"On the 30th of April, 1819, some forty-three years after Jefferson's
Declaration was written, there appeared in the Raleigh (N. C.) Register
what purported to be a Declaration of Independence, drawn up by the
citizens of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, on May 20th, 1775.
As this was nearly fourteen months before the Colonies declared their
independence, and as many of the expressions in the Mecklenburg paper
bore a striking resemblance to Jefferson's expressions, it excited a
good deal of curiosity, and led to a discussion which has been continued
to the present day. Those desirous of seeing the arguments pro and con,
put in their latest and best form, will find them in two articles in
the 'Magazine of American History,' in the January and March numbers of
1889.
"It is sufficient here to say that there was found among the British
State papers, as well as in contemporaneous newspapers in this
country, the original Mecklenburg paper, which was not a Declaration of
Independence at all, but simply patriotic resolutions similar to those
which were published in most of the Colonies at that time.
"And so the Mecklenburg Declaration takes its place with the stories of
Pocahontas and of William Tell."--Boutell.