denied their authenticity, and J. S. Jones supported their genuineness in his _Defence of the Revolutionary History of North Carolina_ (Boston, 1834). In 1847 Rev. Thomas Smith, in his _True Origin and Source of the Mecklenburgh and National Declaration of Independence_, agreed to the priority of the May 20th resolutions, but thought that both those and the national Declaration were drawn in part from the ordinary covenants of the Scottish Presbyterians,—hence agreeing naturally in some of their phraseology. The principal attempts to sustain the authenticity of the resolutions of May 20th are F. L. Hawks's lecture in W. D. Cooke's _Revolutionary Hist. of North Carolina_, and W. A. Grahame's _Hist. Address on the Mecklenburg Centennial at Charlotte, N. C._ (N. Y. 1875). The adverse view, held generally by students, is best expressed in J. C. Welling's paper in the _No. Amer. Rev._, April, 1874, and in H. B. Grigsby's _Discourse on the Virginia Convention of 1776_ (p. 21). John Adams was surprised on their production in 1819 (_Works_, x. 380-83). Cf. further in Moore's _North Carolina_, i. 187; _No. Carolina Univ. Mag._, May, 1853; Bancroft's _United States_, orig. ed., vii. 370, and final revision, iv. 196, and also in _Hist. Mag._, xii. 378; Gay's _Pop. Hist. U. S._, iii. 474; Lossing's _Field-Book_, ii. 619; Johnson's _Traditions and Reminiscences of the Amer. Rev. in the South_ (Charleston, 1851, p. 76); _Amer. Hist. Rec._, iii. 200; _Mag. of Amer. Hist._, July, 1882, p. 507; _Southern Lit. Messenger_, v. 417, 748. The antedating of the Congressional Declaration of July 4, 1776, by local bodies, stirred beyond a wise prudence, might well have happened in days when the air was full of such feelings; but they were of little effect, except the Suffolk Resolves of Sept. 6, 1774, which were adopted by the Congress of 1774. Perhaps the earliest of these ebullitions were some votes passed by the town of Mendon, in Massachusetts, in 1773 (_Amer. Antiq. Soc. Proc._, April, 1870). A fac-simile of the record is given in Gay's _Pop. Hist. U. S._, iii. 472.]