sented, I had explicitly avowed my designs of independence. I cared nothing for this. I had made no secret, in or out of Congress, of my opinion that independence was become indispensable, and I was perfectly sure that in a little time the whole continent would be of my mind. I rather rejoiced in this as a fortunate circumstance, that the idea was held up to the whole world, and that the people could not avoid contemplating it and reasoning about it. Accordingly, from this time at least, if not earlier, and not from the publication of Common Sense,' did the people in all parts of the continent turn their attention to this subject . . . Colonel Reed . . . said that Providence seemed to have thrown those letters before the public for our good. . .”

A member of Congress writes, to London, August 26th: "All trade to England, and every other part of the world, will most certainly be stopped on the tenth of next month... Whether that will be one means of dissolving our connections entirely with Great Britain, I shall leave to wiser heads to determine. I am far, very far, from wishing such an event, but, nevertheless, I am very apprehensive, from the present temper of our people, that a few more violent steps will lay a foundation for it."

General Greene writes, to Washington from Prospect Hill, October 23d: "I hinted, in my last, that people bein heartily to wish a declaration of independence. . On December 20th, he says: "George the Third's last peech has shut the door of hope for reconciliation... Ve are now driven to the necessity of making a declaraon of independence."

until positive and solemn proof of it's authenticity shall be produced, and if the name of McKnitt be real, and not a part of the fabrication, it needs a vindication by the production of such proof. for the present I must be an unbeliever in this apocryphal gospel."

On the 21st, Adams wrote again: "[S] . . . your Letter of the 9th. ... has entirely convinced me that the Mecklengburg Resolutions are fiction . . . as they were unknown to you, they must have been unknown to all mankind I have sent a copy of your letter to Salem, not to be printed but to be used as decisive authority for the Editor [Warwick Palfray, Jr.] to correct his error, in the Essex Register. But who can be the Demon to invent such a machine after five and forty years, and what could be his Motive-was it to bring a Charge of Plagiarism against the Congress in 706, or against you; the undoubted acknowledged draughtsmen of the Declaration of Independence -or could it be the mere vanity of producing a jeu d'esprit, to set the world a guess and afford a topic of Conversation in this piping time of Peace Had such Resolutions appeared in June 705. they would have flown through the Universe like wild fire; they would have Elevated the heads of the inhabitants of Boston; and of all New-England above the Stars and they would have rung a peal in Congressto the utter Confusion of Tory'is'm and timidity, for a full year before they were discomforted -"

This letter was followed by a third (to Jefferson) but seven days later: "[S] I inclose you a National Register, to convince you that the Essex Register is not to blame for printing the Mecklingburg County Resolutions, on

the Contrary I think it to be commended for if those Resolutions were genuine they ought to be published in every Gazette in the World - If they are one of those tricks which our fashionable Men in England call hoax'es and boares - they ought to be printed in all American journals; exposed to public resentment and the Author of them hunted to his dark Cavern-”

To Bentley, under date of August 21st, he says: "[J] I thank you for the Raleigh Register and National “[J] Intelligencer. The plot thickens . . . I was on social, friendly terms with Caswell, Hooper, and Hewes, every moment of their existence in Congress; with Hooper, a Bostonian, and a son of Harvard, intimate and familiar. Yet, from neither of the three did the slightest hint of these Mecklenburg resolutions ever escape... . I cannot believe that they were known to one member of Congress on the fourth of July, 1776 . . . The The papers of Dr. Hugh Williamson ought to be searched for the copy sent to him, and the copy sent to General W. R. Davie. The Declaration of Independence made by Congress is a document . . that ought not to be disgraced or trifled with."

Discussion was now rife; and, on February 18, 1820, the Raleigh Register printed a number of affidavits and letters, introduced as follows: 28 When the Declaration was first published in April last, some doubts were expressed in the Eastern papers as to its authenticity, (none of the Histories of the Revolution having noticed the circumstance.) Col. William Polk, of this City, (who, though a mere youth at the time, was present at the meeting which made the Declaration, and whose

Father being Colonel of the County, appears to have acted a conspicuous part on the occasion,) observing this, assured us of the correctness of the facts generally, though he thought there were errors as to the name of the Secretary, &c. and said that he should probably be able to correct these, and throw some further light on the subject, by Enquiries amongst some of his old friends in Mecklenburg county. He has accordingly made Enquiries, and communicated to us . . . . Documents as the result, which, we presume, will do away [with] all doubts on the subject."

29

The matter was still further investigated, in 1831, under the direction of the General Assembly of the State and a report 30 made.

These (the Raleigh Register of 1820 and the report of the General Assembly, embracing other affidavits) established, it would seem, many of the facts at issue— certainly that, some time in May, 1775, certain resolutions of an advanced character were adopted in Mecklenburg County; that resolutions of an advanced character were publicly read by Thomas Polk and received with great joy; and that, in June, James Jack set out with a copy of resolutions of an advanced character for Congress, that he stopped at Salisbury, where, at the request of the General Court, an attorney by the name of Kennon read the resolutions, and that Jack delivered a copy of the resolutions to Caswell and Hooper in Philadelphia.

Many claim that these established also that the resolutions in question expressly declared independence and that the date of their adoption was May 20th.

With this, however, we cannot agree. Not only is