Series: 3 FF (Volume 3)
Scope and Content Note: Chapters 24 and 25, containing biographical sketches of Hugh Waddell and Griffith Rutherford, and appendices 1-8. The first appendix contains a descriptive list of writings in manuscript and published form, 1819-1876, about the Mecklenburg Declaration. In the remaining seven appendices, Draper included with his introductions and annotations the texts of papers he considered most significant as evidence: the pamphlet (1831) published by the state of North Carolina, with related documents; the resolutions of May 31, 1775; a comparison of three variant published versions of the May 20 resolves by William R. Davie (called by Draper the McKnitt-Davie copy), by Francois-Xavier Martin (called the Martin copy), and by Alexander Garden (called the Garden copy); the proposed instructions to Mecklenburg County delegates, dated September 1, 1776; and Charles Phillips's article in the North Carolina University Magazine of May, 1853. Also included are Peter Force's letter to John Vaughan, dated December 11, 1841; David L. Swain's letters to historians George Bancroft (1858), Benson J. Lossing (1851), and Henry S. Randall (1858), preceded by a biographical account of Swain's life and character by Draper. In preparation of several of the appendices Draper was aided by a copyist, but all of the sections bear Draper's notations.