Wilmington journal., 1873-07-18
For the Daily Journal
goth MAY, T75.
WASHINGTON CRY, July 4, 1873.

WASHINGTON CITY, July 4, 1873.
A friend in North Carolina sent me
this week your paper of the 21st uit.,
containing an editorial on the the
Goth of May, 1775."
In this yon comment upon recent
effort of Daniel r. Goodloe, Esq, OF
Warren county, on this subject. L
have not seen Mr.. Goodloe's article,
but doubtless. like everything else he
attempts, it evinces literary esearch,
patient investigation, aud ingenious
argument. Able as may be this effort,
I have lived SO long and cherished SO
dearly this anniversary OF the Goth OF
May, 1775, that I am unwilling to
allow my faith to- be shaken without
clear and irrefragible proofs.
The friend who sends me your paper
also writes that :" the Sentinel, at Raj
eigh, charges inaccuracyin my History,
as to the birth place Of Colonel David
Tanning, and asserts that Tanning was
born in Johnston county, and not in
Wake county as I have recorded, and
that Goodloe asserts that neither
Wheeler or Caruthers is right in fix
ing the date of the Mecklenburg Declar-
alton of Independence" He asks, in
conclusion, "if GOOdIOe is from TiJ-
ginia ,"
The statement as to Wake county
beng the birth place of that notorious
and desperate marauder, Tanning, is
correct, and if the Sentinel VIII look at
the University Magazine (vol. II. page
79) it will there find this record
"David Tanning was born of obscure
parents, in the county of Wake, in the
year 1754." Rev. E. w. Caruthers,
who resided in the section of our State
in which Tanning lived, most consci-
entious and pains taking writer, in his
revolutionary work, Revolutionary
Incidents and Sketches of Character,
chiefly in the Old North State" phil
adelphia, 1850, gives Wake county as
Fanning's birth place.
In letter from Gov. Swain to me,
dated 1851, he states the same fact,
and further says that "he knew per-
sonally many of Fanning's cotempo-
raries."
This is sufficient authority for my
statement, and I rest this point here,
only important as vindicating the accu-
racy of my work. I have copy of the
original commission from Major
James Henry Craig, commanding a
detachment of the Kings troops in
North Carolina" dated at Wilmington
on the 9Th of July, 1881, to Tanning,
as Colonel of Randolph and Chatham
counties, and also have procured, at
much labor, a narrative written by
Tanning of 'sEvents in North Carolina
from 1775 to 1783." But he does not
state, in this narrative, Lis birth place
if, even, he knew it himself.
But the important point, as to the
date Of the of the Mecklenburg Declar-
alton, is to be settled, and this is the
object of this communication.
I shall not recapitulate the evidence
and argument of the State document
printed in 1882, bv the Legislature of
North Carolina, nor refer to Rev. f.
L. Hawks able lecture on this subject
before the Historical Society of New
York in December, 1852; nor to Jones
Defence of North Carolina from the
aspersions of Mr.. Jefferson;' nor to
Caruthers or Losing, or other writer's,
all of whom believed in the Goth May,
1775. But I shall produce some further
facts, which will be conclusive rs to
the date of the Mecklenburg Declara-
ton of Independence, and prove that
the date of the Goth of May, 1775, is
correct and that Mr.. Gooiloe, as well
as Mr.. Jefferson and other men, like
Homer, sometimes nod.
Mr. jefferson, in reply to letter of
Mr.. Adams, who enclosed him state
ment as to this Declaration, (and Mr..
adams declares that he bc1icres that
it scas genuinc,) states (9th July, 1919, }
that it is Fictitious and an nnjustiti-
able quiz This opinion of Mr.. JEFF
ferson is pronounced by him, for the
sole reason as stated by him, that he
had never seen it. Now this is not
conclusive. The resolves OF the 3lst
of May, 1775, made at the same place
(Charlotte) and by many Of the same
men (Thomas Polk, Ephraim Brevard
| and others) which are acknowledged
to be authentic by all searchers OF
cotemporaneous newspapers, and are
any one else.
| These resolutions are clear cOrolla-
ries from the precedent propositions of
the Goth. Yet Mr.. Jefferson had not,
or did not acknowledge that he had,
ever seen these This then surely can
not prove that they never existed, any
more than his statement as to the
Declaration of the Doth of May.
the memory of Mr.. Jefferson, we only
record the truth, when it is stated that
many of the contemporaries of Mr.. JEFF
ferson who knew him long, kindly and
well, did believe, and SO have stated,
that he did know of this Mecklenburg
Declaration OF Independe zee.
Mai. Lee i'll his "Observations on
the writings of Mr.. Jefferson" (Phila-
delphia, 1879 states that ''the pre-
amble to the Bill of Rights, the Meek
| le,aburg Declaration Of Independence,
and the Virginia Bill of Rights contain
nearly everything important in the
Declaration of independence of the
4th of July, 1776, upon which rests SO
much of Mr.. Jefferson's fame"
The friend and biographer of Mr..
Jefferson, Judge Tucker, (see Life of
Jefferson, by Tucker, 2-670 alluding
to the Declaration at Charlotte of Doth
May, 1775, and the Declaration of 4th
July, 1776, says: ''Every one must
be persuaded, all who have been OBJ
servers of style, that one Of these pa
pers has been borrowed of the other. "
It was with Mr.. Jefferson the most
glorious act of his life, and one that
he directed to be inscribed (and is in
scribed) on his tombstone, that he
was "the author of the Declaration of
Independence y hence his incredulity
may be pardoned as to the Mecklen-
burg paper. But we are not to rely
upon the statements of feeling or of
personal bias but on recorded evi-
| dences of unquestioned and unques-
tionable authenticity bearing on this
matter. Since the document Of the
Legislature of 1882 (before referred
toy was published, among the records
in the Rolls Office in London, there
has been found dispatch from Gov.
Wright, of Georgia, to the Earl of
Dartmouth, Secretary of State, dated
Goth June, 1775, which states "By
the inclosed paper your Lo, dship will
see the extraordinary resolves of the
people of Charl otte Town, Mecklen-
burg County" Also a dispatch from
Josiah Martin, Governor of North
Carolina, to the Earl of Dartmouth,
received on the 10th of September,
| 1775, and dated
"No. Ca, Fort JOHNSON,