1775.
Mecklenburg Declaration.
THAT there was a Declaration of Independence made at Charlotte, by
citizens of the County of Mecklenburg, North Carolina, on the 20th of
May, 1775, is the commonly received opinion in that State, and has been
often stated in print.[615:A] The closer scrutiny to which this
declaration has been of late years subjected[615:B] appears to
invalidate its authenticity. The patriotism, intelligence, and courage
of the Scotch-Irish inhabitants of Mecklenburg--the Alexanders, Brevard,
Polk, Balch, and others, are universally acknowledged; and that they
"acted" independence as early as May, 1775, is admitted. But that they
then made an absolute declaration of independence, (supposing them
competent to do so,) does not appear to be substantiated by sufficient
evidence. The original manuscript, it is alleged, was preserved by the
secretary of the convention till the year 1800, when it was destroyed,
with his dwelling-house, by fire.[615:C] It is said, however, that he
had previously taken care to give copies of it to two or three persons;
and mention is made of one of these transcripts as early as 1793. But
they do not appear to have been any further multiplied. That a
declaration of independence, made more than a year before that of July,
1776, should have been preserved by the secretary so long, and yet have
remained unpublished and so little known, is extraordinary. It is
remarkable, too, that such a paper should appear without date of time on
the face of it. The meeting reported to have been held at Charlotte, on
the twentieth of May, is styled "the convention;" but that of the
thirty-first of the same kind, was simply a meeting of the committee of
the county, and was so called at the time. It is asserted that the
immediate exciting cause of the resolutions, or alleged declaration of
the twentieth, was, that on that day a messenger arrived in hot haste
with intelligence of the battle of Lexington. But it appears[616:A] that
this intelligence reached Savannah, in Georgia, on the tenth; and it
would appear hardly probable that it should have reached Charlotte ten
days later.
Upon comparing one of the manuscript copies with the one published in
Martin's History of North Carolina, there appears to be a remarkable
difference between them. To explain this, it has, indeed, been
conjectured, that Martin's copy contains the resolutions as at first
draughted by Dr. Brevard, the author of them, and that the other
contains them in their amended form. But the Martin copy, instead of
being a rough draught, appears to be more formal and complete than the
other. The Martin copy expresses the resolution in the present tense;
the other in the imperfect, bearing upon its face the appearance of
having been made up at a subsequent time by an effort of recollection.
The document styled a declaration, whatever may have been its origin, or
terms, remained long in obscurity, public attention having been first
drawn to it, in 1819, by the _Raleigh Register_, at the instance of
Colonel Thomas Polk. But a declaration, to effect its object, must be
published far and wide.
The Mecklenburg committee met at Charlotte on the thirtieth of May, and
passed a series of resolutions, (making no reference whatever to a
previous declaration of independence;) suspending the former civil
constitution, and organizing a provisional republican government. The
eighteenth resolution is in these words: "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
pretentions with respect to America:" thus explicitly recognizing the
right of eminent domain as belonging to Great Britain. It is not to be
credited that the Mecklenburg patriots made an absolute declaration of
independence on the twentieth, and in ten days thereafter acknowledged
the sovereignty of Great Britain. These admirable resolutions of the
thirtieth were published in the _Mercury_, a North Carolina newspaper,
(and others,) and a copy of it was transmitted by Governor Tryon
to the British minister, and denounced as the boldest of all, "most
traitorously declaring the entire dissolution of the laws and
constitution, and setting up a system of rule and regulation subversive
of his majesty's government." The alleged declaration of the twentieth,
brief and absolute, was published in no newspaper, and was not denounced
by the governor; while the resolutions of the thirty-first, recognizing
the sovereignty of Great Britain, were so published and denounced.
Mecklenburg, in North Carolina, was, nevertheless, then unquestionably
in a condition of actual self-government and virtual independence; and
the names of Brevard, the master-spirit of the Charlotte Convention,
(afterwards a patriot-martyr,) and of his compatriots, stand on the page
of history in characters of recorded honor which need no adventitious
lustre.[617:A]
FOOTNOTES:
[615:A] Its authenticity was admitted in the former edition of this
work.
[615:B] Especially by Mr. Grigsby, in his Discourse on the Virginia
Convention of '76, p. 20.
[615:C] Foote's Sketches of North Carolina, 205.
[616:A] Bancroft, vii. 337.
[617:A] Grigsby's Convention of Va. of '76; Martin's Hist. of N. C., ii.
372; Foote's Sketches of N. C.; Hawks' Lecture, in Revolut. Hist. of N.
C. President Swain, in a lecture before the Historical Society of the
University of North Carolina, referring to this subject, evidently
considers the resolutions of the thirtieth of May as the Mecklenburg
Declaration. (_Revolut. Hist. of N. C._, 101.) Mr. Bancroft takes the
same view.