1906 - The Mecklenburg Declaration

Charlotte Daily Observer , 5/20/1906, Section 3, p. 4

THE MECKLENBURG DECLARATION.
 
(What follows is copied from the 11th chapter, volume 11, of Martin’s History, the author of which was personally familiar with the events he narrates and the men who had to do with them.)
 
In the months of March and April, 1775, the leading men in the county of Mecklenburg held meetings to ascertain the sense of the people, and to confirm them in their opposition to the claims of Parliament to impose taxes and regulate the internal policy of the Colonies.  At one of these meetings, when it was ascertained that the people were prepared to meet their wishes, it was agreed that Thomas Polk, then colonel commandant of the county, should issue an order directed to each captain of militia, requesting him to call a company meeting to elect two delegates from his company to meet in general committee at Charlotte on the 19th of May; giving to the delegates ample power to adopt such measures as to them should seem best calculated to promote the common cause of defending the rights of the Colony, and aiding their brethren in Massachusetts.  Colonel Polk issued the order, and the delegates were elected.  They met in Charlotte on the day appointed.  The forms of their proceedings and the measures to be proposed had been previously agreed upon by the men at whose instance the committee were assembled.  The Rev. Hezekiah Jones Balch, Dr. Ephriam Brevard, and William Kennon, Esq., an attorney at law, addressed the committee, and descanted on the causes which had led to the existing contest with the mother country, and the consequences which were to be apprehended unless the people should make a firm and energetic resistance to the right which Parliament asserted of taxing the Colonies and regulating their internal policy.
 
On the day on which the committee met, the first intelligence of the action at Lexington, in Massachusetts, on the 19th of April, was received in Charlotte.  This intelligence produced the most decisive effect.  A large concourse of people had assembled to witness the proceedings of the committee.  The speakers addressed their discourses as well to them as to the committee, and those who were not convinced by their reasoning were influenced by their feelings, and all cried out:  “Let us be independent!  Let us declare our independence and defend it with our lives and fortunes!”  A committee was appointed to draw up resolutions.  This committee was composed of the men who had planned the whole proceedings, and who had already prepared the resolutions which it was intended should be submitted to the general committee.  Doctor Ephriam Brevard had drawn up the resolutions some time before and now reported them with amendments as follows:
 
I.—Resolved, That whosoever directly or indirectly abets, or in any way, form, or manner, countenances the invasion of our rights, as attempted by the Parliament of Great Britain, is an enemy to his country, to America and to the rights of man.
 
II.—Resolved, That we, the citizens of Mecklenburg county, do hereby dissolve the political bonds which have connected us with the mother country, and absolve ourselves from all allegiances to the British crown, abjuring all political connections with a nation that has wantonly trampled on our rights and liberties and inhumanly shed innocent blood of Americans at Lexington.
 
III.—Resolved, That we do hereby declare ourselves a free and independent people; that we are, and of right ought to be, a sovereign and self-governing people under the power of God and the General 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.
 
IV.—Resolved, That we hereby ordain and adopt as rules of conduct all and each of our former laws, and that the crown of Great Britain can not be considered hereafter as holding any rights, privileges, or immunities amongst us.
 
V.—Resolved, That all officers, both civil and military, in this county, be entitled to exercise the same powers and authorities as heretofore; that every member of this delegation shall henceforth be a civil officer and exercise the powers of justice of the peace, issue process, hear and determine controversies according to law, preserve peace, union and harmony in the county, and use every exertion to spread the love of liberty and of country till a more general and better organized system of government be established.
 
VI.—Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted by express to the President of the Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia, to be laid before that body.
 
These resolutions were unanimously adopted as prescribed by the delegates.  James Jack, then of Charlotte, but now residing in the State of Georgia, was engaged to be the bearer of the resolutions to the President of Congress, and directed to deliver copies of them to the delegates in Congress from North Carolina.  The President returned a polite answer to the address which accompanied the resolutions, in which he highly approved of the measures adopted by the delegates of Mecklenburg, but deemed the subject of the resolutions premature to be laid before Congress.  Messrs. Caswell, Hooper and Hewes forwarded a joint letter, in which they complimented the people of Mecklenburg for their zeal in a common cause, and recommended to them the strict observance of good order; that the time would soon come when the whole continent would follow their example.
 
On the day that the resolutions were adopted by the delegates in Charlotte, they were read aloud to the people who had assembled in the town, and proclaimed amid the shouts and hurrahs, as expressing the feelings and determination of all present.  When Captain Jack reached Salisbury, on his way to Philadelphia, the general court was sitting and Mr. Kinnon, an attorney-at-law, who had assisted the proceedings of the delegates at Charlotte, was then at Salisbury.  At the request of the judges, Mr. Kinnon read the resolutions aloud in open court, to a large concourse of people; they were listened to with attention and approved by all present.
 
The delegates at Charlotte being empowered to adopt such measures as in their opinion would best promote the common cause, establish a variety of regulations for managing the concerns of the county.  Courts of justice were held under the direction of the delegates.  For some months these courts were held at Charlotte, but for the convenience of the people (for at that time Cabarrus formed a part of Mecklenburg), two other places were selected, and the courts were held at each in rotation.  The delegates appointed a committee of their body who were called a “committee of safety,” and they were empowered to examine all persons brought before them charged with being inimical  to the common cause, and to send the military into the neighboring counties to arrest suspected persons.  In the exercise of this power, the committee sent into Lincoln and Rowan counties, and had a number of persons arrested and brought before them.  Those who manifested penitence for their toryism, and took an oath to support the cause of liberty and of the country, were discharged.  Others were sent under guard into South Carolina for safe-keeping.  The meeting of the delegates at Charlotte and the proceedings which grew out of that meeting, produced the zeal and unanimity for which the people of Mecklenburg were distinguished during the whole of the Revolutionary War.  They became united as a band of brothers, whose confidence in each other, and the cause which they had sworn to support, was never shaken, in the worst of times.