Remarks in Charlotte, North Carolina

Ladies and gentlemen:

I am very glad to have the chance of greeting you to-night, to say how much I appreciate your having come.

Someone in the audience has spoken of the Mecklenburg Declaration. That was the first declaration of independence in any of, what are now, the United States. To my good fortune I have studied much of the early history of North Carolina. I know the part you played in the Revolution, the part you played even during the Revolution, in winning the great West for the Republic. I feel that you deserve to be called in a peculiar sense Americans of Americans, and no higher praise than that can be given in our country. I have appreciated greatly the greetings I have received, not merely in South Carolina, but from the representatives of your State who were there also. It has been to me a privilege to meet you. Yesterday I reviewed your National Guard at the Charleston Exposition. It was a pleasure to be able to see them. I have served with some of your men, for some men born in this State were in my regiment. On one occasion I had to choose twenty sharpshooters and two of them were North Carolinians.

I thank you and wish you all good luck.