By 1870 Draper had become interested in the North Carolina claim that citizens of Mecklenburg County on May 20, 1775, had adopted resolutions declaring the independence of the colony from Great Britain. In 1875, the centennial year of commemoration of this alleged early declaration of independence, Draper intensified his investigation. After consideration of the reputed May 20 resolutions, of the documented and less drastic resolves of May 31, against the royal government, and of the careers of the participants in these events, Draper concluded that the May 20 declaration was spurious. With unusual alacrity, he drafted his study of the controversy, his data, and his conclusions, and had this manuscript virtually completed in 1876. However, he was never able to find a publisher who could afford to risk an almost certain financial loss on a book of critical scholarly research but of probable low popular sales.
