Mecklenburg Resolves facts for kids
The Mecklenburg Resolves, or Charlotte Town Resolves, were a list of statements adopted at Charlotte, in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina on May 31, 1775; drafted in the month following the fighting at Lexington and Concord. Similar lists of resolves were issued by other local colonial governments at that time, none of which called for independence from Great Britain. The Mecklenburg Resolves are thought to be the basis for the unproven "Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence". While not a declaration, the Resolves annulled and vacated all laws originating from the authority of the King or Parliament, and ended recognition of the Crown's power in the colony of North Carolina and all other American colonies. It became the first colony to formally do so, taking place about a year before the Halifax Resolves were passed by the Fourth North Carolina Provincial Congress.
Creating the "Resolves"
The Mecklenburg Resolves document was created by the Mecklenburg County Committee of Safety on or after May 20, 1775 and adopted by that same committee on May 31, 1775. This was just weeks after what is now considered the first battles in the American War for Independence at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts.
The Resolves proclaimed that "all Laws...derived from the Authority of the King or Parliament, are annulled and vacated," and that the Provincial government "under the Great Continental Congress is invested with all legislative and executive Powers...and that no other Legislative or Executive does or can exist, at this time, in any of these Colonies."
Captain James Jack is reputed to have relayed the Resolves document to the North Carolina delegation made up of Richard Caswell, William Hooper, and Joseph Hewes meeting at the Continental Congress. There, the delegates received it but decided not to present it at that time to the Congress as a whole. These resolves were drafted only a month following the outbreak of civil unrest at Lexington and Concord. Similar lists of resolves were issued by other localities at the time and throughout the next 14 months (such as the Tryon Resolves in the neighboring Tryon County). None of these actually called for independence.
Intent
The Mecklenburg Resolves left the door open to reconciliation if Parliament were to "resign its unjust and arbitrary Pretentions [sic] with respect to America", in which case the resolutions would no longer be in force. Although a display of defiance, the Mecklenburg Resolves were not, by any means, a declaration that the people of Mecklenburg County were free and independent of The Crown.
Reported loss
The original ratified document of the "Mecklenburg Resolves" (or alleged "Mecklenburg Declaration") was said to have burned in an 1800 fire at a private residence where it was being kept. There are no independently published contemporaneous accounts of the wording of the document.
Signatories
There are no published contemporaneous accounts of who signed the Mecklenburg Resolves.
Resolves text found
Proof that the Mecklenburg Resolves existed was found in 1838. The case for the authenticity of the Mecklenburg Resolves, but not a declaration of independence was bolstered with the discovery by historian Peter Force of an abbreviated list of resolutions that were adopted in Mecklenburg County on May 31, 1775. These differed widely from the purported text of the declaration of May 20. Then, in 1847, the complete text of The Resolves was found in the archives of the South Carolina Gazette. The newspaper had reported the committee's result and published the text, on June 13, 1775. The article gave the date of adoption of the Mecklenburg Resolves as May 31, 1775. It did not list any signatories.
