The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1875-05-24
Ghe 99ailg Atens.
Mecklenburg in it's Glory.

Yesterday was the centennial of the
alleged Meckienburg Declaration of Inde-
pendence, or rather the alleged centennial
of the Declaration, for the famous
manifesto was really made, though pro-
badly not 10 the form or at the time now
claimed for it. 1t is not denied that a
mild set of resolutions were passed at
Charlotte, the county seat of Mecklenburg
county, May 81, IT'S, and it is difficult to
believe that much more vigorous man
ifesto was put forth by the same sort of
meeting 10 the same town eleven days be-
fore. Nothing was heard of the latter for
nearly fifty years. Then the pre-revolu-
tionary relics still left alive in Mecklenburg
got together, wrote out sketch of the
declaration as it fingered in their feeble old
memories, and published it as the real
thing. There was not shred OF document
airy evidence submitted. And yet, on this
fiimsy foundation, the honesty OF Thomas
Jefferson is impeached, and he is accused
of wilfully plagiarizing the Declaration of
Independence The argument for the
authenticity of the Mecklenburg paper is,
in brief, this: In the first place, several
survivors of the revolutionary era, who
had been present at the meeting at Char
lotte, testified to the genuineness of the
paper But this testimony was given
forty four years afterwards, mainly by very
old men, and by men who had hundreds
of times read and repeated the national
Declaration of Independence. Was it not
natural, was it not practically inevitable,
! that the catchwords Of the latter should
linger in their feeble memories and be
uncOnsclously reproduced when they tried
to rec0llect their own declaration? Some
mistake in time was to be expected after
the lapse OF so many years. 1t is only
strange that 1t was not greater than eleven
days. So much for the first part of the
argument. Secondly, the man who pu-
blished the resolutions in 1919, John
Mcknitt Alexander, was Secretary of
the Mecklenburg Committee, the quasi
revolutionary body which passed
the original set, and preserved the journal
of its proceedings. This was burnt, how.
ever, with his house, in 1900 Before that
time, Alexander had made and given
away two copies of the Declaration. One
of these has never been heard Of After
the publication. and therefore not until the
question had become a disputed one. i'm
Partially in which was practically impossi-
BILE for North Carolinian, Gov Stokes, of
that state, testified that he had seen the
other of these copies in 1898, and that it
was the same as the paper published.
This testimony, it is to be observed, was
given after the lapse of nearly thirty years,
and was necessarily partial. So that we
have, in the second place, the recollection
by one man of a paper burned nineteen
years before, backed up by the recollection
by another of the contents of an ALLEGED
oopv of that papar ruhi oh he bod conr
thirty years before. This is, we believe, q
fair statement: It certainly does not up
hold the Mecklenburg side of the case
Thomas Jefferson and the Philadelphi
: Declaration are still little ahead.
Yesterday, however, they did not stand
ghost of a chance, down IN Carolina
The cannon which roared glory for Meek
lenburg roared defiance at them. The or
ators fouted at them, aid convinced every
trueborn Mecklenburger of the genuines
of his Declaration,-a task which was thu
easier for the fact that every one of then
was already so fully convinced of it tina
wild horses could not tear it out of him
And since the celebrators believed in thei
pet delusion, the celebration was none tn
less hearty and none the less productive @
good North Carolina deserved a centen
NAL celebration on general principles, 70
she was one of the first states, and per
haps the first, to fight; she suffered great
ly during the revolution, but never com
planned she was slow to secede, and di
so at last with regret she has allowed lii
tie prescription within her borders sine
the close of the war and she is now az
parently prospecting as she deserves. =
Chicago Tribune, 2lst