Instructions to the Delegates from Mecklenburg, North Carolina, to the Provincial Congress at Halifax, 1 Nov. 1776, I.2.8

This North Carolina congress (the fifth and final of the five which were held from 1774 to 1776) approved the first constitution of the state, including its "Declaration of Rights" (such as the right to peaceable assembly and the right to bear arms.) The instructions bid the delegates to accept the Declaration of Independence, to press for a simple democracy for the state, and to oppose the concentration of power in the hands of the wealthy. The delegates were to press for a bill of inviolable rights of the people and individuals, which would maintain that the people are the source of power, that politicians are their servants and have inferior power, so that the people are the ultimate authority and so that no other power should be able to alter the determinations of the people.