Arizona republican., 1909-02-25
and incidentally modes of expression

and incidentally modes of expression from common well.
 But the claim that these men of Mechlenburg were first to declare the independence of the colonies does not rest upon these legendary resolutions and their authenticity. The known and admitted resolves as they were termed, contained in substance as well as in express terms a declaration of indpendence from Great Britain.
 "The first two read as follows:
 That all commissions, civil and military, are heretofore granted by the crown to be exercised in these colonies are null and void, and the constitution of each particular colony wholly sus- pended.
 That the provincial congress of each province under the direction of the great continental congress is in vested with all legislative and execu- tiv powers within the respective prov inces, and that no other legislative and executive power does or can exist at this time in any of these cOlonies.''
 The remaining eighteen resolutions contained the outline of a civil govern ment upon a republican basis, free and independent of the British crown.
 "A copy of these resolutions was sent by the hand of one Captain Jask to the representatives of North Caro- lima in the continental congress, who, evidently thinking them premature or too radical. promptly pigeon -holed them. The original copy was de- T., i,, ha httr m of tho house of MT John McKnitt Alexander, the secretary of the convention, in the year 1900. Fortunately they were published at the time, for the finding in this country in 1S47 of copy of the South Carolina Gazette, and an- other copy of the same paper of the date of June, 1775, in the archives of the office of the secretary of state for the colonies, by MT George Bancroft, then minister to England, settled the question of their authenticity beyond cavil.
 Whether the resolutions, in so far as they attempted to form a local government, were actually put into eff feet we do not know with certainty. We do know. from contemporary evi- .dence. that they were read and widely circulated throughout the Carolinas, and that they helped to mould public opinion in the south in the direction of the complete severance of the col onies from the mother country and the formation of an independent gov ernment.
 Who were the men that composed the Mechlenburg convention? Their names we know; but of what race and antecedents? Any answer to this in wolves a bit of old country history. which. at the risk of boring you, l shall attempt to give.
 When James l. of England had overrun Ireland, he adopted the policy of planting in Ulster a colony of staunch Protestants, upon which he could rely for support in the future, on the lands then held in a large measure by the crown. For the most part he went to Scotland for his col onists Thousands Of picked men and women of Scotland were thus settled in Ulster between 1911 and 1850 They were not peasants, but intelligent yeo- manry. younger sons of the petty Scot tish nobility. with a large admiXture of skilled artisans. They found Ulster a bog, but in fifty years made it the most flourishing and prosperous part of Great Britain. They took with them and retained the religion of John Knox and the Scottish refOrmers. Their clergy were educated in Glasgow and Edinburgh. and the solemn leagues and covenants were as familiar to the men of lister as tO those of Perth or Aberdeen. So great became their prosperity, and incidentally so inde- pendent and self-reliant in religion and matters of local government, that the government of England began about 17O7 a course of petty persecu- tion and repression. First the clergy were forbidden to perform the mar riage rites, then they were forbidden to perform any office in the church except they were first confirmed in