Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1875-05-20

reka owing for subscriptions will make
payment to him.
THE FIRST AMERICA n DECLARE.
TION OF INDEPEN DENCE.
The twentieth day Of May this day
ought to be immortal in the history OF
Il country. 1t is a hundred years
g to-day since the first American
Declaration of Independence was pro.
claimed. 1t was adopted and promul.
gated by the liberty-loving people OF
Mecklenburg County, North Carolina,
and for more than fifty years the re-
curreuce Of the anniversary of this i'm
portant event in the worlds history has
been regularly and appropriately cele-
brated by the defendants Of the pat
riot sires of the old North State. One
month and one day earlier 1.-THE shot
heard round the world" was fired at
Lexington and Concord. All honor to
our American c%entennials M centen-
narians. 1t is peculiarly BETTING that
We CiINAS VIM ~ AK StO-
lime shades of both the Massachusetts
ard the North Carolina builders of our
freedom. They were alike fit repre-
s~entatives of that dominant race which
no other a shall ever supplant or
succeed, and t. 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 Sth of April,
i775, he became a fugitive, and the
government Of the province was there
after entirely administered by the pa
triots. The highest actual power in
North Carolina had, in fact, been exer-
cised by the people from the 25th of
August, Iva, the date of the first Pro-
vincial Congress, which was held at
Newborn. The purpose of this assem-
blage was, however mainly one OF
protest and resistance. The 26th of
May, 1775, marked the epoch for
North Carolina and all her sister colo
MES of a formal and organized renun-
citation of allegiance to Great Britain.
For many months previous a republic
an sentiment had been growing and
gathering strength, and not a few Of
the wiser and holder spirits had be-
come convinced that democratic prin-
ciples were, for them at least. the only
foundation oil sound and prosperous
government. Several detached meet
ings were held during the spring of
l775, in which the leading characters of
Mecklerburg 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.citizens, and
that they must either submit to all the
impositions which an unprincipled
and to them an unrepresented, Parlia-
ment might impose, or support their
brethren who We're doomed to sustain
the first shock of that power, which
if successful then. could ultimately
overwhelm all in the common calami.
ty." In one of these patriotic confer
ences Colonel Thomas Polk, an ances-
tor Of President James II. Polk, was
requested to issue an order to each
captains company in the county of
Mecklenburg (then including the pres
en- county of Cabarrus J, directing each
militia company to elect two persons
and delegate to them ample power "to
devise ways and mean to aid and as
sist their suffering b rethren in Boston,
and also generally to adopt measures
to extricate themselves from the i'm.
pending storm, and to secure unim-
pared their inalienable rights, privi-
leges and liberties from the grasp OF
British tyranny"
Agreeably to Colonel Folks order,
this delegation, invested with plena.
~ powers, met in Charlotte, the
capital ofMecklenburg county, on MAJ
10, 1775, when and where official news
by courier arrived of the battle of Lex
ington on the same day of the preced-
ing month. Every delegate felt thai
an awful and solemn crisis had a,
length come, that the supreme houroi
American destiny was now at hand
and that the long impending Revolu.
ton was not only born but baptized il
blood. Abraham Alexander was chos
en- chairman and John Mcknitt Alex
ander clerk. After a free and full de
liberation upon the various objects fol
which the delegation had been conven
ed, the subjoined resolutions were offer
ID, and, after thorough discussion O
every paragraph, they were all passed
sanctioned and decreed unanimously
about TWO o'clock A. N. May 20:-
Resolved, That whatsoever directly o.
indirectly, abets, or in any way, form
or manner c~ountenances the uncharter
ed and dangerous invasion of oul