| Show cum 1111 0 C IBM ira mom iff avii A d NOR d aril owl for oo 00 1 Z so N A i am r 7 1 14 27 14 v 1 7 by JOHN DICKINSON SHERMAN HERE heite Is of course but one declaration of independence pend pen dence enco tiie ollie declaration of independence we celebrate on the I 1 fourth of july it makes no difference that richard henry lees resolution that these united colonies are and ut of right ought to be free and independent elates 11 was uns introduced in congress june 7 1776 that tt it was adopted july 2 find and that the document itself was not made public until july 5 lind and was not signed by the members of congress until august 2 it was on july 4 1770 that the vote on the declaration itself was taken and tile the document ordered authenticated and printed so the fourth of july it Is and ever shall be Neve nevertheless theles there tire are other declarations la and some of them conle come pretty near being declarations of independence except that they were not adopted by coD congress gresa the truth Is that independence was in the air for some time before july 4 1770 the leaders preferred to soy say that is they aey were ere petitioners petition ers in arms even after lexington and concord find and bunker nill nil find and many of them doubtless had no determination tor for independence but the people in many localities were ere ripe tor for independence so it Is not to be wondered that some of them made declarant declarations arat ions one of the eari earliest lest of these declarations la was that of the people of mendon mass march 1 1773 it speaks for itself andberg and here itis atas that all men hye have naturally nn equal right tek t lie efe liberty and property that all just juat and lawful government must originate in the free consent of the people that the good happiness and safety of the people Is the great end of civil government that a principle of self preservation being duly planted by the god of nature in elery eiery human breast it Is necessary not only to the well being of 0 1 the individual but also to the order of the universe as attraction a and nd cohesion are to the preservation of material bodies and the order of the natural world that a voluntary renunciation of any power or privileges included in or necessarily connected with ill a principle of sel sele preservation Is manifestly mauff estly acting counter to the nil mill of the grent great author of Nati nature lre the supreme legi legis s lator later that a right to liberty and property 1 it absolutely inalienable that the claim of the parliament of great britain to the power of legislation for the lie colonies in all cases whatsoever is abhorrent to the spirit and irenaus of the ahe british constitution to if letter of our charter and to the iti must ditt obvious principles of reason find to the essential natural rights gien us t by y god almighty find finally that the introduction of standing dinnies lit in a free country in time of peace without tile the consent of the people Is a violation of their rights as free men then there is ane declaration of the people of hannas town ton may 10 16 1775 1773 on that day adny the met men of that portion of tile the colony of perina ovania liing vest lest of laurel Mount mountain aln and ami fiu braced lit in the present limits of tile the bounty of f west ild then alit n and for long aft afterwards erwardi claimed by virginia to ile lie hie limits of augusta bounly in the oil did dominion ashew ulfo ut at Ilai inas TOM timi n 1114 11 tip tl mat M at of juttie justice to elle off 1111 file situation fuel tile first lii sl tio tao I 1 oct if jie be document adopted sire are us rol I 1 follows ol linvs lows at a general of hie in a A Z U 10 wery habitants of westmoreland county held I 1 ut tit hannas town on may alay for taking into consideration the very alarming ming situation of the country occasioned by the dispute with great britain in re resolved obed unanimously that the p parliament 1 I of n in e tit of great britain by several late acts has declared the inhabitants of massachusetts bay to be in rebellion beff lon and the ministry by endeavoring to enforce said acts has attempted to reduce the suid said inhabitants to ft more wretched state of slavery than e eer er before existed in any country not content with thus violating their constitutional and chartered privileges they would strip them of their lights of humanity exposing their lives to the wanton and sport of a licentious soldiery and depriving them of the very means of subsistence si resolved Ke solved unanimously that there is no reason to doubt but the same ettero of tyranny and oppression will should it meet with till success in massachusetts chu be extended to other parts of america it Is therefore become tile the indispensable duty of every american of every man mail who has any love for his country or any bc bowels cels for posterity by every means which god has put in his power to resist and oppose the execution of it that for us we will be ready to oppose it with our lives and fortunes and the better to enable us to accomplish it we ne will immediately med lately form ourselves into a nil military II 11 body to consist of companies to be made up out of the several town ships under the following association which Is declared to be the association of wet county and finally there here Is the famous so called title mecklenburg declaration of independence adopted at charlotte mecklenburg county north Carcel carolina lua may W 24 1775 of which the lie first three ire as foi follows lotAS Res colled that whosoever directly of or indirectly abetted or lit in tiny nuy way fly form or manner the un chartered charter cd and dangerous linn slon of our rights as claimed by great britain arlt Is an enemy to tills country to arnersen america and to the inherent ent und find in rights of if man resolved Res olied filed that we ae tile the citizens of county to ilo hereby dissolve the bond lini idi 4 itil which lell hate hae connected us to tit the lie mother country ond and hereby absolve our couii ches front all to the crown and abjure all pulli kiil al connection contact or association with flint iii iton who I aus in it liter rights and fliri tho blood blond if iller lean pairin fi tit at lexington lon thai he P tit in lilleby liek liy de clarp tar our 04 it a free tilt annl idich mil ent pel ale and if f alil ul il to lit lie a 11 1 n alit ifill helf aio a io andish the llie control of no pool pomer er aher llian that of our and it anil ilie lie g of tile ilie is to tilt lim i 1 aten ace of kiil which ii I 1 f e ia ped led 10 lo elli eil other r the ir c i operation our alloe 4 of our I 1 our inott hobt honor the mecklenburg lenburg com contention antion was waa called for slay alay 19 its original purpose was to pronounce the annulment of all laws and commis commissions ions in con consequence e of the kings address of february cleri declaring arIng the colonies in a state of rebellion and to make P provision for a temporary form of government until instructions from the provincial congress regulating the jurisprudence of the province shot provide otherwise or the legislative body of great britain resigns its unjust and arbitrary ions with respect to america to in this expectation an elaborate set tf t f resolutions had been prepared discussion of these resolutions wa interrupted by tile the arrival of a ter ler with the news of lexington tit thi coment contention lon reassembled in a fury of patriotism it t seethed and debated until well laell into the morning of may 20 when ilan the quoted paragraphs were adopted as a preliminary to the oje regular business of the contention it 11 must be admitted that the Sl ecklen burgers did a good job they organized a provisional central government they sequestered all public and county taxes and all quit rents to the crown cronn and declared traitors all persons who ahel should accept new commissions front the crown cron or exercise old commissions and they formed nine military com coin annles tor for action when the tittle time should come curiously enough this mecklenburg declaration did not become generally known knon till 1819 forty four chears ears later and then through publication in the lie raleigh Kalel gli register its pub calou caused an evor enormous stir still and began bean a controversy that may be said to bec b yet going on inasmuch as some his torlang still refuse to accept the genii oneness of the document in ili 1819 jef ferson and john adams were liere both 0 old and testy adams said ln in so many words that jefferson evidently ha line plagiarized plagiarizer jefferson angrily retorted that to in his belief the document was spurious the controversy conto contro ersy oner oer the genuineness of the mecklenburg immediately became fast and furious north carolina finally took a land hand it it alit and in 1831 its legis legislature latare appointed a committee of investigation tills this committee reported that tile the doc ament was genuine accordingly may dutli tit wits was mad a state holiday hleb which Is celebrated as the anniversary ot of the signing of the mecklenburg declaration la in 1898 in charlotte wai a monument monument in of tile hie tig signing ning 0 of f th alie e eniry declaration tin tice have been busy all lhee ahee years and little by little the ihn f ise of if the meek len burgers has been built up until flow ni w it Is generally lie ac cepter the contract of government sifted in W 20 in ili it alie ralian aln of ahe lie M ivl louer in 11 a may I 1 ie e said in 1 l i IL lo 10 he tilt tile fin it of 0 independence e out of loil which liell grew the declaration of independence of 1775 |
