USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina V. I, Pt. 1 > Part 22
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1730
The province during the interim
When information was received in the colony of the pur- chase by the Crown, in the absence of particular directions,
227
BURRINGTON ARRIVES
there was some cessation of the exercise of governmental functions. The legislature held its session as usual in November, 1729, and with Everard's assent passed several C. R., III, acts, particularly one for the issue of £40,000 of paper cur- 145 rency ; and presently there was unusual activity in locating blank patents, which had long since been issued, and some of them without the payment of any purchase money. But the chief justice ceased to hold courts and the members of the council did not attend the governor when he called a meet- ing of the board. So it happened that for two years previous to Burrington's return no general court was held, nor any Assembly for eighteen months, while some of the precinct C. R., III, 142 courts had likewise suspended their sessions, and there was a general arrest of the operations of government. The condition was one tending to anarchy, but the people were busy and there were no riots nor serious disturbances. Still it was desirable to re-establish at once the regular and orderly administration of justice and to have the Assembly convene to meet the new governor and recognize the changes produced by the purchase and prescribed in his instructions.
On reaching Edenton toward the end of February, Bur- rington, together with several of his new councillors, took the oaths of office and immediately issued writs for the election by the freeholders of an Assembly, which was called to meet on April 13th, and ordered a general court to be held at Edenton on April Ist. When the court met the grand jurors for the entire province made a loyal address to his Majesty the king, reciting that as it was the first court held since the purchase, they took the earliest opportunity to express their devotion to his Majesty; and then they thanked the king for the appointment of Burrington as their governor.
It is to be observed that neither Moore, Moseley nor Swann had any share in the administration. It is said that Bur- rington had quarrelled with Moore about the location of his patent for five thousand acres of land. he proposing to locate it on the rich lime lands at Rocky Point on the northwest branch of the Cape Fear: but Moore had preceded him and had taken up those lands himself, so that Burrington, disappointed and angry, was obliged to content himself with
1729 -
1731 Burrington arrives C. R., III, 134, 142
Opposition to the royal instructions
228 BURRINGTON'S SECOND ADMINISTRATION, 1731-34
173%
lands at Stag Park, several miles higher up that river. This, together with other causes of difference, led to personal antagonism between Burrington and Moore's connections ; but there was no opposition manifested to him immediately on his arrival. Doubtless the leading inhabitants felt a keen interest in the changes that would probably attend the pur- chase by the king, and they waited developments with anxiety. Just before the Assembly was to convene, in April. Ashe arrived at Edenton from the Cape Fear to attend the council, and the tenor of Burrington's instructions became known. Until then all had been agreeable at the council board; but Ashe immediately began to oppose the governor, and endeavored by "false reasoning and fallacious argument" to impose upon the judgment of the other councillors. Un- successful at first, he soon gained the chief justice and Edmond Porter to join him. And after the Assembly met, it was not long before the members of that body were also earnestly co-operating with him.
C. R., III, 331
The first royal Assembly
C. R., IJI, 287, 296
Moseley was the speaker. The governor at the opening of the session presented a written address, for the kind terms of which the Assembly resolved to return him thanks ; and then they began the consideration of the matters called to their attention in the address. Among these recommen- dations was one to appoint an agent to look after the affairs of the province in England, which later was acted on by a subsequent Assembly, and this channel of communication with the authorities at London eventually became highly im- portant ; another was to prevent the depreciation of paper currency, and still another to establish a new town on the Cape Fear, and to appoint commissioners for that purpose. This last proposition ignored the town of Brunswick, which Moore had laid out in 1725, and which had become a mart of commerce and had been made two years before the seat of government for New Hanover Precinct; and it was a direct blow aimed by Burrington at Moore's interests.
Matters of controversy C. R., III, 268, 331
Three days later Speaker Moseley and some other leading members of the house waited on the governor and asked him if he would not ratify the currency act and some other
220
BURRINGTON OPPOSES THE ASSEMBLY
laws whose validity was in doubt, as they had been assented to by Governor Everard after the news had been received of the purchase by the Crown. This Burrington not only re- fused to do, but he declared the currency act was a nullity ; and to show that he disregarded it he appointed William Smith, the new chief justice, treasurer of the province in the room of Edward Moseley, who was appointed treasurer in that act. This the Assembly resented, and it hotly repre- sented that the province already had a treasurer with whose ability and integrity they were very well satisfied ; and who, having been appointed in an act of Assembly by the governor, council and Assembly. could not be removed but by the like power. The governor, a majority of the council adhering to him, replied that Moseley was indeed a person of sufficient ability, "and we heartily wish that his integrity was equal to it": and as to his appointment they said "the act of 1729, by which he was appointed, is void," that being the act under which all the paper money then current in the province had been issued. This attack on the speaker, involving also C. R., III, the validity of the currency, led to a declaration by the 268. 302 Assembly that Moseley's "integrity was equal to his abili- ties," and that the act of 1729 was not void; and even if it should be disallowed by the king, Moseley's appointment was also under previous acts, whose validity was unques- tioned.
In Burrington's instructions reference was made to the large amounts of quit rents that were many years in arrears in Carolina at the time of the purchase, and the king offered to remit those arrearages if the Assembly, in an act on that subject, would require all grants to be recorded in the office of the receiver or auditor, so that a perfect rent roll could be made out. and would further require the payment of rents to be in proclamation money, and that fees should be paid in proclamation money also -- that is, in current specie of foreign coinage the value of which was ascertained and fixed in sterling money by proclamation of the Crown.
Referring to this offer, the Assembly informed the gov- Quit rents ernor that while the rents were largely in arrears in South Carolina, they had been regularly paid in this province, and that the king's offer was of no interest to the inhabitants
1731
Currency act declared void
C. R., III, 294
230 BURRINGTON'S SECOND ADMINISTRATION, 1731-34
1735 of North Carolina; yet it passed a bill requiring all future grants to be recorded in the receiver's office, and offered to pay the quit rents in tobacco or other products or in bills at some small discount; but the Assembly would not agree to make payment in specie at all. The governor insisted that the rents were payable in sterling money, and that he and his council were authorized to regulate the fees.
Fees of officers C. R., III, 297, 308
These fees had, by an act of Assembly, for twenty years been payable in paper currency at its face value, but the governor, basing his action on his alleged instructions, had already ordered that the officers should not be required to receive the bills unless at the rate of four for one. a change that increased the fees fourfold. To this matter the Assembly now adverted, declaring the practice of exacting "four for one" illegal and an extortion, and asked the governor to issue a proclamation forbidding it.
C. R., III, 300
Burrington was a man of very strong characteristics, doing nothing by halves. He was vain, proud, arbitrary and violent, intemperate in his conduct, and entirely self- reliant. Indifferent to others. when aroused he worked his will with passion, and, heedless of consequences, struck his opponents with a strong hand. He himself had authorized this practice which the house characterized as extortion ; and full of indignation, he sent a message to the house : "For my own part, I cannot refrain from telling you that whoever the person was who formed the said paper of com- plaint, I compare him to a thief that hides himself in a house to rob it. and, fearing to be discovered, fires the house and makes his escape in the smoke." Thereupon the house replied that "the complaint was the unanimous voice of the whole house, no member dissenting, and that they regarded that such treatment of any member was a great indignity and contempt put upon the whole house, and a breach of privilege."
C. R., III, 265
And now the breach between the governor and the assembly was beyond healing ; he had not only insulted the speaker, but had affronted the house. Whatever chance there had been to lead the Assembly to observe his instruc- tions had been destroyed by his ill-temper, and his oppo- nents had triumphed. Divergence of views might have been
231
POSITION OF PROVINCE ON THE TRANSFER
expected, but mere differences might to some extent have been reconciled by a conciliatory policy, while now adjust- ment had become impracticable.
1737
The basis of political action
The position of the leading men in the province was sub- stantially that the purchase by the king of the proprietary shares carried with it only the rights of the several Pro- prietors and worked neither alteration in the constitution of the province nor in the rights and powers which the people and the Assembly had immemorially enjoyed, and the house was resolved to maintain its privileges. Still C. R., III, there was an inclination, in so far as it might be proposed, 262, 264 to put the Assembly on the footing of Parliament, and to concur in changes tending to that end. But Burrington Mav, 1731 C. R., III, 324 could not brook opposition, and at length, on May 17th, after a stormy session of five weeks, during which no bill carrying out any of the governor's instructions was passed, he wearied of the contest and prorogued the Assembly until September. Thus ended the first session, with Burrington baffled and the opponents of any constitutional changes brought somewhat into harmonious action. At the first, the situation being novel and the ground untried. the leaders in the council as well as in the house had to feel their way and carefully weld their associates into an organized oppo- sition ; but before the house separated they had reached safe ground, and the position of the leaders came to be well understood and sustained by the people.
Burrington's instructions
Among Burrington's instructions was one limiting suf- C. R., III, frage to freeholders, whereas before all freemen could vote. Another was that in all acts for levying money express mention should be made that the money was granted to the king ; and no money was to be levied which was not liable to be accounted for to the king. Others were that all officers were to be appointed by the governor and council, and this the governor held to embrace the treasurer; that all quit rents and fees should be paid in proclamation money ; that the governor should not assent to any bill providing for the issue of paper currency unless it contained a clause declaring that it should not take effect until approved by
93, 100, 103
232 BURRINGTON'S SECOND ADMINISTRATION, 1731-34
1731
the king: and that no public money should be disposed of except by the governor's warrant approved by the council. the right of the Assembly to direct payment without the governor's consent being denied.
There were other instructions relating to the quantity of land that might be taken up and to the payment of quit rents, at variance with the Great Deed of grant ; and that old instrument, which had been authenticated by Gov- ernor Archdale in 1695 and then recorded. and which had been delivered to Richard Sanderson for safe keeping, was produced in the house and committed for preservation to the care of the speaker : and a direction was made that it should be formally brought to the attention of his Majesty the king, with the hope that he would not disregard it.
School- masters
Among other instructions that, however, were not ger- mane to the antagonisms then raised was one in regard to schoolmasters: "And we do further direct that no school- master be henceforth permitted to come from this kingdom and to keep school in that our said province without the license of our Lord Bishop of London, and that no other person now there, or that shall come from other parts, shall be admitted to keep school in North Carolina without your license first obtained." And another, that touched the king's private purse, was for the particular benefit and advantage of the Royal African Company, "who were to bring in a constant and sufficient supply of merchantable negroes at moderate rates."
C. R., III, 116
The general court
C. R., III. 237, 310, 322
C. R., III, 241
To hold the general court in April the governor had ap- pointed three assistants to sit with the chief justice. as had been the custom in proprietary times, and when the Assembly was considering a court bill requiring that a general court should be held four times a year in each of the counties, apparently there being a proposition to erect a third county, inquiry was made by the house as to the judicial power of these assistants, and the governor and council replied that they had no judicial power whatever ; but a few days later the governor changed his opinion and held that they had an equal voice in determining all questions with the chief justice. a position that seemed at variance with the powers and rights conferred in the commission of the chief justice,
233
BURRINGTON DISMISSES THE ASSEMBLY
1731
signed by the king himself, and which was so derogatory to the authority and station of the chief justice that Smith regarded it as a personal affront, and three days after the Assembly was prorogued he resigned his seat in the council, C. R., III, and a bitter feud sprang up between him and the governor. 239 A few days later, after conferences with the leading mem- bers of the Assembly, in which he undertook to represent their grievances to the Crown. he left for England, declaring that he was going to have Burrington displaced ; and, be- cause of his absence, John Palin was appointed chief justice by the governor and council, the councillors present being only John Lovick and Edmond Gale, whom the governor appointed that day for this special purpose.
Burrington dispenses with the Assembly
In November, an election having been held under the biennial act in September, a new Assembly met at Eden- ton, but the governor at once prorogued it to meet in March, saying that he had made representations to his Majesty about the obstructive conduct of the last Assembly, and had asked for further instructions, and until they were received he himself would take care that the business of the province was transacted.
When he realized that his old friends were alienated and that he could not control even the majority of those coun- cillors who were in the province, Burrington cast about to strengthen himself by attaching the other faction to him. In July he called a council at Edenton, which because of July, 1731 the distance from the Cape Fear was attended only by Sur- veyor-General Jenoure and Edmond Porter, some of the other councillors not being in the province. The situation did not, according to the terms of his instructions, warrant his appointing new councillors ; but he was animated by a pur- pose to strengthen himself and to weaken the opposition, and with this view, he appointed John Lovick and Edmond Gale councillors, persons whom he had previously denounced as being utterly unworthy of any public station; and these being facile, he began to oust those councillors who were (lisagreeable to him.
Beginning with Edmond Porter, who had formerly been
1732
C. R., III,
253
Appoints new councillors
234 BURRINGTON'S SECOND ADMINISTRATION, 1731-34
¥731 C. R., III, 412 his close friend, but who was now not only in the opposition, but was at bitter enmity with Gale and Little, he heard charges brought against him by Little and suspended him as judge of admiralty, and turned him out of the council ; and he appointed Gale to the vacant judicial position. He next cited Cornelius Harnett to answer because of a debt Harnett and Rev. Mr. Marsden owed to the captain of a vessel which had been wrecked, and whose damaged cargo they had bought : and he succeeded in forcing Harnett to resign. With Ashe, who the governor declared "was altogether bent on mischief," he had more trouble. Ashe would not resign, and a notable conflict ensued between . them. But for a time Burrington had entrenched himself securely in the council and could control the appointment to vacancies.
C. R., III, 3,32
The governor erects new precincts
Nov., 1731
May, 1732 C. R., III, 417, 450
The governor and council assuming the power to lay off precincts, their authority to do so was strongly contested. However, they erected the precinct of Onslow and that of Edgecombe, extending from Roanoke River to the north- east branch of the Cape Fear ; and also. in November, 1732, Bladen, although at that time it was said that there were not three freeholders nor thirty families in Bladen, and not many more in Onslow. That such a power resided in the governor and council was denied as being a derogation of the rights of the Assembly, and not only a violation of the Fundamental Constitutions, which it was asserted had been accepted by the people of North Carolina in 1669 and also in 1698, but against all the laws and established precedents ; for though at different times the governor and council had laid off precincts, such as New Hanover, in 1729, yet the legislature had afterward passed acts establishing them and fixing their representation.
C. R., III, 439, 450, 451
His action disregarded
Not only were those who proposed to maintain the vested rights of the people antagonistic to this claim of authority by the governor and council, but they paid no attention to his instructions and proclamations that only frecholders should vote for members of the Assembly, and, in utter dis-
235
BURRINGTON'S CONFLICTS CONTINUE
regard of his directions, all freemen were allowed to vote as formerly.
1732 --
Constantly circumstances brought about some new occa- New sion for either personal or official conflict between the gov- conflicts ernor and his adversaries. The chief justice, Smith, had already gone to England threatening to obtain his removal, and Burrington apprehended that Colonel Bladen was aiding and fostering this design with the hope of securing the appointment of his own son-in-law. Rice, as his successor. About twenty men from South Carolina had settled on the Cape Fear, among them three brothers of a noted family named Moore, all of the set known as the Goose Creek C. R., III, faction, "always very troublesome in that government,' 338 who the governor had been told would expend a great sum to get him turned out; and between them and Moseley on the Chowan messengers were constantly passing. How- ever, notwithstanding all menaces, he was not terrified, "but acted with such resolution and firmness that the province was soon put in a quiet condition and has so continued with- out any imprisonments or persecutions." Such was Bur- rington's declaration a year after his arrival; but his un- wisdom raised him enemies in London, while his arbitrary course embittered his opponents in Carolina. Eight months after he assumed the government he wrote to the Board of Trade that Ashe had intended to go to England to co- c. R., III, operate with Smith for his removal, but as he had not gone 37º "Baby Smith will be quite lost, having nothing but a few lies to support his cause, unless he can obtain an instructor from a gentleman in Hanover Square." The following June the Board asked him to explain that reference, and he avowed in a rambling letter that it was meant for Colonel Bladen. The compliment paid to Colonel Bladen by naming a pre- cinct in his honor was hardly sufficient to atone for such an indignity.
And if in February Burrington could applaud himself for not having resorted "to imprisonment and persecution," by March his mild behavior had given way to more arbitrary inclinations. He had issued a direction that no one should be allowed to practise law unless licensed by himself ; and doubtless an attorney's oath was exacted of all who applied
Burring- ton's arbitrary conduct C. R., III. 356, 375. 504
236 BURRINGTON'S SECOND ADMINISTRATION, 1731-34
1732
Moseley imprisoned
for a license. Moseley had been licensed to practise in 1714, and was a lawyer of twenty years' standing, although in late years he had retired from the business. However, in March, 1732, he did appear for Edmond Porter ; and while with his hand on the book to take the oath, the governor in a great rage ordered his arrest and threw him into prison, presumably for appearing as an attorney without the gov- ernor's license. At the next term of the court, in July, Moseley hazarded a remark on a legal question to the chief justice in court: whereupon the governor again ordered the sheriff to commit him to jail. On habeas corpus before the chief justice and full court an order was quickly made for his release; but the governor was indignant at the pro- ceeding, claiming that the court ought not to release within twenty-four hours any one whom he had ordered to prison ; and he so abused Palin, the chief justice, whom he himself had but recently appointed, that that officer resigned, and William Little, Gale's son-in-law, was appointed to the position ; and all the associate judges resigned and a new set was appointed. Palin's resignation, however, did not deter the governor from again pressing the court to do duty in his behalf. On Old Town Creek, a few miles above Brunswick, Ashe had a plantation, while Burrington had one on Governor's Creek, lower down. There was a question as to the ownership of two mares which Burrington's servants had, under his orders, branded with his mark and taken into possession. Ashe brought an information before the gen- eral court at Edenton and claimed the mares as his property, and also claimed the penalty which the law prescribed for branding stock belonging to another. Burrington there- upon had him arrested for his "scurrilous libel," and caused the warrant to be returned before himself and Judge Owen, who exacted the bond Burrington suggested, being £1,000, which Ashe deemed excessive and would not give. On habeas corpus before the chief justice, Little refused to examine into the cause of the commitment, but the bond was reduced one-half, even that being a heavy bond ; and it was alleged that these proceedings were contrived to prevent Ashe's departure for England, where, at the request of many, he was going to secure a redress of grievances.
Oct., 1732 C. R., III, 375, 376. 378, 379, 423, 517
Ashe arrested
237
BURRINGTON'S SECOND ASSEMBLY
In the meantime representations had been made to the Board of Trade of Burrington's oppressive and lawless con- duct, and before he had been in office two years his removal 534 was determined on, and in March, 1733, Gabriel Jolinston was commissioned by the king as his successor.
The second Assembly
Not realizing that the Board of Trade might be per- July, 1-33 suaded to disregard his representations, and conscious of his purpose to rule well if not wisely, Burrington did not (leviate from the course he had marked out for himself with reference to those who did not sustain his administration. Brave, bold and self-reliant, he was always candid. There was in his disposition no element of craft or dissimulation. He thought he knew what would best promote the develop- ment of the province, and he sought to carry into effect his views regardless of opposition. He thought he knew what his instructions required of him, and he resolutely undertook to obey their tenor. Finding the Assembly at points with him about the payment of quit rents and fees, he applied for additional instructions, and avowed his pur- pose to have no Assembly until those instructions were re- ceived. Eventually, toward the end of March, 1733, the long delayed answer came to his request, and he at once ordered an election to be held in May for assemblymen to meet in July. When the body convened he explained that his new instructions were similar to the first he had re- ceived. Moseley was again the speaker, and in his reply to the governor's speech he dwelt on the impracticability of paying the quit rents in specie, and denied that they were payable in sterling money, as now claimed. Originally he Quit rents asserted they were payable in produce, and when paper money was issued a law was passed that this paper currency should be good for all payments except alone for the pur- chase of land, for as to that the Lords Proprietors had always exacted specie. The lands in Albemarle were never sold, while some in Bath County were granted on quit rents alone and others were sold for specie, reserving a much lower quit rent in addition to the purchase price; and the house insisted that the Assembly of 1731 had offered to his
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