CHESTER COUNTY (PENNSYLVANIA) COMMITTEE.

In Committee, Chester, May 31, 1775.

Whereas it appears very necessary, in order to avert the evils and calamities which threaten our devoted Country, to embody ourselves and make all the military preparations in our power; and it appears absolutely impossible to carry this laudable design into execution, without observing the greatest order harmony, and concord, not only under the laws of civil Government, but also while under arms and on actual duty. We, therefore, unanimously recommend the following Association to be entered into by the good people of this County:

“We, the subscribers, do most solemnly resolve, promise, and engage, under the sacred ties of honour, virtue and love to our Country, that we will use our utmost endeavours to learn the military exercise, and promote harmony and unanimity in our respective Companies; that we will strictly adhere to the rules of decency during duty; that we will pay a due regard to our Officers; that we will, when called upon, support with our utmost abilities the civil Magistrate in the execution of the laws for the good of our Country; and that we will at all times be in readiness to defend the lives, liberties, and properties of ourselves and fellow-countrymen against all attempts to deprive us of them.”

Information being lodged with this Committee that William Moore, Esq., has expressed himself in terms inimical to the liberties of America, and derogatory to the Continental

of, and although then too young to be forward in the business, yet the leading circumstances I have related cannot have escaped his recollection.

JAMES JACK.

Signed this of December 1819, in presence of

C 2.

NORTH-CAROLINA, Cabarrus County, November 29, 1830;

We, the undersigned, do hereby certify, that we have frequently heard William S. Alexander, deceased, say that he, the said William S. Alexander, was at Philadelphia on mercantile business, in the early part of the summer of 1775, say in June; and that on the day General Washington left Philadelphia to take the command of the Northern Army, he, the said William S. Alexander, met with Captain James Jack, who informed him, the said William. S. Alexander, that he, the said James Jack, was there as the agent or bearer of the Declaration of Independence made Charlotte, on the twentieth day of May, seventeen hundred and seventy-five, by the citizens of Mecklenburgh, then including Cabarrus, with instructions to present the same to the Delegates from North-Carolina, and by them to be laid before Congress, and which he said he had done; in which Declaration the aforesaid citizens of Mecklenburgh renounced their allegiance to the Crown of Great Britain, and set up a Government for themselves, under the title of The Committee of Safety. Given under our hands the date above written.

D.

LEXINGTON, Georgia, November 16, 1819.

DEAR SIR: The bearer, the Honourable Thomas W. Cobb, has suggested to me that you had a desire to know something particularly of the proceedings of the citizens of Mecklenburgh County, in North-Carolina, about the beginning of our Revolutionary War.

Previous to my becoming more particular, I will suppose you remember the Regulation business, which took its rise in or before the year 1770, and issued and ended in a battle between the Regulators and Governour Tryon, in the spring of 1771. Some of the Regulators were killed, and the whole dispersed. The Regulators’ conduct was a “rudis indigestaque moles,” as Ovid says about the beginning of creation; but the embryotick principles of the Revolution were in their temper and views. They wanted strength, consistency, a Congress, and a Washington at their head. Tryon sent his officers and minions through the State and imposed the oath of allegiance upon the people, even as far up as Mecklenburgh County. In the year 1775, after our Revolution began, the principal characters of Mecklenburgh County met on two sundry days, in Queen’s Museum, in Charlotte, to digest Articles for a State Constitution, in anticipation that the Province would proceed to do so. In this business, the leading characters were, the Reverend Hezekiah James Balch, a graduate of Princeton College, an elegant scholar, Waightstill Avery, Esquire, attorney-at-law, Hezekiah and John McKnitt Alexander, Esquires, Colonel Thos. Polk, &c., &c.

Many men and young men, (myself one,) before Magistrates, abjured allegiance to George the Third, or any other foreign Power. At length, in the same year, 1775, I think, at least positively before July 4, 1776, the males generally of that County met on a certain day in Charlotte, and from the head of the Court-House stairs proclaimed Independence on English Government, by their herald, Colonel Thomas Polk. I was present, and saw and heard it, and as a young man, and then a student in Queen’s Museum was an agent in these things. I did not then take and keep the dates, and cannot, as to date, be so particular as I could wish, Captain James Jack, then of Charlotte, but now of Elbert County in Georgia, was sent with the account of these proceedings to Congress, then in Philadelphia, and brought back to the County thanks of Congress for their zeal, and the advice of Congress to be a little more patient, until Congress should take the measure thought to best.

I would suppose, Sir, that some minutes of these things must be found among the records of the first Congress, that would perfectly settle their dates. I am perfectly sure, being present at the whole of them, they were before our National Declaration of Independence.

Honourable Sir, if the above few things can afford you any gratification, it will add to the happiness of your friend and humble servant,

FRANCIS CUMMINS.

Hon.Nathaniel Macon.

E.

VESUVIUS FURNACE, October 4, 1830.

DEAR SIR: Agreeably to your request, I will give you the details of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, on the 20th of May 1775, as well as I can recollect after a lapse of fifty-five years. I was then a lad about half grown, was present on that occasion, (a looker on.)

During the winter and spring preceding that event, several popular meetings of the people were held in Charlotte, two of which I attended; papers were read, grievances stated, and publick measures discussed. As printing was not then common in the South, the papers were mostly manuscript; one or more of which wag from the pen of the Reverend Doctor Reese, then of Mecklenburgh, which, met with general approbation, and copies of it circulated. It is to be regretted that those and other papers published at that period, and the journal of their proceedings are lost. They would show much of the spirit and tone of thinking, which prepared them for the measures they afterwards adopted.

On the 20th of May, 1775, besides the two persons elected from each Militia company, (usually called Committee-men,) a much larger number of citizens attended in Charlotte than at any former meeting, perhaps half the men in the County. The news of the battle of Lexington, the 19th of April preceding, had arrived. There appeared among the people much excitement. The Committee were organized in the Court-House, by appointing Abraham Alexander, Esq., Chairman and John McKnitt Alexander, Esquire, Clerk or Secretary to the meeting.

After reading a number of papers as usual, and much animated discussion, the question was taken, and they resolved to declare themselves independent. One among other reasons offered, that the King or Ministry had, by proclamation or some edict, declared the Colonies out of the protection of the British Crown; they ought, therefore, to declare themselves out of his protection, and resolve on independence. That their proceedings might be in due form, a Sub-Committee, consisting of Doctor Ephraim Brevard, a Mr. Kennon, an attorney, and a third person, whom I do not recollect, were appointed to draft their Declaration. They retired from the Court-House for some time, but the Committee continued in session in it. One circumstance occurred I distinctly remember: a member of the Committee, who had said but little before, addressed the Chairman, as follows: “If you resolve on independence, how shall we all be absolved from the obligations of the oath we took to be true to King George the Third, about four years ago, after the Regulation battle, when we were sworn, whole Militia companies together. I should be glad to know how gentlemen can clear their consciences after taking that oath.” This speech produced confusion. The Chairman could scarcely preserve order, so many wished to reply. There appeared great indignation and contempt at the speech of the member. Some said it was nonsense; others, that allegiance and protection were reciprocal; when protection was withdrawn allegiance ceased; that the oath was only binding while the King protected us in the enjoyment of our rights and liberties, as they existed at the time it was taken, which he had not done, but now declared us out of his protection, therefore was not binding. Any man who would interpret it otherwise, was a fool. By way of illustration, (pointing to a green tree near the Court-House) stated, if his was sworn to do any thing as long as the leaves continued on that tree, it was so long binding; but when the leaves fell, he was discharged from its obligation. This was said to be certainly applicable in the present case. Out of respect for a worthy citizen, long since deceased, and his respectable connexions, I forbear to mention names; for, though he was a friend to the cause, a suspicion rested on him in the publick mind for some time after.

The Sub-Committee appointed to draft the Resolutions, returned, and Doctor Ephraim Brevard read their report, as near as I can recollect, in the very words we have since seen them several times in print. It was unanimously adopted; and shortly after, it was moved and seconded to have proclamation made, and the people collected, that the proceedings be read at the Court-House door, in order that all might hear them. It was done, and they were received with enthusiasm. It was then proposed by some one aloud, to give three cheers and throw tip their hats. It was immediately adopted, and the hats thrown. Several of them lit on the Court-House roof; the owners had some difficulty to reclaim them.

The foregoing is all from personal knowledge. I understood afterwards, that Captain James Jack, then of Charlotte, undertook, on the request of the Committee, to carry a copy of their proceedings to. Congress, which then sat in Philadelphia; and on his way, at Salisbury, the time of Court, Mr. Kennon, who was one of the Committee who assisted in drawing the Declaration, prevailed on Captain Jack to get his papers, and have them read publickly; which was done, and the proceedings met with general approbation. But two of the lawyers, John Dunn and a Mr. Booth, dissented, and asserted they were treasonable, and endeavoured to have Captain Jack detained. He drew his pistols, and threatened to kill the first man who would interrupt him, and passed on. The news of this reached Charlotte in a short time after, and the Executive of the Committee, whom they had invested with suitable powers, ordered a party of ten or twelve armed horsemen to bring said lawyers from Salisbury; when they were brought, and the case investigated before the Committee. Dunn, on giving security and making fair promises, was permitted to return, and Booth was sentenced to go to Camden, in South-Carolina, out of the sphere of his influence, My brother, George Graham, and the late Colonel John Carruth, were of the party that went to Salisbury; and it is distinctly remembered that when in Charlotte they came home at night, in order to provide for their trip to Camden, and that they and two others of the party took Booth to that place. This was the first military