From Reminiscences and Memoirs of North Carolina and Eminent North Carolinians, by John H. Wheeler, Columbus Printing Works, Columbus, Ohio, 1884:
- An early historian has recorded our people, as being "gentle in their manners, advocates of freedom; jealous of their rulers, impatient, restless, and turbulent when ruled by any other government than their own; and under that and that only were they satisfied."
It was in the natural course of events and "the inexorable logic of circumstances" that the sturdy men of the age were ever ready to defend the cause of right; and in defense of liberty to pour out their life blood, as at Alamance; on the Cape Fear, to beard the minions of power, and cause their oppressor to leave the State and seek refuge elsewhere, and that the men of Mecklenburgh in advance of every other State, should thunder to the world the eternal principles of Independence and Liberty.
