USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina V. I, Pt. 1 > Part 28
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At the third session of the Assembly, which met on Sep- tember 30, 1756, Speaker Campbell was unable to attend because of ill health, and Sam Swann was chosen speaker. The necessity of maintaining a force in the field was now thoroughly appreciated by the Assembly, and strenuous efforts were made to co-operate with Governor Dobbs. £4,000 were appropriated for the erection of the fort at the west, and another company, under Captain Andrew Bailey, was employed in that quarter.
In the spring of 1757 South Carolina was threatened by the C. R., V, Indians on her frontier, and two-thirds of the militia of the C. R., V, lower counties were ordered to be held in readiness to march to the assistance of that province. To supplement the forces in Virginia, especially in their scouting operations, bands of Indians from the Meherrins and Tuscaroras, as well as the Cataw bas, were sent northward to join the army now under the command of General Forbes. Captain Dobbs's company, as well as Captain Caleb Granger's and Captain Arbuth- not's (with whom were Lieutenant Henry Johnston, Lieu- tenant Ferguson and Ensign David Rogers), and also Cap- tain McManus's company (John Payne being one of the lieutenants), after serving in Virginia, were formed into a battalion and sent to New York under the command of Cap- tain Dobbs, who was now promoted to be major. There Captain Granger's company served in the Crown Point cam- paign. On the return of Lieutenant Payne, he was promoted to be captain, and later he marched his company to South Carolina.
In 1758 two other companies were raised, one for Fort C. R., V, Johnston, under Captain James Moore, who also led his com- 967 pany to South Carolina; and one for Fort Granville, on the coast, under Captain Charles McNair. During that year 300 men were sent to join General Forbes ; 200 went by sea,
1756
C. R., V, 688,717
Fort Dobbs
xxv et s€7. 957 Haywood, Beginning of Freema- sonry in North Carolina, 4
Service at the North
292
DOBBS'S ADMINISTRATION, 1754-65
1758
and 100, taken from the western frontier, passed up the Valley of Virginia, and with these troops were a number of Cherokee Indians, the whole battalion being under the com- mand of Major Hugh Waddell, who had won great fame for his courage and capacity.
Waddell, A Colonial Officer, 61
C. R., VI, 384
William Pitt was now at the helm of affairs in England, and was prosecuting the war with great vigor. The disasters of the previous campaign were to be succeeded by strenuous endeavors for victory. In Virginia, General Forbes pushed forward toward Fort Duquesne; but winter set in while he was still forty miles from his destination. In that moun- tainous wilderness, without information, and ill prepared for a siege of the fort or to pass the winter in that desolate region, the general was in such sore straits that he offered a reward of £50 to any one who would capture an Indian from whom information could be obtained. Sergeant John Rogers, of Waddell's command, fortunately succeeded in taking an Indian alive, and because of the information gained from him the general, who was contemplating a retreat, dis- carded that purpose, continued his advance, made a forced march, and found that the enemy had on his approach aban- doned their stronghold. Passing into the hands of the English, Duquesne was at once named Fort Pitt, in honor of the great war minister ; and the Indians came in and made treaties of peace, which secured a cessation of hostilities along that frontier.
Nov. 25, 1758
McCulloh's grants C. R., V, xxxiii, 1106
During this period of the war and unrest the controversy between Henry McCulloh and Granville, within whose terri- tory some of the McCulloh grants had been located, was brought to a conclusion by an agreement that McCulloh was to become Granville's tenant, and in lieu of all other rents he was to pay an annual sum of £400 from 1757 until 1760, after which date he was to pay four shillings for every hundred acres of land retained by him, but he was to reconvey and surrender to Granville all lands not then settled. As the period for settling McCulloh's grants in the king's domain was about to expire. in 1756 he petitioned that because of the wars and difficulties he be allowed three years' additional time. and accordingly the time for settlement was extended for him until 1760, when he was to surrender his grants, retain-
293
1 THE ASSEMBLY AND THE GOVERNOR
ing only two hundred acres of land for each white person settled by him in the province.
At first Governor Dobbs appears to have gotten on quite well with the Assembly. The matter of quit rents was not so interesting to the people as formerly, not only because half of the province had been conveyed to Granville, but on the growth and development of the colony, the thickening of population and the general advancement in prosperity it was not so essential that the rents should be paid in farm produce, and the determination of the Crown that they should be paid in money no longer met with serious resistance. But the instructions of the Crown officers limiting the powers of Assembly caused some dismay among the leaders both at the north and at the south; and there was evidently a spirit among them to come together again. Indeed, neither side could boast a complete triumph over the other, for the action of the Assembly in 1747 fixing a quorum at fifteen and pro- ceeding with legislation in the absence of a majority was upheld, and while the two important acts which the northern members protested against were annulled, that action was not taken on their ground and their position was not sus- tained; and the subject-matters of those acts were taken entirely from under the power of the Assembly and declared to be within the prerogative of the Crown. Necessarily, there were personal antagonisms which only time could heal. The defeat of Swann at the opening of the new Assembly was to have been expected, and his election as speaker at the third session indicates that progress had been made in the direction of restored fraternal relations. The general desire to co-operate in measures of defence appealing to their patriotism doubtless also conduced to healing the breaches.
At the session of November. 1758, the Assembly compli- mented the governor by locating the capital at Tower Hill, and by creating a new county, embracing the seat of govern- ment, which was called Dobbs in his honor ; and it also laid a tax to pay the salaries of the chief justice and attorney- general.
But notwithstanding this disposition on the part of the Assembly to be complaisant, there was a divergence between the Assembly and the governor, who seems to have developed
1758
Internal affairs
Dobbs County S. R., XXIII 494, 495
The governor arbitrary
294
DOBBS'S .ADMINISTRATION, 1754-65
1758
an arbitrary and exacting spirit and would brook no oppo- sition to his purposes. Old, self-willed and petulant, he appears to have regarded himself as a ruler rather than as a mere executive officer, and he sought to constrain rather than to influence.
The king's bounty
Causes of difference C. R., VI, 1-3
C. R., V, 1087
The house outwitted C. R., VI, 3
It was known that to reimburse the colonies for their war expenditures the Crown proposed to allow £200,000 for dis- tribution among all of them, and £50,000 was to be given to the southern colonies exclusively. The control of that part of these funds which would be allotted to North. Carolina now became a subject of difference between the Assembly and the governor. The governor asserted his prerogative to dispose of the money. while the Assembly claimed the right to use it in their own discretion ; and also the right to appoint an agent for the province and to select the committee to correspond with him and give him directions. The governor very emphatically denied all these claims. In the bill locating the seat of government at Tower Hill no appropriation had been made for the construction of the public buildings : but in a second bill granting an aid to the king and providing for the equipment of three companies to consist of one hundred men each there were embodied provisions appropri- ating out of the expected funds £4.500 for the erection of the government houses, and also appointing James Aber- cromby agent for the province, and designating Sam Swann, Thomas Barker, John Starkey, George Moore and John Ashe as a committee of correspondence. The governor objected to this bill, as it was in conflict with his notions of the rights of the Assembly, and determining to defeat it, he resorted to what he called finesse. Going among his friends in the council, he suggested to them not to oppose either of the two bills and to let the objectionable aid bill go to the third reading. excepting some trifling matters of amendment. Thus a bill locating the seat of government was passed ; but when the aid bill came up the governor procured the council to postpone it for some days, and in the meantime he pro- rogued the Assembly. He himself described the result : "Upon this disappointment the lower house were all in a flame, the managers being greatly disappointed, and repre- sented to me that there must be a dissolution unless the
205
THE GOVERNOR es. THE ASSEMBLY
upper house would resume the bill." It ended, however, in the house appointing Abercromby their own agent for two years and appointing their own committee of correspondence, and in their making an address to the Crown praying that a part of the sum allowed North Carolina should be laid out in purchasing glebes and establishing free schools in each county. By the governor's action the aid bill was defeated, and no provision was made for raising troops for defence at that time. Spring was not over, however, before the need of more forces at the north resulted in pressing calls on Governor Dobbs for additional troops, and he was driven to the necessity of hastily summoning the Assembly to meet at New Bern. The house convened on May 8, 1759, and pro- May, 1759 ceeded to pass an aid bill exactly similar to the one that the C. R., VI, governor had succeeded in defeating by his boasted finesse. 40 The upper house, however, amended it by striking out all the sections not pertinent to the raising of troops, to which the Assembly not agreeing, it was prorogued, and the session ended without the adoption of any measure whatsoever. Necessarily these causes of difference led to much irrita- tion, which was emphasized by the governor's non-action in regard to disturbances in the interior of the province.
On January 24, 1759. there were riots in Granville's terri- tory, and a number of citizens who were discontented at the frauds practised by Granville's agents and their entry takers and surveyors forcibly took possession at night of the house of Francis Corbin, the chief agent, and seized him and carried him off some seventy miles, and held him in duress until he gave a bond. And Robert Jones,* then attorney-general, C. R., V. made affidavit that the rioters intended to silence him, or vii "to pull deponent by the nose and also abuse the court," and unless they were suppressed "there would be no safety in the counties in which they lived."
Because of this lawlessness the Assembly addressed the governor and pointed out that no steps had been taken to punish the offenders and requested that the chief justice and other justices and other officers should be required to exert themselves and bring the guilty parties to punishment ; and also requesting that if it should be necessary the regiments of
*The father of Willie and Allen Jones.
1759
C. R., V, 1294 Dec., 1758 Free Schools John Ashe's address
The Enfield riots
The Assembly protests C. R., VI, 105, 106
206
DOBBS'S ADMINISTRATION, 1754-65
1759
militia in the several counties might be called out to assist the civil powers, cause obedience to the laws and restore peace and order ; and the Assembly loudly complained that the gov- ernor had taken no action in this matter, but. on the contrary. had seemed to lend it his countenance by appointing men engaged in the riots to be magistrates and to hold other posi- tions under the government.
The governer not sustained
C. R., VI, 55
During the summer the Board of Trade at London re- ceived from the governor his letter enclosing the rejected aid bill, together with his reasons for not allowing it to pass, which he put on the ground that the bill diminished his Majesty's prerogative. In their reply the Board said that the proposed act did not appear to them to have that effect "to such an extent as you seem to apprehend." They sus- tained the Assembly in their claim to have the right to appro- priate the funds allowed them by the king; and also in their right to appoint an agent. and they asserted that they saw no ground to disapprove the aid bill in its abstract principle ; still they concurred in the view that separate matters en- braced in the measure ought not to have been incorporated in one act; and they also thought that the committee of correspondence, while properly appointed by the legislature, ought to have included some members of each house. Although urged by the governor to repeal the act of 1754, by which the Assembly had appointed the treasurers, the Board peremptorily refused to do so. saying that the practice of appointing treasurers by the legislature, and even of making them responsible to only one house, had prevailed so long that it would be improper to interfere with it. It would seem that these decisions so adverse to the positions taken by the governor, and so clearly sustaining the Assembly in its view of these matters, might have led to some abatement of Governor Dobbs's arbitrary conduct, but having once assumed a position antagonistic to the popular leaders, he became more strenuous in his opposition rather than com- plaisant.
The court law annulled
About that time there came over instructions repealing the act fixing the seat of government at Tower Hill, for the Board said that it was only intended that the Assembly should recommend a location, not definitely fix the place : and also
297
COURT ACT REPEALED
repealing the act of 1754 establishing supreme courts and 1750 -- enlarging the jurisdiction of the county courts. By that act the office of associate justice had been created, the appointees to hold during good behavior, and in the absence of the chief justice they were to exercise full jurisdiction. As a qualification for appointment they were to have been bar- risters of five years' practice in England or attorneys of seven years' practice in this or an adjoining province. These features were objectionable to the Board of Trade, for they restricted the power of the king to select, thus encroaching. on his prerogative, and they also rendered the justices inde- pendent of the Crown. The bill therefore had been annulled C. R., VI, 56 by the king, while the former court law of 1746 had been 180 repealed by the Assembly. So the province was to be left without any court system whatever. Under these circum- stances the governor deemed it prudent to withhold the an- nouncement until the next session of the Assembly, which was to convene in December. When the Assembly met. in view of these new instructions, the lower house prepared another bill to establish courts that would be free from the par- ticular defects that had led to the repeal of the original act ; but this new measure was not agreeable to the governor and council, who objected to the manner in which the judges were to be paid and to the judicial power conferred on the associate justices provided for in the bill, and it failed to pass the upper house. So for a time-eight months in 1759 No courts and 1760-there was a cessation of the courts in the province.
The governor had received among other instructions one forbidding him to assent to any act making paper money a legal tender ; he was also informed that he might call a new election for assemblymen if he should choose to do so. Thereupon he dissolved the Assembly, it having already held nine sessions, and issued writs for the election of assembly- men to meet on April 22, 1760. The differences between the governor and the leaders now came to an acute issue, and the year 1760 is notable for its conflicts. It is also notable as the beginning of the practice of passing temporary court laws.
One of the reasons why the governor had not previously dissolved the Assembly was that he did not know how to
Currency
298
DOBBS'S ADMINISTRATION, 1754-65
1760 -- apportion the representation. Most of the counties and towns had applied for charters of incorporation, but some had not. In issuing his writs for the election he omitted Tyrrell and other counties and some of the towns. Where elections were held, however, the Assembly admitted the members without regard to the writs, falling back on the old constitution of the colony and ignoring the claim set up by the Crown that it had a right to apportion representation at its will. Thus originated another cause of conflict with the governor.
The particular object the governor had in view in calling the Assembly was to have passed an aid bill, as great military efforts were in contemplation for the ensuing campaign. But riots and disorders had continued in Edgecombe, Hali- fax and Granville counties, and the Assembly was in ill- humor at the governor's conduct in not seeking to suppress them. It adverted to the scenes of violence that had dis- turbed the peace of the province, and dwelt on the fact that there were no courts in existence to curb and restrain the lawless people : and it declared it would pass no aid bill until the superior court bill was assented to. The governor, on the other hand, was firm in his purpose to come to no terms with the popular leaders and would not assent to the court bill. Finally, after some heated controversy, on May 23, 1760, the house, animated by a spirit of defiance, took bold action. It resolved itself into a committee of the whole, and warning the members that if any one should divulge what might be said in the debate he should be dismissed from the house, spent five hours in considering the action of the gov- ernor, and adopted a series of twenty resolutions aimed against him, and declaratory of his arbitrary conduct, and also prepared a long address to the king complaining very bitterly of his Excellency, which was to be presented by the agent of the province and was not to pass through the gov- ernor's hands at all. This resolute action apparently made some impression on the governor, who then proposed to come to terms. offering to prorogue the Assembly for three days, and agreeing that if they would pass an aid bill, and also the court bill, with a clause limiting its operation to two years unless ratified by the king, he would assent to it in
Secret session May, 1760
The governor makes terms C. R., VI, 410-414
299
TEMPORARY COURT ACT
that form. This gave some hope of the establishment of courts and of correcting the disorders that threatened the peace and prosperity of the province, and so the leaders of the Assembly assented to the proposition and a court bill was passed similar to the previous one -- the associate justices were to be skilled lawyers and were to hold during good behavior. With this beginning, for a period of more than ten years it became the practice to pass a court bill in that form, by which the duration of the courts became subject to a limitation of two years. Also under the agreement the house passed an aid bill, but the governor now had changed his mind as to the aid bill, and as he did not like some of its provisions, especially deeming the bounty offered for enlist- ments too small, and as he considered that the pressing necessity for raising troops no longer existed, he chose not to assent to it. At that time there was also a divergence be- tween the two houses, for the upper house would not pass the bill appointing Abercromby the agent, so the house passed another appointing Mr. Bacon, which, however, shared the C. R., VI, same fate. The clash involved matters of right and power 437 and the privileges of the respective bodies, the lower house claiming the exclusive right of designating the agent, and also of selecting the committee of correspondence, which the upper house would not assent to. The house then by solemn resolution appointed Bacon agent of the Assembly, not of the province. In the midst of the turmoil the governor pro- rogued the Assembly until September Ist.
The western counties desolated
While the governor and Assembly were engaged in their controversies conditions in the western part of the province became deplorable. In October, 1759, the people who had made their homes on the waters of the Yadkin and Catawba heard with dismay that the Creeks and Cherokees, theretofore friendly, had declared war against the English. Bands of Indians began to pass the defiles of the mountains and roam along the foothills. A reign of terror set in. Accounts of atrocities and butcheries and of destroyed homes came thick and fast to Salisbury and Bethabara. They were intensely
1760 C. R , VI, 420, 415, 437
Clewell, Hist. Wachovia
300
DOBBS'S ADMINISTRATION, 1754-65
1760 The Cherokee war
harrowing, while some of the escapes were marvellous. Many brave men, reluctant to abandon their homes, fortified them with palisades, and forts or stronghouses were erected where neighboring families could assemble for safety. The men slept with their rifles at hand, and the most resolute were in dread of stealthy attack, of ambush and of having their houses burned at night. It was then that Fort Defiance and other forts in that region were hastily constructed by the people.
Fort Defiance
Fort Dobbs attacked
The narratives of those who escaped massacre were heart- rending, while many men, women and children fell victims to the cruel tomahawk of the merciless foe. Few particular accounts of these individual experiences have been preserved ; but all the section west of the Catawba and of the upper Yadkin was desolated. Fort Dobbs, where Colonel Waddell was stationed, was, on February 27, 1760, unsuccessfully assailed by the hostiles; and information came through the "Little Carpenter" that Bethabara would be attacked, and preparations were made for the defence. At length a large body of Cherokees stealthily surrounded the town ; but hear- ing the village bell ring, they supposed themselves discovered and retired. Again they approached just as the night watch- man blew his trumpet, and they withdrew, and then desisted, although during that spring they remained for six weeks in the vicinity devastating the country. Among those who found refuge at Bethabara was a farmer named Fish and his son, who had escaped from their home on the Yadkin. Anxious to see if their house had been burned, they pre- vailed on another refugee, a stranger, to return with them to ascertain. On the way they were ambushed. Fish and his son fell, while the stranger was pierced by several arrows, one of which, passing through his body, protruded from his back. However, he escaped the Indians, and seeking to return, forded the Yadkin, where he soon saw another com- pany of savages approaching. Again plunging into the river, he crossed and succeeded in eluding them. A storm set in, and he wandered all night in a pelting rain. suffering torture from his wounds, and in dread of being overtaken. Thus passed twenty-four hours, when at length he reached Betha- bara, where the arrows were skilfully extracted by the good
Bethabara threatened
301
INDIAN WAR ON THE FRONTIER
1760
Dr. Bonn. Unfortunately the name of this man was not recorded.
A detachment of soldiers marched out to give burial to the Walnut bodies of Fish and his son. On their way they found a desolated Cove farmer besieged and defending his home, which the savages had already succeeded in setting on fire. They quickly drove the hostiles off and saved the farmer and his children. The next day, March 12th, came an appeal for help from Walnut Cove, which was surrounded by the Indians. A company hastened to their rescue and brought in the survivors. farmer, Robinson, had constructed a palisade around his house and resolutely made defence. Eventually he was driven from it into his log house, where he continued the struggle. At length his last load of powder was exhausted and he and his wife and children fell victims to the bloody tomahawk. Soon, however, sufficient soldiers arrived to secure protection, and on Easter Sunday, 1760, as many as four hundred soldiers attended the church services at Bethabara.
The Assembly had been prorogued until September, but on June, 176c receiving information of a general uprising of the Indians, and learning that the militia had refused to march beyond the limits of the province, Governor Dobbs convened the houses again on June 30th. All were now of one mind. An C. R., VI, aid was at once voted to the king; a force of three hundred 439 men was raised for service. the militia was organized, and authority was given to embody them for defence.
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