1954 Freedom Document Honored

The following article describes the 1954 commemoration of the signing of the Mecklenburg Declaration.

 

 The Charlotte Observer 5/19/1954, pp.1 and 2-A

 

 Most Lavish Tribute Yet Paid Signers

 

Authors of Historic Freedom Document Signally Honored By Roy Covington Observer Staff Writer  

Charlotte and Mecklenburg County wrote into the record yesterday their most elaborate tribute to the 27 freedom-seeking signers of the historic Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.  

It was written in Charlotte’ Freedom Park, endorsed by the President of the United States, outstanding leaders in religious, military, government and entertainment circles and witnessed by an estimated 30,000 persons.  

The arrival of President Dwight D. Eisenhower on the Freedom Park grounds at 12:29 p.m. and his subsequent address from beneath a star-spangled canopy on the park’s lake island climaxed the 179th observation here of the signing of the Mecklenburg Declaration.  

REVERENCE, MIGHT  

But from the opening strains of America,” which wafted across the slowly filling park at 9:15 a.m. until the closing number by a 30-member men’s chorus, heard by a slowly emptying park at 4?30 p.m., yesterday’s Freedom Celebration Day was a display of reverence, military might, and patriotism.  

Dr. Norman Vincent Peale sounded the day’s religious keynote. Well disciplined troops from Fort Bragg’s 82nd Airborne Division were on hand. Displays of military equipment lined both shores of the lake.  

Flights of Sabre jets, “Flying Boxcars,” Globemasters,” and helicopters over the area turned the gaze skyward in marvel. Medical teams demonstrated air-medical evacuation of casualties.  

But President Eisenhower was the main attraction.  

Emcee Warren Hull, star of TV’s “Strike it Rich,” touched off a sustained cheer when he announced “Here he comes,” and “Here comes your President.”  

Earlier he had whetted the crowd’s enthusiasm by leading two practice cheers.  

REACHES PEAK  

The ovation reached its peak when the President’s party reached the narrow bridge leading to the island and many of those watching saw their President for the first time.  

With Secret Service agents close at hand and pressed by photographers, the President walked down the path between files of braced troops at present arms. On the island he was greeted by a reception committee, composed of committee members who had planned the celebration.  

Corporal William Brown of Fort Mott, S. C., pulled the lanyard which sent the first reverberations of a 21-gun salute rolling across the placid lake. AT five-second intervals, four 105 millimeter howitzers from Battery A of the 376th FA Battalion from Fort Bragg roared a welcome.  

Then seated at a glass-topped table, the President was served a picnic lunch by five Queens College students.  

Hovering around the President with lunches of Southern fried chicken and country ham biscuits were Barbara Edwards, Decatur, Ill, Getty Lipe, Landis, Mrs. Dorothy Hinson, Charlotte, Charlene Warren, Welch, W. Va., and Pat Laird, Panama City, Fla.  

He and the thousands of picnickers ate their lunch to the accompaniment of the Davidson College Band under direction of Kenneth Moore, the Charlotte Choral Society directed by Mrs. Alice Berman, and the Charlotte Boys’ Choir under the leadership of a sunburned Fred Waring.  

The Boys’ Choir caused the only break in the President’s lunch hour. He, as did practically all others on the island, stopped eating and moved to a vantage point to see and hear the boys better.  

“That’s just wonderful,” commented Eisenhower. “That is beautiful singing.”  

The table at which the President ate was hand made by Harry T. Orr, 701 Louise St., from a red oak log taken from the McIntyre log cabin of revolutionary times. Carved on its top was the declaration signed May 20, 1775.  

A silver-mounted gavel made from the same log was given Eisenhower by Mr. Orr. Gavels made by Mr. Orr were also given Warren Hull and Fred Waring.  

Eating lunch with the President were Secretary of the Army Robert Stevens, 10th District Congressman Charles Raper Jonas, Senator Alton A. Lennon, Charlotte Mayor Phil Van Every and A. Grant Whitney.  

MOVED FREELY  

In the interlude between lunch and his speech, “Ike” moved freely among members of the restricted party on the island.  

He laughed and joked with former West Point classmates, Col. Phillip McNair, Aiken, S. C., Col. Thomas Taylor, Chapel Hill, Lt. Col. Hugh Avent, Greenville, S. C., Col. Edward G. Sherburne, Rock Hill, S. C., and Brig. Gen. Pearson Menoher of Southern Pines.  

In his speech later he referred to his meeting with the now retired Army officers who were graduated with him in 1915.  

Remarking that he would “lose it in a hurry” to his wife, Eisenhower accepted a silver platter from John T. Gardner, who made the presentation in the name of the Citizens for Eisenhower group of Valdese. The platter bore the inscription “To Ike and Our Mamie.”  

It was just “the sort of thing Mamie loves,” said the First Lady’s husband.  

CITY’S WELCOME  

The City’s welcome to President Eisenhower and the thousands gathered to see him was extended by Mayor Van Every who took the speakers’ stand following introductory remarks by Mr. Whitney. “This hour finds us in and of America,” said Mayor Van Every; “and the very spirit of America is predicated upon the fatherhood of God and dedicated to the justice proclaimed in the divine charter of mankind. “Americans have always fought for their freedoms,” he continued, and termed the Mecklenburg Declaration “Freedom’s Birth Certificate.”  

Woven into the Constitution, he said, is the lesson that “when people are free, they benefit everyone in their efforts to benefit themselves. They push civilization ahead. Real lasting progress has always been made when men were free to plan their lives –to be enterprising in their thought and in their actions.”  

JONAS’ SPEECH  

It was Representative Charles R. Jonas, who delivered the afternoon’s longest speech. It was reported later that his 15-minute talk surpassed the President’s 12-minute address at Eisenhower’s own request. Reportedly, the President did not feel long winded.  

“No one in North Carolina claims that we have a monopoly on patriotism,” said Rep. Jonas. “But we are entitled to take some natural pride in the fact that our forefathers, right here in this community, were the first Americans to undertake to dissolve the bonds that bound them to the Mother Country and declare themselves ‘A Free and independent people.’ ”  

The struggle for liberty and self-government did not end with the surrender of Cornwallis’ forces at Yorktown, said the congressman, now with adoption of the Constitution.  

Steadily, but surely, even at the cost of bloodshed, he continued, have been the areas of freedom extended.  

“The goal, alas, has not yet been met,” said Jonas, “because more than half the world does not enjoy a Bill of Rights and the fear of aggression haunts the capitals of the world and the inhabitants of the great cities.”  

Jonas called for a survey of the past along with a glance into the future to discern the progress made and the obstacles to overcome.  

“In the continuing struggle to preserve ad widen the margins of freedom, let us lead from our strength and instead of being overwhelmed by fear and oppression, let us be inspired by the challenges of the past to surmount these dangers,” he said in conclusion.  

UMSTEAD SPEAKS  

North Carolina Governor William B. Umstead introduced the President with the briefest of remarks. Following his speech, playing of “Hail to the Chief” and a hurried 21-gun salute, the President left immediately for the airport and the return trip to Washington.  

During the morning’s religious services, Dr. Peal called for Americans to regain “the thrill of freedom.” The pastor of New York’s Marble Collegiate Church termed the original signers of the Mecklenburg paper as “magnificent, sturdy characters who could not abide tyranny because they were free men through their faith in God.”  

There are people today, warned the noted minister, who are “chipping away at our freedom.” They are the ones, he said, who foster great government which would take away individual liberties and who support a strong federal government at the expense of states’ rights.  

Since the days of the Roman empire, said Dr. Peale, some 57 billion people have lived as pawns and chattels of great government, “scarcely able to call their souls their own.” Only three billion have known the meaning of freedom, he continued.     TWO STREAMS

Freedom is the outgrowth of two streams, Dr. Peal said. One had its origin in the ancient classicists who recognized the “sacredness and greatness of the human mind” and determined that no one had the right to “enslave these minds.”  

The second began when Moses went into a “wilderness of enslaved peoples” and declared them to be “born in the image of God” and being “children of God” they were free men.  

Here in America, said Dr. Peale, at the confluence of these two streams has been formed the most unique political government the world has ever know.  

He called upon Americans to keep theirs a “religious state” and concluded with “where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”  

Dr. Peale was introduced by Dr. Walter B. Freed, pastor of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church. The benediction was led by Dr. J. B. Humphrey, president of the Charlotte Ministerial Alliance.  

Also taking part in the morning service were Dr. James J. Jones, Myers Park Presbyterian Church; Dr. Lee Tuttle, First Methodist Church; Dr. C. C. Warren, First Baptist Church and a quartet composed of Dorothy Harwell, Helen Heinbaugh, William B. Thomas and Harvey L. Woodruff.  

With pin-point timing which marked the days activities the spotlight moved religious activities to the military phase following Dr. Peale’s address.  

At 9:50 a. m. an honor platoon from the 504th Airborne Infantry Regiment moved into the lake shore area. Following an inspection by Maj. Gen. Charles E. Thomas, commanding the 14th Air Force at Donaldson Field, S. C., and Brig. Gen. T. M. Mayfield of the 108th Reserve Inf. Division, the platoon moved skillfully through a tricky manual of arms.  

SOLO DRILL  

Cpl. Abbeppy Johnson, Eufala, Ala., received an ovation for his special solo drill with the rifle. The platoon was commanded by Lt. W. R. McGriff of Atlanta. While Lt. Col. R. W. Page, Jr. narrated squads of riflemen, moving into position to demonstrate the various weapons found in the infantry unit. A white smoke signal on the far side of the lake was the signal for a helicopter to land on the lake shore and receive simulated casualties and airlift them to hospitals for treatment. Nearby stood Army receiving hospitals which were open during the day for inspection.  

While Maj. Donald Becker maintained radio contact with the planes, Maj. Walter Seedlar explained the capabilities of various types of military planes which swept over the lake site.  

Seven Sabre jets from the local Air National Guard unit whistled by in tight formation at 11:10 a.m. Much larger and flying slower 12 C-119s and 12 C-124s also made passes over the area.  

Maj. Gen. Thomas, keynoting of Armed Forces phase of the program said the theme, “Power for Peace,” in any other country would have an “ominous meaning.  

In this country, he added, it means protection from an aggressor’s attack.  

CITES GOAL  

Commenting on present Air Force expansion, the general said that by 1957 “We hope to have 137 wings of which 126 will be combat wings of fighters and bombers. The remainder will be troop carrier wings.” Due to manpower limitations, he said, “Our equipment, our training, and our morale must be the best possible.”  

He said the lesson of Dien Bien Phu should be a lesson to all and that it was important that “we cease bickering among ourselves” to devote our full energies toward meeting a common enemy. At intervals throughout the day, the 82nd Airborne Division ban played musical interludes. With the President’s departure Emcee Hull introduced a two-hour program of entertainment for the somewhat diminished crowd, which remained for the day’s final offering.  

Arthur Smith and His Crackerjacks broke the ice. Then following the Boys’ Choir, the Leonard Clemmer Tumbling Team, and a Queens College quartet of Ann Currie, Carthage, Kay Zeigler, Jacksonville, Fla, Gloria Dowd, Charlotte and Peggy Bruce, Chester, S. C.  

STYLIST DRILL  

The blue-clad Pershing Rifles from the N. C. State College and commanded by Cadet Roy Congleton of Chadbourn, moved through a stylish rifle drill under skies which threatened at any minute to rain. But it was left to a bow-tied group of barbershop singers to wind up one of the greatest of Mecklenburg Independence Days.  

Thirty members of the local chapter of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in American harmonized the concluding notes at 4:30 p. m.  

And then like “Ike,” the crowds went home, leaving behind a littered Freedom Park. But with words of freedom still resounding.