tees, to disseminate important
information, and thus performed the duties and requirements of courts.
The county committees exercised these important functions until
justices of the peace were appointed by the Legislature and duly
commissioned by the Governor.

It was this committee which met in Charlotte on the 31st of May, 1775,
and passed a series of rules and regulations for the internal
government of the county--a necessary sequel, as previously stated, of
the more important meeting of the 20th of May preceding. This
statement is strongly corroborated by a communication published last
summer in the "Charlotte Observer," by D.A. Caldwell, Esq., one of
Mecklenburg's most aged, intelligent and worthy citizens. The portion
of the communication most pertinent to our subject reads thus:

"I was born and raised in the house of my maternal
grandfather, Major John Davidson, who was one of the signers
of the Mecklenburg Declaration. I have often heard him speak
of the 20th of May, 1775, as the day on which it was signed,
and the 31st of the same month as the time of an adjourned
meeting. The '20th of May' was a household word in the
family. Moreover, I was present (and am now the only
surviving witness of the transaction) when he gave a
certificate of the above dates to Dr. Joseph McKnitt
Alexander, whose father, John McKnitt Alexander, was also a
signer, and the principal secretary of the meeting. This
certificate was called forth by the celebrated attempt of
Thomas Jefferson to throw discredit on the whole affair. A
certificate to the same effect was given on that occasion by
Samuel Wilson, a brother-in-law of Major Davidson, and a man
of undoubted integrity. Mr. Wilson, although not a signer,
was present at the signing on the 20th of May. I often heard
my grandfather allude to the date in later years, when he
lived with his daughter, Mrs. William Lee Davidson, whose
husband was the son of General Davidson, who fell at Cowan's
Ford."

Under the administration of Abraham Alexander as Chairman of the
Committee of Safety, the laws passed by that body of vigilant
observers of the common good were strictly enforced; and each citizen,
when he left the county, was required to carry with him a certificate
of his _political standing_, officially signed by the chairman.

Abraham Alexander was a most worthy, exemplary and in