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Randolph possibly did not know that the first Declaration of In dependence by the American patriots was issued by the mem bers of Hanover Church out there in Dauphin county, when on June 4th, 1774, they declared that in the event Great Britain attempting to force unjust laws upon us by the strength of Arms, our cause we leave to heaven and our rifles. This declaration was certainly carried to Meck lenburg to give the sturdy peo ple of that region inspiration for the strong document issued by them a year later, and which gave Jefferson a basis for the Declaration of 1776. There was much moving from Pennsylva nia into Virginia and North Car olina before the Revolution, and Hanover Presbytery in the Val ley was largely made up of peo ple from Pennsylvania, whose petition of ten thousand names for a free church in a free land, made in 1785, was the force back of Jefferson's bill for religious tolerance, a triumph for freedom that has always been considered a Presbyterian victory by the scotch-irish of America.
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