our lives, our fortunes, and our most the crown of Great Britain never can be sacred honor. considered as holding rights, privileges, immunities, or authority therein.

4. Resolved, that, as we acknowledge the existence and control of no law or 5. Resolved, that it is also further delegal officer, civil or military, within this creed that all, each, and every military county, we do hereby ordain and adopt, officer in this county is bereby reinas a rule of life, all, each, and every of stated to his former command and auour former laws; wherein, nevertheless, thority, he acting conformably to these

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AUTOGRAPHS OF THE MEMBERS OF THE MECKLENBURG COMMITTEE.

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE-DECLARATION OF RIGHTS

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 matter 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.

mere day of the month on the ground that this discrepancy was explainable by the use of the old style and the new style of calendars; but they ignored the facts that the two sets of resolutions were dissimilar, that the latter were comparatively mild, and that the former contained expressions almost identical with the accepted Declaration of Independence of 1776. It is to be further stated that an attempt was made to reconcile these discrepancies and similarities on the ground that as the book alleged to have contained These resolutions were supplemented by the original text had been destroyed by a number of minor provisions to insure fire, some one, years afterwards, had prethe safety of the citizens, and at 2 A.M. pared from recollection the draft of the on May 20, the resolutions were unani- resolutions which were published in the mously adopted. A few days afterwards Raleigh Register. The fact has been esCapt. James Jack, of Charlotte, was ap- tablished by acceptable evidence that the pointed messenger to convey a draft of the document taken to Philadelphia by Capresolutions to the Congress then in session tain Jack contained the twenty resolutions in Philadelphia, and on the return of of May 31, and not the declaration of Captain Jack, the Charlotte convention May 20. The foregoing are the principal was informed that their proceedings had facts touching this historical controversy; been individually approved by the mem- and while Bancroft accepts the declaration bers of Congress, but that it was deemed as an authentic document, equally emipremature to lay them before the House. nent historians have agreed that it was On April 30, 1818, a copy of the alleged Declaration of Independence was first made public in the Raleigh Register, and following the text was certificate signed "James McKnitt," tending to show that the text was a true copy of the papers left in his hands by John Matthew Alexander, deceased; and that the original book was burned in April, 1800. When the Raleigh Register published this statement there was a general demand for the proof concerning such an important event, that had been allowed to slumber for more than forty years. All the questions involved were investigated by a committee of the North Carolina legislature in 1831, and its report so far satisfied the people of that State that May 20 was made a State holiday. In 1838, Peter Force, a well-known scholar, announced the discovery of another set of resolutions, endorsed as having been adopted by the peo- an inalienable right to reform or abolish ple of Mecklenburg county on May 31, or it; that, public services not being de

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eleven days after the resolutions above quoted. The last set of resolutions numbered twenty, and made no declaration of independence. Some parties who defended the resolutions of May 20 claimed that there should be no question as to the

not entitled to the standing of a verified document.

Declaration of Paris. See CUBA: ИсKinley's Message.

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Declaration of Rights by Virginia. George Mason drafted for Virginia declaration of rights, and on May 27, 1776, Archibald Carey presented it to the Virginia convention. On June 12 it adopted. It declared that all by nature equally free, and are invested with inalienable rights-namely, the enjoyment of life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness and safety; that all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people; that government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit and security of the people, nation, or community, and that when government shall fail to perform its required functions, a majority of the people have

scendible, the office of magistrate, legislator, or judge ought not to be hereditary; that the legislative and executive powers of the state should be distinct from the judicature, and that the members of the first two should, at fixed periods, return

colonies. This was intended as a salve 1704, a party of French and Indians, unfor the national honor, necessary, as Pitt der Maj. Hertel de Rouville, who had knew, to secure the repeal of the act. But travelled on snow-shoes from Canada, apLord Camden, who was the principal sup- proached Deerfield. The chief object of porter of the repeal bill in the Upper the expedition was to procure a little bell House, was opposed to the declaratory act, hung over the meeting-house in that vil

MINDED, EDUCATION OF THE; and REFORM
SCHOOLS.

De Forest, JOHN WILLIAM, military officer; born in Humphreysville (now Seymour), Conn., March 31, 1826; entered the National army as captain at the beginning of the Civil War; served continuously till January, 1865; and was adjutant-general of the Veteran Reserve Corps in 1865-68. His publications include The History of the Indians of Connecticut, from the Earliest-known Period to 1850, etc.

De Grasse, COUNT. See GRASSE-TILLY, FRANÇOIS JOSEPH PAUL, COUNT DE.

lage. It had been bought in France for DEAF MUTES, EDUCATION OF THE; FEEBLEthe church in the Indian village of Caughnawaga, 10 miles above Montreal. The vessel that bore it to America was captured by a New England privateer and taken into Boston Harbor. The bell was sold to the Deerfield congregation. Father Nicolas, the priest at Caughnawaga, persuaded the Indians to accompany him, under De Rouville, to get the bell. When the invaders approached Deerfield, the snow lay 4 feet deep in that region, and was covered by a hard crust that bore the men. Upon drifts that lay by the palisades they were able to crawl over these defences in the gloom of night, while the inhabitants were slumbering. The first intimation the villagers had of danger was the bursting in of the doors before the dawn (March 1, 1704), and the terrible sound of the war-whoop. The people were dragged from their beds and murdered, without regard to age or sex, or carried into captivity. The village was set on fire, and every building, excepting the chapel and one dwelling-house, was laid in ashes. Forty-seven of the inhabitants were killed, and 120 were captives on their way through the wilderness towards Canada an hour after sunrise. Under the direction of Father Nicolas, the bell was carried away, and finally found its des tined place in the belfry of the church at Caughnawaga, where it still hangs. Among the victims of this foray were REV. JOHN WILLIAMS (q. v.), pastor of the church at Deerfield, and his family, who were carried into captivity, excepting two children, who were murdered.

Deerhound, the name of an English yacht, which, while conveying arms to the Carlists, was seized by the Spanish government vessel Buenaventura, off Biarritz, and captain and crew imprisoned, Aug. 13, 1873; and released about Sept. 18. This yacht rescued Captain Semmes and part of his crew from the Alabama after her destruction by the Kearsarge, June 19,

1864.

Defective Classes. In no country on earth has there been such a general and liberal provision by national and local authorities, societies, and individuals for the education of defective youth as in the United States. For details of this grand work, see BLIND, EDUCATION OF THE;

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De Haas, JOHN PHILIP, military officer; born in Holland about 1735; was descended from an ancient family in northern France; came to America in 1750; was an ensign in the French and Indian War; participated in a sharp conflict with Indians near Pittsburg; and colonel of the 1st Pennsylvania Regiment in 1776. He served in the American army in Canada, and afterwards at Ticonderoga. He led his regiment from Lake Champlain to New York, and participated in the battle on Long Island in August, 1776. In February, 1777, he was promoted to brigadier-general. General De Haas was a good disciplinarian, and served in various capacities during the entire war with credit to himself and benefit to his adopted country. The latter years of his life were passed in Philadelphia, where he died June 3, 1786.

De Haven, EDWIN J., explorer; born in Philadelphia in 1819; entered the navy as midshipman, rose to lieutenant in 1841, and resigned in 1857. He was with Wilkes in his great exploring expedition in 1838-42, and commanded the first exploring expedition fitted out at New York to search for Sir John Franklin in the Arctic seas. The expedition consisted of the Advance. 140 tons, and the Rescue, 90 tons. Dr. Kane, who accompanied the expedition, published a full account of it. After his return Lieutenant De Haven was employed on coast survey duty and in the Naval Observatory. He died in Philadelphia Oct. 2, 1865.

De Kalb, JOHANN, BARON. See KALB, JOHANN, BARON DE.

Delafield, RICHARD, military engineer;

born in New York City, Sept. 1, 1798; graduated at the United States Military Academy in 1818, and entered the corps of engineers; was engaged in building the defences of Hampton Roads, the fortifications in the district of the Mississippi, and those within the vicinity of Delaware River and Bay in 1819-38; superintendent of West Point in 1838-45 and in 1856-61; and became chief of engineers in 1864. At the close of the Civil War he was brevetted major-general, U. S. A., "for faithful, meritorious, and distinguished services in the engineer department during the rebellion." He was retired in 1866. He died in Washington, D. C., Nov. 5, 1873.

Delagoa Bay, a large bay, the estuary of several rivers, on the southeast coast of Africa, situated between lat. 25° 40′ and 26° 20′ S. It extends 60 miles from north to south, and 20 miles from east to west. It was discovered by the Portuguese in 1498, and for nearly 400 years was in dispute between England and Portugal, the Boers also putting in a claim to it in 1835. It is the only seaport available for the Transvaal, but it is not in that territory. The contention between England and Portugal was referred to President Thiers, and settled by President MacMahon, his successor, in 1875, in favor of Portugal. By an agreement England received the right of pre-emption. It was understood in the early part of the war between the British and the Boers (1899-1900) that Great Britain had either purchased the bay and its immediate surroundings outright or had negotiated an arrangement with Portugal by which the bay could not be used for any purpose hostile to British interest. In 1883 Col. Edward McMurdo, a civil engineer of Kentucky, received from the King of Portugal an extremely liberal concession for the construction of a railroad from Lorenzo Marques to the Transvaal frontier, a distance of 57 miles. This concession also included the grant of large tracts of land along the projected route, the territory upon which much of the town of Lorenzo Marques now stands, an island in Delagoa Bay, and certain commercial privileges along the shore. By the aid of British capital the road was completed in November, 1887, to what the

Portuguese engineers certified was the border of the Transvaal. In 1889 the Portuguese government served notice on Colonel McMurdo that the real frontier was 6 miles further inland, and that if the road was not built to that point within four months it would be seized by Portugal. Before McMurdo's side of the controversy could be heard, Portugal confiscated the entire property (June, 1889). The United States, in behalf of the McMurdo interests, united with England to compel Portugal to make proper reparation, and Portugal consented to have the dispute settled by arbitration. The tribunal was organized in Berne, Switzerland, in 1890, but it was not till March 29, 1900, that a conclusion was reached. The total award to the claimants was $3,202,800, with interest from 1889, and by a compromise the heirs of Colonel McMurdo were awarded $500,000 towards the close of 1900.

De Lancey, EDWARD FLOYD, historian: born at Mamaroneck, N. Y., April 3, 1821; graduated at Hobart College in 1843; is a member and officer of many historical organizations, and the author of biographies of James De Lancey, James W. Beekman, William Allen; Documentary History of New York; Capture of Fort Washington, and many other historical works.

De Lancey, ÉTIENNE (STEPHEN); merchant; born in Caen, France, Oct. 24, 1663; fled to Holland on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes; and went thence to England and became a British subject. He landed in New York, June 7, 1686; became a merchant and amassed a large fortune; and was at all times a publicspirited citizen. In 1700 he built the De Lancey house, which subsequently became known as the "Queen's Head" and "Fraunce's Tavern." In the large room, originally Mrs. De Lancey's drawing-room, Washington bade farewell to the officers of the Army of the Revolution. He died in New York City, Nov. 18, 1741.

De Lancey, JAMES, jurist; born in New York City, Nov. 27, 1703; eldest son of Etienne De Lancey; graduated at the University of Cambridge, England, and soon after his return to New York (1729) was made a justice of the Supreme Court of that province, and chiefjustice in 1733. For two years, as lieu