1875 Centennial Celebration

As at every grand banquet there are many remnants too good to be lost, so after the hurly burly of last week, we are enabled to pick up a number of items worthy of being put on record in the archives of the HOME; though, to confess the truth, we are just the least bit “exhausted” on the centennial topic. The accident to the Richmond Howitzers, returning from the Centennial, might have been a great calamity; though, fortunately, only serious in wounds. It appears the train had passed South Boston station, where the engineer saw a broken rail ahead. Too late to stop he could only put on steam and dash over the break. Two flat cars, with the cannon, whirled down the bank, and were smashed into pieces. Behind the flats was a baggage car, whose messenger was thrown amid his trunks and boxes, but not much hurt. The next coach contained five young men, B. Anderson, Peyton Giles, C. V. Sutton, Henry Cobb and R. C. Hill, who were turned over four times as the car bounded down the bank. Hill was badly cut and bruised; Cobb cut and hurt; Sutton braised and sprained; Giles and Anderson severely bruised. The conductor was also much cut and bruised. It was a fearful spectacle as the different cars revolved down the steep bank, and the heavy pieces of artillery were torn to fragments. No lives were lost, however, and a few weeks’ rest will restore the physical hurts. We very greatly regret that the memory of our centennial should be marred by this and other mishaps, though no blame attaches to the sufferers.

The Raleigh and Wilmington Firemen express themselves much pleased by their jaunt to the Future London.

The Raleigh News adverts to a subject we heard spoken of here last week:
“There is much feeling here on the subject of the painful and calamitous accidents to two of the members of the Raleigh Artillery at Charlotte. It is charged that the guns furnished by the War Department were condemned pieces, and were turned over to a Southern company because no other use could be made of them. If so, the Head of the Department deserved himself to be blown from the mouth of the gun for so wantonly endangering the lives of others.

Respecting the Brevard and Alexander families, a correspondent of the Baltimore Sun has the following: “Mr. Jas. Alexander, the oldest member of the family living, who resides in the beautiful Kishaquoquilas Valley; Mifflin Co., Penna, (where he was well known by the Junior of the HOME,) wrote to say that on account of extreme age he could not be present, but would deputize his son living in Virginia to represent the family of the presiding officer in 1775.

Dr. Ephraim Brevard was a native of Cecil county, Maryland, and within my recollection there were some members of the family residing in the county. James Alexander and his brother Joseph Alexander settled in the northeast part of Cecil county as early as 1812 James’ first wife was Margaret McKnight, sister of John McKnight, an early settler of the southern part of the county. Of the children of James Alexander, John McKnight Alexander, his brother Ezekiel, and sister Jemima, (who married Maj. Thomas Sharpe, of Cecil county, went to Mecklenburg, N. C. in 1774. The will of James Alexander, who died in 1779, with the names of the most his children is recorded in the register’s office in Cecil county. John McKnight Alexander went to North Carolina when twenty-one years old, a tailor by trade and there married Jane Bane, from Pennsylvania, became a land surveyor, a large landholder, and one of the most prominent and public-spirited citizens of the State. When the Convention was assembled at Charlotte on the 19th of May, 1775, that adopted the declaration of rights, he was chosen secretary. His great grandson, S. B. Alexander, lives some miles from Charlotte, N. C. Tradition says that about thirty families of the Alexanders and their connections left Cecil county for North Carolina about the same time, and settled mostly in Mecklenburg county. These settlers were nearly all Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, who got there by following the great valley of Virginia from Maryland and Pennsylvania, beginning slowly about 1745, and arriving rapidly from 1775 on ward. The “Seven Churches of Mecklenburg” were all of that order, and so were the signers of the declaration of rights almost entirely of the same order.”

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The representative of the Norfolk Landmark, noted men, as well as things, at the Centennial.
Hear him: EX-GOVERNOR VANCE.

“The governor met us in a pleasing way, and upon taking a seat, remarked that he was glad to see us, and that he was delighted that we were not a large man, as he had marked square places on the floor with chalk for each one, of his expected gusts, and he would be glad if we would remember that we were entitled to as much standing room as we could occupy. The ex-Governor is in splendid health and spirits, and as his person is so well known in this community, it is not necessary for us to describe him. Armed with divers letters of introduction from this distinguished gentleman, we rallied forth to continue our duties, which in this case, turned out to be pleasures.

“After spending an hour with the Governor, we called on JUDGE KERR, the gifted orator who delivered the opening address at the grounds. We should take the Judge to be between fifty and sixty years of age. He is straight and well shaped, has a very happy blending of dignity and affability in his manner. He impressed us as a man of quick and comprehensive intellect, while his great address, which has already been read by millions in this country, is considered to be entirely worthy the State and the occasion. The Judge, wit his kind reception, made our visit, although but short, one long to be remembered. We called next in turn upon the HON. JNO. M. BRIGHT, Of Tennessee, who was stopping under the hospital roof of Colonel Wm. Johnston, the Mayor of Charlotte, by both of whom we were cordially received. In conversing with General Bright, he remarked. “Sir, you cannot imagine with what pride and pleasure I left my home to mingle among these people who, after the lapse of a hundred years, are to celebrate the deeds of their heroic forefathers.”

We next paid our respects to His Excellency. GOVERNOR CURTIS H. BRODGEN.
The Governor seemed to be quite enthusiastic at the grand success with which the celebration had passed, saying that he believed that Carolina to-day was in the height of her glory.

LIEUTENANT GENERAL D. H. HILL.

Later in the day we called upon that old hero and accomplished gentleman, General D. H. Hill, at his home, where we met many distinguished gentlemen and ladies, among whom was the widow and daughter of the long-lamented “Stonewall Jackson.” Everyone had a kind word for us, and when asked if we did not wish that we were a Carolinian, we happily informed them that we were a “native and to the manor born” of Carolina. The stout old General, who never turned his bank on an enemy, never disguised a manly sentiment, or felt a single throb of sympathy with tyrants or tyranny, holds his own, I am told, against time, just as vigorously as he used to hold his round against the Federals, and I felt that I had been fortunate in making the acquaintance of a genuine historic personage. After many solicitations on the part of the General and his family to remain with them-all of which, however, we were forced to decline-we said the good-bye, and bowing ourself out, wended our way to the hotel.”
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The Raleigh Recorder mentions the following: Upon the magnificent engine of the fire companies from Newbern, in a little pagoda constructed of flowers and canopied with silk, stood a lovely child of perhaps five years, arrayed in the continental dress of the hundred years ago. He wore the wig, the peruke, knee breeches and all, after presented such a picture of child-like grace and self-possession as is not seen often in a life time, and when seen is not easily forgotten. In the midst of and looking down upon the grand procession in which horses were prancing, band playing and the rabble yelling, he stood a veritable hero, his cheek unblanched by a single thrill of fear, and his face lighted by a fine glow of infantile enthusiasm and self-confidence. How every other in that vast crowd of twenty-five thousand people longed to kiss him, and every father longed to clasp him in his arms and call him son.

MOTHER TO DAUGHTER.

North Carolina’s Memento of the Mecklenburg Centennial.

A National Flag Dedicated to Tennessee—Interesting Correspondence Between Hon. H. M. Polk and Governor Porter.

The following correspondence, which has been handed out for publication, will be read with interest throughout Tennessee and North Carolina:

Nashville, Tenn., May 26, 1875.—Hon. James D. Porter, Governor of Tennessee—Sir: I am charged by the Central Executive Committee of the Centennial Celebration of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, May 20, 1775, to present to you, and through you to the people of the State of Tennessee, the accompanying banner, which, on the 20th of May, 1875 represented and was dedicated to Tennessee, in the celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.

The four corners of Independence Square were each ornamented with a banner. They represented North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina and Tennessee.

I have the honor to present to you, in the name of the committee, this banner, the emblem of our country’s greatness and glory, the first flag ever unfurled in vindication of the rights of popular constitutional liberty which were first publicly and authoritatively proclaimed in independence of kingly rule at Charlotte Town, in the County of Mecklenburg, May 20 ________.

This commemoration of the esteem and affection which the old North State entertains for her daughter, and bears witness to the common devotion of their people to the foundation principles of local self-government, unfettered, save by constitutional limit alone, wherein for the common good and general welfare they have parted with sovereign powers under well guarded constitutional restrictions.

This banner should ever remind us that popular liberty is hardly won, and purchased with great sacrifice of blood and treasure; that for it many people have ineffectually struggled, whilst others who fondly imagined they had secured it, have been unable to retain the priceless jewel; that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; that we should be ever ready to rebuke, promptly, the first encroachments upon its rights, whether emanating from popular license, or centralized usurpation; remembering that although we should sustain the government created to secure the common good and general welfare, whilst acting in its appointed sphere, as well as State governments, whilst performing the legitimate functions for which they were instituted; yet, governments, both State and National, sink into insignificance when compared with liberty—constitutionally regulated liberty–whenever these shall seek to overthrow popular liberty, the crowning consummation and glory of modern times.

In performing the pleasing task committed to me, I cannot forbear to add, that it is contemplated to erect a monument upon the spot to the honored and worth patriots who first proclaimed independence in America, and who, in asserting the rights of local, popular government, and the dignity of manhood, first gave the death blow to tyranny under the form of the “one man power.”

Let Tennesseans who are closely allied to North Carolina by the ties of interest or of blood respond to the praise worthy object, and by giving material aid, share in the honor of erecting a grateful memorial to the heroes of 1775 who, for the rights of popular government, first pledged life, and fortune, and _____ pledge in the great Revolutionary struggle for freedom.

I am, sir, with much esteem, your obedient servant.

H. M. Polk.

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