Mecklenburg Resolves

[1] Similar lists of resolves were issued by other local colonial governments at that time, none of which called for independence from Great Britain.

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.

"[2][3] 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.

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.

[6] Following the 1800 fire, several reported attempts at that time to re-create the text of the burned document added to the confusion and controversy.

This is especially true because some of the "re-created text" now borrowed actual passages from the United States Declaration of Independence.

The text of the supposed declaration was created not only from an attempted reconstruction cobbled together decades after the events of 1775 from the memories of the few surviving signers (including John McKnitt Alexander) but also from the descendants of the May 1775 drafting committee relying on passed-down family lore.

It was then asked how can one account for two very different sets of resolutions supposedly adopted only eleven days apart by the same committee?