At the Convention of Delegates in Charlotte on the 19th and 20th of May, 1775, Capt.  James Jack was one of the deeply interested spectators, and shared in the patriotic feelings of that ever memorable occasion.  He was then about forty-three years of age—­brave, energetic and ready to engage in any duty having for its object the welfare and independence of his country.  After the passage of the patriotic resolutions, elsewhere given in this volume, constituting the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, Capt.  Jack, for his well-known energy, bravery and determination of character, was selected to be the bearer of them to Congress, then in session in Philadelphia.  Accordingly, as soon as the necessary preparations for traveling could be made, he set out from Charlotte on that long, lonesome and perilous journey, on horseback.  There were then nowhere in the American colonies, stages or hacks to facilitate and expedite the weary traveler.  Express messengers were alone employed for the rapid transmission of all important intelligence.  On the evening of the first day he reached Salisbury, forty miles from Charlotte, before the General Court, then in session, had adjourned.  Upon his arrival, Colonel Kennon, an influential member of the Court, who knew the object of Captain Jack’s mission, procured from him the copy of the Mecklenburg resolutions of independence he had in charge, and read them aloud in open court.  All was silence, and all apparent approval (intentique ora tenebant) as these earliest key-notes of freedom resounded through the hall of the old court house in Salisbury.  There sat around, in sympathizing composure, those sterling patriots, Moses Winslow, Waightstill Avery, John Brevard, William Sharpe, Griffith Rutherford, Matthew Locke, Samuel Young, Adlai Osborne, James Brandon, and many others, either members of the court, or of the county “Committee of Safety.”  The only marked opposition proceeded from two lawyers, John Dunn and Benjamin Booth Boote, who pronounced the resolutions treasonable, and said Captain Jack ought to be detained.  These individuals had previously expressed sentiments “inimical to the American cause.”  As soon as knowledge of their avowed sentiments and proposed detention of Captain Jack reached Charlotte, the patriotic vigilance of the friends of liberty was actively aroused, and a party of ten or twelve armed horsemen promptly volunteered to proceed to Salisbury, arrest said Dunn and Boote, and bring them before the Committee of Safety of Mecklenburg for trial.  This was accordingly done (George Graham, living near Charlotte, being one of the number), and both being found guilty of conduct inimical to the cause of American freedom, were transported, first to Camden, and afterward, to Charleston, S.C.  They never returned to North Carolina, but after the war, it is reported, settled in Florida, and died there, it is hoped not only repentant of their sins, as all should be, but with chastened notions of the reality and benefits of American independence.