USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: The Colonial and Revolutionary Periods 1584 1783, Volume I > Part 32
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When the Assembly of North Carolina met, Speaker John Harvey laid the Massachusetts letter before the House. Greatly to the disgust of the more aggressive leaders, the House, though it did not treat it with the contempt which the
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king required, declined to take any formal notice of it and contented itself with merely giving the speaker verbal direc- tions to answer it. It then resolved to send to the king "an humble, dutiful and loyal address," praying a repeal of the several acts of Parliament imposing duties on goods imported into America, appointed a committee consisting of John Har- vey, Joseph Montfort, Samuel Johnston, Joseph Hewes, and Edward Vail to prepare it, and instructed the colony's agent, Henry Eustace McCulloh, to present it. Thus the Assembly missed the real significance of the proposal of Massachusetts, viz., unity of action, and by its conduct, according to Lord Hillsborough, secretary of state for the colonies, gave "great satisfaction to the king." Union was the great bugbear of the king and ministry; they did not doubt of their ability to bring the colonies to terms if they could keep them from co-operat- ing with each other, and accordingly fought desperately against every step on the part of the Americans toward union. Samuel Johnston and Joseph Hewes were so disgusted at the "pusillanimity" of the Assembly that they declined to serve on the committee, but the other members, under the leadership of Harvey, acted more wisely. They assumed that the As- sembly intended for them to act in concert with the committees of the other colonies, and thus improved on their verbal in- structions. Their action saved North Carolina from the odium which a failure to support the common cause would have brought upon the colony and paved the way for the more spirited co-operation of the future.
The committee's address to the king was an able state paper and rang true to the American doctrine of "no taxation with- out representation." They reminded the king that in the past whenever it had been "found necessary to levy supplies within this Colony requisitions have been made by your Majesty or your Royal Predecessors and conformable to the rights of this people, and by them chearfully and liberally complied with," and while promising a like compliance in the future, maintained that "their Representatives in the Assembly alone can be the proper Judges, not only of what sums they are able to pay, but likewise of the most eligible method of collecting the same. Our Ancestors at their first settling, amidst the horrors of a long and bloody war with the Savages, which nothing could possibly render supportable but the prospects of enjoying here that freedom which Britons can never pur- chase at so [too] dear a rate, brought with them inherent in their persons, and transmitted down to their posterity, all the rights and liberties of your Majesty's natural born subjects
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within the parent State, and have ever since enjoyed as Britons the priviledges of an exemption from any Taxation but such as have been imposed on them by themselves or their Representa- tives, and this Priviledge we esteem so invaluable that we are fully convinced no other can possibly exist without it. It is therefore with the utmost anxiety and concern we observe duties have lately been imposed upon us by Parliament for the sole and express purpose of raising a Revenue. This is a Taxation which we are fully persuaded the acknowledged Principles of.the British Constitution ought to protect us from. Free men cannot be legally taxed but by themselves or their Representatives, and that your Majesty's Subjects within this Province are represented in Parliament we cannot allow, and are convinced that from our situation we never can be."
Along with this address went instructions to McCulloh of whom they required "a Spirited Co-operation with the Agents of our Sister Colonies and Those who may be disposed to Serve us in Obtaining a Repeal of the Late Act Imposing In- ternal Taxes on Americans without Their Consent and the Which is Justly Dreaded by Them to be Nothing more than an Introduction to other acts of the same Injurious Tendency and fatal Consequences." In the same spirit of unity Harvey de- clared in his letter to the Massachusetts Assembly that the North Carolina Assembly will "ever be ready, firmly to unite with their sister colonies, in pursuing every constitutional measure for redress of the grievances so justly complained of. This House is desirous to cultivate the strictest harmony and friendship with the assemblies of the colonies in general, and with your House in particular." When this letter was received in Boston the Boston Evening Post triumphantly declared : "The colonies no longer disconnected, form one body; a com- mon sensation possesses the whole ; the circulation is complete, and the vital fluid returns from whence it was sent out."
As a warning to the other colonies the ministry selected Massachusetts for punishment. Persons suspected of encour- aging resistance to Parliament were to be arrested and sent to England for trial; town-meetings were to be suppressed; and two regiments were ordered to Boston to overawe that town. The blow was aimed at Massachusetts alone, but the other colonies promptly rallied to her support and raised the cry that Massachusetts was suffering in the common cause. Virginia acted first. Her Assembly denounced the govern- ment's action in a series of spirited resolutions, and sent them to the other assemblies "requesting their concurrence therein." In consequence they suffered dissolution, but the burgesses
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promptly met as a convention, agreed on a "Non-Importation Association," and circulated it throughout the colonies.
On November 2, 1769, John Harvey laid the Virginia resolu- tions before the North Carolina Assembly. The House, with- out a dissenting voice, adopted them almost verbatim, agreed on a second protest to the king, and instructed their agent, after presenting it to have it printed in the British papers. Convinced that the king was deaf to their prayers, they now began to appeal to their British brethren. They again denied the right of Parliament to levy taxes in America, affirmed the right of the colonies to unite in protests to the throne, and denounced as "highly derogatory to the rights of British Sub- jects" the carrying of any American to England for trial, "as thereby the inestimable priviledge of being tried by a jury from the Vicinage, as well as the liberty of summoning and producing witnesses on such Tryal, will be taken away from the party accused." "We can not without horror," they de- clared, "think of the new, unusual, and permit us withall humbly to add, unconstitutional and illegal mode recommended to your Majesty of seizing and carrying beyond sea the Inhab- itants of America suspected of any crime, [and] of trying such person in any other manner than by the Ancient and long established course of proceeding." "Truly alarmed at the fatal tendency of these pernicious Councils," [sic], they earn- estly prayed the king to interpose his protection against "such dangerous invasions" of their dearest privileges. These pro- ceedings, when reported to the governor, sealed the fate of that Assembly. Sending in haste for the House, he censured them for their action, declared that it "sapped the foundations of confidence and gratitude," and made it his "indispensable duty to put an end to this Session."
This sudden turn of affairs caught the Assembly unprepared for dissolution. Much important business, especially the adop- tion of the "Non-Importation Association," remained unfin- ished. Everybody realized that the effectiveness of non-im- portation as a weapon for fighting the Townshend duties depended entirely upon the extent to which it was adopted, and the fidelity with which it was observed. Any one colony therefore could easily defeat the whole scheme. When the North Carolina Assembly met in October, 1769, the association had been pretty generally adopted by the other colonies; con- sequently. the action of North Carolina was awaited with some concern. The leaders of the Assembly realized the situation fully, and were by no means ready to go home until they had taken the necessary action to bring the colony in line with the
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continental movement. Accordingly, immediately upon their dissolution, following the example of Virginia, they called the members together in convention to "take measures for pre- serving the true and essential interests of the province." Sixty-four of the seventy-seven members immediately repaired to the courthouse and re-organized as a convention independ- ent of the governor. John Harvey was unanimously chosen moderator. After discussing the situation fully through a session of two days, the convention came to a series of resolu- tions which of course affirmed "invincible attachment and un- shaken fidelity"' to the king, but protested with great vigor against the acts of Parliament levying internal taxes in the colonies and depriving them of their constitutional right of trial by jury as having a "tendency to disturb the peace and good order of this government, which," the members boldly asserted, "we, are willing, at the risque of our lives and for- tunes, to maintain and defend." The resolutions set forth a complete non-importation program. They pledged the sub- scribers to a course of economy, industry, and thrift; to "en- courage and promote the use of North American manufactures in general, and those of this province in particular;" neither to import themselves, nor to purchase from others, any goods, except paper, "which are or shall hereafter be taxed by act of Parliament for the purpose of raising a revenue in America ;" and to look upon "every subscriber who shall not strictly and literally adhere to his agreement, according to the true intent and meaning thereof, * * with the utmost contempt." This association was signed by sixty-four of "the late repre- sentatives of the people * being all that were then present," and by them recommended to their constituents in order to show their "readiness to join heartily with the other colonies in every legal method which may most probably tend to procure a redress" of grievances.
When the policy of non-importation was tried in opposition to the Stamp Act it was not successful, and the Loyalists ridi- culed the attempt of Virginia to revive it as a weapon against the Townshend Acts. But a new element had now entered into the situation: the union sentiment had developed into a reality, and the opponents of the government, taking advan- tage of this fact, pushed the movement with vigor and suc- cess. Colony after colony joined the movement, and when North Carolina came in, the Whig papers declared with great satisfaction : "This completes the chain of union throughout the continent for the measure of non-importation and econ- omy."
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But it was a simpler matter to adopt an association than to enforce it. The Tories, of course, opposed the whole scheme, and would gladly have welcomed an opportunity to defeat it. Their chance seemed to come when in April, 1770, Parliament repealed all the duties except the one on tea. The Tories hoped and the Whigs feared that this concession would break up the non-importation associations. While the former applauded the magnanimity of Parliament for yielding so much, the latter denounced the ministry for yielding no more, and regarding the partial repeal merely as a trap, redoubled their efforts to keep the association intact.
In North Carolina the merchants of the Cape Fear were the largest importers of British goods, and everybody recognized that their action would determine the matter. No non-impor- tation association could be made effective without their co-op- eration. Fortunately, Cornelius Harnett, one of the chief merchants of the province, was also chairman of the Sons of Liberty, and his influence went far toward determining the course of the Cape Fear merchants. As soon as information of Parliament's action reached Wilmington, he called a meet- ing of the Sons of Liberty in the Wilmington District to take proper action. A large number of "the principal inhabitants" attended at Wilmington, June 2, and "unanimously agreed to keep strictly to the non-importation agreement," and to co- operate with the other colonies "in every legal measure for obtaining ample redress of the grievances so justly complained of." In order to make their resolution more effective, they chose a committee to consult upon such measures as would best evince their "patriotism and loyalty" to the common cause, and "manifest their unanimity with the rest of the colonies." This committee was composed of thirty members representing all the Cape Fear counties and the towns of Wil- mington and Brunswick. Among its members were Cornelius Harnett, who was chosen chairman, James Moore, Samuel Ashe, Richard Quince, and Farquard Campbell, the most prom- inent merchants and planters of the Cape Fear section. They declared their intention to enforce strictly the non-importa- tion association; denounced the merchants of Rhode Island "who contrary to their solemn and voluntary contract, have violated their faith pledged to the other colonies, and thereby shamefully deserted the common cause of American liberty ;" declared that they would have no dealings with any merchant who imported goods "contrary to the spirit and intention" of the non-importation association; and constituted themselves a special committee to inspect all goods brought into the Cape
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Fear and to keep the public informed of any that were im- ported in violation of the association. They then ordered their resolves to be "immediately transmitted to all the trad- ing towns in this colony;" and in the spirit of co-operation, Cornelius Harnett wrote to the Sons of Liberty of South Car- olina to inform them of their action. In this letter he said:
"We beg leave to assure you that the inhabitants of those six counties and we doubt not of every county in this province, are convinced of the necessity of adhering to their former resolutions, and you may depend, they are tenacious of their just rights as any of their brethren on the continent and firmly resolved to stand or fall with them in support of the common cause of American liberty. Worthless men * are the production of every country, and we are also unhappy as to have a few among us 'who have not virtue enough to resist the allurement of present gain.' Yet we can venture to assert, that the people in general of this colony, will be spirited and steady in support of their rights as English subjects, and will not tamely submit to the yoke of oppression. 'But if by the iron hand of power,' they are at last crushed; it is however their fixed resolution, either to fall with the same dignity and spirit you so justly mention, or transmit to their posterity entire, the inestimable blessings of our free Constitution. The disinterested and public spirited behaviour of the merchants and other inhabitants of your colony justly merits the applause of every lover of liberty on the continent. The people of any colony who have not virtue enough to follow so glorious examples must be lost to every sense of freedom and conse- quently deserve to be slaves."
The interchange of such views and opinions among the sev- eral colonies greatly strengthened the union sentiment; while the practical operation of the non-importation associations revealed to both the Americans and the ministry the power that lay in a united America.
Vol. I-22
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CHAPTER XIX DOWNFALL OF THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT
Soon after his victory at Alamance, Tryon left North Caro- lina for New York. He was succeeded by Josiah Martin who took the oath of office August 12, 1771. Martin, as Saunders observes, was a man ill calculated to conduct an administration successfully even in ordinary times. Stubborn and tactless, obsequious to those in authority and overbearing to those under authority, he found himself suddenly placed in a posi- tion that required almost every quality of mind and character that he did not possess. He was, it is true, an honest man, but he was intolerant and knew nothing of the art of diplomacy. Sincerely devoted to the king, whom he thought it no degrada- tion to regard literally as a master, he had no faith in the sincerity of the Americans when in one breath they declared their loyalty to the Crown and in the next demanded from the Crown a recognition of their constitutional rights. "Insuffer- ably tedious and turgid, his dispatchies make the tired reader long for the well-constructed, clear-cut sentences and polished impertinences of Tryon," and show that he was utterly incapable of understanding the people whom he had been sent to govern.1 No worse selection could have been made at that time; the people of North Carolina were in no mood to brook the petty tyranny of a provincial governor, and Mar- tin's personality became one of the chief factors that drove North Carolina headlong into revolution and prepared the colony, first of all the colonies, to take a definite stand for inde- pendence.
Their experience with the Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts taught the king and ministry the power that lay in a united America, and henceforth they avoided as far as possible such measures as would give the colonies a common grievance upon which they could unite. Their change of policy embraced
1 Saunders: Prefatory Notes to Colonial Records of North Caro- lina, Vol. IX, p. iv.
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two principles both of which the Americans promptly re- pudiated. One was the principle of the Declaratory Act. The other was the assumption that the king's instructions to the provincial governors were of higher authority than acts of assemblies and were binding on both assemblies and governors alike. For the next three years these instructions "played an important part in American politics. * * They came under the king's sign manual, with the privy seal annexed. It was said that officials could not refuse to execute them without giving up the rights of the Crown. A set was not framed to apply to all the colonies alike, but special instructions were sent to each colony as local circumstances dictated. Hence the patriots could not create a general issue on them." 2 The Americans at once perceived their danger, and were not to be caught by it; when they came a few years later to adopt a Declaration of Independence, this policy of the king was one of the "facts submitted to a candid world," in justification of their action.
In North Carolina the battle was fought out on a very im- portant local measure involving the jurisdiction of the colo- nial courts, about which the king issued positive instructions directing the course which the Assembly should pursue. Thus a momentous issue was presented for the consideration of the people's representatives : Should they permit the Assembly to degenerate into a mere machine whose highest function would be to register the will of the Sovereign; or should they maintain it as the Constitution intended it to be, a free, deliber- ative, law-making body, responsible for its acts only to the people? Upon their answer to this question it is not too much to say hung the fate of their remotest posterity. It should be recorded as one of the chief events in our history that the Assembly had the insight to perceive the issue clearly and the courage to meet it boldly. "Appointed by the people [they declared] to watch over their rights and priviledges, and to guard them from every encroachment of a private and public nature, it becomes our duty and will be our constant endeavour to preserve them secure and inviolate to the present age, and to transmit them unimpaired to posterity. * The * * rules of right and wrong, the limits of the prerogative of the Crown and of priviledges of the people are in the present age well known and ascertained; to exceed either of them is highly unjustifiable."
2 Frothingham : The Rise of the Republic of the United States, p. 252.
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The point at issue was the "foreign attachment clause" in the court law. British merchants who transacted business in the province through agents without ever being present in per- son, became in course of time extensive landowners here. The Tryon court law contained a clause empowering the colonial courts to attach this property for debts owed by such mer- chants to North Carolinians. The merchants objected to the clause, but the king refused to veto the act because by its own provision it was to expire at the end of five years and he ex- pected, when a new bill was framed, to have the clause omitted without interfering with the business of the courts. Accord- ingly he instructed Governor Martin not to approve any bill containing the attachment clause.
The struggle began in the Assembly of January, 1773, and during that and the next two sessions was the occasion of one of the best conducted debates in the history of the colonial Assembly. Both sides maintained their positions with ability. The Council acting under instructions declined to pass the As- sembly's bill unless it was so amended as to provide that at- tachment proceedings should be "according to the laws and statutes of England." But the Assembly reminded the Coun- cil that in England such proceedings existed by municipal custom, not by statute, and were "so essentially local" in their application "as not to admit of being extended by any analogy to this province." They contended that "to secure a privilege so important the mode of obtaining it should be grounded in certainty, the law positive and express, and nothing left to the exercise of doubt or discretion." They therefore rejected the Council's amendment. After much debate a compromise was effected by the addition of a clause suspending the operation of the act until the king's pleasure could be learned. The Assembly thereupon sent it to their agent in London with in- structions to leave no stone unturned to secure the royal sig- nature. He was to say to the king that "so important does this matter appear to this Province that they cannot by any means think of giving it up, * * choosing rather the misfortune of a temporary deprivation of Laws than to form any system whereby they may be left without remedy on this great point."
To this appeal the king replied by rejecting the bill and in- structing Governor Martin to create courts of oyer and ter- miner by the exercise of the "ever ready prerogative." In March, 1773; therefore, the governor appointed Richard Cas- well and Maurice Moore judges to sit with Chief Justice Martin Howard to hold these courts. Thus another element
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of discord was injected into the controversy, for when the Assembly met in December, the governor was compelled to in- form them of the "royal disallowance" of the court law, and at the same time to ask for money to meet the expenses of his prerogative courts. The Assembly's refusal was sharp and peremptory. They declared that while "one of the greatest calamities to which any political society can be liable," the suspension of the judicial powers of the government, had be- fallen the province, and no hope of redress through "the inter- position of Government" remained, "yet the misery of such a situation vanishes in competition with a mode of redress exercised by courts unconstitutionally framed : it is the blessed distinction of the British Code of Laws that our civil and criminal Jurisdiction have their foundation in the Laws of the Land, and are regulated by principles as fixt as the Constitu- tion. We humbly conceive that the power of issuing Commis- sions of Oyer and Terminer and General Gaol Delivery, dele- gated by his Majesty to your Excellency, cannot be legally carried into execution without the aid of the Legislature of this Province, and that we cannot consistent with the Justice due to our Constituents make provisions for defraying the expense attending a measure which we do not approve."
The governor and his Council protested, argued, pleaded, and threatened. The Council predicted that unless courts were speedily established the "Province must soon be deserted by its Inhabitants and an end put to its name and political exist- ence," and reproached the House for bringing the colony to this distressed situation "for the sake only of a Comparatively small advantage supposed to lie in a mode of proceeding by attachment, a proceeding unknown both to the Common and Statute Law of the Mother Country." This message drew fire from the House. The issue now involved much more than a mere legal procedure; the independence of the Assembly as a legislative body was at stake. "This House," retorted the Assembly, "ever faithful to the discharge of the important trust reposed in them by the Inhabitants of this Province have in the conduct of every Public Measure, had in view the interest and happiness of our constituents, as the grand object that ought to govern all our determinations. * Conscious from our late melancholy experience of the unhappy consequences that attend the extinguishment of the Civil and Criminal Jurisdiction in this Province. We dread the continuance of the calamity and submit still to suffer, only to avoid a greater misfortune. * * This House for themselves and their constituents heartily acknowledge the
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