DELIVERED AT CHARLOTTE, ON THE 4TH DAY OF FEB'Y, 1875, BY REQUEST PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE CENTRAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE NEW YORK: E. J. HALE & SON, PUBLISHERS, MURRAY STREET. 1875. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by E. J. HALE & SON, In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington LANGE, LITTLE & Co., DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE BY THE COMMITTEE OF THE PEOPLE OF MECKLENBURG COUNTY, N. C., ON THE TWENTIETH OF MAY, 1775. Viewed in the light of History, American and English, Congressional and Provincial, with observations on the characters of the chief witnesses who testified of it, as known to the writer from personal acquaintance, or their reputation among their contemporaries. A MEMORIAL ADDRESS At a Mass Meeting in Charlotte, Feb. 4th, 1875, preparatory to its Centennial Celebration. BY WM. A. GRAHAM. I ESTEEM it the duty of some one who has had opportunities of acquaintance with the Revolutionary history of the State, and this a fit occasion, to vindicate the authenticity of the Declaration of Independence by the delegates of the people of the County of Mecklenburg on the 20th of May, 1775, against the attempts recently made to bring it into discredit. With some recollections of the discussion of this topic, running back more than half a century, I have taken no part in it heretofore. The event occurred (as I believe it did occur) in the immediate vicinity of the residence of the families from which I am descended. Several of my near relatives, including my Father, when it was called in question soon after its publication in the gazettes of 1819-20, gave their |