her own sons. She still continues to feel an interest, and still indulges the hope that it may be so equipped as not to disappoint the just expectations of the country; she still hopes to see it depart in skilful and experienced hands, unshorn of its naval or scientific strength. Congress has made repeated appropriations, which leave no doubt of the hold the expedition has upon the science, the intelligence, and pride of the nation. appointment from the Secretary, directing him to report to the commander for duty. cation will be received in the same spirit-and that the The undersigned forbear further comment upon this subject, and content themselves by protesting in the name of their constituents, the people of the West, as well as in their own names, against the continuance of such obvious injustice to their fellow-citizen, who has, in their opinion, earned far different treatment at the The whole Ohio delegation, as well as many other hands of the Government. They are aware that many members of the House, immediately after the passage difficulties have thus far attended the fitting out of the of the law authorizing the measure, addressed commu- Expedition. Upon these difficulties they feel no disponications to the late Executive. After congratulating sition to dwell. It is enough for them to call the attenhim on account of the interest he took in directing the tion of the President to the subject in a spirit of frankExpedition to be fitted out in a manner worthy "ourness and kindness, feeling assured that their communigreat republic," they proceeded to call his attention to the claims of one, who had done so much in calling public attention to the importance of the enterprise, and in urging its adoption by Congress. The friends of the measure knew the important part Mr. Reynolds had acted, and they were influenced not more by a sense of justice than a desire for the success of the enterprise, in asking for Mr. Reynolds a prominent position in it. The commercial interests of the United States in the seas to be visited, are well known to the Executive; they are immense, and still susceptible of great extension. In asking that Mr. Reynolds be placed at the head of the Civil Department attached to the Expedition, was only asking in other words that he should receive the appointment of Commercial Agent. Until recently, many of us had supposed that station had been assigned to him; that he ought to have it, and be authorized to write the official account of the Expedition, we have never doubted. That he is eminently qualified to perform these duties, under the sanction and regulations of the Department, cannot be doubted; that he has abundantly earned the distinction, which they would confer upon him, will admit of as little question. Mr. Reynolds has uttered no complaints to his friends, and it has not been until since the passage of the last Bill of Appropriations, that they became aware of the actual position the Secretary of the Navy had assigned him; and not even then, till the discussions in the House seemed to leave some doubt whether he was to accompany the Expedition in any capacity, had led to direct inquiries upon the subject. Any officer conversant with the history of this Expedition, and knowing the relation Mr. Reynolds has maintained to it both in and out of Congress, who should object to his participating largely in its labors, would, from that fact, in the opinion of the undersigned, be himself unfit to command; and the interests of the Expedition, and the honor of the country would, in all probability, be best consulted by his dismissal, and the supplying of his place by one of more just, liberal, and enlarged views. The undersigned have learned with deep regret, that Mr. Reynolds, the originator, the indomitable advocate, who has for so long a time persevered against every discouragement, whose knowledge upon the subject has been so fully appreciated by committees and members of Congress, and has enlisted so large a share of public feeling throughout the country-has received from the Department, the meager, unmeaning appointment of "Corresponding Secretary to the Commander,"-to perform such duty on the Expedition as the justice or caprice of the commander might direct; while the names and duties of all others composing the scientific corps, as well as juniors in command, were conspicuously named in the general instructions for the guidance of the Expedition, were thus recognized by the Department in a document to be preserved in all coming time: but in that list, and in that document, the name of J. N. Reynolds, we learn, is no where to be found; that no duties were assigned him by the Secretary; in a word, that the action of the Department, whether intended or not, would go to show that Mr. Reynolds was not recognized by government, or known in the enterprise except only so far as he had an order in the form of an This communication we copy from the Cincinnati Republican, an administration journal, which informs us that it was addressed to the President by nearly all the delegates in Congress from the North-western States, without distinction of party. This unusual unanimity of men, differing in political opinion, in urging the claims of Mr. REYNOLDS in this matter upon the Government is highly honorable to him-for it has been won by no truckling to power, and no sacrifice of principle. It is merely the testimony of his own fellowcitizens-of the men among whom he has been born and educated, and who know him best,—to his character, his capacity, and the claims which they justly consider him to possess in connection with this Expedi tion. We copy from the Cincinnati Republican, (administration,) its comments on the above communication: "This appeal or remonstrance, for it is a little of both, was sent to the President early in May last: but its publication has been withheld until the present moment, in the hope that justice would have been done Mr. Reynolds. But we learn that it is determined that Mr. Reynolds shall not accompany the Expedition, and the communication, though signed by a majority of the delegates in Congress from the West, who are friendly to the administration, has not received the courtesy of a notice from the President. "When we take into consideration the uniform support the Expedition has always received from the West, and especially from the Ohio delegation, who took an interest in the enterprise, from the fact that it had been originated and successfully prosecuted, by a native of Ohio, the conduct of the Executive seems almost unac countable. Here are the wishes of the almost entire delegation of the North-western States, strongly and manfully expressed. On what ground of petty jealousy are the demands of this letter denied? Was it to gratify a secretary notoriously opposed to the Expedition from the moment it was projected, and whose ground of hostility to Mr. Reynolds was mainly owing to the fact, that he had again and again defeated him before Congress? We can assign no other reason for the conduct of the President in this case. "Of the arrangements which have given dissatisfaction, the appointment of Lieut. Wilkes to the command, over the heads of his seniors and superiors in every respect, is not the least reprehensible. Why was he selected? Was it because he was ready to do the bidding of an incompetent Secretary? This is no party measure. Strong men on both sides have been and are its sup porters. The country at large bears the expense, and has a right to ask why matters have been thus managed? The people of Ohio have a voice in the matter, and a right to inquire if injustice has been done to one of her citizens—the author of the measure-who has by his researches and publications, fixed mile stones and guide boards for those to carry on the Expedition who have now got possession of it—without the magnanimity to do justice to its projector. The conduct of the mana- | gers of this affair towards Mr. Reynolds, will find no response from honorable men. They may do him wrong, but cannot put him down; for, going or staying, his triumph has been complete. The spirit which his labors has awakened will not sleep, for whatever is done in this Expedition, or by others, which may, and no doubt will follow, for the extension and security of commerce and the acquisition of scientific knowledge, the country will not forget to whom it has been mainly owing." WILLIS vs. PAULDING. [Many of our readers having expressed a strong desire to see the piquant article from the pen of Mr. Willis on the works of Mr. Paulding transferred to our pages, we have determined to insert it. We do so, however, reluctantly, because we cannot approve the spirit in which the article appears to have been written,-nor can we subscribe to the justice of that criticism, which, on account of a few blemishes, would sentence all the labors of a popular and voluminous writer to condemnation. As an offset to Mr. Willis's caustic animadversions, we subjoin the brief but able reply of Mr. Webb of the N. Y. Courier & Enquirer in vindication of Mr. Paulding's writings.]-Ed. Sou. Lit. Mess. [From the "Corsair."] PAULDING THE AUTHOR DISINTERRED. papers, and the city papers in those days, blew the trumpet before him with a vengeance. We read his "works" to know "what the devil was in the wind." They had one merit--open them any where, novel or satire, travels or essays, the first sentence you fall upon let you completely into his style. There was no variation. One eternal canal of low humor dwelling on disgusting objects with disgusting words, ran through them all. He was what the English call "nasty" in every thing he undertook. His works lie by us at this moment, sent us for review. We will open uppermost at random. Salmagundi--Second Series! Well, come! this is in his best style. Here is some of his cleaner humor. "Dear Mr. Evergreen,- the "I have got my beau again, I tried the prescription only once, and sure enough as you predicted, he came back yesterday, and brought me a most beautiful nosegay. Poor Miss Pipkins looks as if she had lost her sweetheart, and I am so happy, you can't think. Adieu, dear Mr. Evergreen, "ETHELINDE. "P. S. I intend to send you some bride-cake to dream upon." "To Anthony Evergreen, present. "Dear Tony,--Quiz my wig if I havent done the business-popped the prescription--entirely without the blunt you know-dad wouldn't come down-troubled with the shorts-quite at sea-devil a harbor my boy-popped the prescription-bills paid-plenty of the real stuff-tailor be hanged-gig afloat-clear the streets-d--ee if I spare a single piggy in all Broadway. Off to pop the question to Ethelinde. "Yours, Tony--exquisite Tony, "RANDIE DANDY." There's humor? That is what poor Paulding, dead and gone, called humor! It was his best vein. Humor with him was to talk of pigs. "Piggy" was the funni have looked through half a volume to find a est diminutive, the wittiest thing in the world. We page with We sympathized with the very warmest of Mr. Paulding's friends in rejoicing at his promotion to the Secretaryship. We had long pitied, with the same sympathy, the position of an old man, who, with no time or energies left, to try a new career, had discover-out pig in it. It is pig all over. "Pig," "egg," "gutter," '-we take the words as they ed, within sight of the grave, that he had mistaken his "gander," "grab," "gouge,"Vocation-who, having been ticketed for immortality catch our eye in turning over. We shall not do justice by a few officious and injudicious friends, had worn to the great forgotten, however, without trying him on out his label and walked unrecognised at sixty--who, an elegant theme. In his novel of Koningsmarke, there in short, was the subject of one of those long-lived lite-occurs a dissertation on gentlemanly manners! rary humbugs, which sometimes die with a fortunate "And here we will observe that the best possible man, but which Mr. Paulding is so unfortunate as to test of a gentleman is his behavior at a dinner, breakhave outlived. He has stepped, however, from this fast, or supper table, in a hotel or steamboat. It is crumbling pedestal, and we rejoice that another was at there that his pretensions are put to the touchstone, hand-that he had no undignified descent--that his and that fine clothes fail to hide from observation the grey hairs still enjoy the digito monstrari--and that his clown that lurks beneath them. If we find him snatchlong practised English, tho' poor "woof and web," for ing at every dish within his reach; filling his plate with an author's style, does very well indeed for letters to re- fish, flesh, and fowl; eating as if his last, or rather his fractory lieutenants and peccant commodores. first meal, were come; and at the same time looking We consider Mr. Paulding, the author, as dead. If about with his eyes as wide open as his mouth, to see what there were more than one event in his life, Mr. Secreta- next to devour-not velvet-cloth coat, dandy pantaloons, ry Paulding might himself write his posthumous me- or corset dire, will suffice to place him in the rank of a moirs. Quite dead and forgotten! We defy his fond-gentleman. Were we to express our idea of a well-bred est survivor to quote a line of him. We challenge proof of idea ever borrow'd of him--of phrase or sentence ever plagiarised or gone astray one inch from his twelve mortal volumes. We would almost wager that, (the Dutch vocabulary of christian names apart) Mr. Secretary Paulding himself could not, on sudden demand, tell the substance of any chapter in the works of Paulding the author. So complete a submersion in Lethe has never before occurred in America. He will have one line and one distinction in history-the first forgot ten! He has not died without "his little peculiarity" after all. Our object, of course, is not to review an obsolete and voluminous collection of "works." We have read them, however. We record it as a literary curiosity that we have read them. Some fifteen years ago (before and after) the defunct was a paragraphist for the city man in one word, we would say, he was a gentleman, even in his eating; nor would we hesitate to place any man in that class, who, being fond of soft eggs, should be able to eat them boiled hard, without grumbling. We remember, for we delight to remember every thing connected with that gay, good-humored, sprightly old gentleman, Deidrich Knickerbocker, that he always superintended his eggs himself, by a stop watch, and more than once came near to scalding his fingers in his haste to rescue his favorites from the boiling element, ere the fatal crisis was passed. "This diversity of taste extends to almost every enjoyment and luxury of life, more especially to books, in the composition of which, notwithstanding so many appearances to the contrary, we will venture to say, that almost as much reason is necessary, as in the roasting or boiling of eggs. Some readers like what are call ed hard studies, as some would like hard eggs; while others luxuriate in raw sentiment, and melting, drivelling, ropy softness." tleman! Poor Paulding! He thought he had an idea of a genOur object, as we said before, is not to review the works of the dead-alive Secretary, though they were sent us that we might do so. We have taken him up to speculate upon the curious subject of literary humbug. How in the name of wonder did these twelve volumes of flat, pointless, and essentially vulgar stuff ever find printer, publisher, puffer, and reader! Paulding's works were known in America from the time the author first wrote for the newspapers till he ceased writing for them-say from 1786 to 1830. At that period they suddenly dropped out of all recollection, and will be a "curiosity in literature" for the future D'Israeli of our country-but let us put down a fact or two for the basis of his speculations. Every lion has his jackal. Paulding was Washing ton Irving's. Those who have lived in "literary circles," so called, know very well, how, on the appearance of any man of genius, there gathers about him a knot of patronisers, who by dint of talking of his works, praising him to his face, giving him advice and ferreting out the origin of his play, poem, or tale, grow to fancy, at last, that he is their own production-found, fostered, moulded, and sustained entirely by their own penetration, skill, counsel, and generosity. Washington Irving grew up in such a circle. He was as modest as he was gifted, and after writing that which will live forever, it never occurred to his retiring mind that there could be any objection to his friends' taking as much of his merit to themselves as they pleased. They had suggested the idea. It was their family story. They had read it in manuscript. "He is our Washington Irving." Having made one author, entirely by themselves, and he well on his way to immortality, this same creative circle undertook another. Mr. Paulding had furnished the alloy to Irving's gold in Salmagundi, and they fancied that if the fusion could be continued a while, he might pass, alone. He had one advantage, too, which Irving had not,-he could circulate himself,-in the newspapers. At it they went-hammer and trumpet. The one rule was, never separate their names. Irving and Paulding! Irving and Paulding! IRVING AND PAULDING! Every old maid on the Hudson took the slogan like an echo. Every newspaper Siamesed the words. Every blow of the hammer and blast of the bellows at the blacksmith's shop on the Hudson, (which was the centre of this manufactory of authors,) rung out "Irving and Paulding!" Irving had consented to write in the same book with him. All the newspapers echoed the union. The public took it for granted they were linked for immortality. Who were the principal American authors? "Irving and Paulding !" Who wrote Salma- | gundi? "Irving and Paulding!" Who wrote the Sketch-book? "Irving and Paulding!" The words stuck together, from constant repetition, like the names of a mercantile firm. There was no separating them. As you say, "Day and Martin's" daughter or son, it Irving and Paulding's" new book. He hung on to good Geoffrey's skirts like a shadow. As well as he could, he imitated his style. He followed in the same vein of subjects. He was witty in Dutch names. He floundered after his gay humor in what he called satire. He thought it was Irving-like to say sly things on every page about "piggy," illustrate every thing by pigs--make his humor in short, consist of nothing but the transfer of the choice nomenclature of the stye and kitchen to polite novels. Ch, well-forgotten Paulding! The echo, however, did not reach John Bull's ears. John Bull cried out for "Irving," but the jackal strained his ears in vain for the appendage. Hence the only original book Paulding ever wrote-" John Bull in America." He hates the English with an emphasis ! was " Secretary and all he hates John Bull. Original, did we call the book? It is the most faithful collection of jokes on foreigners, from the American newspapers, ever made. They are strung together with very original malice, very original misstatements, VERY original wholesale abuse, and that is all that ever was original in this most bilious author. Any file of Mississippi or Kentucky papers will give you the entire staple of the book. We are glad that our great and beloved author, Washington Irving, has at last followed the example of Peter Schlemihl, and sold his shadow. We were well nigh sure at one time, that "P." would have been the initial on the foot-stone of his grave. The unlucky Schlemihl, however, could not have been more astonished when the devil rolled up his shadow to pocket it, than must have been the modest Geoffrey at the marvellous alacrity with which his dissevered twin sunk into oblivion. Out he went like a candle snuff-one day Paulding and Irving-the next, Paulding the ship-chandler. One day half an author at least-the next, a patient old gentleman cyphering his way to a secretaryship. There he sits-all honor to his new dignity! But it will be a mortifying remembrance to his fame founders on the Hudson, that, let him drag out the bilious remainder of his life how he will, they themselves must acknowledge that the "Secretary stood alone!" [From the New-York "Courier & Enquirer."] The Hon. James K. Paulding.—In glancing our eye cursorily, a day or two ago, over the pages of the various hebdominals which have of late become so numerous in this city, our attention was arrested by a leading article in "The Corsair," headed "Paulding the author disinterred." The title exciting our curiosity, and promising something more congenial to our taste, than the wonted compound of love-sick stories and lack-a-daisical remarks, we were led to read it, and were sorry to find it, a malignant attempt to wound the literary reputation of a gifted man, who most deservedly fills a high place among the successful authors of the country, and whose writings have besides the rare merit of being conspicuous for American feelings and attachment to American institutions. It is for this reason only, that we deem it incumbent on us to notice the article in question; for we do not believe that Mr. Paulding himself, or any of his personal connexions-whom this writer has also thought it becoming to disparage-will treat it with aught but silent contempt. We do not believe that Mr. Paulding's literary reputation will suffer an iota in public estimation from an assault, made evidently, under vindictive feeling, and supported by assertions so unfounded, that they carry with them their own refutal. Of the spirit, which predominates throughout this pretended criticism, we will give but a few proofs. The most extensive iron works in this part of the Union-and the proprietors of which are descendants of one of our oldest and most respectable families-are called "the blacksmith's shop on the Hudson." Mr. Paulding is sunk into a "ship chandler" whilst filling the office of Navy Agent at this port, and because in one of his novels, Mr. Paulding, in rebuking the scramble which takes place at meals on board our steamboats, says, it is the test of a gentleman to refrain from joining in it, his critic exclaims, "Poor Paulding! he thought he had an idea of a gentleman!" We have no doubt the ideas of the two materially differ on the true constituents of gentility, and as little, that Mr. Paulding, sternly aristocratic as he is in his feelings and habits of life--maugre all his republicanism, and bad as the company is into which he has now fallenwill laugh at the thought of receiving a lesson on gentility from "The Corsair." In endeavoring to reconcile the great celebrity which Mr. Paulding's works have attained, with the low estimate this critic would affix to them, he asserts that this celebrity is to be attributed to the friends of Mr. Paulding ever attaching his name to that of Mr. Irving. "Who wrote the sketch book?" it is asked, and the answer given is "Irving and Paulding." Such answer was never given, and the whole assumption is entirely gratuitous. The names of Mr. Irving and Mr. Paulding were never used in association as authors, except in regard to the Salmagundi, and then justly. With the same view, the critic assumes that Mr. Paulding's works have none of them been republished in Europe, and with the same justice. We have ourselves seen his Westward Ho! translated into French, and his Dutchman's Fireside, into German; indeed we believe we are not going too far in asserting, that all his works that were susceptible of it, have been translated into most of the modern languages. We say susceptible, because some of them being solely calculated to awaken national feelings and national pride among his countrymen, could not be appreciated, if understood, by foreigners. Lastly, it is asserted, that Mr. Paulding in everything he undertook, is what the English call nasty." We do not exactly know what precise meaning the English attach to this word, other than that which it bears here, but we think we can divine the meaning the writer would affix to the word "nice," and thence infer that he would give to the opposite extreme. For instance he would apply the term "nice" to the author who could imagine such fanciful titles for his productions as Pencillings by the Road Side," and "A L'Abri, or the Tent Pitched," or one so fuil of meaning as "Lines from Under a Bridge," and so affecting as "The Heart Overtasked"--to one who interlards his language with ridiculous French, such as apropos DES bottes (Vide Corsair,) who never hopes to excite a patriotic throb, or aims to instruct-who seeks to rebuke no weakness, correct no vice, but who revels on the cut of a coat, or the ottomans of a lady's boudoir, and delights in the soft shade of a glen. That Mr. Paulding is the very reverse of all this, we willingly admit; and for that very reason believe, that his works will endure, among his countrymen, long after those of his pretended resurrectionist have served the purpose for which they seem most apt-the papillottes of ladies' chambermaids. EDITORS. Some editors cast themselves so far beyond those courtesies which obtain between well-bred men, that they find in their very position an exemption from responsibility. No man who has clean apparel himself, will return the mud-balls with which he may be assailed by one who has taken up his stand in the ditch. MECKLENBURG DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. THE QUESTION SETTLED. Anon. When in the year 1819, it was first announced to the American public, by the editor of the Raleigh Register, that the people of Mecklenburg in North Carolina, had actually declared themselves independent of Great Britain, in May, 1775, the fact was deemed highly improbable by many, and among others by Mr. Jefferson, because, according to the best contemporary accounts, independence had not yet become the aim, or even the wish of the colonies; and because, also, it was thought that an act so much in advance of public opinion, would scarcely have escaped notice and honorable mention, when their early suggestion came to be subsequently adopted. Mr. Jefferson, having in his correspondence with his friend Mr. Adams, expressed the opinion, that the paper published as the "Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence," was not genuine, the legislature of North Carolina, soon after the publication of that correspondence, authorized the governor of the State to collect and publish evidence to establish its authenticity. This was accordingly done; and it appeared by the document thus given to the public, that resolutions of the character alleged, had been adopted by the people of Mecklenburg, in May, 1775, that the copy which had been published had been found, in manuscript, among the papers of General Davie, and that their authenticity was confirmed by the recollections of several respectable contemporary witnesses. Before the publication of this testimony, there had been a very prevalent tradition in North Carolina, that some resolutions had been adopted in Mecklenburg in 1775, of an unusually bold character, and the proclamation of the royal Governor, which had been preserved in Almon's Remembrancer, expressly referred to those resolutions, among various other "seditious and treasonable acts," in the Province of North Carolina. While the Governor's pamphlet proved the tradition to have been well founded, it did not entirely remove the difficulty. The close coincidence between some passages in the Mecklenburg paper and the declaration of national independence of the 4th of July, 1776, was too remarkable to be attributed to accident, and some were therefore inclined to doubt the genuineness of the particular resolutions, rather than believe that Mr. Jefferson had been guilty of a plagiarism from a paper, of such humble pretensions, or being guilty, should have escaped detection by his contemporaries. On the other hand, the latter alternative was eagerly seized by Mr. Jefferson's enemies, and their wishes, no doubt, contributed to bias their judgments, and inclined them to the belief that the paper was genuine, and that Mr. Jefferson had been its copy ist. This question is now put to rest-thanks to the antiquarian researches of Mr. Peter Force of Washington. He has been fortunate enough to procure a newspaper, printed in 1775, which contains a copy of the Mecklenburg resolutions, and which have a claim to authenticity, that the written copy found among the papers of VOL V.-53 General Davie cannot boast, however supported by the distant and fallible recollections of the best intentioned witnesses. To enable the reader to see the disagreement between the two copies, they are here placed in juxta position. The printed copy is dated May 31, and is published in a paper dated July 12, 1775; and the written copy, May 20. CHARLOTTE TOWN, MECKLENBURG COUNTY. May, 31, 1775. This day the committee met, and passed the following resolves: MECKLENBURG DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 20th of May, 1775. That whosoever directly or indirectly abets, or in any way, form, or manner, countenances the unchartered and dangerous invasion of our rights, as claimed by Great Britain, is an enemy to this county, to America, and to the inherent and unalienable rights of man. WHEREAS, by an address presented to his majesty, by both Houses of Parliament, in February last, the American colonies are declared to be in a state of actual rebellion, we conceive that all laws and commissions confirmed by, or derived That we, the citizens of Mecklenburg county, from, the authority of the King or Parliament, do hereby dissolve the political bands which have are annulled and vacated, and the former civil connected us with the mother country, and hereby constitution of these colonies, for the present, absolve ourselves from all allegiance to the British wholly suspended. To provide in some degree crown, and abjure all political connection, contract, for the exigencies of this county, in the present or association with that nation, who have wantonly alarming period, we deem it proper and necessary trampled on our rights and liberties, and inhumanly to pass the following resolves, viz: 1. That all commissions, civil and military, 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. 2. That the provincial congress of each province, under the direction of the great continental congress, is invested with all the legislative and executive powers within their respective provinces ; and that no other legislative and executive power does or can exist, at this time, in any of these colonies. shed the blood of American patriots at Lexington. That we do hereby declare ourselves, a free and independent people; are, and of right ought to be, a sovereign and self-governing association, under the control of no power other than that of our God and the general government of the Congress; to the maintenance of which independence, we solemnly pledge to each other, our mutual co-operation, our lives, our fortunes, and our most sacred honor. That as we acknowledge the existence and control of no law nor legal officer, civil or military, within this county, we do hereby ordain and adopt as a rule of life, all, each, and every of our former laws; wherein, nevertheless, the crown of Great Britain never can be considered as holding rights, privileges, immunities, or authority therein. 3. As all former laws are now wholly suspended in this province, and the congress have not yet provided others, we judge it necessary, for the better preservation of good order, to form certain rules That it is further decreed, that all, each, and and regulations for the internal government of every military officer in this county, is hereby rethis county, until laws shall be provided for us by instated in his former command and authority, he congress. acting conformably to these regulations. And 4. That the inhabitants of this county do meet that every member present of this delegation shall on a certain day appointed by this committee, and, henceforth be a civil officer, viz. a justice of the having formed themselves into nine companies, peace, in the character of a committee-man, to viz. eight in the county and one in the town of issue process, hear, and determine all matters of Charlotte, do choose a colonel and other military controversy, according to said adopted laws; and officers, who shall hold and exercise their several to preserve peace, union, and harmony in said powers by virtue of this choice, and independent county; and to use every exertion to spread the of the crown of Great Britain and former consti- love of country and fire of freedom throughout tution of this province. America, until a more general and organized government be established in this province. The production of a printed copy of these resolutions, in a paper published six weeks after they were passed, thus furnishing that highest testimony of their existence which the skeptical called for, and which has so well justified a part of their doubts, may be considered now to have established the following points, beyond room for cavil or doubt. First. The people of the county of Mecklenburg in North Carolina, did, as early as May, 1775, pass patriotic resolutions, which showed then a determined spirit of resistance to oppression, and which procured for them the honor of being denounced as traitors by a royal governor. Secondly. They were not so much in advance of their countrymen in the other provinces and in their own, as the resolutions previously published seemed to imply; for they do not speak of dis |