1890-115th anniversary of Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence Celebration (3)

The following are two articles from the Charlotte News relating the history and significance of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.

Charlotte News: 5/21/1890 pg. 2 and 5/20/1890 p.4

Says the Greensboro Patriot:  Today is the anniversary of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.  It was 115 years ago today that the brave men of Mecklenburg–termed by Cornwallis veritable Hornets–dared to twist the Lion’s tail.  This was done one year in advance of Thos. Jefferson, who claimed to be the first to do it.  Subsequent History has sustained the men of the hornets nest.  Bancroft, the historian, found it an indisputable fact in the archives of Great Britain, that the men of Mecklenburg were the first to throw off the British yoke – and declare themselves independent and free.  North Carolina, God bless her, was the first to defy the British tyrant.  The first in the late war between the States, to lay the first offering on the altar of Liberty, in the body of her soldier brave, Henry Wyatt, killed at Bethel Church, she is the first to put her foot on the neck of monopoly and trusts.

MECKLENBURG’S 20th.   No Nobler People Than the Men of Mecklenburg—Outside Talk About the Hornets’ Nest.   News and Observer:  Charlotte today hangs her banner on the outer walls and the bands send up a great volume of music while the people rend the heavens with their glad acclaims.  It is the anniversary of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence and the patriotic people of today will wake the slumbers of the patriots of ’75 who sleep the sleep of the just.  Thus the spirit of patriotism and devotion to country is renewed continually and succeeding generations are kept in line with their liberty-loving fathers.  How true it is, as we recently quoted, “that a land without memories is a land without liberty.”  We drink at the inspiring fountain whose waters come rolling down from the past.  In their past the people of Mecklenburg have been peculiarly happy.  The original settlement was by men of intelligence and religious zeal, men of education and devoted to liberty.  Long before the Revolution their section had become a centre of culture, and when the ground swell of the troubles with the mother country swept over the land the people assembled and adopted those resolutions known as the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence far in advance of the declaration at Philadelphia, which spoke their determination to win independence or die in the attempt.  And when the tug of war came Lord Cornwallis and his red coats declared that region to be a veritable “Hornet’s nest.”  Yes and every Mecklenburger was a hornet!   There have been no nobler people than the men of Mecklenburg—none more true to their country.  These are the men whose deeds are to be honored today, and Charlotte does well to keep alive a recollection of their heroism and should seek to inspire in her youth a desire to emulate their patriotism and self-sacrifice.