instrument despatched to Congress. The same authority states that he
was in Philadelphia in the latter part of the year 1778, and until May
of the year 1779. During that time, William Sharp. Esq., of Rowan
county, arrived in Philadelphia, as a Delegate to Congress from North
Carolina. Amidst a variety of topics introduced for discussion was
that of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. Hon. John Penn,
of North Carolina, said in presence of several members of Congress,
that he was "highly pleased with the bold and distinguished spirit
with which so enlightened a county of the State he had the honor to
represent had _exhibited to the world_, and, furthermore, that the
bearer of the instrument to Congress had conducted himself very
judiciously on the occasion by previously opening his business to the
Delegates of his own State, who assured him that the other States
would soon act in the same patriotic manner as Mecklenburg had done."

This important and additional testimony, here slightly condensed, but
facts not changed, is extracted from a communication in the _Southern
Home_, by Dr. J.M. Davidson, of Florida, a gentleman of great moral
worth and christian integrity, and grandson of Adam Brevard, a brother
of Dr. Ephraim Brevard, the reputed author of the Mecklenburg
Declaration of Independence.

A brief extract from Governor Martin's dispatch to the British
Secretary of State, dated 30th of June, 1775, as found in Wheeler's
"Historical Sketches," will now be given, which cannot be viewed in
any other light than that of disinterested evidence. The Governor
proceeds by saying, "the situation in which I find myself at present
is indeed, my Lord, most despicable and mortifying. ... I live, alas!
ingloriously, only to deplore it. ... The resolves of the Committee of
Mecklenburg, which your Lordship will find in the enclosed newspaper,