The Mecklenburg Declaration

Interesting post from the Journal of the American Revolution on the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.  Some, Thomas Jefferson for instance, claim it was "spurious", not fact.  Others, John Adams it represented the "genuine sense of America at that moment."  You can read the Declarations text here.

It was taken the month after Lexington and Concord.  I believe the reporting of the day stand it as fact.  This particular article mentions reference of the declaration in Southern Revolutionary War pension applications.  It was fun to search the rolls for my own ancestors.  They are there in the North Carolina Militia and Virginia Continentals.

It may well be simply Jefferson's policy in later life to ensure his own legacy and discount anything that preempts his own work?  Probably.