Newspaper Page Text
1
II HU TELEGRAPH
PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING
AND TWICE A WEEK BY THE
MACON TELEGRAPH PUBLISH
ING COMPANY. 563 MULBERRY
STREET, MACON. GA.
C. R. PENDLETON, President
THE VOICE OF REASON.
Th* editor of The Telegraph ha*
received a private letter from a prom
inent Georgian, one who has held high
official atatlon more than once, and
the oonfldence of a large constituency,
iVhicli ire take the liberty of printing
here to show that there are conserva
tive Democrats left, and that wisdom
has not departed these coasts en
tirely. It Is a -better editorial than we
could writ* at this time. He says:
this mornings’ Telegraph (12th
tart.) I read with great pleasure and
encouragement two sane and timely
editorials, entitled as follows! D—n
Ehrerybodyl* and *1# the Shadow of
Bryan Lifting!’
”1 was Interested In the first, be
cause it referred to measures proposed
under which. If enacted Into laws, I
■will have to live, and which, as a good
citizen, however drastic and unrea
sonable they may be, I will have to
obey. In my humble opinion your sa
tirical comment on these measures Is
most appropriate. These legislative
gyrations would be a bit humorous,
and, Indeed, ridiculous. If there did not
exist a serious probability of their
enactment into law.
"There Is both sense and wholeeome
. sentiment In your timely comment on
the growing disposition In the South
to put forward one of the several
strong Southerners for the Democratic
nomination for President. The cor
respondent of the New York Sun an
nounces a truism, as you say, when
he says that the South furnishes all
the votes In the electoral college, nine-
tenths of the party’s votes In Con
gress and ninety-nine one hundredths
of Its stfbstance and charaoter.
"We’ve been doing this same thing
for nearly forty years.
•'Without making any comparisons,
I think the shattered hosts of Democ
racy would follow Culberson with
mors genuine and patriotic enthusi
asm Chan any man In the party North
or South. I sincerely trust you will
continue In your able editorials to Im
press the wisdom of this initiative.
"Recurring to the frenzied reform
legislation that Is now being rushed
to tho satisfaction of the most ex
treme disciples of tho balnts’ of civic
purity, I am reminded to say to The
TeLgraph that a little newspaper
sanity In the hour of public frenzy and
hysteria is truly a benediction.
"It cannot be understood or appre
ciated by Chose who deliberately shut
their ears to the voice of reason, hut
It will ultimately, if repeated ofton
enough, appeal to that modicum of
common sense that has ever been In
herent In our people. It will not stem
tlio present tide of legislative mad
ness, aroused because of some flagrant
abuses which no doubt should bo cor
rected, but say and do what they will,
sanity and moderation In all things
are the great back-stops against
whloh fanaticism and intolerance will
dash out Its own brains.
“Some recent happenings and de
velopments in Atlanta makes the Im
potent rage of the (news-
A MATTER OF PRINCIPLE MORE
THAN BUSINESS.
A Georgia contemporary discusses
what It is pleased to term "Macon’s
calamity howl,” with reference to the
I prohibition crusade before the General
I Assembly.
! Those who have followed the course
! of The Telegraph under its present
; management, and its editor’s for thirty
| years, know that we have never op-
j posed prohibition In unpollced sec-
i tlons, nor for business reasons In the
larger cities. We have tried to get at
the fundamental principles involved,
fall to follow the modern fashion in
botb'political parties of ascribing to'
Wall Street" every least movement'
In the enemy's camp.
It L true enough, however, that the;
South has lost credit among inde-
•aibitive rates of the Are Insurance
companies.
Wood has been another curse of the
country. It Is almost-a blessing in dis
guise that our forests are well-nigh
devastated by our extravagant ruth-
pendent voters by persisting In Its : lessness, because even to the most ob-
subservience to Northern politicians tuse It must be evident that the use
even at this late day, and. as the Star! of wood is no longer economy. A build-
contends, "under outside leadership, 1 ing of steel frame and hollow fireproof- ^
largely of the New York complexion, .ing tile, or of structural reinforced con-
has appeared to disadvantage in na- ; Crete protected from fire by tile, costs
| tlonal politics, going easily from one : but a fraction over 10 per cent more in
issue to another and back again, ap- ; first cost than does the usual frame of
| parently with no higher ,object In view wood with wooden joists, and studs.
!.4n
and we never could find warrant for than mere success at the polls.” It Is
absolute prohibition in Scripture or | true enou ° h our political leaders
reason. We have always condemned I need t0 th!nk more about 80und P rin *
the abuses of the traffic, and the cl P ,es and lcss about the wlsbes of
abuses of the drink. We have always Tan >many Hall
paper) against State prohibition truly
pathetic.
"No newspaper in Georgia, or any
where else, ever laid ltB hand more
willingly or vigorously to the wheel
of "reform,’ or did more to stir up
prejudice and passion without reason
than did this paper. It stirred up
these currents and fanned them Into
tortuous motion and It Is now reaping
the whirlwind thereof, and Is utterly
powerless to stem the onward sweep
of lta course."
STILL OUT WITH THE TOMA
HAWK.
Haitchet-wleldlng Carrie Nation may
he described as a faded fad, but she
■till succeeds In attracting attention
now and then. In York, Pa., the other
day, -wrought up at sight of a crowd
of boys and young men In the street
most of whom were smoking, she
swooped down upon them and began
to lecture (them In an accusing man
ner.
By way of defending himself and
tols fellows, one of the boys shouted:
"Teddy smokes!" "Whereupon Mrs.
Nation cried: "Yes, and his daughter,
Alice Longworth, uses cigarettes.
What do you think of your President,
who has a daughter who smokes ci
garettes, and a son who is training to
he a prise fighter?"
The street boys of York did not say
what they thought of the persons
named, but showed what they thought
of Mra Nation by throwing cigar and
cigarette stamps at her. One of the
latter that was burning set fire to her
▼ell and she narrowly missed Injury.
The hoodlum boys of York should
have been summarily dealt with, but
Mrs. Nation received no mors than a
howling fanatic who goes out to re
form the world with a tomahawk must
expect
We can see no valid objection to
the military men following Sherman’s
march to the sea. There will be no
necessity of locking np things on this j
•coastan, or danger of fires and ouch
believed, and we still believe, that Reg
ulation of the traffic, and the punish
ment of the excessive drinker, were
the true correctives to apply.
But men can adapt themselves to
almost any condition sooner or later,
and If State prohibition comes, wheth
er Macon and Bibb County want It or
not, this city will find a way to meet
the new conditions and she will go on
to prosper.
The Central City stood the crash of
four years of Civil War, she stood her
greatest single loss in the collapse of
the Macon Construction Company, she
weathered the panics of the ’70s and
It is likely.that we shall have to do
good many things as yet undone
The life of such framing is infinitely
longer than the old wood affair, the
cost of maintenance is less, so Is the
insurance rate, and, all in all, in a very
few years’ time, good construction not
only means safety, but an actual econ
omy. The enclosing of stairways and
before we shall either fully assert our elevator-wells, the protection of win-
independence or succeed in placing a j dows and sky-lights with wired-glass,
man of Southern birth In the White j the making of a ‘building fireproof in
House. I d^kign costs nothing more in money
, I than the cheap fire-traps, but is merely
the expenditure of a'little intelligence
THE GREAT RED PLAGUE.
The country has grown to the point
where everything about It is big; its
commerce, its products, yes, even its
crimes are colossal. Presumably to
keep things harmonic we permit our
fire waste, our national ash heap, to
be also mammoth, incidentally losing
the 90s, she stood tho Jar of several | sight of the fact, however, that It Is,
bank failures, and today she is ex- j at the idiotic, our burnt of
ferings, our national ash-pile, could
well be called a tribute to the "merci
less stupidity of the most enlightened
nation on earth!” .
perienclng her greatest prosperity. It
Is true that in addition to these afflic
tions prohibition will cost her a good
deal of money, but Macon will sur,
vive. She Is In the heart of Georgia
and she cannot be destroyed without
the destruction of the State.
Public sentiment taken as a whole
in Georgia Is against the saloon, but
tho "reformers” now In power do not
propose to stop at the saloon. They will
cut it all out, even to domestic wines
and wine for the holiest of church
rites. To be consistent with their pro-
The strange thing about it all is that
so much Is said In the daily and peri
odic press about life Insurance abuses,
the plccadilloes or more serious of
fenses of State and municipal grafters
and all that sort of thing, indeed a
wave of reform has made Itself felt the
country over, but so far little or noth
ing has been done to reform one of the
greatest abuses, the costliest and most
hlbltlon sentiments many leading | murderous of municipal Ills from which
churchmen have convinced themselves
that unfermented grape juice Is a suf
ficient substitute.
If it must come In the absolute
form It will be better for the Legisla
ture (though less democratic) to put it
through, and save the annoyance of
a State election.
THE SOUTH AND THE PRESI
DENCY.
Discussing the lack of proper recog
nition of the South in national poli
tics and representation on its Presi
dential ticket, the Richmond Tlmes-
Dlspatcb recalls the provision of the
Constitution that "no person except a
natural-born citizen, or a citizen of
the United States . . shall be eli
gible to the office of President,” and
observes: "The unwritten law pro
vides that no person except a citizen
born In a State' which has never se
ceded shall be eligible to the office Of
President. In order to bring the mat
ter to a test we propose that the un
written law b’e enacted and made a
part of the Constitution. It Is always
best to be frank. If Southern men are
ineligible in fact to the office of Pres
ident they should be Ineligible in
law.”
Commenting, the Washington Star
declares this is “too lugubrious a view
of the matter,” and adds:
The South Is herself responsi
ble for the figure she has cut In
presidential calculations these
Thirrv years prist. She has kept
in the background, and . played
second fiddle to some very com
monplace Northern politicians.
She has assumed that the prize
was not for her, and that her only
part was to help secure It for a
man of Northern birth and resi
dence. The place she occupies to
day, therefore, is practically of her
own choosing.
It is easy for a Republican news
paper to dismiss the matter in this
glib fashion, but the editor of the
Washington Star Is well aware that
the stump speakers of his party , from
one end of the North to the other
would have burled "secession” and
"treason” and "traitor” and “the
Confederacy in the saddle” at any
Southern candidate for President
we suffer—Fire. True, millions are
on the part of the architects.
Millions are spent yearly in handling
this plague, but only hundreds are
doled out in steps to prevent its out
break.
Looked at fairly, says the American
Architect, the leading architectural
Journal of the country, it is the com-
J munity at large that is the culprit,
since it "suffers” fires to take place,
when It really has the power to pre
vent them. It looks calmly on at the
expenditure of millions annually, mil
lions that come out of Us own pockets,
for the maintenance of Imperfectly
effective fire departments, and yet, U
but-half of the money spent in this way
had been used in the difference In cost
between combustible and Incombustible
construction, the greater part of our
cities would now be indestructible.
It has 'been the assumption that a
real estate improver, as a sane busi
ness man, should be able to perceive
how much it was to his own ultimate
advantage to build an Indestructible
building. The true theory is that In
spent in actually fighting fire, but a combustible buildings must be built.
minute’s thought is sufficient to con
vince any one that an attempt at cure
Is futile. Preventive measures can be
the only solution of the matter.
A normal year’s losses (and, by the
way, there are mighty few normal
years, what with Baltimore In 1904 and
San Francisco In 1906) mean $200,000,-
000 In smoke. At least another $150,-
000,000 is spent in fire protection, fire
departments, high pressure water
plants, etc., beyond which we expend
another $196,000,000 In attempting to
get some solace via -the fire Insurance
route. The sum of those figures repre
sents our annual normal cost of fire.
In 1905 a phenomenally prosperous and
busy year in building, we did In actual
construction and repairs of buildings,
$525,000,000. What think you of a na
tion that wastes as much as It prd-
duces? We burn up more property
than a half-dozen first-class nations
put together. Just fire, eliminating in
surance, protection and everything else,
merely smoke, costs us over $2.00 per
capita a year; the average of all Eu
rope is less than $0.33 per capita!
Incidentally we have destroyed over
6,000 human lives by fire In one year’s
time.
But all this is a normal year’s record.
See what we did in 1906. At no time
or place on earth has there been so
much building done. We passed the
$600,000,000 mark in construction that
year, but what with San Francisco and
our “regular fires,” we also destroyed
over $500,000,000 worth of property!
The cost of our alleged fire protection
has also Increased and we have gam
bled with the insurance companies in
still heavier amounts than usual, so
that our total expenditure for fire must
be away In excess of $700,000,000*. It
indeed Is a cancer eating at the very
vitals of our economic structure, a de
vastating plague. The apotheosis of
folly!
Few people realize the degree In
which gambling penetrates the busi
ness fabric. We see the work of the
gambling-bug but accept It as a mat
ter of course. Rather than build
It is really Immaterial to the taxpayer
whether an individual elects to let his
building be destroyed by fire, but It Is
of very real interest to the public that
the lives and property of other people
shall not he jeopardized and destroyed
at the same time. It is desirable to
substitute unburnable for burnable
buildings with the shortest delay possi
ble, since a conflagration may occur
any day, and the process can he better
acconiplished by coaxing than by com
pulsion.
The one thing for our municipalities
to do Is to arrange the taxation of
property In accordance with the lat
ter’s permanency and indestructibility.
A fixed rate on ground values and a
sliding rate on buildings, tho minimum
on fireproof buildings and the maxi
mum on fire-traps would be perfectly
equitable to.all. It would put the bur
den of paying for the maintenance of
fire departments upon those who needed
the service, and would mean a lessened
load of tax on those who are public-
spirited as well as business-like enough
to build so as not to require such ser
vice. It is the one sane municipal so
lution of the problem, the one way of
extracting ourselves from under the
yoke of the insurance companies; the
surest means of stopping the ravages
of the Great Red Plague—Fire.
New Jersey gets $2,706,284 this year
in taxes levied on Industrial corpora
tions organized In that State "but
mostly preying outside of It." This
snug sum, the Philadelphia Record
thinks, is "small In proportion to the
rights given to the octopl; for in
stance,, the privilege of writing any
thing they choose into their char
ters, which Interlineations, according
to the most authoriitatlve expounder
of the law, have the same force as a
special act of legislation.” The way
the scheme works out is responsible
for the unenviable distinction attained
by New Jersey of being described as
“the traitor State.”
for any one to talk glibly of "these
thirty years past" is to be palpably in
sincere.
The Star goes on to say:
Is up to Secretary Taft to get a hustle
on and show that he can do something
besides sit on the lid.
Now that Vice-President Fairbanks
thirty years, twenty years, or even ten [ little better and thus avoid fire, we (e , a * dr ° Tvn * n £ ^
years ago, and that the Democratic have built, to use a mild term, “rot-
leaders had good reason to fear the j tenly,” but have sought "protection”
results of assault that would have j from the gentlemen who, 'banded to-
been as inevitable as outrageous. After ] gether in that legitimate spoliation un-
the Spanish-American war a marked der the name of fire insurance, have
change of attitude gradually made It- ' graciously condescende4 to sit in the
self felt in the North, and now it Is j game with us and rake in our shekles.
possible to speak seriously of choos- l We paid them In premiums since 1860,
ing a candidate from the South, but i $3,622,000,000, or, Just in the past ten
The "Washington Post asks: "Do
brutes reason?” We cannot say ais to
that, but we know that some men do.
A
X
Congress at Philadelphia and gave the
history of his trip.
But all thes-j things went for naught
with those who had apparently made
up their minds that nothing great or
good could come out of this obscure
i outpost on the frontier of civilization
i in North Carolina. There was no con-
n , , I; temporary record extant, or known to
ArffflfTtPm* fiPnlVIIKF? be extant, at this time to show that
ltw|/IJ £ : anything had been done and the whole
j I story was consequently discredited
To Critics ±iwlth them -
■i-i-'.-t m i -i- i-h m-h-i-h-i-M'
MECKLENBURfi j
DECLARATION 5
By James H. Moore.
11 In 1825, fifty years after the event,
■4* | veterans of the Revolution who were
j contemporaries of the
met in Charlotte and celebrated the
rodiv as thev were then, is one of the
most* conclusive and indisputable evi
dences of the high and intellgcnt
character of these early settlers, j e
fragments of ute r? h tU Se charac er o' fl
are in keeping " ,lh '^ v c ™
their architecture. They &mstnic.\ei
a state paper as they built a hot •
Their stone houses have the ■ .«n o
the square and compass chisel**. mu
the keystones, and theic political pa-
pers are constructed along tne
of economic logic and reason.
In another column of The Telegraph j day, but the controversy still raged,
today will ’be found a review of Mr. j however, and in 1830-31 sons who had
William Henry Hoyt’s “Mecklenburg j heard their fathers speak of the De-
Declaration of Independence.” ’It is claratlon took the question up, the
stated to be ”as able a brief for the J State, ^g>slature investjgated_it, oh
case against the Declaration as can be |
made,” and that “it is confessedly writ- |
ten as an argument, not a a an histori
cal narrative.” The object of the
writer of this article is likewise to
make “an argument” and not to write
“an historical narrative.” He purposes
to establish the .proposition that for all
essential historical purposes the known
and undisputed facts of this contro
versy demonstrate that the Mecklen-
burgers did on May 20, 1775. promul
gate the’"r Declaration of Independence.
The writer, unlike Mr. Hoyt, has not
before him the historical documents
and data from which he will argue, but
for these will appeal in the main to
memory, having been familiar with the
subject in years past. There will not
arise, however, any important issue as
to the facts, as those presented in Mr.
Hoyt’s very able and interesting work
will be accepted as the basis for the
argument, and nothing will be offered,
as far as can now be, anticipated, to
controvert any fact of a positive char
acter that he advances.
At the very threshold of the argu
ment the friends of the Declaration
have to complain of its critics for the
determined purpose rtianifested to
slight off and disregard the human doc
uments and witnesses in this case,
whenever it is necessary to do so, in
support of their theory that there was
only one paper, promulgated in Meck
lenburg in May, 1775, and that is the
Resolves of the 31st of May. A11 his
tory is not founded on written and
printed records. If it was the people
who neglected to record and publish
their doings verbatim at the moment
would necessarily be and forever re
main without a history. History is
largely a matter of surprises. Events
transpire unexpectedly and the pen of
the Muse is not always poised to record
the facts at the moment. When Pat
rick Henry electrified the Virginia con
vention in old St. John’s Church in
Richmond with his famous "Give me
liberty or give me death’’ speech warn
ing the colonies to prepare for the
coming conflict, there was no short
hand reporter present to take down the
words as, they fell from his lips. It
was not until many years after that
the brilliant William Wirt going among
and interviewing many of the aged
Virginians whose privilege it was to
have been present on that historic oc
casion, gathered from first one and
then another the recollections of each
as to the words and sentiments of the
“forest born Demosthenes” and. piec
ing them together, constructed and
gave to the world this unequalled spec
imen of patriotic oratory. Today Pat
rick Henry's speech as resurrected and
reconstructed by Wirt Is a part of his
tory and finds a prominent place in
every schoolboy's 'book of oratory in
the land. The illustration is not iso
lated. It could be multiplied indefi
nitely. The truth is that a considera
ble portion of history is constructed
from the recollections of men, fre
quently from mere tradition.
tained the testimony of many wit
nesses and solemnly recorded the
truth of the event, but the doubters
continued to doubt and disparage the
matter, and thus stood the original
phase of It until after the contempo
rary actors and witnesses had all
passed from the stage of affairs.
History at last began to arouse
from her sleep. The records of the
Revolution began to 'be investigated
and rescued from the dust and rub
bish of time. Official archives were
explored. Dr. Francis Hawkes lighted
upon a manuscript copy of a procla
nation by Governor Josiah Martin,
the royal Governor of North Carolina
in the Revolution period, dated Au
gust S, 1775, in which he stigmatized
as a "most infamous publication” the
"resolves of a set of people stiling
themselves a committee for the county
of Mecklenburg, most traitorously de
claring the entire dissolution of the
laws, Government and Constitution of
this country, and setting up a system
of rule and regulation repugnant,
the. laws and subversive of his majes
ty's Government.” In the British
archives later was found a dispatch
from Governor Martin to the Earl of
Dartmouth, secretary for the colonies,
dated June 30. 1775, in which he said:
"The resolves of the committee of
Mecklenburg which your lordship will
find In. the enclosed newspaper sur
pass all the horrid and treasonable
publications that the inflammatory
spirits of the continent have yet pro
duced. and your lordship may depend
its authors and abettors will not
escape when my hands are sufficiently
strengthened to attempt the recovery
of the lost authority of Government.
A copy of the resolves was sent off,
I am Informed, by express to the Con
gress at Philadelphia as soon as they
were passed 'by the committee.”
But to return to the dusty record
and researches of the antiquarian.
_ , . The discoveries did not stop
Declaration, ^jj 0Se that have been mentioned.
contrary, in several different cuar er
printed copies of a document w
must have proved a godsend to tnpae
who disputed the authenticity of tne
Declaration, as it has ever since con
stituted the only argument they na\e
left with which to confront and con
tradict the statement of John McKnitt
Alexander. The May 31st Hc s 2*Tf®"
without prologue ■ or explanation,
signed simply 'by Abraham Alexander,
chairman. and Ephraim
clerk, were found printed and filed
contemporaneously in various papers
and pigeon-holes. This is the docu
ment. say the objectors, to which v
everything that was done in Meck
lenburg in May. 1775, refers. Only
one paper was adopted and this Is tiie
paper. It is true it suspends his maj
esty’s Government and formulates a
system of Government by the people
of the colony themselves, but it is not
the absolute Declaration of Independ
ence attested by John McKnitt Alex
ander and the “entire dissolution of
the laws.” etc., as described by Gov
ernor Martin. By this proposition the
objectors unqualifiedly bind them
selves.
Here, then, was John McKnitt Alex
ander, a leading actor In the event con
cerning which ho left his written tes
timony to posterity. "John McKnitt
Alexander’s statement In this matter
is the keystone on which rests the fab
ric of May 20. 1775" said Col. Paul B.
Means, one of the earliest and ablest
objectors to the Declaration, in his let
ter to the Concord Register In 1S79.
Let us accept this as true and try
this issue as opposing advocates would
try a legal controversy arising out of
mixed positive and circumstantial evi
dence in the court house. John Mc
Knitt Alexander stands before us In
dicted by the critics of the Declaration
for false swearing and forgery. Under
tho rules the presumption of innocence
would attach to him until guilt is
proven. "We wish to waive this ad
vantage. "We wish to strip him of any
and all technicalities that would take
in the slightest from the moral value
of the verdict. Let the legal presump-
tion be thrown In the scale against
him. Let us examine his testimony
and the related facts that go to cor
roborate or refute it with the reserva
tion and suspicion that attach to the
witness in interest or one whose testi
mony for any other reason may be
considered Impeached, only premising
that there was an absence of any per
sonal motive for falsifying. "When
witness who rests under suspicion
comes into court and testifies, we will
say, to the commission of a murder, a
search is first made for what the law
yers call the corpus delicti, and this
being found, the contemporary circum
stances, environments and physical co-
incidents are examined Into and if
such evidences corroborate the story
of the witness in chief. It Is accepted
in law as substantiating the witness'
testimony. It Is the highest and com
pletest moral as well as legal proof of
a question In dispute which can be of
fered to the human mind.
Just now there is a good deal of
talk about nomina’lng a Couthern
man for President. But It is not
sincere. It has Its origin in the
quarter which has long received
the South’s favors In national con-
x'entions, and is expecting more
of them. AH the South is really
asked to do is to wtlhdraw her
preference for Bryan, and leave it
to the men who have for long been
naming the candidate to name the
man for next year. Wall street
does hot want a Southern man in
the White House, and would not
aid in an earnest effort to put one
there. Sudh a man as Judge Gray,
or Mr. Daniel, or Mr. Culberson
could not be pulled and hauled in
office to answer Wall street’s pur
poses.
years, $1,610,885,000. In 1905 we car
ried Into the "house” over $196,000,000
in premiums and got back In salve for
our losses a trifle over $95,000,000. See
' how far that solace goes. Take San
Francisco as an example: over $300,-
000,000 went up In smoke there. The
) loss in business to the city and to the
I country generally as a result of that
i fire very nearly reached $1,000,000,000;
lit is costing fully $12,000,000 to clear I
Thursday’s Augusta Herald carries
a photograph of Evelyn Nesblt Thaw.
Is It time for that episode to come on
again?
American Cotton Supremacy.
An appropriation of $12,000,000 by
the German government—on condition
that German maufacturers raise a
larger sum—to encourage cotton
growing in the colonies of the Father-
land, has called attention anew to the
supremacy of America in the produc-
I tlon of this great staple. In average
years the fields of the United States
! awaj the debris and $350,000,000, at, pro duce more than three-quarters of
j least, and twenty years’ time will be I the cotton crop of the world. We
j expended to repair the damage. Mean- I hold our own, although, since our Civil
while the insurance companies have I vrar, many and costly attempts have
_ j .i, i been made in various parts of Asia
figured their losses and find that they .... . 7.. *.
_ , „ , and Africa to compete with our cotton
—- wP-xxM-^siMnoonnn «™«^» gIOW|nc states . Today Texas alone
owe San Francisco $132,000,000. Surely |
it was a most unprofitable game for
San Francisco.
Yet the Insurance companies wrote a
Again, It is both easy and agreeable! very low rate on San Francisco be-
for a Republican organ to see nothing cause, forsooth, of Its excellent fire de
but an anti-Bryan impulse of ’‘Wall j partment Peeople gauged the require-
Street” In the friendly utterances of j ments of construction thereby and built
certain New York newspapers. The! Just as shoddily as insurance regula-
Star, In common, with other Republi- tlons would permit. They and the peo-
casi organs, would prefer to see Bryan j pie of the country at large have vlrtu-
maintsln his ascendancy in the Dem- ally been seduced Into combustible,
ocratlc party, knowing that another i shoddy construction of buildings under
^•feat awaits him, and it dees not J false pretenses made by the non-pro-
produces nearly as much as all non-
American countries combined. During
the year ending September 1, 1906, our
cotton orop aggregated 11,319,860 bales,
of which 6 716.351 bales were export
ed to Europe. During the same period
the Bast Indies, .Egypt and the rest
of the world produced 2.562,000 bales.
The production of Russia Is Increas
ing rapidly. According to Baron
Kaneko, three-quarters of all the raw
cotton used in the mikado’s empire
comes from this country. The fact
underlying the whole situation is that
the world’s demand for cotton Is ex
panding far more rapidly than the
world’s supply.!—American Monthly
Review of Reviews,
On September 3. 1800, John McKnitt
Alexander wrote down and certified to
the best of his recollection a copy of
the "Declaration of Independence adopt,
ed and promulgated at a convention
of the people of Mecklenburg .held on
May 20. 1775. Mr. Alexander claimed
to be the clerk or secretary of the con
vention and as such he was the custo
dian of the papers. On April 6 pre
vious Mr. Alexander’s home had been
destroyed by fire and "all those rec
ords and papers,” he wrote, "had been
burned with the house.” In 1817 Mr.
Alexander died and on April 13. 1819,
his son. Joe McKnitt,, published in the
Raleigh, N. C.. Register an article giv
ing an account of the proceedings of
the Mecklenburg convention of May 19
and 20, • 1775, Included in which was
what is known as the Davie copy of
the May 20 Declaration, and appended
to which was his certificate that "the
foregoing is a true copy of the papers
on the above subject left In my hands
by John McKnitt Alexander, dec’d.” .
The date of the printed announce
ment of the event may be said to be
the date of the beginning of the con
troversy about the Declaration. It was
denied in toto. Mr. Jefferson regarded
it Is “an unjustifiable quiz” and de
nounced it as "spurious” when Mr. Ad
ams called his attention to it. He did
not even know where Mecklenburg was
located. In the great man’s view of It,
John McKnitt Alexander had fabri
cated the entire story and It was a He
out of the whole cloth.
To offset this the testimony of esti
mable citizens who had been eye-wit
nesses of the proceedings was then
obtained in the form of affidavits;
their story of the two-day convention
was told with accompanying details;
the arguments of speakers were re
called in some instances: the adoption
of the paper and the reading of it to the
assembled citizens and their ratifies
tion of it with huzzas; Capt Jack told
how he was engaged as express to
carry the paper to th# Continental
Consider for a moment the over
whelming nature of these discoveries
and of this juncture to those who dis
puted the Declaration. John' McKnitt
Alexander had privately but promptly
and conscientiously recorded from
memory his recollection of the pro
ceedings of the 20th of May, 1775, and
of the paper adopted. He died and
for a decade or more his bones had
mouldered in the dust. Disputants
had risen up and given the He to his
story and there had been nothing but
bis word and the words of his humble
neighbors to oppose the obloquy. And
here at this late day the royal Gov
ernor of North Carolina, without pos
sible collusion with him or with them,
had arisen from his grave to testify
that prior to June, 1775. the people of
Mecklenburg had "most traitorously”
.declared “the entire dissolution of the
laws, Government and Constitution of
this country,” and that he proposed to
punish them accordingly when he re
covered “the lost authority of Gov
ernment.”
Thomas Jefferson had not heard of
the Mecklenburg Declaration of Inde
pendence. He confessed he was ig
norant of the precise locality of Meek
lenburg. But Josiah Martin had heard
of it and of the people. Ho was tho
Governor of North Carolina and had
reason to know of these rebellious spir
its and of their doings. He reported it to
Dartmouth In June and he was still
issuing proclamations about it in Au
gust. It is true Capt. Jack had car
ried the proceedings of the Mecklen
burg convention to tho Congress at
Philadelphia. Capt. Jack had testified
to the fact himself and now, more
than half a century later. Governor
Martin rose up to say that “the re
solves were sent off by express to the
Congress at Philadelphia as soon as
they were passed in the committee."
Thomas Jefferson had never heard of
the matter because at the time Capt.
Jack arrived in Philadelphia with the
proceedings of the Mecklenburg con
vention Jefferson and his colleagues
were trving to patch up some compro
mise with the mother country. Capt.
Jack’s tidings struck such of them
as they were brought to the attention
of as so much dynamite. They were
suppressed and smothered by the
North Carolina delegates evidently
without being brought formally to the
attention" of the Congress at all. John
Adams somewhat flamboyantly de
clared in his letter to Jefferson that
with this delaration in his possession
at the time he would have made "the
country ring.” But the contrary is
the truth. The Mecklenburgers were
premature and they suffered the usual
fate of prematurity. They were in
advance of the times. It was inevita
ble they should be In advance of the
times. They were Scotch-Irish Pres
byterians "whose training and heredity
put them In advance of their fellows.
They were members of a church that
had always disavowed passive obe
dience. They were North of Ireland
Protestants who never had subscribed
to the “divine right” of kings. They
were a people schooled in the love of
liberty and of the continuing contest
with tyranny. A people who twice in
a century had been dispossessed of
their homes. An adventurous people
who had sought the furthest confines
of civilization in their determination
to get away from kings and their tyr
anny. A people whoso local history
shows that they always ran to meet
any Invasion of their rights and lib
erties half way, not for the purpose
of boasting and vainglory, for, with
the exception of John McKnitt Alex
ander’s modest private record of what
they did in 1775. they never took the
trouble to record anything. Not that
thev were not a liberate people. The
fragments that have come down show
that they were erudite in the science
of Government. They were learned
and progressive In church history.
They took advanced ground even for
Presbyterians. "Where they pitched
their tents the erection and establish
ment of their church was the!r .first
care. Their pastor, Alexander Craig
head, under whose teaching they sat.
was of the same type. His ardent
love of .personal liberty and freedom
of opinion, as expressed in a political
pamphlet as far back as 1743. had
made him obnoxious to the colonial
Governor of Pennsylvania and led to
both himself and h*s pamphlet being
disavowed by the Philadelphia Synod.
There is no record of the fact but 1t
Is not extravagant to fancy that these
Scotch-Irish immigrants, who came to
Mecklenburg from Pennsylvania, fol
lowed their pastor and set up their
tabernacle where they could exercise
the utmost freedom of conscience.
How Inevitable then that they should
be 1n advance of the "Virginia colo
nists, trained and habituated as these
were to the doctrines of the Estab
lished Church! Not only were they
lettered people, they were skilled arti
sans. Where the average immigrant
built a log hut for his family some of
these built their homos of stone and in
most massive and finished type of
architecture. The rock houses of
Mecklenburg County built before the
Revolution, but Intact and habitable,
}
What Is the result then? In spite
of the witnesses who have risen up
from the grave to corroborate his
modest patriotic record, John Mc
Knitt Alexander is still branded a liar.
There is no less virile word for it.
There is no room rfor the hypothesis-’
of a mistake. He could not have been
mistaken. He puts himself forward
as the clerk or secretary of the Mock;
lenburg convention that adopted the
Declaration to which he testifies.
Ephraim Brevard signs the Resolves
of May 31st as clerk of the committee
that authorized them. Was Alexan
der the clerk of the convention he re
fers to? Was a paper of the import
he left to the world adopted? Tf such
were not the facts Alexander is neces
sarily a liar, and what adequate mo
tive could he have had in putting a
lie on record? How w.auld lie have
dared present Gen. Davie with the
copy of a spurious declaration? Did
he 'have any official papers In his
house relating to the Mecklenburg
convention? If he did he must have
been the clerk and the custodian.
They were not the May 31st Resolves
because Ephrhim Brevard’s name was
signed to them as clerk of the com
mittee. It was the most likely thing
in the world that John McKnitt Alex
ander was the secretary of the public
meeting of the Mecklenburgers. The
evidences extant of his penmanship in
the Mecklenburg court records estab
lish the fact that he was rarely ac
complished as it penman. He wrote
a fine legible almost copy plate and
somewhat feminine hand that "marks
•him as the man who would be picked
out in any community for just such
an office as he professes to have per
formed.
{
4
•But the proposition that the May
31 Resolves must stand alone as tho
only document promulgated and
adopted by the Mecklenburgers in
1775, if they were adopted, refutes
itself on Its face. The May 31st Re
solves is an elaborate and finished pa
per in itself which required repeated
meetings and much discussion for its
perfecting. It bears the evidence of
having been carefully prepared and
formulated. The very fact" that it
reached and was printed in various
newspapers at a distance proves that
copies of it had been prepared in
advance. To indulge a little in the- ,<£
ory, as the opponents of the Declara
tion so constantly do, the May 31st,
Resolves were doubtless the result of
one or more public meetings and dis
cussions. Possibly they were before
the convention for discussion on the
19th and 20th of May when, as tradi
tion has it, a runner arrived with the
intelligence of the bloodshed at Lex
ington, Mass., April 19, 1775. We know
by the ■ record that the couriers did
pass through North Carolina with
this startling Intelligence somewhere
about this date. Let us suppose this
information being suddenly pro
claimed in the convention. It is rea
sonable to see that the convention
would be swept off its feet; the care
fully prepared and weighed compro
mise resolutions would be put aside
arid resolutions of a more ringing
character like the Declaration, which
refers to the Lexington bloodshed,
would be brought forward and acted
on. If the May 31st Resolves consti
tute the only genuine paper, why is it
that no mention is made therein of
the Lexington incident? It is impos
sible to conceive that a popular mass
meeting, discussing the state of the
country at this particular juncture,
should have omitted to refer in its
proceedings to the initial conflict of
the Revolution. But the sudden and
impromptu Declaration, adopted in its
rough draft, without time being had
to prepare copies, would never reach
newspapers at a distance, while the
prepared copies of the Resolves would
in ail likelihood be sent . abroad,
whether adopted or not. But being
sent abroad in this shape there is one
significant omission that tells against
their authenticity as the principal pa
per adopted by the convention. The
convention. It is conceded by all, or
dered the paper adopted to be con
veyed to Philadelphia and laid before
the Continental Congress. Capt. .Tack
was engaged to carry the proceeding.?
to Philadelphia in accordhnce with ■' /
such instructions and did do so. But
where in the May 31st Resolves is this
instruction referred to? There was
nothing hurried or incomplete about
this paper. The order of the conven
tion in question was an essential part
of the proceedings of the convention.
Why was it not included In the paper
as printed? The conclusion Is forced-
that some other paper was ordered to
be submitted to Congress from the
Mecklenburg convention and sent on j
In accordance therewith. • ^
4
This article has outgrown the ordi
nary newspaper limits. Much should
be said that must be left unsaid. The.
early settlers of Mecklenburg were an
active people. They helped to make
history at every opportunity, but they
failed to write It ever. John McKnitt
Alexander did. it is true, make a rec
ord of the Mecklenburg Declaration
after the original papers were burned,
but the only purpose manifest in hi?
method of doing it was to perform a
sacred duty and not for public noto
riety. He restored the cremated pa
pers as he remembered them, and hav
ing apparently satisfied his conscience,
let the matter rest. That ihe gave a
copy of this Declaration to Gen. Wil
liam Richardson Davie, the distin
guished soldier and diplomat, who
though not a resident of Mecklenburg,
was a life-long near neighbor, and the
leader, familiar and confidante of the
Mecklenburg people, show? that Alex
ander bad confidence : n the substan
tial accuracy and rectitude of the.pa
per. William R. Davie in 1775 fivt-j*
near the Catawba river Just over theV
li: e from Mecklenburg In South Car
olina. At that time he was 19 years
old and a student at Princeton, where
he graduated in 1776. He subse
quently studied law in Rowan County,.
North Carolina, adjoining MeckJen-