be in a State of actual Rebellion, we conceive that all Laws and Commissions confirmed by, or derived from the Authority of the King or 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 the 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, heretofore granted by the Crown, to be exercised in these Colonies, are null and void, and the Constitution of each particular Colony wholly suspended.

2. That the Provincial Congress of each Province, under the Direction of the Great Continental Congress, is invested with all legislative and executive Powers within their respective Provinces; and that no other Legislative or Executive does or can exist, at this Time, in any of these Colonies."

3. As all former Laws are now suspended in this Province, and the Congress have not yet provided others, we judge it necessary, for the better Preservation of good Order, to form certain Rules and Regulations for the internal Government of this County, until Laws shall be provided for us by the Congress.

4. That the Inhabitants of this County do meet on a certain Day appointed by this Committee, and having formed themselves into nine Companies, to wit, eight for the County, and one for the Town of Charlotte, do choose a Colonel and other military Officers, who shall hold and exercise their several Powers by Virtue of this Choice, and independent of Great-Britain, and former Constitution of this Province.

5. That for the better Preservation of the Peace, and Administration of Justice, each of these Companies do choose from their own Body two discreet Freeholders, who shall be impowered each by himself, and singly, to decide and determine all Matters of Controversy arising within the said Company under the Sum of Twenty Shillings, and jointly and together all Controversies under the Sum of Forty Shillings, yet so as their Decisions may admit of Appeals to the Convention of the Select Men of the whole County; and also, that any one of these shall have Power to examine, and commit to Confinement, Persons accused of Petit Larceny.

6. That those two Select Men, thus chosen, do, jointly and together, choose from the Body of their particular Company two Persons, properly qualified to serve as Constables, who may assist them in the Execution of their Office.

7. That upon the Complaint of any Person to either of these Select Men, he do issue his Warrant, directed to the Constable, commanding him to bring the Aggressor before him or them to answer the said Complaint.

8. That these eighteen Select Men, thus appointed, do meet every third Tuesday in January, April, July, and October, at the Court-House, in Charlotte, to hear and determine all Matters of Controversy for Sums exceeding Forty Shillings; also Appeals: And in Cases of Felony, to commit the Person or Persons convicted thereof to close Confine

The South-Carolina Gazette; And Country Journal prints "Thursday", but all other contemporary copies and the court records themselves show "Tuesday" to have been correct.

AM. HIST. REV., VOL. XIII.—2.

ment, until the Provincial Congress shall provide and establish Laws and Modes of Proceeding in all such Cases.

9. That these Eighteen Select Men, thus convened, do choose a Clerk to record the Transactions of said Convention; and that the said Clerk, upon the Application of any Person or Persons aggrieved, do issue his Warrant to one of the Constables, to summons and warn said Offender to appear before the Convention at their next sitting, to answer the aforesaid Complaint.

10. 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, do intend clandestinely to withdraw from the County without paying such Debt; the Clerk, or such Member, shall issue his Warrant to the Constable, commanding him to take the said Person or Persons into safe Custody, until the next sitting of the Convention.

II. That when a Debtor for a Sum below Forty Shillings shall abscond and leave the County, the Warrant granted as aforesaid shall extend to any Goods or Chattels of the said Debtor as may be found, and such Goods or Chattels be seized and held in Custody by the Constable for the Space of Thirty Days; in which Term if the Debtor fails to return and discharge the Debt, the Constable shall return the Warrant to one of the Select Men of the Company where the Goods and Chattels are found, who shall issue Orders to the Constable to sell such a Part of the said Goods as shall amount to the Sum due; that when the Debt exceeds Forty Shillings, the Return shall be made to the Convention, who shall issue the Orders for Sale.

12. That all Receivers and Collectors of Quitrents, 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 farther 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 Monies when collected.

13. That the Committee be accountable to the County for the Application of all Monies received from such public Officers.

14. That all these Officers hold their Commissions during the Pleasure of their respective Constituents.

15. That this Committee will sustain all Damages that may ever hereafter accrue to all or any of these Officers thus appointed, and thus acting, on Account of their Obedience and Conformity to these Resolves.

16. 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 Information being made to the Captain of the Company where he resides, the said Captain shall cause him to be apprehended, and conveyed before the two Select Men of the said Company, who, upon Proof of the Fact, shall commit him the said Offender, into safe Custody, until the next setting of the Convention, who shall deal with him as Prudence may direct.

17. That any Person refusing to yield Obedience to the above Resolves shall be deemed equally criminal, and liable to the same Punishments as the Offenders above last mentioned.

18. That these Resolves be in full Force and Virtue, until Instructions from the General Congress of this Province, regulating the Jurisprudence of this Province, shall provide otherwise, or the legislative Body of Great-Britain resign its unjust and arbitrary Pretentions with Respect to America.

19. That the several Militia Companies in this county do provide themselves with proper Arms and Accoutrements, and hold themselves in Readiness to execute the commands and Directions of the Provincial Congress, and of this committee.

20. That this committee do appoint Colonel Thomas Polk, and Doctor Joseph Kennedy, to purchase 300lb. of Powder, 600lb. of Lead, and 1000 Flints, and deposit the same in some safe Place, hereafter to be appointed by the committee.

Signed by Order of the Committee.

EPH. BREVARD, Clerk of the Committee.

In a letter dated "New Bern 18th. June 1775" Richard Cogdell inclosed a copy of The North-Carolina Gazette containing the foregoing resolutions to Richard Caswell, in attendance on the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, with these comments thereon: "you'l Observe the Mecklinburg resolves, exceed all other Committees, or the Congress itself. I send you the paper wherein they are incerted as I hope this will come soon to hand.”

On June 16, 1775, Governor Martin issued a proclamation in which he denied the allegations of designs on the part of the British Ministry and Parliament to enslave Americans, lately made by the revolutionary party in the counties of the Wilmington district, and severely denounced the revolutionists in North Carolina.

On Tuesday, June 20, 1775, the several committees in the district of Wilmington met in the court house in Wilmington, and Richard Quince, sr., was unanimously chosen chairman. Among the matters taken up was Governor Martin's proclamation of the 16th, and a committee of three was appointed to answer it. On Wednesday, the 21st, this committee returned its answer "which was read and ordered to be printed in the public papers and in hand bills". The preamble of the resolutions presented by this special committee and approved of by the general meeting of the committees closed with the following language:

We, then, the Committees of the counties of New Hanover, Brunswick, Bladen, Duplin and Onslow, in order to prevent the pernicious influence of the said Proclamation, do, unanimously, resolve, that in our opinion, his Excellency Josiah Martin, Esq, hath by the said Proclamation, and by the whole tenor of his conduct, since the unhappy disputes between Great Britain and the colonies, discovered himself to be an enemy to the happiness of this colony in particular, and to the freedom, rights and privileges of America in general.

At a meeting of His Majesty's council for North Carolina, held June 25, 1775, Governor Martin called the attention of the council to the

seditious Combinations that have been formed, and are still forming in several parts of this Colony and the violent measures they persue in compelling His Majesty's Subjects by various kinds of intimidations, to subscribe Associations, inconsistent with their Duty and allegiance to their Sovereign, The obliging People to frequent meetings in Arms, by the usurped Authority of Committees, the recent Assemblage of a Body of armed Men, in the town of Wilmington for the purpose of awing His Majesty's Loyal Subjects there into submission to the dictates of an illegal and tyranical tribunal erected there under that name. and the late most treasonable publication of a Committee in the County of Mecklenburg, explicitly renouncing obedience to His Majesty's Government and all lawfull authority whatsoever.

In a letter written at Fort Johnston, North Carolina, June 30, 1775, Governor Martin detailed to the Earl of Dartmouth, British Secretary of State for the American Department, what had happened in North Carolina since his last despatch (no. 33). He recounted a visit to him from the citizens of New Bern on the 23rd of that month, told of news he had received of some ammunition and arms which General Gage was sending to him and of his apprehension that they would fall into the hands of the revolutionists, of his removal to Fort Johnston from New Bern, of the taking and carrying off of some cannons that had lain behind his house, of the necessity he had been under of publishing the proclamation of the 16th of June (a copy of which he enclosed) and of the reply thereto of the committees at Wilmington on the 21st, using this language:

The News Paper enclosed will shew Your Lordship that the same spirit of Sedition and extravagance that gave cause to that Act of Government, has produced an impudent and formal contradiction of the undeniable truths it contains, under the authority of a Committee; proving irrefragably that People embarked in a bad cause, scruple not a avail themselves of the basest falsehoods, and calumnies to support it according to custom, and as the last effort of malice, and falsehood, Your Lordship will find this Publication proscribes me as an Enemy to this Province in particular, and to America in General.

After detailing how he could organize a regiment of loyalists in North Carolina, Governor Martin referred to his council as follows:

The Minutes of Council held at this place the other day, will make the impotence of Government here as apparent to your Lordship, as anything I can set before you.

In the next paragraph Governor Martin wrote:

The Resolves of the Committee of Mecklenburg which Your Lordship will find in the enclosed News Paper, surpass all the horrid and

treasonable publications that the inflammatory spirits of this Continent have yet produced; and Your Lordship may depend, its Authors and abettors will not escape my due notice, whenever my hands are sufficiently strengthened to attempt the recovery of the lost authority of Government. A Copy of these Resolves I am informed were sent off by express to the Congress at Philadelphia, as soon as they were passed in the Committee.

Governor Martin discussed other matters, and a second time spoke of what "your Lordship will see on the minutes of the Council". He referred to the enclosed proclamation once, to "the enclosed News Paper" twice, and to the minutes of council twice. No other enclosures are mentioned in the letter. He referred to two different matters as published "in the enclosed News Paper ". One of these was the reply made to his proclamation of June 16 by the committees of the Wilmington district on June 21, and the other was the resolves of the committee of Mecklenburg of May 31. The "enclosed News Paper ", therefore, could only have been one issued between June 21 and June 30, and was undoubtedly The Cape-Fear Mercury of Wilmington, of Friday, June 23, 1775. It was necessarily the Wilmington paper of that date or the New Bern paper of the same date, as all other papers were too far off to have permitted of the news of the 21st going and the printed paper coming back between the 21st and the 30th. We have already seen that the Mecklenburg resolutions of May 31 were published in the New Bern paper of June 16. It is hardly likely that they were republished in the same paper on the 23rd. Fort Johnston was too far off for Governor Martin to have received a paper on the 30th, the day of publication, so it is evident that it was The Cape-Fear Mercury of June 23 to which Governor Martin twice referred in his letter of June 30 as "the enclosed News Paper ", and The Cape-Fear Mercury of the 23rd had probably copied the Mecklenburg resolutions of May 31 from The North-Carolina Gazette of the 16th, though it is possible that a third copy of the resolutions was sent to The Cape-Fear Mercury and arrived too late for use in the issue of the 16th.

The letter of June 30 was termed by Governor Martin despatch “No. 34". On July 6 he wrote another letter ("No. 35") to Lord Dartmouth in which he said:

I have engaged Mr. Alexr Schaw whom I have now the honor to introduce to your Lordship to charge himself with this Letter, and my Dispatch No. 34.

On July 16 Governor Martin wrote to Lord Dartmouth: