The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.
Oration by Hon. D. B. Hill, at the one hundred and Seventeenth anniversary, celebrated at Charlotte, North Carolina, May 20, 1892.
[from the Richmond (Va.) times, May 21, 1892.]
Senator Hill and his party arrived at
Charlotte, North Carolina, at 2 o'clock A. M. May 20, 1892.
A reception committee, headed by
Mayor Robert Brevard, escorted them from the
Richmond and
Danville
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station to the
Buford Hotel.
After breakfasting
Mayor Brevard and the members of the Executive committee called at the hotel and escorted the party to the
Central Hotel, from the balcony of which they were to review the parade.
Governor Holt was sick and unable to be present.
He deputed the pleasant task of welcoming the guests to
Adjutant-General James D. Glenn, who received them in the parlors of the
Central Hotel, and escorted them to the balcony.
Other members of the
Governor's staff and of the staff of the
Governor of
South Carolina were present in full uniform.
Senator Hill's appearance on the balcony was greeted with prolonged cheering from the crowd which lined the sidewalks.
The procession.
The procession formed at the junction of Tryon and Ninth streets. In the line were the
Governor's Guards and Zouaves, of
Columbia; the
Fayetteville Light Infantry, the
Guilford Grays, of
Greensboro; the
Hornet's Nest Riflemen and
Queen City Guards, of
Charlotte, and the
Iredell Blues, Cabarras Black Boys, Cleveland Guards and Southern Stars, of the Fourth regiment, and holding the last place in the line, the Naval Artillery, of
Charlotte.
The column moved at 10 o'clock, passing under the massive arch at the intersection of Tryon and Trade streets. It passed the reviewing balcony, and then moved down south Tryon street to a large field, which had been selected for the military manoeuvres.
When the procession had passed the reviewing stand,
Senator Hill and his party were escorted to carriages and driven to the battle-field, where they had an excellent view of a very spirited sham battle.
From the battle-field they went to the Auditorium, where an enormous crowd had gathered to hear the senator's speech.
The Rev. Edward Mack opened the ceremonies with an invocation.
After the reading of the Mecklenburg
Declaration of Independence,
Senator Hill was introduced.
He said:
To-day, this 20th day of May, in the one hundred and sixteenth year of American Independence, we come to celebrate the one hundred and seventeenth year of North Carolinian independence.
We stand upon historic ground!
A birthday of liberty!
The birthplace of liberty!
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Your historians narrate that here the first
Declaration of Independence was promulgated.
It is a simple story, and is briefly told.
The patriotic citizens of this county of
Mecklenburg, in this grand old
State of North Carolina, restless under the yoke of oppression, impatient of the injustice of foreign rule under which they had long suffered, and imbued with the spirit of self-government, assembled together at the court-house over thirteen months before the memorable action of the Continental Congress, with the startling news of the
battle of Lexington ringing in their ears, renewing their devotion to the inherent and inalienable rights of man, bravely and solemnly resolved, in substance, that they were a free and independent people, and that the political bands which had bound them to the mother country were dissolved.
It was a sublime and heroic action.
It was without an example in the history of the world.
What a page in the history of these
United States of America!
One of your later statesmen, and among your greatest,
the Hon. William A. Graham, whose memory will be ever cherished, and whose name will be ever honored by the sons of
North Carolina, has recorded for all time to come, in his centennial and memorial address at
Charlotte in 1875, the thrilling story of that immortal deed.
Not only was
North Carolina the first colony in which independence was declared, but it is confidently claimed—and history seems to confirm the statement—that here in your State the first blood was spilled in the
United States in resistance to the exactions of English rulers, at an engagement between the royal forces and the North Carolina militia, known as ‘Regulators,’ so early as the 16th of May, 1771, at the battle of Alamance.
It is not denied that these facts have been questioned.
I am well aware that the settled verdicts of history are appealed from in all directions.
Historical criticism is making formidable reprisals where the faith of many generations had never wavered.
A gentleman in the
West questions if the author of the Shakespeare plays and sonnets spelled his name with the correct assortment of letters of the alphabet.
Nobody now thinks worse of
Bolingbroke for his attainder than of
Andrew Johnson for his impeachment.
People live and pay taxes who think
John Adams was quite right when he coupled
Hamilton and
Burr as dangers to the republic and its freedom.
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The
Swiss are told that no such person ever lived among their mountains as
William Tell.
And now the historians are not content with saying that
Christopher Columbus sought a westward passage to the
Island of Japan and the Asiatic mainland, was interrupted by the little archipelago off
Florida, made his crew take an affidavit that one could march on foot from
Cuba across
Asia to
Spain, but never landed upon
North America nor suspected the existence of the
Pacific ocean.
These terrible historic critics go further still, and I will read you what the last of them,
Mr. Justin Winsor, librarian of Harvard University, says in this very quadri-centennial year, which we are about to celebrate by the Chicago Fair, upon the death of
Christopher Columbus.
We have seen a pitiable man meet a pitiable death.
Hardly a name in the profane history is more august than his. Hardly another character in the world's record has made so little of its opportunities.
His discovery was a blunder, his blunder was a new world, the new world is his monument.
Its discoverer might have been its father; he proved to be its despoiler.
He might have given its young days such a benignity as the world likes to associate with a maker; he left it a legacy of devastation and crime.
He might have been an unselfish promotor of geographical science; he proved a rapid seeker for gold and vice-royalty.
He might have won converts to the fold of Christ by the kindness of his spirit; he gained the execrations of the good angels.
He might, like Las Casas, have rebuked the fiendishness of his contemporaries; he set them an example of perverted belief.
The triumph of Barcelona led down to the ignominy of Valladolid, with every step in the degredation palpable and resultant.
Does anything survive in all this wreck of famous reputations?
Yes. There is a tomb at
Mount Vernon where one of the mighty dead lies in peace, with honor.
The historians have now done their best and their worst.
Thank God, we know at last that the
Father of his Country has left to the children and the children's children of this great nation, through all generations, the priceless legacy of a pure, unsullied name.
George Washington,
John Adams and his son,
Thomas Jefferson,
James Madison (to name no more)—all these, among the great founders of a mighty State; all these, the first leaders of our still contending
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political parties, retain their title to our reverence as to our pride, to our esteem as to our admiration.
The whole record of their long, laborious lives has been exposed, upturned, published, and not one syllable of shame.
It is the slander of envious or ambitious rivals which the record has exposed—to their shame.
It is the hideous revilings, the ceaseless calumnies of some partisan newspapers, on both sides, which have been shriveled up and burnt away in the glare of modern investigation.
It is the credulity of opposing partisans, sectarians, bigots, which the muse of history now mocks with her wise smile.
Fellow-citizens of
North Carolina, fellow-citizens of
Mecklenburg, I congratulate you especially that there is something else which the tooth of time has wholly spared.
I congratulate you that after all the researches of their contemporaries, their historians and their critics, here, too, you can hold fast and keep forever undisturbed your veneration for the ‘gray forefathers of the
State,’ and all your pride in the authentic precursors of American Independence.
Grant for a moment the very uttermost that anybody ever tried to prove to unsettle the verdict of the
North Carolina historian.
Has it ever occurred to you to inquire what it amounts to?
Nothing at all, or nothing but this—that your forefathers were less than a fortnight later in being still by more than a year in advance of all as the forerunners, the precursors of American Independence.
Which one of the thirteen States, finding such a record as that among its archives, never questioned, undisputable, authentic and contemporaneous, would not regard the
Mecklenburg Resolves of the 31st of May as a perfect title to all that was ever claimed for
North Carolina's sons as the forerunners of American Independence.
Let every other page of your annals perish, and then would not the old Bay State?
would not the
Empire State?
would not the
Keystone State?
would not old
Virginia?
if that remaining record belonged to either one of them, instead of belonging, as it does, by an unchallenged title, to the Old North State, proclaim it the very Koh-i-noor among all the jewels of American liberty?
Turn in every light and it blazes with an incomparable lustre.
I lately turned over some few of the leaves of controversy.
I glanced at the famous correspondence of
John Adams and
Thomas Jefferson over the
Raleigh Register, in their old age, in their
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renewed confidence and mutual regard, just one short lustrum of seven years before ‘the Colossus of the Revolution’ and the author of the
Declaration of Independence united to celebrate together on the 4th of July, 1826, by their joint exit from the life of this world and their joint entrance upon the life to come, the semi-centennial anniversary of American Independence.
I looked over Peter Force's American Archives, and turned a page or two of your own State records.
And I found time to read the paper of the all-accomplished
President Welling, of the Columbian University, at
Washington, upholding as your highest pride the resolves of May 31st.
I was looking to see what emerged from all that dust.
If you will pardon the words of an old song, I was looking to see what ‘nobody can deny.’
And in a discussion of the
Mecklenburg Resolves of the eleventh day after the 20th May, I stumbled upon the words ‘Virtual Independence.’
What, then, if you gentlemen of
North Carolina please, what, then, would actual independence be?
I appeal to the text.
All commissions, civil and military, heretofore granted by the crown to be exercised in these colonies are null and void, and the constitution of each particular colony wholly suspended.
The provincial congress of each province under the direction of the great Continental Congress invested with all legislative and executive powers within their respective provinces, and that no other legislative or executive power does or can exist at this time in any of these colonies.
Such was the large, strict logical derivation from the wrong of Parliament; then follows, what?
A temporary grant of power by the inhabitants of this county, to be held and exercised by virtue of their choice.
Is that all?
No—‘shall hold and exercise their several powers by virtue of the choice, and independent of the crown of
Great Britain and former constitution of this province.’
The exercise of old or new commissions from the crown to mark an enemy of his country.
Preservation of the peace and administration of justice provided for and the tenure of their office who bore the purse or sat in judgment to be ‘during the pleasure of their several constituents.’
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And they who bore the sword of power were bidden to arm and hold ‘themselves in readiness to execute the commands of the General Congress of this province and this committee.’
Such was, indeed, that ‘clear and logical conception’ which the Mecklenburg patriots of 1775 were foremost to form ‘of the civil status created for the
American colonies by the address of both houses of Parliament to the Crown, adopted February 7, 1775, declaring the colony of
Massachusetts in a state of “actual rebellion,” ’ and constructively passing the same sentence of outlawry on all the other colonies which were giving her aid and comfort.
Fellow-citizens of
North Carolina, it is not quite enough to say that the Mecklenburg patriots of 1775 won and wear the unique fame of the precursors of American Independence.
The
North Carolina Koh-i-noor blazes from a broader facet with a finer light.
The
Mecklenburg patriots of 1775 also carried onward the very evangel of Democracy!
I peruse these authentic, unquestioned resolutions, the text undisputed, the record contemporary and continuous and clear, and I care not what went before or came after, for I say, severance from and independence of the parent State are here.
But also every mark of the highest style of self-government is here.
Severance, because of encroachments upon self-government—Independence—resumption of power by the self-governed to the end of its redistribution upon the servants of their choice—the temporary character of the grant affirmed, subject to termination by the termination of its necessity, or by the awaited exercise of authority on the part of the larger social structure to which their union and voluntary differerence were affirmed through the Provincial or the Continental Congress.
Shall we find in the immortal
Declaration of Independence, which
Jefferson penned, a surer, firmer grasp of government by the people, of the people, for the people, than that?
It will never be found, except by those who could make the mistake which your forefathers never made — the mistaking of
Mecklenburg county for
North Carolina, the mistaking of
North Carolina for the United Colonies of
North America.
But the dignity and self-restraint of men capable of selfgovern-ment, ordering the spirit and the structures of their society, are here.
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Nothing for aggression is here, but everything for defense.
But the substantials of self-government were denied, and so ‘the old order changed, giving place to the new.’
They had understood their epoch.
They had hewed to the very line, and then they waited for a twelve-month the fateful issue.
But resolute then for self-government they were, at the hazard of their fortunes and their lives.
A long renown to the
Mecklenburg Patriots of 1775, the precursors of American Independence!
But a deathless renown to self-respecting, self-governing freemen, capable to rend asunder and destroy that unserviceable body of government which no longer fitly houses and serves the soul of liberty!
This great decision of the Mecklenburg forefathers, I say, bears every mark of the highest style of self-government.
Of pure Democracy there is no finer type.
No orders came thundering down from the seat of centralized power.
They conversed with one another and determined their course in this county of
Mecklenburg, and then staked the fortunes and the lives of freemen as of less value than their liberty.
Liberty to do what?
Liberty to establish justice and maintain it; liberty to surround arid guard their own social order with all their united force; liberty to keep off the encroachments of the officers of government, by keeping in hand the sum and methods of taxation and holding the tenure of the officer at the pleasure of his constituents.
Such is the attitude of freemen.
Such is the mind of the Democrat—Democrat in the broadest sense, I mean.
And then, what courage of the patriot!
Can you conceive of servility in souls like theirs?
Can you conceive of a demagogue making headway in that company?
Let us keep before the eyes of our fellow-countrymen, thronging hither from all lands, this type and style of true Democracy, this type and nobler style of humanity.
Is that too proud a claim?
Let us see. I brought with me to this celebration of
Mecklenburg county Patriotism, a newspaper printed in the great metropolis called
London one hundred and sixteen and a half years after the day and deeds we celebrate.
It is the London
Times of last November 25th.
It contains the report of a speech in
Birmingham made by the prime minister, an actual ruler of
Great Britain to-day.
Allow me
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to read you one short passage from that speech, in which he discusses some Democratic changes proposed—among them, parish councils.
He says:
I wish to know what they are to do. Parishes are a very strange, a very unequal division of the country.
You will find parishes very small and parishes very large.
They have no duties so far as I know to perform, and when I am told, “You ought to give them parish councils in order to make rural life more interesting than it is,” I really cannot admit that the object of representative institutions is to amuse the electors who send representatives to them.
If among the many duties the modern State undertakes the duty of amusing the rural population should be included, I should rather recommend a circus or something of that kind.
But I am quite certain if you attempt to amuse them by giving them parish councils you will not satisfy the demand you have raised.
I looked for the reply to these gibes of Lord Salisbury by some of the politicians opposed to him, and I found it (and had it copied from the London Times of April 21st) in a speech by Sir William Harcourt, who is thought likely to be one day Mr. Gladstone's successor.
He said:
We want to give life, occupation, interest to the villagers.
We do not ridicule them and tell them to go to a circus.
We want these men to have an interest in and an authority over their own affairs, to have something to fill their minds and hearts on the long, dull, dreary round of weekly labor-something that will give them a sense of security for themselves and their families and not a sense of dependence upon the variable and eleemosynary favors of others, however generous and kind they may be.
I do not know which one of these British statesmen would be thought the more insolent by a Mecklenburg citizen addicted to self-government and capable of it-
Sir William Harcourt, with his supercilius sympathy, or Lord Salisbury and his circus and his contempt.
But I ask all critics of the American citizen to compare that stereoscopic figure of the
British citizen, seen with one Liberal and one Tory eye.
The
Mecklenburg patriots in their parish or county council struck for self-government, instantly resolved to risk poverty, defeat, outlawry, danger, imprisonment and death.
Well did they know their undertaking was no holiday affair.
It meant privation, bankruptcy, separation from home and friends, protracted military service, sickness,
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suffering and every peril incident to a hazardous rebellion.
Defeat did not dismay them, treachery did not destroy their confidence, jealousies did not divide their councils, blunders did not cast them down and success did not unduly exalt them.
They were a plain people—honest, earnest, steadfast and true.
They fought for principles and not for spoils; for their country and not for power; for posterity, and not for themselves alone.
They contended against the injustice of taxation without due representation, against the inequality of governmental burdens, against the exactions of arbitrary power, against the imposition of standing armies to harrass the people and eat out their substance, against non-resident officehold-ers, and against the attempt to make the military superior to the civil authority.
A holier cause never enlisted the efforts of freemen; a nobler type of freemen never walked this earth.
The circumstances of the Mecklenburg declaration were most extraordinary.
There had been no recent conflict upon
North Carolina soil; she had no grievances which were not common to all the colonies.
Mecklenburg was in a portion of the country remote from the centres of population; there was no immediate prospect of foreign invasion of its territory or actual impending injury to its citizens; it was a period of darkness and uncertainty in which the future could not be predicted; yet this people, without consultation with other localities, and without pledges of assistance from other colonies, relying upon the truth and justice of their cause with ‘war in each heart and freedom on each brow,’ unaided and alone set the ball in motion and boldly inaugurated a righteous rebellion, the result of which no one could foretell.
The recollection of this chivalric, but perilous undertaking constitutes a source of pride to the
State of North Carolina ‘ever to be cherished, never to be forgotten.’
It was a step for which, as yet, neither the
State at large nor the Colonial Congress was prepared.
It evinced the highest courage and the loftiest patriotism, but it nevertheless seemed to many patriots premature.
Resistance to British authority at that time had not assumed anywhere else the form of a demand for separation.
Such resistance was elsewhere made as a protest against abuses and as an effort to secure the correction of grievances rather than to establish a new government.
Reformation under royal rule was all that had thus far been generally contemplated.
But to this general sentiment of loyalty the citizens of
Mecklenburg presented a notable exception.
The leading characters are said
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to have been ripe for revolution from the very beginning of the difficulties, and the popular sentiment responded in one decisive act, which we this day commemorate.
Their decisive and daring action gave to
North Carolina the proud distinction, which it has ever since enjoyed, of having been the first of all the colonies to sound the tocsin of revolution and to assert the right of independence.
The same firm determination and high spirit which led to the early pronunciamento of 1775, more than a year in advance of all the other colonies, characterized the conduct of your people during all the dark and stormy days which followed.
Lord Cornwallis unwittingly paid your forefathers a compliment when he declared
Charlotte to be ‘the hornet's nest of
North Carolina’—a reputation which, I am informed, it has ever since gloriously maintained.
The
Mecklenburg declaration was momentous in its consequences, because it was the inception of a successful revolution.
It was never retracted.
It was unique.
It was so startling in its boldness, so grand in it conception, so potent in its influence for the good of mankind, and so securely intrenched in those eternal principles which it concisely embodied, that it stands forth conspicuous as an unprecedented event, a wholly American page in the history of the world's progress.
That it largely influenced the subsequent similar action of the united colonies cannot stand in need of proof.
It kindled the fires of liberty everwhere.
It encouraged the dream and hope of a separate government.
It cheered the weak-hearted and the wavering, invigorated the just demands of the people, and quarried the cornerstone of the foundations of all our future greatness.
It is natural that this commemoration should possess a greater interest than any other which you observe.
It belongs to your city, your county and your State.
It has a peculiar significance to you which no other public event can import.
It appeals to your local pride, your social pride, your pride of ancestry, your pride of race.
You go forward from this early May day to the
National Fourth of July day as from
One happy prologue to the swelling act
Of the imperial theme.
The great central and important thought of the Mecklenburg declaration was the idea of self-government which is boldly embodied.
It was a protest against oppression.
It was also a distinct repudiation of the divine right of kings.
The wisdom of the convictions
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then embodied in the Mecklenburg assumption of self-government have been vindicated by over a hundred years successful administration of this Republic.
We may safely assert that our form of government is no longer an experiment.
This people have demonstrated their capacity to govern themselves.
The most intrepid pioneers who, more than a century ago, led the advance in the great struggle for political liberty and self-government, could hardly have anticipated so complete and so large an outcome as that which we behold between the two oceans, the great lakes and the gulf.
The people of
North Carolina contributed their full share throughout the whole revolutionary struggle which followed the county and the
Colonial Declarations of Independence.
The valor of their troops was displayed on every Southern battle-field.
The State itself was the constant theatre of important engagements and stirring events.
We do not need to be reminded of the achievements at Guilford Courthouse and
King's Mountain and other notable and bloody contests, where your citizen soldiers won enduring laurels over
England's best disciplined forces.
The glorious victory at
King's Mountain, occurring as it did at a most gloomy period of the Revolution, when the hopes of patriots had been prostrated and the enemies of
America encouraged by the disaster of
Camden, turned the tide in the
South in favor of the patriot cause as did the victory of
Trenton under
Washington at the
North.
The battle of Guilford Courthouse, where
Greene measured swords with Cornwallis, was an important struggle, where great military genius and valor contended for mastery, and where the cause of the whole country seemed to be in jeopardy.
The heroism of your forefathers made your soil an uncomfortable abiding place for British soldiers.
But it is unnecessary to repeat in your presence the story of the
American Revolution, because you are as familiar with it as household words.
Next to the story of the Saviour it is the first one you teach your children to read.
It sounds like a romance.
It partakes of some of the features of a legend.
It is a tale of resistance to unjust exactions; of opposition to a restricted commerce; of the struggle of a brave people of thirteen colonies seeking to be free; o the effort to establish the right of revolution for just cause; of and unequal contest of right against might for seven long years; of numerous bloody battles and serious defeats; of many privations,
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hardships and woes; it is the narrative of a cause which produced a Washington to lead its armies; a young
Lafayette to bring succor and assistance from across the waters; a Franklin to give counsel; a Jefferson to defend with his voice and pen; it is the account of courage, heroism and fortitude unsurpassed in the annals of time.
It tells of an army crossing the
Delaware amid snow and ice, and of the retreat of half-starved patriot soldiers with bare feet and bloody tracks; of the capture of
Ticonderoga ‘in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress;’ of the intrepid
Putnam's great leap from the rocks; of the famous exploits of ‘
Marion's men;’ of the valor of ‘Mad
Anthony Wayne;’ of the shameful treason of an Arnold at a critical period of the contest; of the decisive
battle at Saratoga in the
North and the subsequent surrender of the
English army under Cornwallis at
Yorktown in the
South; of the evacuation of New York; of the final glorious triumph of the Continenal armies; of the recognition of our independence and the establishment of a free republic-this is the epitome of the Revolution.
I am reminded of the fact that this county has another proud claim to distinction.
It is the birthplace of
Andrew Jackson and
James K. Polk, two
Presidents of the
United States, two leaders of a great political party, two statesmen whose memory the country delights to honor, and whose achievements have reflected credit upon the county and State of their nativity.
Truly you live in a most favored portion of our land.
It was appropriate that these two great defenders of the rights of the people should have been born at the spot where liberty and independence were first ushered into existence.
The great heritage of freedom which was transmitted to us is is ours—‘Ours to enjoy, ours to preserve, ours to transmit.’
The exercises of this day, besides refreshing our recollection of revolutionary memories and stirring our hearts with patriotic pride, serve a better purpose in impressing upon our minds a sense of the responsibilities and duties of citizenship which devolve upon this generation.
The defense and preservation of the free institutions of
America are obligations which we cannot escape.
The eyes of the world are upon us. For over a century this country has run the glorious race of empire.
We are in the lead, but the struggle is still on.
We should not be unmindful of the fact that we are the custodians of a sacred trust.
Let us distinguish our discharge of that trust by
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the performance of deeds worthy to be remembered, and those which will surely advance the welfare and promote the progress of our common country.
Let us not endeavor to win laurels by war. Brighter than any which we can hope to secure in this field have already been gathered by our fathers.
Let us make this period an unexampled time of peace, an era of improvement, an age of reason.
Let beneficent acts and philanthrophic works abound everywhere.
Let us excel in public virtue and private integrity, in the development of our vast resources, in the spread of education, in the promotion of religion, in the advancement of the arts and in the cultivation of a fraternal spirit.
Let this be the era of good feeling, of higher national standards, of broader public purposes and larger conception of political duties.
By these noble aims and lofty purposes we shall best promote the cause of good government everywhere and evidence our appreciation of the services and sacrifices of our revolutionary sires and of all the glorious memories which cluster around our early independence days.
When
Senator Gray was introduced by
Mayor Brevard to read the
Declaration of Independence he said that coming to
Charlotte as a stranger he felt that he could go away as a friend.
[Applause.] He was glad to come into this beautiful State under the auspices of the senator it had so long delighted to honor; who had so gallantly represented the Old North State in the United States Senate.
[Applause.] He had heard something, he said, of this great anniversary.
As a student he was interested in reading something about it and in reading something of the historic doubts which those envious of the honor claimed by a single State had cast upon it; but he would go from
Mecklenburg to-day a willing witness of the verity of this historic event.
[Prolonged applause.]
The sham-battle had been so delayed that it was 2.30 o'clock when
Mayor Brevard called the assemblage in the auditorium to order, and it was 3.30 when
Senator Hill finished speaking.
His remarks were received with the greatest enthusiasm.
Thanks for two.
Congressman Alexander, taking the platform at the close, offered the following resolution:
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Resolved, That we tender to
the Hon. David Bennett Hill, of New York, our thanks for the able, eloquent and patriotic address this day delivered by him, and that our people will hold in lasting remembrance his participation in our celebration of the one hundred and seventeenth anniversary of the Mecklenburg
Declaration of Independence.
The resolution was adopted unanimously.
Then
Senator Ransom offered a resolution of thanks to
Senator Gray, which was adopted.
Elias Carr, the
Democratic nominee for Governor, was introduced.
There were loud cries for
Gray, then for
Carr, and then for
Ransom, but none of them responded, and after giving three cheers for
Senator Hill the meeting broke up.
Senator Hill held an informal reception on the platform, and then returned to his hotel.
Dinner was served at 4 o'clock. At 6.30 o'clock
Senator Hill,
Senator Gray,
General Lathrop and the United Press correspondent left
Charlotte on the special car ‘Neva’ for the
North.
The day observed in Raleigh.
All the
State departments and the banks of the city were closed to-day, being State holiday, in honor of the Mecklenburg
Declaration of Independence.
Governor Holt, who was to have been present at
Charlotte to-day on the occasion of the celebration, is quite unwell and confined to his room, and consequently unable to be present.
