1905- Historian Ashe Confirms Authenticity of Mecklenburg Declaration documents but questions date

Below is an article published by Historian Ashe in which he affirms the authenticity of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence documents but claims that the true date is May 31 and not May 20.

Charlotte Observer: 1/16/1905

“IT IS NO MYTH,” SAYS HISTORIAN ASHE  

Declares That Mecklenburg Undoubtedly Declared Her Independence.  

Inasmuch as Historian Ashe is regarded in this State as a non-believer in the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence because he holds that May 31 is the proper date to celebrate and that the Resolves of the Thirty-first was the document promulgated, the following from yesterday’s News and Observer is of special interest:  

“As you ask this morning what I would advise about President Wilson’s acceptance of the invitation to visit Charlotte on May Twentieth,” said Captain Ashe yesterday, “I would like to say that certainly he ought to attend if he can, and with ardent enthusiasm join the patriotic people of Charlotte in their celebration.  

“The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence is no myth;—it was a year in advance of the Declaration made by the Continental Congress, and was so far in advance of thought and desire among the members of the Continental Congress that when a copy of the document was presented to the members of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, it was suppressed and not published.  

“The circumstance that the Charlotte people observe the twentieth, when the patriotic action they commemorate was evidently taken on the thirty-first of May, 1775, is not material: nor is it material to outsiders that they prefer to read a set of resolves whose authenticity is questioned, rather than that document which the people of Mecklenburg proudly published immediately as their action, and whose authenticity cannot be questioned; so far as the substance of the matter is concerned, either set of the resolves contains an assertion of Independence.”  

It is a fact of which people well-informed on the subject have long been aware that even though the most pronounced skeptics as to the doings on Twentieth of May should be correct, the fact would remain that Mecklenburg did declare her independence none the less, even if in different words and on a different date.  This view is taken by Elson’s History of the United States which, though brilliantly written and one of the most interesting textbooks on history now extant, would never be accused of being pro-Southern and has been widely condemned by Southerners on account of some statements it contains.  This book regards the 31st as the correct date, but recognizes the Resolves as embodying a spirit of independence worth of all praise.  There has been so much jocular writing about “the Mecklenburg Myth,” written by those who knew better and read by those who knew less, that there are numbers of people who have been led to the blief that there is no certainty that anything of importance at all happened here in May, 1775.  The statement by Mr. Ashe, however, unsatisfactory to those who contend for the genuineness of the Declaration of May 20, at any rate serves to clear up the subject to some extent for those whose ideas have been beclouded by much discussion.