CHAPTER XXVI THE MECKLENBURG RESOLVES, MAY 31, 1775 The Mecklenburg declaration.-Historical statement.-Documents and observations.-Conditions in May.-Mecklenburg aroused.—The great meeting at Charlotte.-Colonel Polk proclaims the resolves.— Independence declared.-The old government annulled.-The leaders in Mecklenburg.-The effect elsewhere.-At Salisbury.-At New Bern.-Bethania. - Reconciliation still desired.-Apprehensions.— Thomas Jefferson.-The Regulators.—The patriots in the interior.— The clashing in Anson.-New Hanover acts.-Governor Martin's plans. McDonald arrives.-New Hanover impatient.-Fort Johnston burned. The Revolution progresses.-Dunn and Boote confined. In May, 1775, the condition of public affairs was alarming. Boston was occupied by a hostile British army, and "the cause of Boston was felt to be the cause of all." The situation having been discussed by some of the leading citizens of Mecklenburg County, and several local meetings having been held at different points in the county, Colonel Thomas Polk called for the election of two delegates from each of the militia districts of the county "to take into consideration the state of the country, and to adopt such measures as to them seemed best to secure their lives, liberties, and property from the storm which was gathering and had burst on their fellowcitizens to the eastward by a British army" (statement of G. Graham and others). The delegates, having been chosen, met at Charlotte. The news of the battle of Lexington had arrived and the people were much excited (ibid.). Resolutions were adopted that were with great formality read by Colonel Polk to a large concourse of citizens, composed of nearly one-half of the men of the county, drawn together by their interest in the occasion (ibid.). The manuscript records of these proceedings appear to have been in the possession of John McKnitt Alexander until the year 1800. In 1794 he sent a copy of them to Dr. Hugh Williamson. In April, 1800, his residence was destroyed by fire and these original records were then burnt. Subsequently John McKnitt Alexander sought to reproduce the burnt records. Apparently he made some rough notes as a basis for reproduction on a half sheet of paper, which he preserved. Attached to that half sheet, when discovered after his death in 1817, was a 1775 { 1775 The Alexander document of 1800 His certificate N. C. Uni. The Davie copy full sheet in a handwriting unknown to his son, Dr. Joseph McKnitt Alexander, which contained an account of the proceedings in Mecklenburg, including a series of resolutions which has since been known as "The Declaration of May 20th." In September, 1800, a copy of this "full sheet" was sent by John McKnitt Alexander to General William R. Davie with the following certificate appended to it: "It may be worthy of notice here to observe that the foregoing statement, though fundamentally correct, yet may not literally correspond with the original record of the transactions of said delegation and Court of Inquiry, as all those records and papers were burned, with the house, on April 6, 1800; but previous to that time of 1800, a full copy of said records, at the request of Dr. Hugh Williamson, then of New York, but formerly a representative in Congress from this State, was forwarded to him by Colonel William Polk, in order that those early transactions might fill their proper place in a history of this State then writing by said Dr. Williams (sic) in New York. "Certified to the best of my recollection and belief this 3d day of September, 1800, by "J. MCK. ALEXANDER, "Mecklenburg County, N. C." This certificate fixes the character of "the full sheet" and of the "Davie copy" to which it was annexed. They were not copies of any record. In like manner, it is to be said of all other copies of the resolutions purporting to have been adopted at Charlotte on May 20th, that they have only this origin and source, and are copies of the Alexander document of 1800. The remembrance of Mecklenburg's patriotic action was cherished locally, but no contemporaneous publication of the proceedings seems to have been preserved in that county; nor was the copy sent to Dr. Williamson ever published; nor did General Davie give publicity to the paper sent him. John McKnitt Alexander died on July 10, 1817, and after his death his son, Dr. Joseph McKnitt Alexander, found in his mansion house a bundle of old pamphlets, and with them the "half sheet" and the "full sheet" of manuscripts above mentioned. In 1818 inquiry was made concerning the proceedings in Mecklenburg, and Dr. Joseph McKnitt Alexander sent a copy of the "full sheet" to Hon. William Davidson, then a member of Congress. On the 30th of April, 1819, the following publication appeared in the Raleigh Register: "It is not probably known to many of our readers that the citizens of Mecklenburg County, in this State, made a declaration of RALEIGH REGISTER ARTICLE independence more than a year before Congress made theirs. The following document on the subject has lately come to the hands of the editor from unquestionable authority, and is published that it may go down to posterity: 439 1775 Alexander document of NORTH CAROLINA, Mecklenburg COUNTY, May 20, 1775. In the spring of 1775, the leading characters of Mecklenburg The County, stimulated by that enthusiastic patriotism which elevates the mind above considerations of individual aggrandizement, and 1800 scorning to shelter themselves from the impending storm by submission to lawless power, 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 destinies were indissolubly connected with those of their Eastern fellow-citizens-and that they must either submit to all the impositions which an unprincipled, and 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 calamity." Conformably to these principles, Colonel Adam Alexander, through solicitation, issued an order to each captain's company in the county of Mecklenburg (then comprising the present county of Cabarrus), directing each militia 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 tyrannny. In conforming to said order, on May 19, 1775, the said delegation met in Charlotte, vested with unlimited powers; at which time official news, by express, 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 crisis which had arrived-every bosom swelled with indignation at the malice, inveteracy, and insatiable revenge, developed in the late attack at Lexington. The universal sentiment was: let us not flatter ourselves that popular harangues or resolves, that popular vapor will avert the storm, or vanquish our common enemy-let us deliberate -let us calculate the issue-the probable result; and then let us act with energy, as brethren leagued to preserve our propertyour lives-and what is still more endearing, the liberties of America. Abraham Alexander was then elected chairman, and John McKnitt Alexander, clerk. After a free and full discusssion of the various objects for which the delegation had been convened, it was unanimously ordained: 1775 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 country-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 trampled 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 selfgoverning association, under the control of no power other than that of our God and the general government of the congress; 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. 4. 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 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, 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 character of a committeeman, 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 throughout America, until a more general and organized government be established in this province. A number of by-laws were also added, merely to protect 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 declared, unanimously, about 2 A.M., May 20th. In a few days, a deputation of said delegation convened, when Captain James Jack, of Charlotte, was deputed as express to the congress at Philadelphia, with a copy of said Resolves RALEIGH REGISTER ARTICLE and Proceedings, together with a letter addressed to our three representatives there, viz., Richard Caswell, William Hooper and Joseph Hughes-under express injunction, personally, and through the State representation, to use all possible means to have said proceedings sanctioned and approved by the general congress. On the return of Captain Jack, the delegation 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 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 resulting 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 New Bern and Wilmington, alternately, and who confirmed the nomination and acts of the delegation in their official capacity. From this delegation originated the Court of Enquiry of this county, who constituted and held their first session in Charlottethey then held their meetings regularly at Charlotte, at Colonel James Harris's, and at Colonel 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 toryism, and its decrees as final as the confidence and patriotism 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 Alexander, deceased. 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 General W. R. Davie. J. McKnitt."]* Shortly after the publication of this document in the Register, in 1819, Colonel William Polk, being interested, obtained certificates from General George Graham, William Hutchison, Jonas Clark, Robert Robinson and others, residents of Mecklenburg, corroborative of its authenticity, and further certifying that within a few days after the adoption of the Resolves Captain Jack went as a messenger to bear them to the Continental Congress. *Dr. Joseph McKnitt Alexander, son of John McKnitt Alexander, used this signature. 441 1775 |