North Carolina Secession Day

Today is the anniversary of the secession of North Carolina from the Union, precipitated by US President Lincoln's order to all states to supply a portion of 75,000 troops to suppress rebellion in the Deep South states which had re-assumed their sovereignty from the United States.

The NC Ordinance of Secession was on display this past weekend at the State Capitol, having been lately returned from a long absence due to the theft of it by Sherman's rabid hordes.

Following is the wording of the NC Ordinance of Secession:

AN ORDINANCE to dissolve the union between the State of North Carolina and the other States united with her, under the compact of government entitled "The Constitution of the United States."

We, the people of the State of North Carolina in convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, That the ordinance adopted by the State of North Carolina in the convention of 1789, whereby the Constitution of the United States was ratified and adopted, and also all acts and parts of acts of the General Assembly ratifying and adopting amendments to the said Constitution, are hereby repealed, rescinded, and abrogated.

We do further declare and ordain, That the union now subsisting between the State of North Carolina and the other States, under the title of the United States of America, is hereby dissolved, and that the State of North Carolina is in full possession and exercise of all those rights of sovereignty which belong and appertain to a free and independent State.

Done in convention at the city of Raleigh, this the 20th day of May, in the year of our Lord 1861, and in the eighty-fifth year of the independence of said State.

Source: Official Records, Ser. IV, vol. 1, pp. 335-336

NC's secession was timed to be signed on the anniversary of the famed Mecklenburg Resolves

Its date, May 20, 1775, is found on the NC Flag, but it could be noting instead the May 31, 1775, articles of association which were adopted and of which still exist, the date discrepancy having to do with a change from the old Julian calendar to the Gregorian. Following are the alleged Mecklenburg Resolves.
(aka Charlotte Town Resolves and Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence). While no copy of the document has ever been produced, a Raleigh paper in 1819 published a reading of it from memory.

Here is the text presented as the "Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence" by the Raleigh Register on April 30, 1819:

1. Resolved, That whosoever directly or indirectly abetted, or in any way, form, or manner, countenanced the unchartered and dangerous invasion of our rights, as claimed by Great Britain, is an enemy to this County, to America, and to the inherent and inalienable rights of man.

2. Resolved, That we the citizens of Mecklenburg County, do hereby dissolve the political bands which have connected us to the Mother Country, and hereby absolve ourselves from all allegiance to the British Crown, and abjure all political connection, contract, or association, with that Nation, who have wantonly trampled on our rights and liberties and inhumanly shed the innocent blood of American patriots at Lexington.

3. Resolved, That we do hereby declare ourselves a free and independent people, are, and of right ought to be, a sovereign and self-governing Association, under the control of no power other than that of our God and the General Government of the Congress; to the maintenance of which independence, we solemnly pledge to each other, our mutual cooperation, our lives, our fortunes, and our most sacred honor.

4. Resolved, That as we now acknowledge the existence and control of no law or legal officer, civil or military, within this County, we do hereby ordain and adopt, as a rule of life, all, each and every of our former laws - where, nevertheless, the Crown of Great Britain never can be considered as holding rights, privileges, immunities, or authority therein.

5. Resolved, That it is also further decreed, that all, each and every military officer in this County, is hereby reinstated to his former command and authority, he acting conformably to these regulations, and that every member present of this delegation shall henceforth be a civil officer, viz. a Justice of the Peace, in the character of a 'Committee-man,' to issue process, hear and determine all matters of controversy, according to said adopted laws, and to preserve peace, and union, and harmony, in said County, and to use every exertion to spread the love of country and fire of freedom throughout America, until a more general and organized government be established in this province.