For you non-Charlotteans out there, the "Meck Dec" is a nickname
for the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. County legend
holds that on May 20, 1775 (today), a council of representatives
signed a local version of what would become the Declaration (and
some Resolves as well, but the story focuses on the
declaration). They hired Captain James Jack, of whom a statue
now stands in a fountain on Kings Drive, to deliver the
documents 500 miles north to the Continental Congress in
Philadelphia. He almost got arrested for carrying treasonous
documents when he stopped in Salisbury to rest on the way there.
It's a fascinating story, all the better for being true. Almost.
See, Mecklenburg County didn't actually declare independence
from the Crown. (Well, when it's named after your queen's
hometown, you can't exactly say you're no longer affiliated with
her husband's rule, can you?) What it actually did was set up a
government separate from Britain--with the condition that the
Mecklenburg Resolves (dated May 31, 17