Show THE FIRST TO DEFY REAL BIRTHPLACE OF AMERICAN FREEDOM In little Town of Charlotte North Carolina In May 1775 Convention Assembled to Declare for Independence In-dependence Nestling In the Piedmont region of North Carolina stands tho little town of Charlotte Today It looks sleepy and peaceful and quiet but In colonial colon-ial times It was perhaps the liveliest place in tho old north state Indeed at least one of his most gracious mil estys olllcers referred to It ns the hornets nest of America This epithet epi-thet born of bafilod wrath was not misapplied says Harpers Weekly Almost Al-most from Its first settlement by tho sturdy Scotch who emigrated thither early In tho eighteenth century from their native land or from a temporary abidingplace In the north of Ireland Mecklenberg county of which Char lotto Is the center was famed as the habitat of Irreconcllables rile early annals of North Carolina bear abundant abun-dant testimony to the temper and spirit of the men of Mecklenburg and as the years passed and the British yoke became more and more unbearable unbear-able nowhere was disloyalty more openly voiced than among tho glades and hills of this charming region If It be true of the rest of tho couutry that the prevailing sentiment In tho period Immediately preceding the revolution rev-olution was for nn amicable settlement settle-ment of the difficulties with Great Britain it would seem certain that In Mecklenburg at least there was a well detlned opinion In favor of repudiating re-pudiating allegiance cutting loose entirely en-tirely from the motherland and enterIng enter-Ing upon career of Independent nationality na-tionality This opinion If the claims of the Mccklenburglans and their descendants de-scendants aro to bo accepted culminated cul-minated In May 1775 In the adoption l by regularly elected delegates to a county convention of a bold and warlike war-like declaration of Independence setting set-ting forth the wrongs under which the colonies were laboring and In no uncertain terms assorting that we do hereby declare ourselves a free and Independent people that we are and of right ought to be a sovereign and selfgoverning people under the power of God and the general congress to the maintenance of which Independence Independ-ence wo solemnly pledge to each other our mutual cooperation our lives our fortunes and our most sacred honor As tho story goes tho convention was the outcome of several earlier meetings of tho leading spirits of the county held for tho purpose of ascertaining tho attitude of tho Inhabitants Inhabi-tants with respect to the claim of parliament par-liament to tax the colonies and otherwise other-wise regulate their Internal affairs So soon as It was learned that open opposition to the home authorities would receive popular support Thomas Thom-as Polk the colonel commandant of the county Issued an order to each militia captain directing him tp calla call-a company meeting for tho election of two delegates to a county convention conven-tion This was done and on May 19 1775 the convention assembled In the courthouse at Charlotte |