USA > North Carolina > Rowan County > A history of Rowan County, North Carolina > Part 7
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The struggle between the Province of North Car- olina and its foreign rulers began one hundred years before the yoke was thrown off - in 1669, when the
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THE REGULATION
"Grand Model" was forced upon an unwilling people, and when the obnoxious Navigation Act crippled and strangled the commerce of the infant colony. The struggle became more serious, when the "Parish Laws" were enacted, disallowing all marriages to be celebrated by dissenting ministers, and taxing the country for the support of a religious system which was distasteful to an overwhelming majority of the people. The obstinacy and nepotism of Governor Dobbs added fuel to the flame. Governor Tryon was not a bigot, but his tastes and his expenses were princely. Aided by the blandishment of his elegant wife and her bewitching sister, Miss Esther Wake, Tryon secured from the cringing General Assembly an appropriation of fifteen thousand pounds sterling (£15,000), equal to nearly seventy-five thousand dol- lars, for the erection of a palace at Newbern more suitable for a prince of the blood royal than for the governor of an infant provincial colony. This palace was said to exceed in magnificence
any structure of that day
found upon
the
American continent, and its erection rendered a large increase of the taxes necessary. But Tryon never did things by halves. He must needs make a military expedition to the land of the Chero- kees, in order to run a dividing line of a few miles in length, and returned with the significant title, bestowed by the Indians, of "THE GREAT WOLF OF NORTH CAR- OLINA." All this was very expensive, and to supply the means, not only were the direct taxes increased, but the governor required a share of the fees allowed
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HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
to the various crown officials for their services. The crown officers, in their turn, taking the cue from the Governor, doubled or tripled their charges for every act done for the people. The lawyers also refused to serve their clients for the established fees, and thus closed up all the avenues to the temple of justice. In this emergency there arose the two persons necessary to bring on a collision. These two persons were a poet or ballad-monger, and a popular leader. The rhymester was named Rednap Howell, a native of New Jersey, who occupied the position of old-field schoolmaster somewhere on Deep River. He was the author of about forty songs or ballads, in which he mercilessly lampooned the extortioners and crown officers of the day. Prominent among these were Edmund Fanning, Esq., of Hillsboro, the Court Clerk, and son-in-law of Governor Tryon, and John Frohock, Clerk and Register in Salisbury. The following effusion of Howell's upon these two officers affords a fair specimen of his political rhymes.
Says Frohock to Fanning, "To tell the plain truth, When I came to this country I was but a youth. My father sent for me: I wa'nt worth a cross, And then my first study was to steal for a horse. I quickly got credit, and then ran away, And haven't paid for him to this very day."
Says Fanning to Frohock, ""Tis folly to lie, I rode an old mare that was blind of an eye: Five shillings in money I had in my purse ; My coat, it was patched, but not much the worse; But now we've got rich, and it's very well known, That we'll do very well if they'll let us alone."
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By such rhymes as these, sung and repeated from plantation to plantation, from the Eno to the Yadkin ; called for at every house-raising, log-rolling, and corn- shucking, at every Court and vendue, at every wedding and funeral, the minds of the people were wrought up to a high pitch of excitement and indignation against the crown officers and the lawyers.
When this leaven had worked sufficiently, a popular leader arose in the person of Herman Husbands, from Sandy Creek, near the line between Guilford and Rowan-now in Randolph County. Husbands was by birth a Pennsylvania Quaker, and said to have been a relative of Benjamin Franklin. He possessed great shrewdness of character, a naturally vigorous mind, and by boldly protesting against extortion upon all occasions he won the regard of the multitude. By the influence, and under the guidance of this man, many of the people of Orange were induced to asso- ciate themselves together in bands, sometimes called "the mob," sometimes the "Sons of Liberty," and at last the "Regulators." The first general or public meeting of Regulators was held at Maddock's Mill, in Orange County, October 10, 1766. They proposed to consult concerning their grievances and the proper mode of securing redress. Fanning and other crown officers were invited to be present, but refused to come, on some pretext or other. From this time sympathy with the "Sons of Liberty" spread far and wide, and many people, not only in Orange and Guilford, but in Rowan, Mecklenburg, and Anson Counties, were ready to venture into the same peril-
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HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
ous path. They first stated their grievances to the Governor, and appealed to him for relief. He promised what they asked, and ordered a schedule of fees to be made out and posted up for public inspec- tion. But the officers laughed in their sleeves at the gullibility of the people, and went on demanding the same or larger fees. At last a true bill was found against Edmund Fanning, for extortion in no less than six instances. When the trial came on at Hillsboro, in 1768, Fanning pleaded guilty in each count, and was fined-six pence and costs. Such a mockery of justice, under the very eye of Tryon-for he was pres- ent-and in the case of his son-in-law, plainly demon- strated that no relief was to be expected from the Courts of Justice. The very foundation of justice was corrupt, and poured forth streams of bribery and op- pression. The Regulators were maddened, and com- mitted several acts of violence and lawlessness upon the person of Fanning, and threatened to control the Court by violence, and at their suggestion many re- fused to pay any taxes. But Governor Tryon was also alive to his own interest, and began to put into opera- tion measures to allay the irritation of the public mind, and overawe the disaffected. One of these measures was a journey, or progress to the western counties, with a body of troops escorting him. In July, 1768, he marched to the Yadkin River, and crossing that stream reached Salisbury on the eighteenth of Au- gust. After a brief stay he visited Captain Phifer in Mecklenburg (now Cabarrus), and from thence went to Captain Polk's, returning to Salisbury by the twen-
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THE REGULATION
ty-fifth, in order to review the troops or militia of the county. Here Col. Alexander Osborne called upon His Excellency for instructions concerning the parade, and read to him a letter from the Rev. Messrs. David Caldwell, Hugh McAden, Henry Patillo, and James Creswell, Presbyterians, touching the conduct of the Regulators. These ministers labored in Guilford, Orange, and Granville Counties, and as Colonel Os- borne and the four ministers were of the same church it is presumed that the tenor of the letter would be such as not to irritate the Governor against them. In fact, while these ministers sympathized with the peo- ple in their oppression, they appear to have done all in their power to prevent violence, and secure the resto- ration of peace and harmony.
Eleven companies appeared in Salisbury in this re- view - all except Captain Knox's Company, whose sympathies appear to have been decidedly in favor of the Regulators. Colonel Wheeler states that this Cap- tain Knox was the maternal grandfather of James K. Polk, the President in after years of the United States. President Polk was born in Mecklenburg County, ten miles south of Charlotte, and his maternal grand- father, James Knox, resided also in Mecklenburg, in the Hopewell region, and it does not appear probable that he was the Captain Knox of the Rowan militia Company that failed to appear at the Salisbury re- view ; still it may have been the same. Some of the Polk family, relatives of the President, were in after years citizens of Salisbury, and their dust lies under marble slabs in Oakgrove Cemetery, in that city.
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HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
From the Salisbury review Governor Tryon went to see the spot where in 1746 the commissioners left off running the dividing line between the King's lands and Earl Granville's lands. He found the place about five or six hundred yards east of Coldwater Creek-on the present dividing line between Rowan and Cabar- rus. He then paid a visit to Capt. John Paul Barrin- ger, in Mecklenburg (now Cabarrus), drank freely of the Captain's rich wine, and tried his hand at mowing, with a Dutch scythe doubtless, the green meadows of Dutch Buffalo. The Governor then visited Col. Moses Alexander's, on Rocky River, and returning to Salisbury spent eight days in the town and surround- ing country. A gentleman, a soldier, a genial com- panion, his visit no doubt was one reason why Rowan County did not enter more fully into the Regulation struggle.
But while the policy of the Governor stayed for a season the rushing of the torrent of rebellion, it did not avert the final catastrophe. Matters grew worse and worse, and in the spring of 1771 the Governor left Newbern a second time with a body of troops to enforce the laws and disperse the Regulators. At Tryon's approach the Regulators were massed near the Great Alamance River, and here the long delayed collision took place, on the sixteenth of May It is not necessary in sketches of Rowan to enter into the details of this battle-if it can be called a battle; for the Regulators were not organized as a military force, and had no officers beyond the rank of a captain. Many of them were unarmed and seemed to be rather specta-
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THE REGULATION
tors than soldiers, and the rest were armed with their hunting pieces, with enough ammunition for a day's sport in the woods. So perfectly unprepared were they to engage with the troops of the Governor that the Rev. David Caldwell, who was present, after passing backward and forward several times vainly trying to prevent bloodshed, at last advised the Regula- tors to submit to any conditions they could obtain, or disperse, rather than engage in the hopeless contest.
It is said that Colonel Fanning, better acquainted with the logomachy of the courtroom than with the dangerous contests of the battlefield, withdrew his Company at the beginning of the firing. Husbands, the leader of the Regulators, is reported to have followed his example, and saved himself by flight. Thus the two men who did more than any others to excite to conflict left their adherents to fight it out without their presence.
Some time previous to the conflict Governor Tryon sent General Hugh Waddell to Salisbury with a divi- sion of troops from Bladen, Cumberland, and the western counties. These troops were to remain at Salisbury until a supply of powder, flints, blankets, etc., from Charleston should reach them. But the "Cabarrus Blackboys" as they have been called, inter- cepted the convoy at Phifer's mill, three miles west of Concord, unloaded the wagons, stove in the kegs of powder, tore up the blankets, and forming a huge pile blew up the whole. The military stores failing to reach him, General Waddell, with two hundred and fifty men, left Salisbury and attempted to join Tryon in
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HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
Orange or Guilford County. But when he reached Potts' Creek, about two miles east of the Yadkin, he was confronted by a large force of Rowan Regulators, who threatened to cut his troops in pieces if he offered to join the army under Tryon. Calling a council of officers, he discovered that the Regulators out- numbered him by far, and that his men had no desire to engage in battle with their brethren. He wisely resolved to fall back across the river to Salisbury. This was on the tenth of May, 1771, six days before the battle of Great Alamance.
A few days after the battle, Tryon marched to the east side of the Yadkin, where he effected a junction with General Waddell, and extricated him from his painful position.
I must not omit to mention that, on the seventh of March, 1771, a public meeting was held in Salisbury, probably just before General Waddell arrived here, at which a large and influential committee was ap- pointed to meet the clerk, sheriff, and other crown officers, and require them to disgorge their unlawful fees. These officers agreed to the demand of the com- mittee, and signed a paper to that effect. Matthew Locke and Herman Husbands, with others, were ap- pointed on the committee to receive and distribute the unlawful fees, but it is doubtful whether any were ever returned. After the affair at Alamance, the rul- ing party acquired additional power, and no doubt for a season longer had everything their own way.
At this day, as in that, it is difficult to make a proper estimate of the character of the Regulation. In Rowan,
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THE REGULATION
Anson, and Mecklenburg, public opinion was divided. On the Governor's side, either actively or in sympathy, were such men as Colonel Waddell, Samuel Spencer, Richard Caswell, Waightstill Avery, Griffith Rutherford, Wm. Lindsay, Adlai Osborne, John Ashe, and others of the noblest men of the State, who after- wards proved their devotion to the cause of liberty. While no doubt they were opposed to the exactions of the officials, they still adhered to the regular adminis- tration of the law in the hands of the constituted authorities. The struggle can neither be properly characterized as the noble uprising of an oppressed people in behalf of liberty, nor condemned as a mob or insurrection. It would seem rather to have been a good cause, prematurely, rashly, and violently con- ducted, and led on by men incapable of allaying or con- trolling the storm they had evoked, and the effect was disastrous, for Governor Tryon so entangled the con- sciences of many of them with oaths of allegiance, that when the real struggle came, six years later, a great number of the Regulators felt constrained to cast in their lot with the Tories.
CHAPTER XII
-
CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION
It has been truthfully said that the "Revolution" took place before the Declaration of Independence, and that the document proclaimed in Philadelphia on the Fourth of July, 1776, was simply a public recogni- tion of a state already existing. The skirmishes at Lexington and Concord took place April, 1775; the battle of Bunker Hill in May of the same year; while Boston was evacuated by the British in 1776. In North Carolina the battle of Moore's Creek Bridge, between the Patriots and the Tories, was fought in February, 1776, and in consequence Lord Cornwallis, who was hovering around the mouth of the Cape Fear, took his departure, carrying away with him Josiah Martin, the last royal Governor of this Province. In fact the Revolution was no sudden occurrence, but the result of a long continued series of events, culminating in the independence of the State and country. It may be useful to take a glance at the events that led up to this wondrous consummation, especially to dispel the illusion of those who have been told and who believe that nothing worth the expenditure of the blood and treasure required was achieved by the War of the Revolution.
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HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
The grievance of the Americans, though appearing in different forms, consisted in the despotic principle that a people may be taxed without being represented in the lawmaking assemblies. While every borough and shire in England, Wales, and Scotland was rep- resented in the English House of Commons, not a single representative, delegate, or commissioner could appear in that body from the thirteen colonies of America. And yet the Parliament took complete and sovereign control of many of the most vital interests of the colonies. By the odious "Navigation Act" of the British Parliament, no production of Europe, Asia, or Africa could be brought into the colonies except in British ships, commanded by British captains, and manned by British crews, nor could the exports of the colonies be removed in any other way. The design of this law was to "protect" the British marine mer- chant service, and the design was effectual, since no other nation could underbid their own vessels. But it left the colonies at the mercy of the grasping ship- owners.
But even this indirect taxation was not enough. England had expended large sums in her recent wars, and especially in the French and Indian wars waged in behalf of the colonies. In return, the mother country, perhaps not unreasonably, expected the col- onies to bear their portion of the burden. And no doubt, if the matter had been presented in a proper form, the colonies would have consented to tax them- selves to meet the expenses incurred for their pro- tection. But when England proposed to lay this bur-
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CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION
den on them without so much as consulting them upon the subject, the universal opinion of the Americans was that it was a tyrannical invasion of the rights of free men, and that if England could take any part of their property without their consent, she could take the whole upon the same grounds; and that if they submitted to such taxation, the Americans virtually became the slaves of the people from whom they descended.
On the twenty-second of March, 1765, the Parlia- ment of Great Britain adopted what was called the "Stamp Act," requiring all contracts, notes, bonds, deeds, writs, and other public documents, to be written on government paper, which had a "stamp" on it, and which was to be sold at a high price by government agents, and from the sale of which a large revenue was expected to flow into the English treasury. The passage of this "Act" produced great excitement in all the colonies, and in none more than in North Car- olina. The General Assembly of North Carolina was in session when the intelligence of the passage of this Act arrived, and no doubt would have taken some de- cided action upon the matter had not Governor Tryon prudently prorogued that body after a session of fifteen days. John Ashe, the Speaker of the House, plainly informed the Governor that the Act would be resisted "unto blood and death." And when, early in the year 1766, the British sloop of war "Diligence," with the odious "stamps" on board, arrived in the Cape Fear, Cols. John Ashe and Hugh Waddell, with their respective militia regiments under arms, in-
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HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
formed the commander of the ship that the landing of the "stamps" would be resisted. In the meantime, a boat of the "Diligence" was captured and borne through the streets of Wilmington at the head of a procession. Colonel Ashe also demanded of Governor Tryon, the stamp-master-one James Houston, who was lodged in the Governor's house, and upon refusal to deliver him up threatened to fire the house. Upon this the stamp-master was produced, and compelled to take a solemn oath that he would not attempt to dispose of the obnoxious stamps. This ended the matter of the stamps, for the Act was repealed by Parliament, in March, 1766.
The "Stamp Act" was the cause of the first General Congress of the American Colonies, which was held in the City of New York, June 6, 1765. This con- vention or congress was held by the agreement of a number of the colonies, at the suggestion of their re- spective Assemblies ; but the Provinces of New Hamp- shire, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia were not represented in it, for the reason that their respective Legislatures were not in session in time to take the necessary steps for the appointment of delegates.
Although the English Parliament repealed the "Stamp Act," they did not abandon their claim to tax the colonies, but directly asserted it. And so in 1767 another Act, not less an invasion of colonial liberty, was adopted. This was the famous "Bill" imposing a tax on glass, paper, painters' colors, and tea, im- ported into the colonies. This Act being resisted was followed by other Acts of unfriendly legislation, such
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CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION
as the suspension of the Legislative Assembly of New York, and closing the port of Boston. In consequence of this, the "General Court" of Massachusetts sent a circular to the other colonies, asking their co-operation in devising some method of obtaining a redress of grievances. This circular was laid before the General Assembly of North Carolina, in November, 1768, by Col. John Harvey, the Speaker of the House, but no decisive steps appear to have been taken. In fact, the Governor kept his watchful eye upon the Assembly and stood ready to prorogue its sessions at the first indication of the spirit of union and independence. Thus it happened that North Carolina was not repre- sented in the first Provincial Congress of the Colo- nies, nor indeed until the General Congress assembled in Philadelphia, in September, 1774. The way the "Provincial Congress" of North Carolina came into existence at the last was as follows: In 1773, the House of Burgesses of Virginia resolved upon estab- lishing committees of correspondence between the several colonies, and sent forth circulars to the vari- ous Provincial Legislatures. The Virginia "Circular," as well as letters from some of the other Provinces, was laid before the North Carolina Assembly by Speaker Harvey in this same year, and the Assembly seized the opportunity to appoint a committee to watch the proceedings of the English Parliament and to concert with the other Provinces measures for the general defense. The committee appointed consisted of Speaker Harvey, Richard Caswell, Samuel John- ston, Hewes, Vail, Harnett, Hooper, John Ashe, and
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HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
Howe. When the Virginia House of Burgesses pro- posed the holding of another General Congress, after the closing of the port of Boston, Governor Martin intimated that he would repeat Governor Tryon's old trick of proroguing the North Carolina Assembly, and thus prevent the Province from being represented in that Congress. But the brave and fearless John Har- vey, though fast sinking into the grave by incurable disease, resolved if necessary to sacrifice his few re- maining days by a counterstroke of policy. He there- fore issued a proclamation over his own signature, calling upon the people to elect members to a Provin- cial Congress that would not be subject to the Gov- ernor's orders, but responsible only to the people. Our children have been taught to admire the courage of John Hancock, who signed the Declaration in letters so large that all the world might read it, and of Charles Carroll, who added "of Carrollton" to his name, to prevent the possibility of being confounded with another Charles Carroll. But who has paused a moment to tell them of the heroic Col. John Harvey, of Perquimans County, N. C., who dared, in defiance of Governor Martin and the royal authorities, to issue a proclamation, inviting the people to assume their rights as free men, and join with the other Provinces in concerted action? The act was performed, not under the pressure of enthusiasm, or in the midst of a patriotic crowd of sympathizers, but in the seclusion of a quiet home, under the united pressure of the in- firmities of age and enfeebling disease! He did not live to see the final results of the impending struggle,
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CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION
but sank into the grave just as the storm of the Revo- lution burst upon the country. His name and his services deserve a grateful remembrance.
In pursuance of the "proclamation" of Harvey, the Assembly of 1774 was supplemented by another body called a "Congress." Both bodies were composed, gen- erally, of the same members, and Colonel Harvey was chosen "Speaker" of the Assembly, as usual, and "Moderator" of the Congress. The Congress met in Newbern on the twenty-fifth of August, 1774, and was composed of brave and judicious men, quite a number of whom are distinguished in the annals of the State. On the list we find the names of Samuel Spen- cer of Anson, Robert Howe of Brunswick, Samuel Johnston of Chowan, Richard Caswell of Dobbs, Thomas Person of Granville, Willie Jones of Halifax, John Ashe and William Hooper of New Hanover, John Harvey of Perquimans, and Abner Nash of Newbern. Rowan County was represented in this Congress by William Kennon, Moses Winslow, and Samuel Young.
On the third day of their session, August 27, 1774, the Congress adopted twenty-five resolutions, that em- body the principles of independence and resistance to tyranny. These resolutions prudently affirmed a loyal regard for the British constitution, and devotion to the House of Hanover, but at the same time declared that allegiance should secure protection; that no person should be taxed without his own consent, either per- sonal or by representation; that the tax on tea was illegal and oppressive; that the closing of the port of
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HISTORY OF ROWAN COUNTY
Boston, and sending persons to England to be tried for acts committed in the colonies, were unconstitutional ; and that it was the duty of our people to cease all trade with the mother country, or any Province that re- fused to co-operate in measures for the general wel- fare. They also approved the movement for a Gen- eral Congress in Philadelphia, in September following, and appointed William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, and Richard Caswell to represent this Province in said General Congress. After authorizing Moderator Har- vey, or in case of his death Samuel Johnston, to call the Congress together, if occasion should require it, the body adjourned. In the spring of the year 1775, the Provincial Congress met again in Newbern, and Rowan sent as deputies Griffith Rutherford, William Sharpe, and William Kennon. At subsequent meetings of this Congress, at Hillsboro and Halifax, Rowan was represented by Matthew Locke, James Smith, and John Brevard.
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