Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1875-04-27

JACK.
Charlotte, n. c., Correspondence New Yorl
Herald.
All honor TO our American centen
malls and centenarians. The twenty
centuries Of which Napoleon reminded
his infantry squares, as they met tn,
shock Of Mameluke battle, beheld then
from the Pyramids, were as blank anC
meaningless as the stolid stone itsel
W~hereupon said centuries were supposed
to perch. But an American century i.
of some account. 1t has an import, In
Its relations to human progress, which
no similar period, in either the primeva.
foretime or the later ages of the East
ern Hemisphere can match. Our cen,
teniums are few, but significant. There
are barely four of them since Colum.
bus. Our whole history, since the
Anglo-Saxon came to the New World
to stay, covers but little more than two
and a half Of them. If Tennyson wrote
well and wisely when he said
Better a day Of England thana cycle Of Cathay
how much more truly might the com.
parison be applied In favor of the
United States. a hundred a
whether of our national or individual
life, constitutes an historic aeon, every
tweivemonth and almost every hour of
which is an upward step In the giants
stairway Of the human race.
To-day the thoughtful patriotism of
the country turns to the memory of
the heroes of Lexington and Concord.
Hardly will the echoes Of the church
bells and cannon, which are now giving
voice to the glad applause Of their de-
scendents, have died away ere the pos.
terity Of the men Of M~ecklenburg Will
answer with a similar commemoration
of the part taken by Their own ances-
tors IN inaugurating the great strug-
| gle which made US a nation. 1t is the
first step that costs. When Pitcairn
popped his pistol, a hundred years ago
to-day, he showed more pluck than all
the artillerists Of the whole Continental
army in the seven years war which
followed. Courage no less high and
admirable characterized the conduct Of
the heroic twenty-six who, at Char
lotte, n. G., one month and one day
later, put their pens to the first Amer
lean Declaration of independence. 1t
is well that we render reverent honors
to the sublime shades of both the
Massachusetts and the North Carolina
builders of our freedom. They were
alike fit representatives of that domi-
nant race which no other race shall
ever supplant or succeed, and to the
sound Of whose steadily advancing
footsteps the deep echoes of eternity
shall never cease TO respond.
Josiah Martin was the last Of the
royal Governors of North Carolina.
Shortly after his arbitrary dissolution
of the Assembly on the 8th of April,
Tvs, he became a fugitive, and the gov
eminent of the province was thereafter
entirely administered by the patriots.
The highest actual power in North
Carolina had, In fact, been exercised
by the people from the 25th of August,
IVA, the date Of the first Provincial
Congress, which was held at Newbern.
The purpose Of this assemblage was,
however, mainly one of protest and re-
sistance. The Doth Of May, Tvs,
marked the epoch for North Carolina
and all her sister colonies of a formal
and organized remuneration of ale
glance to Great Britain. For many
months previous a republican senti-
ment had been growing and gathering
strength, and not a few Of the wiser
and holder spiritshad become convinced
that democratic principles were, for
them at least, the only foundation of
sound and prosperous government.
Several detached meetings were held
during the spring of l775,
in which the leading characters
Of Mecklenburg resolved, among
other things, ''that the cause Of
Boston was the cause Of all; that their
destinies were indissOlubly connected
with those Of their Eastern feliow-citi-
zens, and that they must either submit
to all the imposItions which an unprin,
cipled, and tOthem unrepresented, Par
lament might impose, or support their
brethren who were doomed TO sustain
the first shock Of that power, which, if
successful then, could ultimately over
whelm all IN the common calamity"
In one of these patriotic conferences
Col. Thomas Polk, an ancestor of Pres
ident James K. Polk, was requested to
issue an order to each Captains COM
panyi In hecountyof Mecklenburg then
including the present county of Ca
barrus), directing each militia company
to elect two persons and delegate to
them ample power "tO devise ways and
means to aid and assist their suffering
brethren IN Boston, and also generally
to adopt measures to e~xtricate them
selves from the impending storm, and
TO secure unimpaired their ~inalienable
rights, privileges and liberties from the
grasp Of British tyranny"
Agreeably to Col Folks order, this
delegation, invested with plenary pow
ers, met In Charlotte, the capital of
Meckenburg county, on May l9, Tvs,
when and where official news by courier
arrived of the battle Of Lexington on
the same day of the preceding month.
Every delegate felt that an awful and
solemn crisis had at length come, that
the supreme hour of American destiny
was now at hand, and that the long
impending Revolution was not only
born but baptised in blood. Abraham
Alexander was chosen chairman and
John McKnitt Alexander clerk. After
a free and full deliberation upon the
various objects for which the deleEa-
ton had been convened the ~subjoined
resolutions were offered, and, after
thorough discussionof everyparagraph,
they were all passed, sanctioned and
decreed unanimously about 2 O'Clock
A. M, May 20:
These resolutions were published in
the UNION AND AMERICAN a few
weeks since, together with those of
May 81, 1775.l
Prior to the adjournment of the del
egation a select committee was appoint
ed e. draw up amore full and definite
statement of grievances, and a more
formal declaration of independence.
This latter is doubtless the paper Of
May 81, l775, which some modern
quibblers at the authenticity Of the
Mecklenburg declaration, have consi-
dered a separate and conflicting fabri-
cation, and therefore have rejected
both.
There is a discrepancy as to the ex-
act time Of the adoption of the resolu-
lions. The carefully written sketch of
the Mecklenburg Convention, prepared