Independence more than a year before Congress made theirs. The following document on the subject has lately come to the hands of the Edi- tor from unquestionable authority, and is published that it may go down to posterity. North Carolina, Mecklenburg County, ) May 20, 1775. ] In the spring of 1775, the leading characters of Meck- lenburg county, stimulated by that enthusiastic patri- otism which elevates the mind above considerations of individual aggrandizement, and scorning to shelter themselves from the impending storm by submission to lawless power, etc., etc., held several detached meetings, in each of which the individual sentiments were, " that the cause of Boston was the cause of all; that their des- tinies were indissolubly connected with those of their Eastern fellow-citizens — and that they must either sub- mit to all the impositions which an unprincipled, and APPENDIX. 133 to them an unrepresented, Parliament might impose — or support their brethren who were doomed to sustain the first shock of that power, which, if successful there, would ultimately overwhelm all in the common calami- ty." Conformably to these principles, Colonel T. Polk, through solicitation, issued an order to each Captain's comjmny in the county of Mecklenburg, (then compris- ing the present county of Cabarrus,) directing each mili- tia company to elect two persons, and delegate to them ample power to devise ways and means to aid and assist their suffering brethren in Boston, and also generally to adopt measures to extricate themselves from the impending storm, and to secure unimpaired their inalienable rights, privileges and liberties, from the dominant grasp of British imposition and tyranny. In conformity to said order, on the 19th of May, 1775, the said delegation met in Charlotte, vested with unlimited powers; at which time official news, by ex- press, arrived of the battle of Lexington on that day of the preceding month. Every delegate felt the value and importance of the prize, and the awful and solemn cri- sis which had arrived — every bosom swelled with indig- nation at the malice, inveteracy, and insatiable revenge, developed in the late attack at Lexington. The univer- sal sentiment was : let us not flatter ourselves that popu- lar harangues, or resolves ; that popular vapour will avert the storm, or vanquish our common enemy — let us de- liberate — let us calculate the issue — the probable result; and then let us act with energy, as brethren leagued to preserve our property — our lives — and what is still more endearing, the liberties of America. Abraham Alexan- der was then elected Chairman, and Jolin M'Knitt Alexander^ Clerk. After a free and full discussion of 134 APPENDIX. the various objects for which the delegation had been convened, it was unanimously ordained — 1. Resolved^ That whoever directly or indirectly abetted, or in any way, form, or manner, countenanced the unchartered and dangerous invasion of our rights, as claimed by Great Britain, is an enemy to this coun- try — to America — and to the inherent and inalienable, rights of man. 2. Resolved, That we the citizens of Mecklenburg county, do hereby dissolve the political bands which have connected us to the Mother Country, and hereby absolve ourselves from all allegiance to the British Crown, and abjure all political connection, contract, or association, with that nation, who have wantonly tram- pled on our rights and liberties — and inhumanly shed the innocent blood of American patriots at Lexington. 3. Resolved, That we do hereby declare ourselves a free and independent people, are, and of right ought to be, a sovereign and self-governing Association, under the control of no power other than that of our God and the General Government of the Congress ; to the main- tenance of which independence, we solemnly pledge to each other, our mutual co-operation, our lives, our for- tunes, and our most sacred honor. 4. Resolved, That as we noiv acknowledge the exis- tence and control of no law or legal officer, civil or military, within this county, we do hereby ordain and adopt, as a rule of life, all, each and every of our former laws, wherein, nevertheless, the Crown of Great Britain never can be considered as holding rights, privileges, immunities, or authority therein. 5. Resolved, That it is also further decreed, that all, APPENDIX. 135 each and every military officer in this county, is hereby reinstated to his former command and authority, he acting- conformably to these regulations. And that every member present of this delegation shall henceforth be a civil officer, viz., a Justice of the Peace, in the char- acter of a " Committee-man" to issue process, hear and determine all matters of controversy, according to said adopted laws, and to preserve peace, and union, and harmony, in said county, — and to use every exertion to spread the love of country and fire of freedom through- out America, until a more general and organized gov- * ernment be established in this province. A number of by-laws were also added, merely to pro- tect the association from confusion, and to regulate their general conduct as citizens. After sitting in the Court House all night, neither sleepy, hungry, nor fatigued, and after discussing every paragraph, .they were all passed, sanctioned, and decreed, unanimously, about 2 o'clock, a.m., May 20. In a few days, a depu- tation of said delegation convened, when Capt. James Jack, of Charlotte, was deputed as express to the Con- gress at Philadelphia, with a copy of said Eesolves and Proceedings, together with a letter addressed to our three representatives there, viz., Richard Casivell, Wil- liam Hooper and Joseph Heives — under express in- junction, personally, and through the State representa- tion, to use all possible means to have said pro- ceedings sanctioned and approved by the General Congress. On the return of Captain Jack, the delega- tion learned that their proceedings were individually approved by the Members of Congress, but that it was deemed premature to lay them before the House. A 136 APPENDIX. joint letter from said three Members of Congress was also received, complimentary of the zeal in the common cause, and recommending perseverance, order and energy. The subsequent harmony, unanimity, and exertion in the cause of liberty and independence, evidently result- ing from these regulations and the continued exertion of said delegation, apparently tranquillized this section of the State, and met with the concurrence and high approbation of the Council of Safety, who held their sessions at Newbern and Wilmington, alternately, and who confirmed the nomination and acts of the delega- tion in their official capacity. From this delegation originated the Court of Enquiry of this county, who constituted and held their first ses- sion in Charlotte — they then held their meetings regu- larly at Charlotte, at Col. James Harris's, and at Col. Phifer's, alternately, one week at each place. It was a Civil Court founded on military process. Before this Judicature, all suspicious persons were made to appear, who were formally tried and banished, or continued under guard. Its jurisdiction was as unlimited as tory- ism, and its decrees as final as the confidence and patri- otism of the county. Several were arrested and brought before them from Lincoln, Rowan and the adjacent counties. [The foregoing is a true copy of the papers on the above subject, left in my hands by John McKnitt Alex- ander, dec'd. I find it mentioned on file that the origi- nal book was burned April, 1800. That a copy of the proceedings was sent to Hugh Williamson, in New York, then Writing a History of North Carolina, and that a copy was sent to Gen. W. R. Davie. J. McKNITT.l APFENDIX. 137 B. STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA,) Mecklenburg County. [ I, Samuel Henderson, do hereby certify, that the paper annexed was obtained by me from Maj. William Davie in its present situation, soon after the death of his father, Gen. William R. Davie, and given to Doct. Joseph McKnitt by me. In searching for some par- ticular paper, I came across this, and, knowing the hand-writing of John McKnitt Alexander, took it up, and examined it. Maj. Davie said to me (when asked how it became torn) his sisters had torn it, not know- ing what it was. Given under my hand, this 25th Nov., 1830. SAM. HENDERSON. [Note. — To this certificate of Doct. Henderson is annexed the copy of the paper A, originally deposited by John McKnitt Alex- ander in the hands of Gen. Davie, whose name seems to have been mistaken by Mr. Jefferson for that of Gov. Caswell. See preface, pages 5 and 6. This paper is somewhat torn, but is entirely legible, and constitutes the "solemn and positive proof of authenticity" which Mr. Jefferson required, and which would doubtless have been satisfactory, had it been submitted to him.] 0. CAPTAIN JACK'S CERTIFICATE. Having seen in the newspapers some pieces respect- ing the Declaration of Independence by the people of Mecklenburg county, in the State of North Carolina, in May, 1775, and being solicited to state what I know of that transaction ; I would observe, that for some time previous to, and at the time those resolutions were 138 APPENDIX. agreed upon, I resided in the town of Charlotte, Meck- lenburg county ; was privy to a number of meetings of some of the most influential and leading characters of that county on the subject, before the final adoption of the resolutions — and at the time they were adopted ; among those who appeared to take the lead, may be mentioned Hezekiah Alexander, who generally acted as Chairman, John McKnitt Alexander, as Secretary, Abraham Alexander, Adam Alexander, Maj. John Da- vidson, Maj. (afterwards Gen.) Win. Davidson, Col. Thomas Polk, Ezekiel Polk, Dr. Ephraim Brevard, Samuel Martin, Duncan Ochletree, William Willson, Robert Irvin. When the resolutions were finally agreed on, they were publicly proclaimed from the Court-house door in the town of Charlotte, and received with every dem- onstration of joy by the inhabitants. I was then solicited to be the bearer of the proceed- ings to Congress. I set out the following month, say June, and in passing through Salisbury, the General Court was sitting — at the request of the court I handed a copy of the resolutions to Col. Kennon, an Attorney, and they were read aloud in open court. Major William Davidson, and Mr. Avery, an attorney, called on me at my lodgings the evening after, and observed, they had heard of but one person, (a Mr. Beard) but approved of them. I then proceeded on to Philadelphia, and delivered the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence of May, 1775, to Richard Caswell and William Hooper, the Delegates to Congress from the State of North Carolina. I am now in the eighty-eighth year of my age, resid- ing in the county of Elbert, in the State of Georgia. I APPENDIX. 139 was in the Revolutionary War, from the commence- ment to the close. I would further observe, that the Rev. Francis Cummins, a Presbyterian Clergyman, of Greene county, in this State, was a student in the town of Charlotte at the time of the adoption of the resolu- tions, and is as well, or perhaps better acquainted with the proceedings at that time, than any man now living. Col. William Polk, of Raleigh, in North Carolina, was living with his father Thomas, in Charlotte, at the time I have been speaking of, and although then too young to be forward in the business, yet the leading circumstances I have related cannot have escaped his recollection. JAMES JACK. Signed this 7th Dec, 1819, in presence of JOB WESTON, C. C. 0. JAMES OLIVER, Atto. at Law. C 2. NORTH CAROLINA, ) Cabarrus County, Nov. 29, 1830. j We, the undersigned, do hereby certify that we have frequently heard William S. Alexander, dec'd, say that he, the said Wm. S. Alexander, was at Philadelphia, on mercantile business, in the early part of the summer of 1775, say in June ; and that on the day that Gen. Washington left Philadelphia to take the command of the Northern army, he, the said Wm. S. Alexander, met with Capt. James Jack, who informed him, the said William S. Alexander, that he, the said James Jack, 140 APPENDIX. was there as the agent or bearer of the Declaration of Independence made in Charlotte, on the twentieth day of May, seventeen hundred and seventy-five, by the citizens of Mecklenburg, then including Cabarrus, with instructions to present the same to the Delegates from. North Carolina, and by them to be laid before Congress, and which he said he had done ; in which Declaration the aforesaid citizens of Mecklenburg renounced their allegiance to the crown of Great Britain, and set up a government for themselves, under the title of The Com- mittee of Safety. Given under our hands the date above written. ALPHONSO ALEXANDER, AMOS ALEXANDER, J. McKNITT. D. Lexington, (Georgia,) November 10, 1819. Dear Sir : — The bearer, the Hon. Thomas W. Cobb, has suggested to me that you had a desire to know something particularly of the proceedings of the citizens of Mecklenburg county, in North Carolina, about the beginning of our Revolutionary War. Previous to my becoming more particular, I will sup- pose you remember the Regulation business, which took its rise in or before the year 1770, and issued and ended in a battle between the Regulators and Governor Tryon, in the spring of 1771. Some of the Regulators were killed, and the whole dispersed. The Regulators' conduct " was a rudis indigestaque moles/' as Ovid says, APPENDIX. 141 about the beginning of creation; but the embryotic principles of the Ke volution were in their temper and views. They wanted strength, consistency, a Congress and a Washington at their head. Try on sent his offi- cers and minions through the State, and imposed the oath of allegiance upon the people, even as far up as Mecklenburg county. In the year 1775, after our Revo- lution began, the principal characters of Mecklenburg county met on two sundry days, in Queen's Museum in Charlotte, to digest Articles for a State Constitution, in anticipation that the Province would proceed to do so. In this business the leading characters were, the Rev. Hezekiah James Balch, a graduate of Princeton Col- lege, an elegant scholar; Waightstill Avery, Esq., At- torney at Law ; Hezekiah and John McKnitt Alexan- der, Esqrs.,Col. Thomas Polk, etc., etc. Many men, and young men, (myself one,) before magistrates, abjured allegiance to George III., or any other foreign power. At length, in the same year, 1775, I think, at least positively before July 4th, 1776, the males generally of that county met on a certain day in Charlotte, and from the head of the Court-house stairs proclaimed Independence on English Government, by their herald Col. Thomas Polk. I was present, and saw and heard it, and as a young man, and then a student in Queen's Museum, was an agent in these things. I did not then take and keep the dates, and cannot, as to date, be so particular as I could wish. Capt. James Jack, then of Charlotte, but now of Elbert county, in Georgia, was sent with the* account of these proceedings to Congress, then in Philadelphia — and brought back to the county, the thanks of Congress for their zeal — and the advice of Congress to be a little 142 APPENDIX. more patient, until Congress should take the measures thought to be best. I would suppose, sir, that some minutes of these things must be found among the records of the first Congress, that would perfectly settle their dates. I am perfectly sure, being present at the whole of them, they were before our National Declaration of Inde- pendence. Hon. Sir, if the above few things can afford you any gratification, it will add to the happiness of your friend and humble servant. FRANCIS CUMMINS. Hon". Nathaniel Macont. E. Vesuvius Furnace, 4th October, 1830. Dear Sir, — Agreeably to your request, I will give you the details of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Inde- pendence on the 20th of May, 1775, as well as I can rec- ollect after a lapse of fifty-five years. I was then a lad about half grown, was present on that occasion (a looker on). Duriug the Winter and Spring preceding that evenx, several popular meetings of the people were held in Charlotte ; two of which I attended. — Papers were read, grievances stated, and public measures discussed. As printing was not then common in the South, the papers were mostly manuscript ; one or more of which was from the pen of the Eeverend Doctor Eeese, (then of Mecklenburg,) which met with general approbation, and copies of it circulated.- It is to be regretted that APPENDIX. 143 those and other papers published at that period, and the journal of their proceedings, are lost. — They would show much of the spirit and tone of thinking which prepared them for the measures they afterwards adopted. On the 20th of May, 1775, besides the two persons elected from each militia company, (usually called Committee-men,) a much larger number of citizens at- tended in Charlotte than at any former meeting — per- haps half the men in the county. The news of the bat- tle of Lexington, the 19th of April preceding, had arrived. There appeared among the people much ex- citement. The committee were organized in the Court- house by appointing Abraham Alexander, Esq., Chair- man, and John McKnitt Alexander, Esq., Clerk or Sec- retary to the meeting. After reading a number of papers as usual, and much animated discussion, the question was taken, and they resolved to declare themselves independent. One among other reasons offered, that the King or Ministry had, by proclamation or some edict, declared the Col- onies out of the protection of the British Crown ; they ought, therefore, to declare themselves out of his pro- tection, and resolve on independence. That their pro- ceedings might be in due form, a sub-committee, con- sisting of Doctor Ephraim Brevard, a Mr. Kennon, an attorney, and a third person, whom I do not recol- lect, were appointed to draft their Declaration. They retired from the Court-house for some time ; but the committee continued in session in it. One circum- stance occurred I. distinctly remember : A member of the committee, who had said but little before, addressed the Chairman as follows : " If you resolve on independ- ence, how shall we all be absolved from the obligations of 1±± APPENDIX. the oath we took to be true to King George the 3d about four years ago, after the Regulation battle, when we were sworn whole militia companies together. I should be glad to know how gentlemen can clear their con- sciences after taking that oath.' 1 This speech produced confusion. The Chairman could scarcely preserve order, so many wished to reply. There appeared great indig- nation and contempt at the speech of the member. Some said it was nonsense; others that allegiance and protection were reciprocal ; when protection was with- drawn, allegiance ceased ; that the oath was only binding while the King protected us in the enjoyment of our rights and liberties as they existed at the time it was taken; which he had not done, but now declared us out of his protection ; therefore was not binding. Any man who would interpret it otherwise, was a fool. Byway of illustration, (pointing to a green tree near the Court-house,) stated, if he was sworn to do any thing as long as the leaves continued on that tree, it was so long binding; but when the leaves fell, he was discharged from its obligation. This was said to be certainly applicable in the present case. Out of respect for a worthy citizen, long since deceased, and his respect- able connections, I forbear to mention names ; for, though he was a friend to the cause, a suspicion rested on him in the public mind for some time after. The sub-committee appointed to draft the resolutions returned, and Doctor Ephraim Brevard read their re- port, as near as I can recollect, in the very words Ave have since seen them several times in print. It was unanimously adopted, and shortly after it was moved and seconded to have proclamation made and the peo- ple collected, that the proceedings be read at the Court- APPENDIX. 145 house door, in order that all might hear them. Tt was done, and they were received with enthusiasm. It was then proposed by some one aloud to give three cheers and throw up their hats. It was immediately adopted, and the hats thrown. Several of them lit on the Court- house roof. The owners had some difficulty to reclaim them. The foregoing is all from personal knowledge. I un- derstood afterwards that Captain James Jack, then of Charlotte, undertook, on the request of the committee, to carry a copy of their proceedings to Congress, which then sat in Philadelphia; and on his way, at Salisbury, the time of court, Mr. Kennon, who was one of the com- mittee who assisted in drawing the Declaration, pre- vailed on Captain Jack to get his papers, and have them read publicly; which was done, and the proceedings met with general approbation. But two of the Lawyers, John Dunn and a Mr. Booth, dissented, and asserted they were treasonable, and endeavored to have Captain Jack detained. He drew his pistols, and threatened to kill the first man who would interrupt him, and passed on. The news of this reached Charlotte in a short time after, and the executive of the committee, whom they had invested with suitable powers, ordered a party of ten or twelve armed horsemen to bring said Lawyers from Salisbury; when they were brought, and the case in- vestigated before the committee. Dunn, on giving security and making fair promises, was permitted to re- turn, and Booth was sentenced to go to Camden, in South Carolina, out of the sphere of his influence. My brother George Graham and the late Col. John Carruth were of the party that went to Salisbury; and it is dis- tinctly remembered that when in Charlotte they came 146 APPENDIX. home at night, in order to provide for their trip to Camden; and that they and two others of the party took Booth to that place. This was the first military expedition from Mecklenburg in the Revolutionary war, and believed to be the first any where to the South. Yours respectfully, J. GRAHAM. Dr. Jos. M'Kt. Alexander, Mecklenburg, N. Carolina. F. EXTRACT FROM THE MEMOIR OF THE LATE REV. HUM- PHREY HUNTER. Orders were presently issued by Col. Thos. Polk to the several militia companies, that two men, selected from each corps, should meet at the Court-house on the 19th of May, 1775, in order to consult with each other upon such measures as might be thought best to be pursued. Accordingly, on said day a far larger number than two out of each company were present. There was some difficulty in choosing the commissioners. To have chosen all thought to be worthy, would have ren- dered the meeting too numerous. The following were selected, and styled Delegates, and are here given, ac- cording to my best recollection, as they were placed on roll : Abram Alexander, sen'r, Thomas Pclk, Rich'd Harris, sen'r, Adam Alexander, Richard Barry, John McKnit Alexander, Neil Morison, Hezekiah Alexan- der, Hezekiah J. Balch, Zacheus Wilson, John Phifer, James Harris, William Kennon, John Ford, Henry Downs, Ezra Alexander, William Graham, John Queary, Chas. Alexander, Waightstill Avery, Ephraim Brevard, APPENDIX. 147 Benjamin Patton, Matthew McClure, Kobert Irwin, John Flenniken, and David Eeese. Abram Alexander was nominated, and unanimously voted to the Chair. John McKnit Alexander and Ephraim Brevard were chosen Secretaries. The Chair being occupied, and the Clerks seated, the House was called to order and proceeded to business. Then a full, a free, and dispassionate discussion obtained on the various subjects for which the delegation had been con- vened, and the following resolutions were unanimously ordained: 1st. Resolved, That whosoever directly or indirectly abetted, or in any way, form or manner, countenanced the unchartered and dangerous invasion of our rights, as claimed by Great Britain, is an enemy to this country, • to America, and to the inherent and inalienable rights of man. 2d. Resolved, That we, the citizens of Mecklenburg county, do hereby dissolve the political bands which have connected us to the mother country, and hereby absolve ourselves from all allegiance to the British Crown, and abjure all political connection, contract, or association, with that nation, who have wantonly tram- pled on our rights and liberties, and inhumanly shed the blood of American patriots at Lexington. 3d. Resolved, That we do hereby declare ourselves a free and independent people ; are, and of right ought to be, a sovereign and self-governing Association, under the control of no power other than that of our God and the general government of the Congress ; to the mainten- ance of which independence, we solemnly pledge to each other our mutual co-operation, our lives, our fortunes, and our most sacred honor. 148 APPENDIX. 4th. Resolved, That as we now acknowledge the exist- ence and control of no law or legal officer, civil or mili- tary, within this county, we do hereby ordain and adopt as a rule of life, all, each and every of our former laws, — wherein, nevertheless, the crown of Great Britain never can be considered as holding rights, privileges, immunities or authority therein. 5th. Resolved, That it is further decreed, that all, each and every military officer in this county, is hereby reinstated in his former command and authority, he acting conformably to these regulations. And that every member present, of this delegation, shall henceforth be a civil officer, viz., a Justice of the Peace, in the charac- ter of a " Committee-man," to issue process, hear and •determine all matters of controversy, according to said adopted laws, and to preserve peace, union and harmony in said county ; — and to use every exertion to spread the love of country and fire of freedom throughout America, until a more general and organized govern- ment be established in this province. Those resolves having been concurred in, bye-laws and regulations for the government of a standing Commit- tee of Public Safety were enacted and acknowledged. Then a select committee was appointed, to report on the ensuing day a full and definite statement of griev- ances, together with a more correct and formal draft of the Declaration of Independence. The proceedings having been thus arranged and somewhat in readiness for promulgation, the Delegation then adjourned until to-morrow, at 12 o'clock. The 20th of May, at 12 o'clock, the Delegation, as above, had convened. The select committee were also present, and reported agreeably to instructions, viz. APPENDIX. 149 a statement of grievances and formal draft of the Dec- laration of Independence, written by Ephraim Brevard, chairman of said committee, and read by him to the Delegation. The resolves, bye-laws and regulations were read by John McKnitt Alexander. It was then an- nounced from the Chair, are you all agreed ? There was not a dissenting voice. Finally, the whole proceed- ings were read distinctly and audibly, at the Court- house door, by Col. Thomas Polk, to a large, respectable and approving assemblage of citizens, who were present, and gave sanction to the business of the day. A copy of all those transactions were then drawn off, and given in charge to Capt. James Jack, then of Charlotte, that he should present them to Congress, then in session in Philadelphia. On that memorable day, I was 20 years and 14 days of age, a very deeply interested spectator, recollecting the dire hand of oppression that had driven me from my native clime, now pursuing me in this happy asy- lum, and seeking to bind again in the fetters of bond- age. On the return of Capt. Jack, he reported that Con- gress, individually, manifested their entire approbation of the conduct of the Mecklenburg citizens ; but deemed it premature to lay them officially before the House. Note. — The foregoing extract is copied from a manuscript account of the Revolutionary War in the South, addressed by the writer to a friend, who had requested historical information upon the subject. Mr. Hunter was in the battle of Camden, and has given an interesting narrative of the circumstances connect- ed with the death of Baron DeKalb. The manuscript gives the biography of the writer, from which it appears he was a native 150 APPENDIX. of Ireland, and born on the 14th of May, 1755, and at an early age emigrated from his native land, to the Province of North Carolina. ADDITIONAL PAPERS, NOT PARTICULARLY REFERRED TO IN" THE PREFACE. From the Raleigh Register, of February 18, 1820. MECKLENBURG DECLARATION OF INDE- PENDENCE. When this Declaration was first published in April last, some doubts were expressed in the Eastern papers as to its authenticity, (none of the Histories of the Revolution having noticed the circumstance.) Col. William Polk, of this City, (who, though a mere youth at the time, was present at the meeting which made the Declaration, and whose Father, being Colonel of the county, appears to have acted a conspicuous part on the occasion,) observing this, assured us of the correctness of the facts generally, though he thought there were errors as to the name of the Secretary, etc., and said that he should probably be able to correct these, and throw some further light on the subject, by inquiries amongst some of his old friends in Mecklenburg county. He has accordingly made inquiries, and communicated to us the following Documents as the result, which, we presume, will do away all doubts on the subject. APPENDIX. 151 CEETIFICATE. STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, ) Mecklenburg County. j At the request of Col. William Polk, of Raleigh, made to Major-General George Graham, soliciting him to pro- cure all the information that could be obtained at this late period, of the transactions which took place in the county of Mecklenburg, in the year 1775, as it respected the people of that county having declared Independ- ence ; of the time when the Declaration was made ; who were the principal movers and leaders, and the members who composed the body of Patriots who made the Declaration, and signed the same. We, the undersigned citizens of the said county, and of the several ages set forth opposite to each of our names, do certify, and on our honor declare, that we were present in the town of Charlotte, in the said county of Mecklenburg, on the 19th day of May, 1775, when two persons elected from each Captain's Company in said county, appeared as Delegates, to take into considera- tion the state of the country, and to adopt such meas- ures as to them seemed best, to secure their lives, liberty, and property, from the storm which was gathering, and had burst upon their fellow-citizens to the Eastward, by a British Army, under the authority of the British King and Parliament. The order for the election of Delegates was given by Col. Thomas Polk, the commanding officer of the mili- tia of the county, with a request that their powers should be ample, touching any measure that should be proposed. We do further certify and declare, that to the best of 152 APPENDIX. our recollection and belief, the delegation was complete from every company, and that the meeting took place in the Court-house, about 12 o'clock on the said 19th day of May, 1775, when Abraham Alexander was chosen Chairman, and Dr. Epliraim Brevard Secretary. That the Delegates continued in session until in the night of that day ; that on the 20th they again met, when a com- mittee, under the direction of the Delegates, had formed several resolves, which were read, and which went to declare themselves, and the people of Mecklenburg county, Free and Independent of the King and Parlia- ment of Great Britain — and that, from that day thence- forth, all allegiance and political relation was absolved between the good people of Mecklenburg and the King of Great Britain ; which Declaration was signed by every member of the Delegation, under the shouts and huzzas of a very large assembly of the people of the county, who had come to know the issue of the meet- ing. We further believe, that the Declaration of Inde- pendence was drawn up by the Secretary, Dr. Epliraim Brevard, and that it was conceived and brought about through the instrumentality and popularity of Col. Thomas Polk, Abraham Alexander, John McKnit Alex- ander, Adam Alexander, Epliraim Brevard, John Phi- fer, and Hezekiah Alexander, with some others. We do further certify and declare, that in a few days after the Delegates adjourned, Captain James Jack, of the town of Charlotte, was engaged to carry the resolves to the President of Congress, and to our Representatives — one copy for each ; and that his expenses were paid by a voluntary subscription. And we do know that Capt. Jack executed the trust, and returned with answers, both from the President and our Delegates in Congress, APPENDIX. 153 expressive of their entire approbation of the course that had been adopted, recommending a continuance in the same ; and that the time would soon be, when the whole Continent would follow our example. We further certify and declare, that the measures which were adopted at the time before mentioned, had a general influence on the people of this county to unite them in the cause of liberty and the country, at that time; that the same unanimity and patriotism continued unimpaired to the close of the war ; and that the resolutions had considerable effect in harmonizing the people in two or three adjoining counties. That a committee of Safety for the county were elected, who were clothed with civil and military power, and under their authority several disaffected persons in Rowan, and Tryon (now Lincoln county,) were sent for, examined, and conveyed (after it was satisfactorily proven they were inimical) to Camden, in South Caro- lina, for safe-keeping. We do further certify, that the acts passed by the committee of Safety, were received as the Civil Law of the land in many cases, and that Courts of Justice for the decision of controversies between the people were held, and we have no recollection that dissatisfaction existed in any instance with regard to the judgments of said courts. We are not, at this late period, able to give the names of all the Delegation who formed the Declaration of In- dependence ; but can safely declare as to the following persons being of the number, viz. : Thomas Polk, Abraham Alexander, John McKnitt Alexander, Adam Alexander, Ephraim Brevard, John Phifer, Hezekiah James Balsh, Benjamin Patton, Hezekiah Alexander, 154 APPENDIX. Biehard Barry, William Graham, Matthew M'Olure, Robert Irwin, Zachias Wilson, Neil Morrison, John Flenniken, John Queary, Ezra Alexander. In testimony of all and every part herein set forth, we have hereunto set our hands. GEO. GRAHAM, aged 61, near 62. WM. HUTCHISON, 68. JONAS CLARK, 61. ROBT ROBINSON, 68. FROM JOHN" SIMESON TO COL. WILLIAM POLK. "Providence, January 20, 1820. " Dear Sir, — After considerable delay, occasioned partly to obtain what information I could, in addition to my own knowledge of the facts in relation to our Declaration of Independence, and partly by a precarious, feeble old age, I now write to you in answer to yours of the 24th ult. " I have conversed with many of my old friends and others, and all agree in the point, but few can state the particulars ; for although our county is renowned for general intelligence, we have still some that don't read the public prints. You know, in the language of the day, every Province had its Congress, and Mecklenburg had its county Congress, as legally chosen as any other, and assumed an attitude until then without a preced- ent ; but, alas ! those worthies who conceived and exe- cuted that bold measure, are no more; and one reason why so little new light can be thrown on an old truth, may be this — and I appeal to yourself for the correct- ness of the remark — Ave who are now called Revolution- APPENDIX. 155 ary men, were then thoughtless, precipitate youths; we cared not who conceived the bold act, our business was to adopt and support it. Yourself, sir, in your eigh- teenth year and on the spot, your worthy father, the most popular and influential character in the county, and yet you cannot state much from recollection. Your father, as commanding officer of the county, issued orders to the Captains to appoint two men from each company to represent them in the committee. — It was done. Neill Morrison, John Flennikin, from this com- pany ; Charles Alexander, John McKnitt Alexander, Hezekiah Alexander, Abraham Alexander, Esq., John Phifer, David Reese, Adam Alexander, Dickey Barry, John Queary, with others, whose names I cannot ob- tain. As to the names of those who drew up the Dec- laration, I am inclined to think Doctor Brevard was the principal, from his known talents in composition. It was, however, in substance and form, like that great national act agreed on thirteen months after. Ours was toAvards the close of May, 1775. In addition to what I have said, the same committee appointed three men to secure all the military stores for the county's use — Thomas Polk, John Phifer, and Joseph Kennedy. I was under arms near the head of the line, near Col. Polk, and heard him distinctly read a long string of Grievances, the Declaration and Military Order above. I likewise heard Col. Polk have two warm disputes with two men of the county, who said the measures were rash and unnecessary. He was applauded and they silenced. I was then in my 22d year, an enemy to usurpation and tyranny of every kind, with a retentive memory, and fond of liberty, that had a doubt arisen in my mind that the act would be controverted, proof 156 APPENDIX. would not have been wanting ; but I comfort myself tli at none but the self-important peace-party and blue- lights of the East, will have the assurance to oppose it any further. The biographer of Patrick Henry (Mr. Wirt) says he first suggested Independence in the Vir- ginia Convention ; but it is known they did not reduce it to action — so that it will pass for nothing. The Courts likewise acted independently. I myself heard a dispute take place on the bench, and an acting magistrate was actually taken and sent to prison by an order of the Chairman. " Thus, sir, have I thrown together all that I can at this time. I am too blind to write fair, and too old to write much sense — but if my deposition before the Supreme Court of the United States would add more weight to a truth so well known here, it should be at the service of my fellow-citizens of the county and State generally. " I am, sir, your friend and humble servant, "JOHN SIMESON, Sen. " P. S. — I will give you a short anecdote. An aged man near me, on being asked if he knew anything of this affair, replied, ' Och, aye, Tam Polk declared Inde- pendence long before any body else' This old man is 81." CERTIFICATE OF ISAAC ALEXANDER. I hereby certify that I was present in Charlotte on the 19th and 20th days of May, 1775, when a regular depu- tation from all the Captains' companies of militia in the county of Mecklenburg, to wit: Col. Thomas Polk, APPENDIX. 157 Adam Alexander, Lieut. Col. Abram Alexander, John McKnitt Alexander, Hezekiah Alexander, Epbraim Brevard, and a number of others, who met to consult and take measures for the peace and tranquillity of the citizens of said county, and who appointed Abraham Alexander their Chairman, and Doctor Ephraim Bre- vard Secretary; who, after due consultation, declared themselves absolved from their allegiance to the King of Great Britain, and drew up a Declaration of their Independence, which was unanimously adopted ; and employed Capt. James Jack to carry copies thereof to Congress, who accordingly went. These are a part of the transactions that took place at that time, as far as my recollection serves me. ISAAC ALEXANDER. October 8, 1830. CERTIFICATE OF SAM'L WILSON". STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, ) Mecklenburg County. j I do hereby certify, that in May, 1775, a committee or delegation from the different militia companies in tiiis county met in Charlotte ; and after consulting together, they publicly declared their independence on Great Britain, and on her Government. This was done before a large collection of people, who highly approved of it. I was then and there present, and heard it read from the Court House door. Certified by me, SAM'L WILSON. 158 APPENDIX. CERTIFICATE OF JOHN/ DAVIDSON. Beaver Dam, October 5, 1830. Dear Sir : — I received your note of the 25th of last month, requiring information relative to the Mecklen- burg Declaration of Independence. As I am, perhaps, the only person living, who was a member of that Con- vention, and being far advanced in years, and not hav- ing my mind frequently directed to that circumstance for some years, I can give you but a very succinct history of that transaction. There were two men chosen from each captain's company, to meet in Charlotte, to take the subject into consideration. John McKnitt Alexander and myself were chosen from one company; and many other members were there that I now recollect, whose names I deem unnecessary to mention. When the mem- bers met, and were perfectly organized for business, a motion was made to. declare ourselves independent of the Crown of Great Britain, which was carried by a large majority. Dr. Ephraim Brevard was then ap- pointed to give us a sketch of the Declaration of Inde- pendence, which he did. James Jack was appointed to take it on to the American Congress, then sitting in Philadelphia, with particular instructions to deliver it to the North Carolina Delegation in Congress, (Hooper and Caswell.) When Jack returned, he stated that the Declaration was presented to Congress, and the reply was, that they highly esteemed the patriotism of the citizens of Mecklenburg ; but they thought the measure too premature. I am confident that the Declaration of Independence by*the people of Mecklenburg was made public at least APPENDIX. 159 twelve months before that of the Congress of the United States. I do certify that the foregoing statement, relative to the Mecklenburg Independence is correct, and which I am willing to be qualified to, should it be required. Yours respectfully, JOHN DAVIDSOK Doct. J. M. Alexander. Note. — The following is a copy of an original paper furnished by the writer of the foregoing certificate, from which it would seem, that, from the period of the Mecklenburg Declaration, every individual friendly to the American cause was furnished by the Chairman of that meeting, Abram Alexander, with tes- timonials of the character he had assumed ; and in this point of view the paper affords strong collateral testimony of the correct- ness of many of the foregoing certificates. NORTH CAROLINA, Mecklenburg County, ) November 28, 1775. ) These may certify to all whom they may concern, that the bearer hereof, William Henderson, is allowed here to be a true friend to liberty, and signed the Association. Certified by ABR'M ALEXANDER, Chairman of the Committee of P. S. LETTER FROM J. G. M. RAMSEY. Mecklenburg, T. Oct. 1, 1830. Dear Sir: — Yours of 21st ultimo was duly re- ceived. In answer I have only to say, that little is in my possession on the subject alluded to which you have 160 APPENDIX. not already seen. Subjoined are the certificates of two gentlemen of this county, whose respectability and veracity are attested by their acquaintances here, as well as by the accompanying testimonials of the magistrates in whose neighborhood they reside. With this you will also receive extracts from letters on the same subject from gentlemen well known to you, and to the country at large. I am, very respectfully, yours, &c, J. G. M. RAMSEY. CERTIFICATE OF JAMES JOHNSON. I, James Johnson, now of Knox county, Tennessee, but formerly of Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, do hereby certify, that to the best of my recollection, in the month of May, 1775, there were several meetings in Charlotte concerning the impending war. Being young, I was not called on to take an active part in the same ; but one thing I do positively remember, that she (Meck- lenburg county) did meet and hold a Convention, de- clared independence, and sent a man to Philadelphia with the proceedings. And I do further certify, that I am well acquainted with several of the men who formed or constituted said Convention, viz. John McKnitt Alex- ander, Hezekiah Alexander, Abraham Alexander, Adam Alexander, Robert Irwin, Neill Morrison, John Flenni- ken, John Queary. Certified by me this 11th day of October, 1827. JAMES JOHNSON, In my seventy-third year. APPENDIX. 161 CERTIFICATE OF ELIJAH JOHNSON AND JAMES WILHITE. We, Elijah Johnson and James Wilhite, acting Jus- tices of the Peace for the county of Knox, do certify, that we have been a long time well acquainted with Samuel Montgomery and James Johnson, both residents of Knox county; and that they are entitled to full credit, and any statement they may make to implicit confidence. Given under our hands and seals this 4th day of Oc- tober, 1830. ELIJAH JOHNSON, (Seal.) JAMES WILHITE, (Seal.) Justices of the Peace for Knox county. Note. — Mr. Montgomery's certificate does not purport to state the facts as having come under his own personal observation. It is therefore omitted in this publication. AUTOGRAPHS SIGNERS OF THE MECKLENBURG DECLARATION. •'/nonS* l?77^/ THE CELEBRATION OF THE 100TH ANNI- VERSARY OF THE MECKLENBURG DE- CLARATION. The 20th May Celebration, 1875. The following were the Committees appointed by a citizens' meeting held at Charlotte, N. C, to make arrangements for the 20th of May celebration, 1875 : General Executive Committee. — S. B. Alexander, Thos. W. Dewey, fm. Johnston, C. Dowd, J. C. Burroughs, Thos. J. Moore, Robt. I. McDowell, S. Wittkowsky, R. T. McAden and John E. Brown. Dr. Joseph Graham was added to the Committee as chairman thereof. Committee on Orators. — Gov. Z. B. Vance, Hon. W. M. Shipp and Gen. D. H. Hill. Committee on Subscription. — Gen. J. A. Young, chairman ; Chas. R. Jones, D. G. Maxwell, A. Ma- caulay, S. P. Smith, Jno. W. Wadsworth and F. A. McNinch. Committee, on Finance. — Jos. H. Wilson, chair- man; Gen. R. Barringer and John L. Brown. Committee on the Press. — W. J. Yates, chairman ; W. F. Avery and C. R. Jones. Committee on Fire and Military Companies. — J. H. Orr, chairman ; F. A. McNinch, N. C. Harry and D. M. Rigler. Committee on Artillery and Fire Works. — Col. Thos. H. Brem, Sr., chairman ; John Wilkes, T. L. Seigle, F. H. Dewey, Thos. H. Allen and P. Ludwig. 166 COMMITTEES. Committee to Canvass the County. — Col. H. C. Jones, chairman ; R. A. Springs, Jas. F. Johnston, E. C. Davidson, T. L. Tail, Col W. R. Myers, Wm. Johnston, R. Barringer, C. Dowd and J. A. Young. Commissary Committee. — Jas. F. Johnston, chair- man ; R. M. Miller, D. M. Rigler, Josiah Asbnry, Jas. F. Davidson, Thos. Grier, Robt. E. Cochrane, L. W. Sanders, J. S. M. Davidson, Chas. W. Alex- ander, Capt. S. Roessler, P. S. Whisnant, Walter Brem, Frank Wilson, A. R. Nisbet and D. W. Oates. Reception Committee. — J. Y. Bryce, chairman; J. M. Miller, J. L. Morehead, W. H. H. Gregory, R. D. Graham, Geo. E. Wilson, W. W. Phifer, W. H. Bailey, Gen. Prince, S. A. Cohen and A. B. David- son. Auxiliary Township Committees. Mallard Creek. — Wm. D. Alexander, J. H. Che- shire and J. R. DeArmond. Lemley's. — Dr. J. M. Wilson, Dr. Brevard Alexan- der and W. B. Withers. Deweese. — H. P. Helper, W. P. Williams and Rev. Chas. Phillips, D.D. Long Creek. — R. D. Whitley, J. Springs Davidson and Dr. E. A. Sample. Paw Creek. — Wm. Todd, H. J\ Rhyne, and Jas. Beattie. Berryhill.—R. D. Collins, B. F. Brown and T. B. Price. Steel Creek.— Gen. W. H. Neal, Dr. J. M. Strong and S. Watson Reid. COMMITTEES. 167 Pineville. — J. A. Younts, J. W. Morrow and J. R. Kirkpatrick. Providence. — H. M. Parks, E. C. Grier and Henry Bryant. Clear Greek. — Eli Hinson, D. W. Flow and Robt. Henderson. Morning Star. — J. H. Irwin, J. W. Hood and D. E. Hooks. Sharon. — I. N. Alexander, Dr. C. L. Hutchison and R. B. Hunter. Crab Orchard. — J. R. Baker, E. P. Cochrane and fm. McOombs. Charlotte. — B. H. Moore, J. P. Alexander and Dr. W. J. Hayes. H 33 89 1 1 ;♦ J? em > .^.sate/V > 9 *.:^:..^* «Ao*i&^ u'^V v^V V^S-V %. «tf ••\^ \3 *o A°+ o * • «© A ^ w • T* A V c° **0« ,4-' "o9 HECKMAN |±l BINDERY INC. P| ,.., °*u # — \ * .... V* HECKMAN BINDERY INC a. APR 89 N. MANCHESTER, ^? INDIANA 46962