States," or the memory of Mr. Adams (who certainly forgot the issue of the Massachusetts Spy, of July 12, 1775) for the preservation of their traditions.
(b) William Baine married Violet Davidson--issue, fourteen children.
(1) Joseph married Nancy Cathey.
(2) William married Clarissa Alexander.
(3) Robert D. married Abigail Caldwell--issue, (a) Rev. S. C. C. Alexander married Mary Brown, (b) J. B. Alexander, M. D., married Annie Lowrie, (c) William Davidson Alexander married Susan Ramsay, (d) Agnes married to Dr. W. Fewell.
(4) Benjamin married Violet McKoy.
(5) James McKnitt married Mary Wilson.
(6) George Washington married, first, Gillespie; second, Jelton.
(7) John married Harriet Henderson.
(8) Jane married John Sharpe.
(9) Margaret D. married David R. Henderson.
(10) Rebecca married Marshall McKoy.
(11) Sally D.
(12) Abigail married Henderson Robinson.
(13) Betsy married Dr. Isaac Wilson.
(14) Isabella married Dr. Calvin Grier.
John McKnitt Alexander in 1801 gave to General William R. Davie, to preserve for historical use a copy of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence of May 20, 1775, which in the same year (1801) he assured Judge Duncan Cameron he knew to be correct. Of the statement accompanying it, as to list of delegates, sequence, etc., he gave the following certificate: "It may be worthy of notice here to observe that the foregoing statement though fundamentally correct, yet may not literally correspond with the original record of the transactions of said delegation and court of inquiry, as all those records and papers were burned with the house on April 6, 1800; but previous to that time (1800) a full copy of said records, at the request of Dr. Hugh Williamson, then of New York, but formerly a representative in congress from this State, was forwarded to him by Colonel William Polk, in order that those early transactions might fill their proper place in a history of this State, by said Dr. Williamson in New York.*
* It is worthy of notice that
Williamson's History of North Carolina, terminated with the events of the year
1771; in his preface he says that he intended to continue his history to 1790,
but it was not done, and Mr. Jefferson may well say Williamson's History affords
no record of the Declaration of 1775. Governor Stokes unqualifiedly asserts that
he saw this copy in the possession of Dr. Williamson, in 1793, and that it was
in the handwriting of John McKnitt Alexander. (Graham's Centennial Address, p.
80)
Certified to the best of my recollection and belief this 3d day of September, 1800, by J. McK. Alexander, Mecklenburg county, N. C.
Dr. Samuel Henderson states that the copy of the declaration in John McKnitt Alexander's handwriting, was found in the possession of General William Richardson Davie, after the General's death.
General Davie was the foremost man of his day, in North Carolina. The idea is perfectly absurd that such a man could be imposed upon, or that any one would dare impose upon him, by the fabrication of the declaration only twenty-five years after its date, when his faculties were so well preserved that several years subsequently, his friends considered him their most available candidate in the Halifax district, to overcome their opponents then in the majority. Just after this, in 1805, he removed to South Carolina and the anonymous article, which Dr. Welling (North American Review, April, 1874) attributes to Prof. Phillips, erroneously locates him in South Carolina, when McKnitt Alexander sent him a copy, which he repeatedly declared was correct.
The fate of the original of this document, should that be of any historical importance, is not without its parallel in history, for in an article by W. L. Stone in the July number of Harper's Magazine (1883) we find the following recited on the subject of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, of July 4, 1776:
"In thinking of that instrument, one is apt
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