Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence
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The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence is a resolution allegedly proclaimed at Charlotte, North Carolina, by the Committee of citizens of Mecklenburg County on May 20, 1775. No original text exists and no contemporary mention of it was made in North Carolina or in other colonies. The 1819 copy was said to be created from memory. Historians have yet to confirm the original documents existence.
May 20 was the day after news arrived of the battle of Lexington. The seal and flag of North Carolina bear that date. The citizens of Mecklenburg did adopt, on May 31, 1775, strong anti-British resolutions, declaring suspension from office of all crown officials.
On April 30, 1819, the Raleigh Register published the following document, said to have been adopted by the Mecklenburg Committee. The document was allegedly based in part on general recollections of those resolutions over 40 years earlier. Some of its phrases are very similar to parts of the Declaration of Independence, raising questions as to whether one document may have been based in part on the other, that would have been authored fifteen months earlier. Thomas Jefferson, who was in close contact for many years with North Carolina leaders, said he never heard of it. Phrases, such as "the rights of man," overlap with documents from the French Revolution and were never used anywhere else in 1775.
Thus, the tale of the declaration of May 20 originated merely from the 1819 newspaper story. The story was told in elementary school textbooks and some North Carolinians still believe it, though no professional historians or archivists do. Professor William S. Powell, in his standard history North Carolina: A History (New York: Norton, 1977) does not mention it at all; Professor H.G. Jones, in his North Carolina Illustrated (Chapel Hill: University of N.C. Press, 1983), pointedly places ironic quotation marks around the name of the declaration, and mentions it only because of the controversy stirred in 1905 after another historian, Samuel A. Ashe, had "questioned [the declaration's] authenticity." The Harvard Guide to American History (1954) lists the Mecklenburg Declaration under the heading of "spurious declarations." Allan Nevins says "Legends often become a point of faith. At one time the State of North Carolina made it compulsory for the public schools to teach that Mecklenburg County had adopted a Declaration of Independence on May 20, 1775--to teach what had been clearly demonstrated an untruth." [Nevins, Gateway to History (1938) p 119] R. D. W. Connor asserts, that "North Carolina's Priority in the Demand for Independence rested upon the Halifax Resolves rather than either of the Mecklenburg papers."
Nearby Tryon County, North Carolina adopted a similar declaration known as the Tryon Resolves on August 14, 1775 that is known to be authentic.
[edit] The Declaration
Here is the text presented as the "Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence" by the Raleigh Register on April 30, 1819:
- 1. Resolved, That whosoever 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 County, 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 self-governing 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 cooperation, 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 - where, 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 'Committee-man,' 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.
[edit] Bibliography
- Richard M. Current, "That Other Declaration: May 20, 1775-May 20, 1975", North carolina Historical review 54 (1977): 169-91.
- William Henry Hoyt. The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence: A Study of Evidence Showing that the Alleged Early Declaration of Independence...is Spurious (1907) online edition
[edit] External links
- May 20th Society - Celebrating the Spirit of Mecklenburg
- F W Thornton article
- Modern History Sourcebook - Mecklenburg Declaration
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