USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina V. I, Pt. 1 > Part 11
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Nobles
The system of government was cumbersome and complex. The Palatine and the other seven Proprietors, being the great officers, formed what was designated the Palatine's Court. This body was, however, executive rather than
IOI
THE FUNDAMENTAL CONSTITUTIONS
judicial. It had power to call parliaments, to pardon all offences, to elect all officers, to negative the acts of Parlia- ment, and generally was vested with all the powers granted to the Proprietors, except as was otherwise limited in the Fundamental Constitutions. In this court, any Proprietor being absent. he could be represented by his deputy.
Each of the other great officers also had a court com- posed of himself, six councillors, and twelve assistants chosen from among the landgraves. caciques, and such com- moners or freemen as were designated ; and to each of these courts a particular jurisdiction was allotted.
Superior to these courts, however, was the Grand Council, composed of the Palatine, the seven other great officers, and the forty-two councillors. To this council was assigned the power to determine controversies between the courts, and to make peace and war. leagues and treaties with the Indians, and to raise forces for war. It also had authority to prepare matters to be adopted in Parliament, and no act could be proposed in Parliament unless it had first passed the Grand Council.
The Parliament was to consist of the Proprietors or their deputies. the landgraves and the caciques, and one free- holder from each precinct chosen by the freeholders. These were to sit in one room, each member having one vote. Parliament was to meet on the first Monday of November every second year in the town it last sat in, without any summons. And in order to elect members the freeholders of each precinct were to meet on the first Monday of Sep- tember every two years and choose their representatives.
Under the concessions the people had a right to elect assemblymen on the first day of each January, and this new provision investing them with the constitutional right to elect a parliament every other September, to convene in November without any call from the governor, was founded in the severe experiences of the English people during the troubles of the recent past, and was a change from English methods largely favorable to the liberties of the people. In
1669
The Pro- prietors' courts
The Grand Council
.
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CARTERET'S ADMINISTRATION, 1670-73
1669
after years it became the foundation of a famous enactment known as the Biennial Act of 1715, which, however, merely continued in force the former practice.
The general court
In every county there was to be a general court, held by the sheriff and one justice from each precinct. Appeals lay from this court in important civil cases and in criminal cases to the Proprietors' court; and in every precinct there was to be a court consisting of a steward and four justices, who should judge all criminal cases except treason, murder, and other offences where the punishment was death, and except criminal cases against the nobility ; and also all civil causes whatsoever, but with appeal to the county court in important cases. To try treason, murder, and other offences punishable with death, a commission for itinerant judges was to issue twice a year, who were to hold assizes in each county with the sheriff and four justices, with appeal to the Proprietors' court. There were grand juries for the criminal courts, and in all courts causes were determined by a jury of twelve men, but a majority verdict was sufficient, unanimity not being required.
While the nobles had great places provided for them, there were thus open to the freemen avenues to distinction in a judicial career, as members of Parliament, as assistants in the great courts, and as councillors. But lawyers were discountenanced, and it was declared a vile thing to plead a cause for money. The purpose of this provision was, pos- sibly, to build up a clientage for the great lords and add to their importance. While appeals were allowed, a new trial in the same court was forbidden. and all manner of comments and of expositions on any part of the law was absolutely prohibited. But at the end of a hundred years every law was to be void. There were one hundred and twenty sections of the Grand Model, or Constitutions as Locke called them, and every part of them was to remain sacred and unalterable forever, and every inhabitant was to take an oath to support them.
Among the provisions of the Fundamental Constitutions
Lawyers discoun- tenanced
103
THE FUNDAMENTAL CONSTITUTIONS
166g -
Registration of land and of social statistics
were some innovations on English customs that were not without merit. There was to be in each precinct an officer called the register, in whose records should be enrolled all deeds, judgments, and conveyances which concerned any land in the precinct, and until registered such conveyances had no force. And in every seignory, barony, and colony there was to be a registry for recording all births, marriages, and deaths ; and no marriage was to be lawful, no matter what contract or ceremony was used, until both parties mutually owned it before the register, and he had recorded it, together with the names of the parents.
In regard to religion. while freedom of conscience was Religion allowed, yet it was enacted that no man should become a freeman of Carolina or have any estate or habitation within it "that doth not acknowledge a god, and that god is to be publicly and solemnly worshipped"; and while no person of the age of seventeen years could have any protection of the law unless a member of a church, yet any seven persons agreeing in any religion could constitute a church or pro- fession on which they should bestow some name to dis- tinguish it from others.
The changes introduced by the Constitutions
Some of the administrative provisions of the Grand Model were not unlike those that had been in use in Albemarle from the first. Others were easy to introduce. But the establish- ment of new orders of nobility with the powers and privileges accorded them and the subdivision of the counties as pro- posed were utterly impracticable.
The details of what the philosopher Locke and his coadju- tor, a sagacious man of business and practical statesman, deemed a perfect plan of government were worked out with great care and particularity. But political institutions to fit the needs of a community must be the reasonable outgrowth of actual conditions, developed through the natural opera- tion of influences that affect the thoughts, habits, aspira- tions, and life of the people. Although the Grand Model
.
10.4
CARTERET'S ADMINISTRATION, 1670-73
1669
The limita- tions of the Constitu- tions
won high applause upon its publication in Europe, it did not excite enthusiasmi in Carolina. As a theoretical adjustment of forces in government, establishing on a secure basis : conservative aristocracy and perpetuating a monarchica system along with guarantees of popular freedom. it (, doubtless superior to any European government of that era But it was not suited for freemen inhabiting a wilderness. For the chief aim in view, the establishment of a practica. government in Carolina, it was a strange admixture of un- mitigated folly and theoretical wisdom. The provision ordaining a nobility was probably not offensive to the inhab- itants of Albemarle. The people of every nationality were at that period accustomed to class distinctions, which entered largely into the social life of their country, and an order of nobility could not have been disagreeable to Englishmen in any colony. But the plan was too elaborate to be put into successful operation, and, except in some unimportant par- ticulars, it was not attempted in Albemarle. A century later. when a constitution was to be framed by practical statesmen for a continent, the outline of a system, a few general grants of power, a few denials of authority by way of limitation, sufficed to establish a government that has evoked the admiration of mankind.
The first meeting under the Grand Model
C. R., 1, 179
The principal features of the Grand Model having been agreed on, a rough draft of it was, in July, 1669, trans- mitted to Albemarle. The first meeting of the Proprietors after its adoption was held in October, 1669, at the Cockpit, a government office near Whitehall, where Lord Ashley's public business was commonly transacted, where the Board of Trade held its sessions, and where later Princess Anne resided until called to the throne. There were present all of the Proprietors except Clarendon and Sir William Berkeley. Albemarle, being the oldest of the Proprietors, became the first Palatine. At a second meeting two months later, January, 1670, it was resolved that instructions should
105
CARTERET SUCCEEDS STEPHENS
be sent to Carolina to put the new model into operation. Before that, however. Albemarle had, in December, passed away, and Lord John Berkeley succeeded to the office of Palatine. At this meeting the acts of the General Assembly of 1669, that had been transmitted to the Lords Proprietors for their confirmation, were approved, and they were re- drafted to conform to the requirements of the Grand Model. and were then returned to Albemarle, where they were passed for the second time on October 15, 1670.
Carteret governor
At this meeting, too, John Locke and Sir John Yeamans were appointed landgraves; and Lord Berkeley, exercising his prerogative as Palatine, deputized Samuel Stephens, the former governor, to be his deputy and to continue in as governor. But about December of the year 1669 Stephens died, and the council in Albemarle having, in such an emergency, the power and right to fill the vacancy, chose as governor Peter Carteret, a kinsman of Sir George Carteret, who had settled in Albemarle in 1664; and Carteret entered actively on the duties, and as governor held with the council a called session of the county court, being the general court for the county, in July, 1670, at which time administration was granted on the estate of Stephens to John Culpepper, as attorney for Sir William Berkeley, whose marriage with the widow may already have been solemnized. That council, previously appointed by Governor Stephens under his commission and instructions, was composed of Colonel John Jenkins, John Harvey, Major Richard Foster, and Captain Thomas Cullen, some of the other councillors not being in attendance .*
*At a called court held July 15, 1670, at the house of Samuel Davis, for the county of Albemarle, there were present the Hon. Peter Carteret, governor and commander-in-chief; Colonel John Jenkins, John Harvey, Major Richard Foster. Captain Thomas Cullen, councillors; and the following was adopted: Whereas, Mr. John Culpepper. Gent., attorney for Sir William Berkeley, governor, and captain-general of Virginia, petitioned to this court for letters of administration on the estate of Captain Samuel Stephens, deceased, he putting in security to save the court harmless,
:66g
C. R., I, 183
Stephens dies, Dec., 1669
106
CARTERET'S ADMINISTRATION, 1670-73
¥670
The news of the death of Stephens apparently reached England before the instructions prepared for him at the January meeting of the Proprietors had been sent, and so later in the year Carteret was appointed governor and his instructions were sent him, together with a copy of the Grand Model, which had been completed and fully perfected on March 1, 1670.
On September 27th of that year a general court was held for the county of Albemarle, there being present the same councillors, together with Francis Godfrey and John Willoughby.
The Grand Model in practice: The precincts
C. R., I, 181
Grand Model vs. the existing system
In the instructions directed to Carteret as governor the Proprietors said they were not able to put the Grand Model fully into practice, "but intending to come as nigh to it as we can," Carteret was directed to observe it as far as prac- ticable. These instructions, therefore, varied from the Grand Model and also varied from the existing system at Albe- marie in several particulars. Among the directions given to Carteret was one that a writ should be issued to the four precincts of Albemarle for the election in each of five repre- sentatives for a general assembly, the division into four precincts having been made conformably to the rough draft of the Grand Model sent over in July, 1669 .* Under the concessions, and under Stephens's instructions in 1667, the inhabitants were to choose twelve deputies, until "distric- tions of the county should be made," and then each "dis- triction" should choose two representatives. That would
MSS. Records at Edenton
it is ordered that the said Culpepper have orders of administration granted him. Whereas, Andrew Woodward was summoned to this court of chancery, and being required to give his oath upon inquiry of what he knew to be the estate of Samuel Stephens, deceased, he wilfully denied and refused to give his oath, wherefore the court ordered that he remain a close prisoner. On September 27, 1670, a general court was held at the same place, which seems to have been at that time the convenient point of meeting.
*The names of three of these precincts were Carteret, Berkeley and Shaftesbury; the name of the fourth is now not positively known.
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THE GRAND MODEL IN PRACTICE
indicate that at least six subdivisions were then in con- 166g templation ; now the county was divided into four precincts, as required by the Grand Model, each electing five repre- sentatives. Such was the origin of the right of the Albe- Origin of the five repre- sentatives marle precincts to have five representatives, which they continued to enjoy, despite all antagonism, until the adoption of the state constitution in 1776 .*
The nobility
Five persons appointed by the Lords Proprietors, who C. R., I, 181 theoretically were to represent the nobility, were to sit with the twenty representatives chosen by the people to form an Assembly. After the Assembly had chosen a speaker, it was to elect five persons, who were to join the five deputies appointed by the Lords Proprietors to form the governor's council, the governor himself being the deputy of the Pala- tine. And this council of ten was to have the power of the Grand Council in the Grand Model. The governor and the five deputies were to form the Palatine's Court, and were vested with the jurisdiction and powers conferred on that court. Particular authority was conferred on the governor and council to establish courts for the administration of justice; and all the inhabitants were to take an oath of allegiance and of submission to the form of government.
Such were the instructions to Governor Carteret, in 1670, to put the Grand Model into operation "as nigh as may be," and in several particulars to alter the existing government in order to do so, and to require the submission of the people to it under the sanction of an oath. Carteret, who early settled in Albemarle, and was so esteemed that he had been speaker of the Assembly, and whose qualifications were such that he had served as secretary of the general court, sought to give effect to his instructions and put into operation the changes indicated. The county had already
*In 1665. the freemen themselves met in Grand Assembly : in 1666, they assembled and appointed members to represent them: and this was continued until the precincts were established. when the election was by precincts.
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CARTERET'S ADMINISTRATION, 1670-73
1670
been laid off into four precincts, which were now per- manently established. The governor and deputies held their Palatine's Court. the council was increased by five common- ers chosen by the Assembly, and in other respects attempts were made to follow the instructions of the Proprietors.
Value of the Grand Model
The Grand Model in its complex entirety was not at all adapted to a few scattered planters in a new settlement ; nor were its provisions that erected a class of landed aristocracy in harmony with the spirit of liberty and of equality which would naturally be fostered in a remote wilderness. But it contained some important principles of liberty which thus became engrafted in the fundamental constitution of the colony, and whose maintenance was in after years of great interest to the people. Although it did not go into operation in all its parts. yet in some respects the frame and system of government conformed to it. The governor was the repre- sentative of the Palatine, the deputies were appointed from among the people, and the Assembly elected five persons to sit with them; the precinct courts, the general courts and courts of chancery were now held conformably to the funda- mentals ; and every second year, in September, the people elected their deputies to sit in the legislature without any writ ; and the Assembly met in November.
The Quakers: Edmundson and Fox
1672 C. R., I, 215
It was during Carteret's administration, in 1672, that William Edmundson, a preacher of the new sect, the Friends, visited Albemarle, and the first religious meeting was held in the forests of Carolina. Accompanied by two woodsmen to guide him through the wilderness, Edmundson passed on horseback beyond the confines of the Nansemond settlements, and on the third day reached the house of Henry Phillips, the only Quaker then in Albemarle. Phillips and his wife had been convinced in New England, and coming to Carolina about 1665 had not seen a Friend for seven years. When Edmundson made himself known, they wept for joy. Word was speedily sent to the neighbors to come at noon to hear
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THE FIRST RELIGIOUS MEETINGS
the preacher, and many came. For a dozen years those who had first seated in that remote locality had been without church privileges, had not assembled in prayer, nor heard a preacher of the Word. Edmundson, accustomed to the observance of the proprieties, was shocked that they brought their pipes and sat smoking during the religious service. But while their forest breeding impressed him that they were not religious, yet he found the way to their hearts, and several at once received the "Truth with gladness." Truly. those were glad hearts that were converted and brought into communion with this apostle of repentance preaching that the inner light was a revelation of the Holy Spirit. On the third day Edmundson, well pleased with Carolina, returned to Virginia. But a few months later he was followed by the very head and founder of the faith. George Fox. Fox reached Bennett's Creek toward the last of November, and taking a canoe, proceeded to the Chowan and then to Eden- ton Bay; and there, obtaining a larger boat, went on to Governor Carteret's. The governor and his wife "received them lovingly," and Carteret courteously accompanied him two miles through the wilderness. Thirty miles more brought Fox to the residence of Joseph Scot, one of the assemblymen, where they had a precious meeting; and a few miles further they reached the home of the secretary of the colony, who had previously accepted the Quaker faith. For three weeks Fox lingered among these people of the forest, whom he described as tender and loving and recep- tive of the truth, holding meetings to which they flocked. The seed fell on good ground. The faith of the zealous and earnest evangelist, who appealed so effectively to the con- sciences of his hearers, took firm root in Albemarle. No other religious meetings were held calling the people into communion and at once ministering to their human needs and satisfying their spiritual longings. It was in sympathy with the solitude of their surroundings and the quietude of their daily life. There had been naught to disturb the rest- fulness of the people or to inflame their passions. Content-
1672 -
Edmundson preaches
C. R., I, 217
Fox visits Carolina
IIO
CARTERET'S ADMINISTRATION, 1670-73
1672
ment prevailed. The administration of their government had been of the people and for the people. Their assemblies met regularly, and the laws were of their own making.
The first dissatisfaction
C. R., I, 219 The Assembly of 1672
At the session of 1672 at least fifty-four acts were passed, which may, however, have embraced all former laws then re-enacted. The fifty-fourth prohibited the sale of rum at a greater price than twenty-five pounds of tobacco per gallon ; for the unit of value was the pound of tobacco, and taxes, rents, and debts were all payable in that commodity. This attempt to regulate prices, interfering with the freedom of trade, was soon found to be inexpedient, because if the traders could not make a greater profit on the rum, they would not bring in other commodities that were more neces- sary to the inhabitants. The next year, therefore, the act was repealed.
Notwithstanding those features of the Grand Model that were inimical to freedom, there was probably no opposition to the introduction of the administrative changes which Carteret, under his instructions, put into operation. The people, few in number, somewhat scattered, occupied with their industries, probably did not at first greatly concern them- selves with those provisions of the new constitution that were not to be carried into effect at once among them ; but when they were required to take an oath to support it and to abide by it, and when one of its unalterable provisionis was that their rent per acre. instead of one farthing per acre, payable in commodities, should be as much silver as is contained in a penny, they exhibited signs of dissatisfaction. They had just secured by the Great Deed the concession for which they had petitioned years before, that their rent should be like that in Virginia, and the proposed change must have aroused indignation. In the records of Perquimans is an entry showing that Francis Toms, Christopher Nicholson, and William Wyatt, being Quakers, did subscribe the Fundamental Constitutions, but they added a protest, how-
The Great Deed appealed to
III
DISCONTENT IN THE COLONY
ever, that by accepting the Grand Model they should not be disannulled of the gracious grant given by the Lords Proprietors in their Great Deed to hold their lands according to the tenure of Virginia. Doubtless this protest but ex- pressed the common sentiment of all the inhabitants.
Besides, just at this time there were other causes of dis- content arising from the navigation laws and customs duties, which if enforced would seriously interfere with the trade of the colony. But whatever was the occasion, dissatisfaction pervaded the settlement-a dissatisfaction so pronounced that Carteret could not stem it. The new element introduced into the council by the admission of five inhabitants appointed by the Assembly now changed the attitude of that body toward public measures and virtually brought it under the rule of the people themselves. The council was no longer in har- mony with the governor.
Carteret's efforts to compose differences were fruitless ; he wearied of the attempt, and finally laid down his office and abandoned the colony. Before May, 1673, he sailed for England, leaving the administration, it is said, in ill order and worse hands.
On May 25th, at a council held at the house of Thomas Godfrey, Carteret was absent and Colonel John Jenkins presided as deputy governor.
1672 -
Carteret resigns
CHAPTER X ADMINISTRATIONS OF JENKINS AND MILLER, 1673-78
The navigation acts .- The Board of Trade .- The people mur- mur .- Other causes of dissatisfaction .- An Indian war .- The to- bacco duty resisted .- The administration compromises .- Miller ar- rested .- Eastchurch goes to England .- Governor Jenkins deposed. - Eastchurch appointed governor .- Bacon's rebellion in Virginia .- A government by the people .- Eastchurch deputizes Miller .- Op- position to the navigation acts .- Durant resolves to revolt .- Miller acts resolutely .- Durant returns to Albemarle .- The crisis arrives .- The revolt proceeds.
The navigation acts
Since the opening of the century there had been rapid progress in the art of manufacturing and in the develop- ment of the commercial interests of England. Fierce wars had been waged for the expansion of trade and for the establishment of commercial supremacy. The early navi- gation acts, strengthened by Cromwell's legislation, were initial movements in a system intended to secure the mer- cantile prosperity of England. And as the enterprising Dutch were now proving successful competitors in the colonial trade, there was in 1660 a further enactment, aimed at Holland, that all importations into the plantations should be in English ships. Because of that prohibition, Dutch vessels were no longer seen in American harbors, and the carrying trade was secured. But still there was direct inter- course between the colonies and European ports. and the London merchants did not reap all the advantage of the colonial trade. So three years later English statesmanship took a further step. The importation of European com- modities into the colonies was prohibited unless shipped from England. In the interest of the London merchants, it was
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