At Least 60,000 Turn Out to Celebrate Signing of Mecklenburg Declaration in Charlotte, 1914

"A Big Celebration” from the May 28, 1914, issue of The High Point Review

Parade Most Spectacular Feature As Reviewed By Vice-President—Marshall Wants Honesty—City Thronged With 75,000 People Who Enjoy May 20 Observance With No Mishap

Charlotte—Without unpleasant incident of note and under ideal weather conditions, more than 75,000 people from Charlotte and territory within 100 miles and more took part in the greatest celebration, the anniversary of the signing of the Mecklenburg Declaration.

The dawn found the city streets filled with visitors and regular and special trains from all points in the Piedmont Carolinas added their quota until the city was one solid mass of humanity when the time for the parade arrived.  The size of the crowd has been variously estimated, from the ultra conservative to the other extreme. Some estimates have run as high as 90,000, and  a few as low as 60,000, but according to those familiar with large gatherings, 75,000 appeared to cover the crowd.

It was a larger crowd than was here when President Taft was the guest of honor, and larger than when Vice President Adelai Stevenson was here years ago on a similar occasion. Narrowed down to its final analysis, it was the biggest assemblage of people ever seen in Charlotte. It was also one of the most orderly. There were very few disturbances among the throngs of sufficient importance to demand police attention, and with two or three exceptions here were no accidents and these were not of a serious nature.

The presence and address of Vice President Marshall was alone a feature far beyond the ordinary. The distinguished representative of the United States cultivated and Mrs. Marshall added her amiable charms to the magnificent occasion. The vice president won the hearts of the citizens when he asked for tickets to the baseball game and he occupied a box just behind the catcher’s position. He rooted Charlotte and seemed to greatly enjoy the game. This one incident alone served to show the people of Mecklenburg and adjoining counties that they had the right kind of a man in the important second place in the United States government.

Second only to the presence of the vice president was the magnificent parade which took place between the hours of 11 and 1 o’clock. This was conceded to be the best event of its nature ever witnessed in the state.

From Wikipedia:

The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence is claimed by some to be the first declaration of independence made in the Thirteen Colonies during theAmerican Revolution. It was supposedly signed on May 20, 1775, at Charlotte, North Carolina, by a committee of citizens of Mecklenburg County, who declared independence from Great Britain after hearing of the battle of Lexington. If the story is true, the Mecklenburg Declaration preceded the United States Declaration of Independence by more than a year. The authenticity of the Mecklenburg Declaration has been disputed since it was first published in 1819, forty-four years after it was reputedly written. There is no conclusive evidence to confirm the original document's existence, and no reference to it has been found in extant newspapers from 1775.

The flag of North Carolina bears the date of the Mecklenburg Declaration: May 20, 1775.

Many professional historians have maintained that the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence is an inaccurate rendering of an authentic document known as the Mecklenburg Resolves. The Mecklenburg Resolves were a set of radical resolutions passed on May 31, 1775, that fell short of an actual declaration of independence. Although published in newspapers in 1775, the text of the Mecklenburg Resolves was lost after the American Revolution and not rediscovered until 1838. Historians believe that the Mecklenburg Declaration was written in 1800 in an attempt to recreate the Mecklenburg Resolves from memory. According to this theory, the author of the Mecklenburg Declaration mistakenly believed that the Resolves had been a declaration of independence, and so he recreated the Resolves with language borrowed from the United States Declaration of Independence. Defenders of the Mecklenburg Declaration have argued that both the Mecklenburg Declaration and the Mecklenburg Resolves are authentic.

The early government of North Carolina, convinced that the Mecklenburg Declaration was genuine, maintained that North Carolinians were the first Americans to declare independence from Great Britain. As a result, both the seal and the flag of North Carolina bear the date of the declaration. A holiday commemorating the Mecklenburg Declaration, "Meck Dec Day", is celebrated on May 20 in North Carolina, although it is no longer an official holiday and does not attract the attention that it once did.

To read more, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mecklenburg_Declaration_of_Independence