He was also a member of the Provincial Congress, which met at Halifax on the 4th of April, 1776, with John Phifer and Robert Irwin as colleagues.  In 1777, he was elected the first Senator from Mecklenburg county, under the new Constitution.  He was an active participator in the Convention of the 19th and 20th of May, 1775, and preserved for a long time, the records, as being its principal secretary, and the proper custodian of its papers.  He gave copies of its important and ever-memorable proceedings to Gen. William R. Davie, Dr. Hugh Williamson, then professing to write a history of North Carolina, and others.  Unfortunately, the original was destroyed in 1800, when the house of Mr. Alexander was burned, but Gen. Davie’s copy has been preserved.  He was one of the Trustees of the “College of Queen’s Museum,” the name of which was afterward changed to “Liberty Hall.”  He was for many years, a ruling Elder of the Presbyterian Church, and by his walk and conversation, its firm supporter.

By the east wall of the graveyard at Hopewell Church, is a row of marble slabs, all bearing the name of Alexander.  On one of them, is this short inscription: 

     “John McKnitt Alexander,
     Who departed this life July 10th, 1817,
     Aged 84.”

It is a singular fact, that the signers of the Mecklenburg Declaration were all, with perhaps one or two exceptions, members of the Presbyterian Church.  One of them, Rev. Hezekiah J. Balch, was a Presbyterian preacher, and nine others Elders of that Church, which may be truly styled, at and before the Revolution, the “nursing mother of freemen.”

Waightstill Avery was an eminent lawyer, born in the town of Groton, Connecticut, in 1747, and graduated at Princeton College in 1766.  There were eight brothers of this family, and all true patriots; some of them were massacred at Fort Griswold, and some perished at Wyoming Valley.  Some of the descendants still reside at Groton, Conn., and others at Oswego, and Seneca Lake, N.Y.  He studied law on the eastern shore of Maryland, with Littleton Dennis.  In 1769, he emigrated to North Carolina, obtained license to practice in 1770, and settled in Charlotte.  By his assiduity and ability, he soon acquired numerous friends.  He was an ardent advocate of liberty, but not of licentiousness.

In 1778, he married near Newbern, Mrs Leah Frank, daughter of William Probart, a wealthy merchant of Snow Hill, Md., who died on a visit to London.  He was a member of the Provincial Congress which met at Hillsboro on the 21st of August, 1775.  In 1776, he was a delegate to the Provincial Congress which met at Halifax to form a State Constitution, with Hezekiah Alexander, Robert Irwin, John Phifer and Zaccheus Wilson as colleagues.  He was appointed to sign proclamation bills by this body.  On the 20th of July, 1777, with William Sharpe, Joseph Winston and Robert Lanier, as associates, he made the treaty of the Long Island of the Holston with the Cherokee Indians.  This treaty, made without an oath, is one that has never been violated.  In 1777, he was elected the first Attorney General of North Carolina.