USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: The Colonial and Revolutionary Periods 1584 1783, Volume I > Part 35
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Martin reached Fort Johnston on June 2d, and began at once to concoct new schemes for reducing the province to obedience. His activity took the form of a thundering procla-
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mation, in which he denounced the committees of safety and warned the people against their illegal proceedings; of an application to General Gage for a royal standard around which the loyal and faithful might rally; and of an elaborate plan for the organization of the Highlanders and Regulators of the interior for military service. His plans were approved by the king who promised such assistance as might be neces- sary. They gave great alarm to the Whigs. "Our situation here is truly alarming," wrote the Wilmington committee; "the Governor [is] collecting men, provisions, warlike stores of every kind, spiriting up the back country, and perhaps the Slaves; finally strengthening the fort with new works in such a manner as may make the Capture of it extremely difficult." "Nothing," declared Harnett, "shall be wanting on our part to disconcert such diabolical schemes." The committees kept such close watch over his movements that Martin declared no messenger or letter could escape them. They intercepted his dispatches, frustrated his plans, and in general made life so miserable for him that he bemoaned his situation as "most despicable and mortifying to any man of greater feelings than a Stoic." "I daily see indignantly, the Sacred Majesty of my Royal Master insulted, the Rights of His Crown denied and violated, His Government set at naught and trampled upon, his servants of highest dignity reviled, traduced, abused, the Rights of His Subjects destroyed by the most arbitrary usurpations, and the whole Constitution unhinged and pros- trate, and I live, alas! ingloriously only to deplore it."
On June 20th, the committees of New Hanover, Brunswick, Bladen, Duplin, and Onslow counties, in session at Wilming- ton, declared that the governor had "by the whole tenor of his conduct, since the unhappy disputes between Great Britain and the colonies, discovered himself to be an enemy to the happiness of this colony in particular, and to the freedom, rights and privileges of America in general." Determined, therefore, to treat him as an enemy, the Wilmington committee passed an order forbidding any communications with him. Expulsion from the province was the logical result of this order, and the leaders were soon ready to take this step also. In a letter to Samuel Johnston, July 13th, urging him to call a provincial convention, the Wilmington committee said : "We have a number of Enterprising young fellows that would attempt to take the fort [Fort Joliston], but are much afraid of having their Conduct disavowed by the Convention." But what these "enterprising young fellows" were afraid to at- tempt, Cornelius Harnett, John Ashe and Robert Howe made
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up their minds to do. Captain John Collet, the commander of the fort, who felt all the professional soldier's contempt for the militia and all the Britisher's contempt for the provincials, took no pains to conceal his feelings. A long series of studied insults had exasperated the people of the Cape Fear against him, but they had borne them all patiently. But now news came that at Governor Martin's command, he was preparing the fort "for the reception of a promised reinforcement," the arrival of which would be the signal for the erection of the king's standard. The committee regarded this as a declaration of war, and "having taken these things into consideration, judged it might be of the most pernicious consequences to the people at large, if the said John Collet should be suffered to remain in the Fort, as he might thereby have an opportunity of carrying his iniquitous schemes into execution." They accord- ingly called for volunteers to take the fort, and in response "a great many volunteers were immediately collected."
The committee's preparations alarmed Governor Martin. Nobody realized better than he that the fort could not be held against a determined attack. Yet its defense was a matter of honor and its surrender would have a bad effect in the province. Besides it held artillery "considerable in value," with a quan- tity of movable stores and ammunition. "Its Artillery which is heavy," wrote Martin, "might in the hands of the Mob be turned against the King's Ship, and so annoy her as to oblige her to quit her present station which is most convenient in all respects." Then, too, an unsuccessful defense meant the cap- ture of the governor himself. In this perplexing situation, Martin decided to remove the stores to a transport, to withdraw the garrison, dismantle the fortifications, and seek refuge on board the Cruizer. These plans he successfully carried into effect on July 16th. Almost at the very hour of his flight, Lord Dartmouth was writing to him: "I hope His Majesty's Gov- ernment in North Carolina may be preserved, and His Gover- nor and other officers not reduced to the disgraceful necessity of seeking protection on Board the King's Ships."
Smarting keenly under his disgrace, Martin hastened to put on record the punishment he desired to inflict on those most responsible for it. From the cabin of the "Cruizer, Sloop of War, in Cape Fear River," July 16th, he wrote to Lord Dartmouth :
"Hearing of a Proclamation of the King, proscribing John Hancock and Sam [ue]] Adams of the Massachusetts Bay, and seeing clearly that further proscriptions will be necessary before Government can be settled again upon sure Founda-
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tions in America, I hold it my indispensable duty to mention to your Lordship Cornelius Harnett, John Ashe, Robert Howes 2 and Abner Nash, as persons who have marked them- selves out as proper objects for such distinction in this Colony by their unremitted labours to promote sedition and rebellion here from the beginning of the discontents in America to this time, that they stand foremost among the patrons of revolt and anarchy."
Rumors of Martin's plans at Fort Johnston having reached the committees of New Hanover and Brunswick, they de- termined to take steps to prevent their execution. A call for volunteers was promptly answered by 500 minute-men. Be- fore setting out for the fort, Col. John Aslie, who commanded the New Hanover contingent, dispatched to Governor Martin a declaration of their purpose. The fort, he said, had been built and maintained by the people of the province to protect them in time of war and to aid their trade and navigation in time of peace, but these ends had been defeated by Captain Collet. He had illegally invaded the rights and property of private persons by wantonly detaining vessels applying for bills of health; by threatening vengeance against magistrates whose actions in the execution of the duties of their offices he happened to disapprove; by setting at defiance the high sheriff of the county in the execution of his office; by treating the king's writs served on him for just debts with shameful con- tempt and insult; by unparalled injustice in detaining and em- bezzling a large quantity of goods which having been unfortu- nately wrecked near the fort, had from every principle of humanity the highest claims to his attention and care for the benefit of the unhappy sufferers ; by his base encouragement of slaves to elope from their masters and his atrocious and horrid declaration that he would incite them to insurrection. These things, and many others of like character, had excited the in- dignation and resentment of the people but they had sub- mitted to them for a time in the hopes that the Assembly would grant relief; but now they learned that Captain Collet was dismantling the fort and they proposed to prevent it. Replying to this communication, Martin declared that Captain Collet was acting at his command and he hoped, therefore, the people would not proceed with their design of attacking the fort.
2 "Robert Howes," wrote Martin, "is commonly called Howe, he having impudently assumed that name for some years past in affecta- tion of the noble family that bears it, whose least eminent virtues have ever been far beyond his imitation." Col. Ree., Vol. X, p. 98.
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John Ashe's answer was an order to all the masters and commanders of ships in the Cape Fear to furnish their boats to convey his men and arms down the river to Fort Johnston. On July 18th, 500 minute-men under his command rendez- voused at Brunswick and during the night marched on the fort and applied the torch. Early in the morning of July 19th, Martin was aroused from his quarters on the Cruizer by the announcement that Fort Johnston was on fire. Hurrying to the deck he watched the rapid spread of the flames as they re- duced the fort to ashes. The "rabble," he wrote, burned sev- eral houses that had been erected by Captain Collet, and thus, in the words of the Wilmington committee, "effectually dis- lodged that atrocious Freebooter." "Mr. John Ashe and Mr. Cornelius Harnett," wrote the enraged governor, "were ring- leaders of this savage and audacious mob."
CHAPTER XXI
THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL
Upon the adjournment of the second Provincial Congress, April 7, 1775, authority was given to Jolin Harvey, or in the event of his death to Samuel Johnston, to call another Congress whenever it became necessary. Harvey dying in May, the leadership of the revolutionary party devolved upon Johnston. Although a native of Scotland, Johnston had passed his life since early infancy in North Carolina, and felt for the colony all the affection and loyalty that men usually feel only for the land of their nativity. His public career, which began in 1759 with his election to represent Chowan County in the General Assembly, covered a period of forty- four years and embraced every branch of the public service. He was legislator, delegate to four provincial congresses, president of two constitutional conventions, member of the Continental Congress, judge, governor, United States senator. By inheritance, by training and by conviction he was a con- servative in politics. He clung tenaciously to the things that were and viewed with apprehension, if not with distrust, any departure from the beaten path of experience. Holding the principles of the British Constitution in great reverence, he regarded the policies of the British ministry toward America as revolutionary in their tendency, and therefore threw the whole weight of his influence against them.
In the great crises of our history, immediately preceding and immediately following the Revolution, Johnston saw per- haps more clearly than any of his colleagues the true nature of the problem confronting them. This problem was, on the one hand, to preserve in America the fundamental principles of English liberty against the encroachments of the British Parliament, and on the other, to secure the guarantees of law and order against the well-meant but ill-considered schemes of honest but ignorant reformers. For a full quarter of a century he pursued both of these ends so patiently and per- sistently that neither the wrath of a royal governor, threaten-
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SAMUEL JOHNSTON From a portrait in the Governor's office, Raleigh
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ing withdrawal of royal favor and deprivation of office, nor the fierce and passionate denunciations of party leaders, menac- ing him with loss of popular support and defeat at the polls, could swerve him a hair's breadth from the path of what he considered the public good. He had in the fullest degree that rarest of all virtues in men who serve the public, courage- courage to fight the battles of the people, if need be, against the people themselves. While he never questioned the right of the people to decide public questions as they chose, he fre- quently doubted the wisdom of their decisions; and when such doubt arose in his mind he spoke his sentiments without fear or favor, maintaining his· positions with a relentlessness in reasoning that generally carried conviction and out of defeat wrung ultimate victory. More than once in his public career the people, when confronted by his immovable will, in fits of party passion, discarded his leadership for that of more com- pliant leaders, but only in their calmer moments to turn to him again to point the way out of the mazes into which their inexperience had led them. An ample fortune made him inde- pendent of public office. He possessed a vigorous and pene- trating intellect, seasoned with sound and varied learning. "His powerful frame," says McRee, "was a fit engine for the vigorous intellect that gave it animation. Strength was his characteristic. In his relations to the public an inflexible sense of duty and justice dominated. There was a remarkable degree of self-reliance and majesty about the man. His erect carriage and his intolerance of indolence, meanness, vice and wrong gave him an air of sternness. He commanded the respect and admiration, but not the love of the people." 1
Such was the man upon whose shoulders now fell the mantle of John Harvey. It became necessary for him to exer- cise the authority with which he was clothed sooner than was expected. The flight of the governor left the province with- out a government or a constitutional method of calling an As- sembly. The battle of Lexington, followed by the destruction of Fort Johnston, produced a state of war. Both sides, recog- nizing this fact, were straining every nerve to get ready for the conflict. The situation, therefore, called for a larger authority than had been granted to the committees of safety. A new government had to be formed, a currency devised, an army organized, munitions of war collected, and a system of defense planned; and all these preparations had to be made
1 Life and Correspondence of James Iredell, Vol. 1, p. 37. Vol. I-24
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with a view to continental as well as provincial affairs. The leaders of the Whig party on the Cape Fear were required daily to exercise authority and accept responsibilities that exceeded the powers granted them; and they realized earlier than their friends elsewhere the necessity for organizing a government that could act independently of the royal author- ity. Only a general congress could provide this government. Accordingly on May 31, 1775, Howe, Harnett and Ashe joined in a letter to Samuel Johnston-Harvey having died a few days before-suggesting that he call a congress "as soon as possible." Johnston, however, thought the suggestion prema- ture, and was reluctant to take a step that would widen still further the breach with the royal government. Besides the Assembly had been summoned to meet July 12, and he thought it wise not to call a convention until then, as "many members of the Assembly would probably be chosen to serve in conven- tion." But at his quiet home on the Albemarle, Johnston failed to appreciate the situation on the Cape Fear, where a state of war practically existed, and he hesitated. "I expect my Conduct in not immediately calling a Provincial Con- gress," he wrote, "will be much censured by many, but being conscious of having discharged my duty according to my best Judgment I shall be the better able to bear it." The Cape Fear leaders became impatient. On June 29, Howe, Harnett and Ashe wrote again to Johnston, taking him to task for his delay. "The circumstances of the times," and "the expecta- tions of the people," they thought, ought to determine his conduct. The people, wrote the Wilmington committee, were "Continually clamouring for a Provincial Convention. They hope everything from its Immediate Session, fear everything from its delay." In the meantime Governor Martin pro- rogued the Assembly. Thereupon other committees joined in the request for a convention. Thus pressed, Johnston yielded and issued his call for a Congress to meet at Hillsboro, August 20th.
Nothing shows the progress that had been made toward revolution during the year more clearly than the full attend- ance at this Congress. Just a year, lacking but five days, had passed since the first Congress met at New Bern. At that Congress seventy-one delegates were present, while five coun- ties and three towns sent no representatives. But in the Hills- boro Congress of August, 1775, every county and every bor- ough town were represented, and 184 delegates were present. No abler body of men ever sat in North Carolina. More than
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half of them had served in the Assembly or in the first two Congresses. Among them were Johnston, Caswell, Howe, Hooper, Hewes, Burke, Harnett, Jolin Ashe, Abner Nash and Willie Jones. Appearing for the first time in a revolutionary assemblage were Samuel Ashe, afterwards governor; Joseph Winston and Frederick Hambright, distinguished among the heroes of King's Mountain; Francis Nash, who fell gloriously leading his brigade at Germantown; Thomas Polk, Waightstill Avery, John McNitt Alexander, and their Mecklenburg col- leagues, fresh from setting up a county government "inde- pendent of the Crown of Great Britain and former constitu- tion of this Province"; John Penn, a recent arrival from Vir- ginia, whose name is indissolubly associated with those of Hooper and Hewes as signers of the Declaration of Indepen- dence; Jethro Sumner and James Hogun, soldiers whose serv- ices on the battlefield helped to make that Declaration good. The Congress organized by the election of Samuel Johnston "president"-a significant change in the title of its presiding officer.
The delegates brought to their deliberations a spirit and a point of view almost national. No such thing as a truly na- tional sentiment existed in America at that time, but the Hills- boro Congress approached it as nearly as any body that had yet assembled in the colonies. Among their first acts was to approve anew the Continental Association which the first Con- tinental Congress had recommended, and to adopt and sub- scribe a test denying the right of Parliament "to impose Taxes upon these Colonies to regulate the internal police thereof"; declaring that "the people of this province, singly and collectively, are bound by the Acts and resolutions of the Continental and Provincial Congresses, because in both they are freely represented by persons chosen by themselves ;" and solemnly binding themselves to support and maintain the policies and plans of the Continental Congress. Since the Continental Congress had resolved to raise an army and to emit $3,000,000 for its support, the Provincial Congress resolved unanimously that North Carolina would bear lier proportionate share of the burden and made provision for the redemption of the sum allotted to her by the Continental Con- gress, and also authorized the raising and organization of two regiments of Continental troops. Throughout its pro- ceedings, in its appeals to the people, in the organization of an army, and in the formation of a provisional government,
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the one clear note sounding above all others was "the com- mon cause of America."
Although the delegates were unanimous in expressing this sentiment, there was no such unanimity among the people, and Governor Martin had been alarmingly successful in his efforts to arouse and organize the disaffected elements. His agents were especially active among the former Regulators and Highlanders. Hillsboro and Cross Creek, therefore, were the chief centers of disaffection to the American cause. The Whig leaders, of course, recognized the importance of coun- teracting Governor Martin's influence in these sections. This was the chief reason for changing the meeting place of Con- gress from New Bern to Hillsboro. Immediately after organ- izing, therefore, Congress turned its attention to these prob- lems. Consideration was given to the Regulators first, for Governor Martin had succeeded in persuading them that they were still subject to punishment for their late insurrection, and that their only chance of securing pardon was to aid the government in the present crisis. Congress adopted a reso- lution declaring all such representations false and promising to protect the Regulators "from every attempt to punish them by any Means whatever." A committee was appointed, of which Thomas Person, who had been a leader among the Regu- lators, was a member, to confer with such persons as enter- tained "any religious or political Scruples" against "asso- ciating in the common Cause of America, to remove any ill impressions that have been made upon them by the artful devices of the enemies of America, and to induce them by Argument and Persuasion" to unite with the Whig party in defense of their liberties. Another committee, numbering among its members Archibald Maclaine, Alexander McAlis- ter, Alexander McKay, and Farquard Campbell, good High- landers, all, was appointed to explain to the Highlanders who had lately arrived in North Carolina "the Nature of our Un- happy Controversy with Great Britain, and to advise and urge them to unite with the other Inhabitants of America in defence of those rights which they derive from God and the Constitution." Nor were the people at large to be neglected. Maurice Moore, Hooper, Howe, Caswell and Hewes were di- rected to prepare an address to the people of North Carolina, "stating the present Controversy in an easy, familiar stile and manner obvious to the very Meanest Capacity;" vindicat- ing the taking up of arms by showing the necessity which had been forced upon the colonies by the British ministry, and
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ascribing the silence of the legislative powers to the gover- nor's "refusing to exereise the Functions of office." Unhap- pily these plans to unite the people were better conceived than they were executed; North Carolina remained divided throughout the Revolution and that strength and vigor which she should have contributed to the support of the general cause was largely consumed in civil strife at home.
The two most important matters before the Congress were the organization of an army and the formation of a provi- sional government. "Our principal debates," wrote Johns- ton, "will be about raising troops." As a preliminary to this step, the Congress first issued what may not inaptly be called a declaration of war. It declared that whereas "hostilities being actually commeneed in the Massachusetts Bay by the
* British troops under the command of General Gage; * *
And whereas His Excellency Governor Martin hath taken a very active and instrumental share in opposition to the means which have been adopted by this and the other United Colonies for the common safety, * therefore [resolved that] this colony be immediately put into a state of defense." Two regiments of 500 men each were ordered "as part of and on the same establishment with the Continental army." Col. James Moore was assigned to the command of the first, Col. Robert Howe to the second. Both won military fame in the war that followed. Six regiments of 500 minute-men each, were ordered to be raised in the six military districts, in which the province was divided. These districts with their colonels were: Edenton District, Edward Vail, colonel; Hali- fax District, Nicholas Long, colonel; Salisbury Distriet, Thomas Wade, colonel; Hillsboro District, James Thaekston, eolonel; New Bern Distriet, Richard Caswell, colonel; Wil- mington District, Alexander Lillington, colonel. Of these offi- cers only Caswell and Lillington attained distinction. The minute-men were to be enlisted for six months, and when called into aetive service were to be under the same discipline as the continental troops. In addition to these 4,000 troops, provision was made for a more effective organization of the militia, and for raising and organizing independent com- panies.
The problem of financing these military organizations · early occupied the attention of the Congress. A committee appointed to make a statement of the publie funds reported that the province owed large sums to individuals, but how much it had on hand with which to meet these claims the
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committee could not say, as the accounts of the provincial treasurers were not accessible. It also found that there were "divers large sums of money due from sundry sheriffs," and urged that steps be taken to compel speedy settlements. Congress, however, had little confidence in ever receiving any considerable sums from this source and accordingly to meet the expenses necessary for defense of the province resorted to the old familiar policy of issuing paper money. The amount determined upon was $125,000 in bills of credit, for the re- demption of which the faith of the province was pledged. Significant of the drift of sentiment was the change from the English pound to the Spanish milled dollar as the standard of value. The new bills were to pass at the rate of eight shillings to the dollar, and for their redemption a tax of two shillings was to be levied annually on each taxable from 1777 to 1786, "unless the money should be sooner sunk." Any person who should refuse to receive the bills in payment of any debt, or "speak disrespectfully" of them, or offer them at a greater rate than eight shillings for a dollar should "be treated as an enemy to his country." Persons convicted of counterfeiting, altering, or erasing them, or of knowingly passing such counterfeited, or altered bills, were to "suffer Death, without Benefit of Clergy."
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