who had served them in the Colonial Legislature, chairman, and Dr. Ephraim Brevard, * a scholar and unwavering patriot, clerk or secretary. According to tradition, intelligence of the affairs at Lexington and Concord, in Massachusetts, was received during the session of the delegates, and added greatly to the excitement among the people, who had assembled in great numbers around the court-house, eager to know the resolves of their representatives within. The principal speakers on the occasion were Dr. Brevard, Reverend Hezekiah J. Balch, William Kennon (a lawyer of Salisbury), and Colonel Polk. The first three gentlemen were appointed a committee to prepare suitable resolutions, and on the thirty-first of May, 1775, the following preamble and resolves were unanimously adopted: ** "Whereas, By an address presented to his majesty by both Houses of Parliament in February last, the American colonies are declared to be in a state of actual rebellion, we conceive that all laws and commissions confirmed by or derived from the authority of the king and Parliament are annulled and vacated, and the former civil Constitution of these colonies for the present wholly suspended. To provide in some degree for the exigencies of this county in the present alarming period, we deem it proper and necessary to pass the following resolves, viz.:
I. That all commissions, civil and military, heretofore granted by the crown to be exer-
* Ephraim Brevard was one of the "seven sons" of his widowed mother who where "in the rebel army."* He graduated at Princeton, and, after pursuing medical studies a proper time, settled as a physieian in Charlotte. His talents commanded universal respect, and he was a leader in the movements in Meeklenburg toward independence, in 1775. When the British army invaded the Southern States, Dr. Brevard entered the Continental army as a surgeon, and was taken prisoner at Charleston, in May, 1780. Broken by disease, when set at liberty, Dr. Brevard returned to Charlotte, sought the repose of privacy in the family of his friend, John M'Knitt Alexander, who had succeeded him as clerk of the Mecklenburg Committee, and there soon expired. His remains were buffed in Hopewell grave-yard. No stone marks his resting-place, and "no man living," says Mr. Foote, "can lead the inquirer to the spot." He was a remarkable man, and, as the undoubted author of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence and Constitution of Government, deserves the reverence of all patriots. His pen was often employed in the cause of freedom, and he was probably the most accomplished writer, of his day, in Western Carolina.
* Minute biographical sketches of these leading patriots of Meeklenburg, if they could be obtained, would make an exceedingly useful and entertaining volume. Of the general character of the people in that vicinity at the period of the Revolution, J. G. M. Ramsey, M.D., the historian of Tennessee, who has studied the character of the Mecklenburg patriots with great care, writes thus appreciatingly to me, under date of January 19, 1852: "In regard to the people, then residing between the Yadkin and the Catawba, it is almost impossible to conceive, at this day, the incalculable benefits the country received from their immigration and settlement in it; nor the happy influences, secular, civil, religious, and literary, they uniformly diffused in their respective neighborhoods. To these are we indebted, in a great measure, for the enterprise, industry, thrift, skill, frugality, love of order, sobriety, regard for wholesome laws, family and social government, establishment of schools, churches, and a high standard of education and training for youth, attachment to well-regulated liberty, and the representative principle in government."
** The following are the names of the leading patriots in Mecklenburg, and reported to have been members of the Mecklenburg Committee, who met in the Convention at Charlotte: Abraham Alexander, Ephraim Brevard, John M'Knitt Alexander, Adam Alexander, Hezekiah Alexander, Ezra Alexander, Charles Alexander, Waightstill wery, Hezekiah J. Balch, Thomas Polk, John Flenekin, James Harris, Neil Morrisson, David Reese, Robert Harris, senior, Richard Barry, Duncan Ochiltree, John Ford, William Kennon, Samuel Martin, Zacheus Wilson, senior,t Benjamin Patton, Robert Irwin, John Davidson, John Pfifer, Henry Downes, William Graham, Matthew M'Clure, John Queary, William Wilson.
* When Cornwallis was in pursuit of Greene, he passed near the plantation of the Widow Brevard, and ordered it to be desolated. When asked why he was so cruel toward a poor widow, he replied, "She has seven sons in the rebel army!" What higher compliment could that noble mother have received.
** The Wilsons were all stanch Scotch-Irish, and sturdy Republicans. The wife of Robert Wilson, a brother of Zaclieus like the Widow Brevard, had "seven sons in the rebel army," and also her husband. When Cornwallis retired from Charlotte, he halted upon Wilson's plantation, and himself and staff quartered at the house of the patriot. Mrs. Wilson was very courteous, and Cornwallis endeavored to win her to the royal cause by flattering words. Her reply deserves to be inscribed upon brass and marble: "I have seven sons who are now, or have been bearing arms; indeed, my seventh son, Zacheus, who is only fifteen years old, I yesterday assisted to get ready to go and join his brothers in Sumter's army. Now, sooner than see one of my family turn back from the glorious enterprise, 1 would take these boys (pointing to three or four small sons), and with them would myself enlist under Sumter's standard and show my husband and sons how to fight, and, if necessary, to die for their country!" "Ah, general," said the cruel Tarleton, "I think you've got into a hornet's nest! Never mind; when we get to Camden, I'll take good care that old Robin Wilson never gets back again!"—See Mrs. Ellet Women of the Revolution, iii. 317.
Autographs of the Mecklenburg Committee.
cised in these colonies are null and void, and the Constitution of each particular colony wholly suspended.