Summary Information
Draper Manuscripts: The Mecklenburg Declaration
1876
- Draper, Lyman Copeland, 1815-1891
Draper Mss FF
0.6 cubic feet (3 volumes)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
An unpublished manuscript by Lyman Draper entitled “The Mecklenburg Declaration: Its Origin, History, and Actors,” which is about the North Carolina claim that the citizens of Mecklenburg County, on May 20, 1775, had adopted resolutions declaring the independence of the colony from Great Britain. This draft originated from his study of the controversy and his conclusion that the May 20 declaration was spurious. Also included within the manuscript are biographies of the delegates, certifiers, and other participants of the event; appendices include Draper's introductions and annotations of the text of papers which support his claims.
Descriptions of the volumes are copied from the Guide to the Draper Manuscripts / by Josephine Harper. Out of date and offensive language may be present. This collection is also available as a microfilm publication. Forms part of the Lyman Copeland Draper Manuscripts. The fifty series included in the Draper Manuscripts have been cataloged individually. See the Draper Manuscripts Overview, and the Guide to the Draper Manuscripts / by Josephine Harper (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1983) for further information. There is a restriction on use to this material; see the Administrative/Restriction
Information portion of this finding aid for details.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-draper0ff ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
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.
Related Material
Draper Mss GG: Mecklenburg Declaration Papers, 1775-1887, and Draper Mss HH: The Mecklenburg Declaration Miscellanies, 1819-1895.
Administrative/Restriction Information
PHOTOCOPY RESTRICTION: Photocopying originals is not permitted; researchers may copy from the microfilm available in the Library.
Contents List
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Draper Mss FF
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Series: 1 FF (Volume 1)
: Chapters 1-11, covering the following topics: origin of the controversy; consideration and analysis of the alleged declaration; the discovery, proof, and dating of the genuine Mecklenburg resolutions of May 31, 1775; Captain James Jack's mission to Philadelphia; errors and perversions of the facts exposed and corrected.
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Series: 2 FF (Volume 2)
: Chapters 12-23, including discussion of evidence disproving the validity of the May 20 resolves; lists of delegates; and biographical sketches of delegates, certifiers, and others involved in the events (listed in the order of their consideration by Draper in this volume): Thomas Polk, Abraham Alexander, Ephraim Brevard, Adam Alexander, John Phifer, Robert Irwin, John McKnitt Alexander, H.J. Balch, Hezekiah Alexander, Benjamin Patton, Zaccheus Wilson, Neill Morrison, Richard Barry, John Flenniken, William Graham, Matthew McClure, John Queary, Ezra Alexander, Waightstill Avery, William Kennon, James Harris, David Reese, Henry Downs, John Foard, Charles Alexander, Robert Harris, Sr., John Davidson, Ezekiel Polk, Samuel Martin, William Wilson, Duncan Ochiltree, James Jack, John Simeson, Sr., Francis Cummins, Joseph Graham, William Hutchison, Jonas Clark, Robert Robinson, Humphrey Hunter, Isaac Alexander, William Polk, and William Lee Davidson.
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Series: 3 FF (Volume 3)
: Chapters 24 and 25, containing biographical sketches of Hugh Waddell and Griffith Rutherford, and appendices 1-8. The first appendix contains a descriptive list of writings in manuscript and published form, 1819-1876, about the Mecklenburg Declaration. In the remaining seven appendices, Draper included with his introductions and annotations the texts of papers he considered most significant as evidence: the pamphlet (1831) published by the state of North Carolina, with related documents; the resolutions of May 31, 1775; a comparison of three variant published versions of the May 20 resolves by William R. Davie (called by Draper the McKnitt-Davie copy), by Francois-Xavier Martin (called the Martin copy), and by Alexander Garden (called the Garden copy); the proposed instructions to Mecklenburg County delegates, dated September 1, 1776; and Charles Phillips's article in the North Carolina University Magazine of May, 1853. Also included are Peter Force's letter to John Vaughan, dated December 11, 1841; David L. Swain's letters to historians George Bancroft (1858), Benson J. Lossing (1851), and Henry S. Randall (1858), preceded by a biographical account of Swain's life and character by Draper. In preparation of several of the appendices Draper was aided by a copyist, but all of the sections bear Draper's notations.
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