USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: The Colonial and Revolutionary Periods 1584 1783, Volume I > Part 33
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necessity for Court Laws, and without anticipating the horrors of the desertion of the Inhabitants of this Colony and the ex- tinguishment of its name and political existence, they experi- ence in the present unhappy State of this Province sufficient to induce them to wish a change upon legal constitutional principles. *
* * Were the attachment Law as formerly enjoyed by us as small an advantage, compared with that of having Court Laws as you contend it is, the right we possess to that is equal to the rights to a more important object; in the smallest, it [a surrender of the right] is bartering the rights of a people for a present convenience, in a greater it would be the same crime aggravated only by its circumstances. We observe with surprise that a doctrine maintained by a former House of Assembly is now adopted by you, and that you dis- close as your opinion that attachments are not known to the Common or Statute Law of England; what then did Govern- ment tender to this people in lieu of their former mode, when it proffered to the last Assembly a mode of attachment agree- able to the laws of England?"
Finding appeals to loyalty and threats of punishment equally unavailing, and caught in his inconsistency, the governor de- termined to send the members home to consult their constit- uents, and accordingly sent his private secretary to command the House to attend him at the Palace. Knowing well enough what this meant, the House took a parting shot well calculated to ruffle his spirits. A committee was appointed to draw an address to the king, and was instructed "as the most effectual means to promote its success," to request Governor Tryon, "who happily for this Country for many years presided over it, and of whose good intentions to its welfare we feel the fullest convictions," to forward it to his Majesty and support it "with his interest and influence." He was asked to "accept of this important Trust as testimony of the great affection this Colony bears him, and the entire confidence they repose in him." The members of the committee to prepare this address were Harvey, Johnston, Howe, Ashe, Hooper, Hewes, Isaac Edwards and Harnett. After adopting this insulting resolu- tion as much to show their contempt for Martin as their regard for Tryon, the members of the House proceeded to the Palace where they were dismissed. The governor asked them to rep- resent the facts to the people fairly, saying, "I am fully per- suaded they know too well their own interests to make such a sacrifice [as the absence of courts entailed], or to approve your conduct. That I may give you opportunity to learn their sen- timents, I now, * *
* prorogue this Assembly."
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But it was useless for the governor to appeal from the As- sembly to the people; it was but an appeal from the teachers to the taught. To send the former back to their constituents was but to send them to gather fresh endorsements and receive renewed support in their contest. When they returned in March, 1774, they told the governor that they had consulted the people, had stated to them candidly the point for which they contended, and had informed them how far the king was disposed to indulge their wishes. "These facts," they de- clared, "we have represented to them fairly, disdaining any equivocation or reserve that might leave them ignorant of the Conduct we have pursued or the real motives that influenced it. And we have the heartfelt satisfaction to inform your Ex- cellency that they have expressed their warmest approbation of our past proceedings, and have given us positive instruc- tions to persist in our endeavors to obtain the process of For- eign Attachments upon the most liberal and ample footing." To this message the governor replied in one of his few really good papers. He wrote with conflicting feelings for he was compelled to defend an instruction of his master with which he did not entirely sympathize. Passing by the "just exulta- tion" with which the Assembly told him of their constituents' approval of their course, he made an eloquent plea for com- promise. But the Assembly stood firm, passed the usual bill with the usual clause, and, declaring that they had pursued every measure to relieve the colony from its distressed condi- tion, sent it to the governor. The governor rejected it. This brought the struggle to an end for the only other Assembly that met in North Carolina under royal rule was in session but four stormy days and did not have time to consider the court law. North Carolina, therefore, remained without courts for the trial of civil causes until after independence was declared. Among the causes recited in the Declaration of Independence to justify that action, was the following: "He [the king] has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers."
The situation in North Carolina was indeed serions. In March, 1773, Josiah Quincy, Jr., of Boston, traveling through the province, noted that but five provincial laws were in force, that no courts were open, that no one could recover a debt except for small sums within the jurisdiction of a magistrate's court, and that offenders escaped with impunity. "The people," he declared, "are in great consternation about the
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matter ; what will be the result is problematical." 3 Many were disposed to charge the whole trouble to the governor. They did not believe that he had "properly or judiciously explained to the government at home" the necessity for the protection they sought ; and they charged to his "spirit of intolerance and impatience" the failure of the Assembly to pass a county court law, "the jurisdiction of which would have been so lim- ited that it could not possibly have operated to the disfavor of any British merchant," and the want of which subjected the people of the province to innumerable inconveniences. But there was no disposition on the part of the leaders of the pop- ular party to shirk their own responsibility. Fortunately they received loyal support from their constituents, who chose rather to bear all the inconveniences of the situation than to surrender the independence of their judiciary. The royal gov- ernment was thoroughly beaten because the people made anarchy tolerable.
Throughout the colonies, the Whig leaders, as we may now call them, saw through the policy of the king in trying to avoid a general issue, and held many an anxious conference to devise a working plan for united action. One of the most important, as it was one of the most interesting of these conferences, was held between Josiah Quincy, Jr., of Massachusetts, and Robert Howe and Cornelius Harnett, of North Carolina, at the home of the latter on the Cape Fear. Quincy arrived at Brunswick, March 26, and spent the next five days enjoying the hospitality of the Cape Fear patriots. He found William Hill "warmly attached to the cause of American freedom;" William Dry "seemingly warm against the measures of British and conti- . mental administration ;" William Hooper "apparently in the Whig interest." The night of March 30th he spent at the home of Cornelius Harnett. Here all doubt of his host's poli- tical sentiments vanished. "Spent the night," he records, "at Mr. Harnett's, the Samuel Adams of North Carolina (except in point of fortune). Robert Howe, Esq., Harnett and myself made the social triumvirate of the evening. The plan of con- tinental correspondence highly relished, much wished for, and resolved upon as proper to be pursued." 4
The "plan of continental correspondence" was, of course, original with neither Quincy nor Harnett. Samuel Adams had already put a system of provincial correspondence into opera-
3 Memoir of the Life of Josiah Quincy, Jr., p. 117 et seq.
4 Memoir, p. 120.
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tion in Massachusetts; and a few days before Quincy arrived in North Carolina, but too late for the news to have reached Wilmington, the Virginia Assembly had issued a circular letter proposing to the other assemblies the organization of a sys- tem of inter-colonial committees to carry on a "continental correspondence." During the summer several of the colonies adopted the plan. The decision of North Carolina had been practically settled at Wilmington in March, but as the As- sembly was not to meet until December, no official action was taken until then. On the second day of the session, John Har- vey, the speaker, laid the Virginia resolutions, together with the resolutions and endorsements of Massachusetts, Rhode Is- land, Connecticut and Delaware, before the House; and Howe, Harnett and Johnston were appointed a committee to draw an answer which they were to report to the House. In their re- port they recommended hearty concurrence in the "spirited resolves" of the Virginia Assembly, particularly "in the meas- ure proposed for appointing Corresponding Committees in every Colony, by which such Harmony and communication will be established among them, that they will at all times be ready to exert their united efforts to preserve their just rights and Liberties which appear of late to be so systematically invaded;" and they nominated as a Standing Committee of Correspondence and Enquiry" for North Carolina John Harvey, Robert Howe, Cornelius Har- nett, William Hooper, Richard Caswell, Edward Vail, John Ashe, Joseph Hewes, and Samuel Johnston. It was to be the particular business of this committee "to obtain the most early and authentic intelligence of all such Acts and resolu- tions of the British Parliament, or proceedings of Administra- tion as may relate to or effect the British Colonies in America and to keep up and maintain a correspondence and communi- cation with our Sister Colonies respecting these important considerations," and to report their proceedings to the As- sembly. The work of this committee bore good fruit, for the members brought to their task a truly national spirit in deal- ing with continental affairs. To use a modern political term, they adopted a platform in which they declared that the inhab- itants of North Carolina "ought to consider themselves inter- ested in the cause of the town of Boston as the cause of Amer- ica in general;" that they would "concur with and co-operate in such measures as may be concerted and agreed on by their Sister Colonies" for resisting the measures of the British min- istry, and that in order to promote "conformity and unanimity in the Councils of America," a Continental Congress was "ab-
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solutely necessary." The significance of this system of com- mittees was soon apparent. Indeed, as Jolin Fiske declares, it "was nothing less than the beginning of the American union. * It only remained for the various inter-colonial com- mittees to assemble together, and there would be a congress speaking in the name of the continent." >
In the meantime came the Boston Tea Party, followed promptly by the four "intolerable acts" which closed the port of Boston, annulled the charter of Massachusetts, authorized the transportation beyond sea for trial of persons accused of crime, and legalized the quartering of troops on the people of Massachusetts. These acts aroused the whole continent and led to the call for a Continental Congress. The suggestion for such a congress found instant favor. It was intended, follow- ing the precedent established with the Stamp Act Congress, that the delegates should be chosen by the assemblies. When Governor Martin learned of these plans, he determined to pre- vent North Carolina's being represented by refusing to con- vene the Assembly until too late for them to elect delegates. Tryon had successfully adopted this expedient to prevent the election of delegates to the Stamp Act Congress, but. Martin lacked a good deal of having Tryon's tact and political shrewd- ness, nor did he enjoy the personal popularity which had en- abled Tryon to meet successfully many delicate situations. Be- sides the popular party was now organized for resistance and its leaders were not the kind of men to be caught twice in the same trap. Accordingly when Martin's private secretary communicated the governor's determination to Speaker Har- vey, Harvey flew into a rage, exclaiming, "In that case the people will hold a convention independent of the governor!"
On April 5, 1774, Samuel Johnston wrote to William Hoop- er : "Colonel Harvey and myself lodged last night with Colonel [Edward] Buncombe, and as we sat up very late the conver- sation turned on Continental and provincial affairs. Colonel Harvey said during the night, that Mr. Biggleston told him, that the Governor did not intend to convene another Assembly until he saw some chance of a better one than the last; and that he told the Secretary that then the people would convene one themselves. He was in a very violent mood, and declared he was for assembling a convention independent of the Gov- ernor, and urged upon us to co-operate with him. He says he will lead the way, and will issue handbills under his own name, and that the committee of correspondence ought to go to work
5 The American Revolution, Vol. I, p. 81.
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at once. As for my own part, I do not know what better can be done. Without Courts to sustain the property and to ex- ercise the talents of the Country, and the people alarmed and dissatisfied, we must do something to save ourselves. Colonel Harvey said he had mentioned the matter only to Willie Jones of Halifax, whom he had met the day before, and that he thought well of it, and promised to exert himself in its favor. I beg your friendly counsel and advice on the subject, and hope you will speak of it to Mr. Harnett and Colonel Ashe, or any other such men."
Harvey's bold and revolutionary proposition fell upon will- ing ears. The popular leaders gave it their united support. The Committee of Correspondence declared that if the gover- nor carried out his determination they would "endeavor in some other manner to collect the Representatives of the people." Maturer consideration, however, led to the conclu- sion that the call for such a convention had better come from the people themselves. Accordingly the movement was launched at Wilmington, July 21, by a great mass meeting attended by men from all the Cape Fear counties. William Hooper was called to the chair. The meeting declared it "highly expedient" that a provincial congress independent of the governor be held and invited the several counties of the province to send delegates to it. This call met with a prompt and cordial response. Rowan, Craven, Pitt, Johnston, Gran- ville, Anson, and Chowan counties led the way. In those coun- ties popular meetings were promptly held, patriotic resolu- tions adopted, and delegates elected to the proposed congress. Through all these resolutions ran the spirit of liberty and union. The Wilmington meeting favored action "in concert with the other Colonies." Anson County thought that North Carolina ought to act "in union with the rest of the Colonies." Rowan County struck the highest note in a resolution declar- ing it to be "the Duty and Interest of all the American Colo- nies, firmly to unite in an indissoluble Union and Association." All the meetings endorsed the proposed Continental Congress. Thirty-six counties and towns joined in the movement by choosing delegates to meet in a provincial congress at New Bern, August 25, 1774.
These proceedings produced consternation at the Gover- nor's Palace. Hastily calling his Council in session, the gov- ernor represented the situation to them as exceedingly grave and likely "to draw His Majesty's displeasure on this Prov- ince," and sought advice as to "the measures most proper to be taken, to discourage or prevent these Assemblies of the
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People." The Council after taking a whole day "maturely to consider the Subject," could think of nothing better than a proclamation which the governor gravely issued, August 13th. He not only directed that the people should hold no further county meetings, but "more particularly that they do forbear to attend, and do prevent as far in them lies, the meeting of certain Deputies, said to be appointed to be held at New Bern on the 25th Instant." One of Josiah Martin's most glaring faults as a ruler was his utter lack of a sense of humor; he took his resounding proclamation in dead earnest and was greatly perturbed to find that nobody else shared this view with him. On August 25th, he again called his Council to- gether, notified them that many of the delegates had come to New Bern for the Congress, and asked their advice whether he could take "any further measures" to prevent their meet- ing; and was gravely informed that it was the Council's "unanimous opinion that no other steps could be properly taken at this juncture."
When the Congress met on August 25th, seventy-one dele- gates answered the roll call. Among its members were John Campbell, John Ashe, and Richard Caswell, former speakers of the Assembly; William Hooper and Joseph Hewes, soon to become immortalized as signers of the Declaration of In- dependence; Samuel Johnston and Abner Nash who, like Caswell, were destined to become governors of North Caro- lina; but on none of these eminent men did the Congress fix its choice when it came to select its presiding officer. The thoughts of all centered at once upon one man, John Harvey, father of the Congress, who was its unanimous choice as moderator.
The man thus called to preside over the most revolutionary body that ever met in North Carolina, had been for a decade the undisputed leader of the popular party in the province. Then in his fiftieth year, he had been in public life ever since reaching his majority. In 1746 he entered the Assembly as a representative from Perquimans County, just in time to be- come involved in the representation controversy that marked the closing years of Governor Johnston's administration. Sympathizing fully with the views of the northern counties, he refused during the next eight years to sit in an Assembly which he believed to be unconstitutionally organized ; but when the controversy was ended and the victory won, he again ap- peared in his seat which he continuously occupied during the remaining twenty-one years of his life. Out of his first ex- perience in public life, Harvey brought an intense hostility
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to government by prerogative that made him during the rest of his career the colony's most aggressive champion of con- stitutional representative government. He held that the charter upon which the colonial government was founded was a compact between sovereign and people which neither could rightfully violate. He insisted that no number less than a majority could legally be counted a quorum of the Assembly because it had been so fixed by the charter. He upheld the dignity of the Assembly as a law-making body and utterly repudiated the doctrine that its highest function was to register the will of the Crown. He maintained that no power on earth could constitutionally levy taxes on the people of North Carolina except their representatives in the General Assembly and rejected the theory that they were represented in the British Parliament. The sincerity of his convictions, the fearlessness and ability with which he main- tained them, gradually won for him the foremost place in the councils of his party and led to his election in 1765 to the speakership of the Assembly. That place of leadership he held, except for one Assembly which ill health prevented his attending, until his death in 1775. During that decade he was the acknowledged leader of that remarkable group of North Carolina statesmen who prevented the triumph of the ministerial policy in North Carolina, swung the colony into line with the. other colonies in the continental movement toward union, reduced the royal government to impotency, organized a provincial government independent of the Crown, inaugurated the Revolution and led the way to independence. Throughout these great movements, Harvey's leadership was characterized by clearness of vision that appealed to men's judgment, firmness of purpose that inspired their confidence, and boldness of action that stirred their imagination and aroused their enthusiasm. Such were the qualities that led his associates in one of the ablest assemblages in our history to make him their unanimous choice for their presiding of- ficer.
The Congress remained in session but three days. In a series of spirited and clear-cut resolutions it gave expression to the American views on the questions in dispute with the mother country; denounced the several acts aimed at Massa- chusetts and Boston ; declared that the people of Massachusetts had "distinguished themselves in a manly support of the rights of America in general"; endorsed the proposal for a Con- tinental Congress to which it elected William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, and Richard Caswell delegates; pledged the honor of
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the province in support of whatever measures the Continental Congress might recommend to the colonies; adopted a non- importation agreement and provided for its execution. John Harvey was authorized to call another Congress whenever he deemed it necessary.
No more significant step had ever been taken in North Carolina than the successful mceting of this Congress. It revealed the people to themselves. Said the freeholders of Pitt County : "As the Constitutional Assembly of this Colony are prevented from exercising their right of providing for the security of the liberties of the people, that right again reverts to the people as the foundation from whence all power and legislation flow." The Congress was a practical demonstra- tion of how the people might exercise this right. They began to understand that there was no peculiar power in the writs and proclamations of a royal governor. They themselves could elect delegates and organize legislatures without the in- tervention of the king's authority, and this was a long step toward independence.
This Congress and every county meeting held in North Carolina in the summer of 1774, had re-echoed the cry, then ringing throughout America, that Boston was suffering in the common cause, and the people of North Carolina by their generous contributions to the stricken city showed that it was no mere rhetorical expression. From the counties along the coast, and even from as far in the back country as Anson County, provisions poured into New Bern, Wilmington, and Edenton to be shipped free of all freight and other charges to the suffering poor of the New England metropolis. At their meeting on August 18, 1774, the freeholders of Anson County appointed a committee "to open and promote a subscription for contributing toward the relief of those indigent Inhabitants of the Town of Boston" whom the Boston Port Bill had "de- prived of the means of subsisting themselves." Pitt County followed the example and loaded a ship with supplies for the relief of "the poor of Boston." From Craven also sailed a vessel bound for Salem with a cargo of corn, peas and pork "for the relief of the distressed inhabitants of Boston." At Wilmington a subscription was opened "for the Relief of the poor Artizans and Labourers" of Boston, and the committee in charge was able to declare with just pride, "we have reason to congratulate ourselves upon the generous contribu- tions of the Inhabitants which has put it in our power to load a vessel with provisions which will sail this week for the port of Salem." From Edenton, too, sailed in September,
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1774, the sloop Penelope carrying a cargo of 2,096 bushels of corn, 22 barrels of flour, and 17 barrels of pork, which John Harvey and Joseph Hewes had collected from "the inhabi- tants of two or three counties in the neighborhood of Eden- ton." "I hope to be able to send another cargo this winter, for the same charitable purpose," wrote Harvey to the Massa- chusetts Committee of Correspondence, "as the American in- habitants of this colony entertain a just sense of the suffering of our brethren in Boston, and have yet hopes that when the united determinations of the continent reach the royal ear, they will have redress from the cruel, unjust, illegal and op- pressive late acts of the British Parliament."
Foiled in his purpose to hold North Carolina aloof from the Continental Congress, Governor Martin determined to make the best of a bad situation and summoned the Assembly to meet him at New Bern, April 4, 1775. John Harvey imme- diately called a congress to meet at the same place on April 3d. It was a wise precaution, for the Assembly sat only at the pleasure of the governor who would certainly dissolve it at the first manifestation of disloyalty. The leaders of the popular party intended that the same individuals should com- pose both bodies and with few exceptions this plan was care- fully carried into execution. Martin was furious and de- ยท nounced Harvey's action in two resounding proclamations. The Congress replied by electing Harvey moderator, the As- sembly by electing him speaker. The governor roundly scored both bodies, and both bodies roundly scored the governor. It was indeed a pretty situation. One set of men composed two assemblies-one constitutional, sitting by authority of the royal governor, and in obedience of his writ; the other extra- constitutional, sitting in defiance of his authority, and in direct disobedience of his command. The governor impo- tently demanded that the Assembly join him in denouncing and dispersing the Congress, composed largely of the same men whose aid he solicited. The two bodies met in the same hall, the Congress at 9 o'clock A. M., the Assembly at 10, and were presided over by the same man. "When the governor's private secretary was announced at the door, in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, Mr. Moderator Harvey *
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