One of the youths, the deed to crown,
Grasped the colors and pulled them down;
And raised, 'mid cries of wild delight,
The pine-tree flag of blue and white.
And the truth was shown, for the world to read,
That men may follow and boys may lead.
Will Carleton.
In North Carolina, the men of Mecklenburg County met, May 31, and adopted their famous "Resolves," declaring that each provincial congress was invested with all legislative and executive powers for the government of the colonies, and should exercise them independently of Great Britain, until Parliament should resign its arbitrary pretensions. It was from these "Resolves" that the legend of the Mecklenburg "Declaration of Independence, said to have been signed May 20," originated.
THE MECKLENBURG DECLARATION
[May 20, 1775]
Oppressed and few, but freemen yet,
The men of Mecklenburg had met
Determined to be free,
And crook no coward knee,
Though Might in front and Treason at the back
Brought death and ruin in their joint attack.
The tyrant's heel was on the land
When Polk convoked his gallant band,
And told in words full strong
The bitter tale of wrong,
Then came a whisper, like the storm's first waves:
"We must be independent, or be slaves!"
But, hark! What hurried rider, this,
With jaded horse and garb amiss,
Whose look some woe proclaims,
Ere he his mission names?
He rides amain from far-off Lexington,
And tells the blood-red news of war begun!