MECK'LENBURG DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. in American history, a series of resolutions purporting to have been adopted at Mevklenburg County, N.C., )lay 20. 1775. by a convention of repre senting each militia eompany of the county. An other set of resolutions is nttributed to a similar meeting on Ma', 31. 1775. but the use et that (line of both modes of reckoning time makes it probable that only one meeting was held, al though this has always been a debatable question and has given rise to a detailed and prolonged controversy. The copy of the resolutions made by the secretary of the meeting is said to have been destroyed by fire, but on April 30. 1819, what purported to be a copy, made probably from recollection, was published in the Raleigh I N. C.) Rtylster, The use of phrases in the published copy similar to certain passages in the real Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1778, caused doubt to arise as to the authenticity of the Sleckle»burg Declaration. The Legislature of North Carolina in 1831, after an investigation of the subject, declared Slay 200 a legal holiday. The weight of authority at present is overwhelm ingly against the authenticity of the Declaration, and favors the opinion that only one meeting was held—the one of Slav 31st—and that the reso lutions there adopted, bearing no resemblance to Jefferson's Declaration, constitute the nearest approach there was to a Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. The resolutions, as published in the Raleigh Register in 1819, are five in number. They declare: (1) that whoever aids or abets the invasion of American rights is enemy to this country—to America—and to the inherent and in :dim:tole rights of man ;" (21 that all political bands between those passing the resolutions and the mother country are dissolved, the allegiance of the citizens of Mecklenburg County to the British Crown being absolved and all political connec tion with that nation broken off; 131 that "we do hereby declare ourselves a free and independent people; are, and of a right ought to he, a self governing association, under the control of no power other than that of our tl'od and the gen eral government of the Congress; to the main tenance of which independence we solemnly pledge to each other our mutual cooperation. our lives,
our fortunes, and our most sacred honor:" 14) that those passing the resolutions acknowledge the existence of no law or public officer, but re adopt their former laws in so far as these laws do not recognize the authority of the Crown, thus vacating all civil and military commissions granted by the Crown; and (5) that all military officers in the county are retained in their former command and that every member of the conven tion he henceforth a civil officer with power to issue process, hear and determine all matters of controversy, preserve peace and harmony, and endeavor to spread the love of country until a more general organized government be estab lished in the province.
The best discussion of the authenticity of the Declaration is that by Lyman C. Draper. The Mecklenburg Derlaretion: Its Origin. History, end Actors, with a Bibliography of its Literature and Erplanatmw Documents, a work which was never and forms part of the manu script collections of the Wisconsin Historical So ciety. After an elaborate consideration of the evidence. Draper decided against the authen ticity of the Declaration. In the library of the Wiseonsin llistorical Society are also many documents hearing on the subject.. For briefer discussions consult articles in the North meric«n. Rcricw for 1874, and in vol. xxi. of the Magazine of American Ilislory, and the note (p. in Frothingham. Rise of the Republie of the United States (Boston. 18S1) —all opposing the authenticity of the Declara Hon; and a chapter by Hawks in Cooke, Rerolu tionary History of North Caroline (Raleigh, 1853 ) , and Graham, .1 (1dre.9s on the Mecklen burg Declaration of Ind( prudence of May 20, 177:1 (New York, 1875)—defending its authen ticity.