The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-06-30
THE LONG CONTROVERSY OVEI,
THE MECKLENBURG DECLA-
RATION SETTLED BEYOND
CAVIL.

troversy i'm this State between those
who asserted the authenticity of the
Mecklenburg Declaration of Independ-
ence of May goth, 1875, and those who
maintained that the Resolutions of May
31st were the only ones adopted. The
principal point at issue was not merely
the difference in date between May
10th and May 31st, but upon the differ
ence in the tenor of the declarations,
those of the twentieth being an abso-
lutte declaration of independence and
dissolution of the bonds which bound
us to Great Britain as fully and com,
pletely as that made nearly fourteen
months later, uly 4th, 1876, at Phila-
delphia. while the Resolutions of the
31st of May were rather administrative
in their nature, organizing a govern
ment for the people of Mecklenburg.
The adherentS of the twentieth OF
May resolutions rested their case upon
copy made from memory by John
McKnitt. Alexander, secretary of the
meeting, who stated that the original
had been burned when his house was
destroyed by fire, and from the testi-
mony of Gen. Joseph Graham and
other eminently respectable gentlemen
who made affidavits that they were
present at the meeting began on the
nineteenth and was continued through
the night till the morning of the TWEEN
tieth. when the declaration was made.
This view was endorsed by resolu-
ton of the General Assembly of North
ton Of Governor Stokes of July LIST,
1881
The adherents of the May 31st reso-
lutions rested their case upon the abb
sence of any contemporary publication.
and that. Mr.. Alexander's version of the
twentieth contained verbatim lam
guage used I'm the Declaration of July
Fourth. 1875, and Mr. Jefferson's let
ter. in which he denied that he had
copied any language from any pre-
vious declaration and any recollection
of having so much as heard of the
Governor Swain, then President of the
University, applied to Hon. Andrew
Stevenson, of Kentucky, then United
States Minister to Great Britain, to
search the British archives for the
Cape Fear Mercury of June 3rd, 1875.
which contained. as was known, a copy
of the Mecklenburg Decla: alton, which
an extant letter of Joseph Martin,
Royal Governor of North Carolina.
stated he had sent to the British gov
eminent. Mr. Stevenson not long af-
ter receiving Governor SWANS letter,
returned home, and died. The file in
the British archives, which contained
Governor Martins letter transmitting
the Cape Fear Mercury, was found to
contain only a receipt from Mr.. Stew
enson that he had taken the Cape Feai
Mercury of June 3rd, l775. by consent
of the government. That receipt was
dated in 1887, but owing to Mr.. Stew
enson's death the paper itself had never
been found until recently when it was
discovered among his papers we VIII
publish on Sunday morning a rae
smile of the first page of the cape
Fear Mercury of June 3rd, 1775, con-
tanning the genuine resolutions Oh the
twentieth of Nay, 1875 1t will be OBJ
served that they vindicate the conten-
ton of those who contend there was
n declaration upon the twentieth OF
May, 1775, and that IT was an apSolu.e
Declaration of Independence. 1t also
iust:fies the contention of the oppo-
site party that j McKnitt Alexander
in making his copy from memory did
quote enormously language which was
used In Jefferson's Declaration or July
Fourth. 1916, and that Mr.. Jefferson
was not guilty of plagiarism from the
Mecklenburg Declaration. 1t is MOI
strange that in his letter to Mr.. John
Adams in June 1926, denying the
plagiarism of which he was not guilty,
Mr.. Jefferson had forgotten the Neck
lenburg Declaration mare more than
fifty-five years previously.
1t will be recalled that McKnitt
Alexander, Graham, and the Other
signers all stated that they met on the
18th of May, and remained in session
until the morning of the Goth, when
the Declaration was adopted.