USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina, V I pt 2 > Part 20
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The congress was apparently more conservative than the committee, for the committee's plan of electing the justices of the peace, who were to hold the county courts. by a vote of the inhabitants, was rejected by the congress.
The instrument conservative
From first to last the instrument as perfected by the con- gress was conservative, and the government it established must have been a great disappointment to those who favored a pure democracy. Nor did the congress submit it to the people for their approval. and it took effect immediately on its adoption. It. however, was well received by the people, and was the subject of eulogy for many years. It remained unchanged for two generations, although in the course of time complaints began to be made at the west against the plan of representation, and in 1835 the people preferred to choose their own governors. and twenty years later the re- quirement of a freehold to constitute a senatorial elector was abolished.
C R., X, 991
The constitution being adopted, two days later the con- gress chose Richard Caswell to be governor of the State un- til the next session of the General Assembly : and Cornelius Harnett. Thomas Person, William Dry. William Haywood, Edward Starkey, Joseph Leach, and Thomas Eaton meni- bers of the Council of State; and in case of the death or other disability of the governor, the president of the
*A writer in the Wilmington Herald of 1844 ascribed that article as written to Cornelius Harnett. Harnett doubtless amended Dr. Caldwell's first proposition.
OFFICERS ELECTED
council was to succeed him. The congress having provided for the establishment of courts of over and terminer in the several districts of the State, proceeded to appoint justices of the peace, sheriff's and constables for the several counties, and establish county courts until the Assembly should meet. As Caswell, on becoming governor, resigned his office as treasurer of the southern district, John Ashe was elected to that office : and Cornelius Harnett was elected vice-president of the congress. The common law and the laws of the province that were not inconsistent with the freedom and independence of the State were declared in force. Having performed its work, the congress, after sitting all day Sun- day, on Monday, December 23d, adjourned sine die.
560
1 -- 5 - -
Theember S. R. XX111, 912
C. R., X, 983
CHAPTER XXXIII
CASWELL'S ADMINISTRATION, 1776-80
Caswell's administration .- Military movements .- Political power. -The first Assembly .- Tories banished .- Sheppard's regiment .-- Conditions within the State .- The task of the patriots .- Johnston dissatisfied. - Loyalists depart. - Arrival of Lafayette. - Trade through Ocracoke inlet .- The Continental Line joins the Grand Army. -- Brandywine .- Germantown .- Death of Nash .- New battalions.
Caswell's administration
January
S R., São, 907
On the adjournment of congress Richard Caswell found himself in power as the first governor of the sovereign State of North Carolina. His title was "his Excellency." Shortly after the Christmas holidays he seems to have taken pos- session of the governor's palace at New Bern, and there on January 16th he helt his first council, Cornelius Harnett being chosen president of the board. On the same day judges were appointed to hold the courts of over and terminer. Among those appointed were John Penn. Samuel Spencer and Sam Ashe : and the criminal courts again began to be held. Penn. however, declined to serve, so no court was held in the Orange district. His action in this matter. disappointing Governor Caswell, was the probable cause of an estrangement between them.
A few days later the fine furniture and effects of Gov- ernor Martin with which the palace was filled were sold at auction under an order of the congress, and his Excellency bought largely of them, doubtless to furnish the palace.
S. R., XI, 393
Indians hostile
Notwithstanding the treaty of peace that had in the fall of 1776 been informally agreed on with the Indians, in February they again became hostile, and a detachment of militia was ordered to range in the district of Washington to prevent depredations, and General Rutherford was di- rected to raise eight independent companies, four for Wash- ington and four for Tryon, Burke, and Surry, to be employed
1777 --
$
...
3
1. MAURICE MOORE
3. ALEXANDER MARTIN
2. ABNER NASH
4. ROBERT HOWE
571
MOVEMENT OF TROOPS
in building stockades. in scouting and in protecting the people.
William Sharpe and Waightstill Avery were appointed com- missioners in conjunction with representatives of Virginia to make a treaty with the Over-bill Cherokees and fix the boun- dary between their hunting grounds and the white settlement, and during the summer they accomplished this purpose, ex- tending the boundary line into the Great Iron Mountains.
1777 -
The Indian boundary
Military movements
In anticipation of a southern campaign, General Moore marched his entire command to South Carolina. being like- wise accompanied by two battalions of militia under the command of General Allen Jones, appointed by the congress when in session at Halifax. On January 14th General Moore's continentals were at Charleston, and the appre- hension of a southern campaign having passed away, and Washington's army being hard pressed. on February 6th the Council of State directed that the ranks of three of his regiments should be filled by transfers from the others and he should lead them to the north. The considerable number of inhabitants in western North Carolina led to the belief that that was a favorable region for securing recruits. In- deed. General Rutherford made a return of over ten thou- sand men for his militia brigade in the Salisbury district alone. and Nash, who on February 5th was promoted by the Continental Congress to be brigadier-general, was directed to repair to the western part of the State and superintend the recruiting for the new regiments ; but rapidly succeeding this first order came a second directing that Moore and Nash should proceed with all the continentals to the aid of General Washington. Moore was then at Charleston in com- mand of the department. On receiving these orders he returned to North Carolina to arrange for the long march of the troops. ordering Nash to follow him with the regi- ments. In April they reached Wilmington and went into camp temporarily. There, unhappily, on April 15th, Gen- eral Moore died from an attack of gout in the stomach. On the same day his brother, Judge Maurice Moore, also died
1777
S. R., XI. 375
Nash appointed general
S. R., XI, 454 Death of Moore
572
C.ISIT'ELL'S .ADMINISTRATION, 1776-80
1777 Vash marches north
in the same house. General Nash assumed command and inarched to the north. A camp was established at Halifax. where were concentrated the continental battalions thien forming, whose ranks were not yet filled ; and another camp and hospital were located at Georgetown. Md., where all the North Carolina troops who had not had the smallpox were inoculated before joining the army. The brigade reached the Potomac toward the close of May, and while many were detained there to be vaccinated, two hundred were found to have already had the dread disease, and these were hurried forward to reinforce Washington. Under Colonel Sumner, they joined the army at Morristown on July 5th.
May
1777 Political power
The new constitution apportioned the political power of the State very differently from what had been the custom in colonial times. In former assemblies the Albemarle counties had each five representatives and the others but two. In the revolutionary bodies each county and borough had but a single vote without regard to the number of rep- resentatives they sent. Under the new constitution every county was entitled to one senator and two representatives and the borough towns to a representative. By this innova- tion the counties were all put on the same footing.
The first Assembly S. R., XII, 1
The division of the legislature into two houses, each con- sisting of a relatively small number of members, resulted in lessening the influence of many of the old leaders. When the Assembly, elected in March. met in April, the personnel of the representatives was greatly changed. Many of the prominent public men were either in the military or civil service, occupying positions that rendered them ineligible as members. Sam Johnston. being one of the treasurers, was not a member ; nor was Harnett, who was a member of the council. In the senate, Archibald Maclaine, Allen Jones, Griffith Rutherford, and Sam Ashe were men of the most influence. In the house. Abner Nash, Avery, Benbury, John Butler. Alexander Lillington. Willie Jones and William Hooper, and John Penn were among the leaders ; but the disappearance from the legislative halls of many who had exerted a controlling influence in former years was very observable.
573
WORK OF THE LEGISLATURE
Legislative action
It does not appear that there were any party lines. Ten April days after the session opened Abner Nash wrote: "We are all harmony, and a perfectly good agreement, as far as I can see, is likely to prevail in our houses of legislature." S. R., XI, Nash was elected speaker of the house of commons and 720 Sam Ashe was chosen to preside over the senate.
A mass of important business. much of it of a delicate nature, confronted the Assembly; and despite the absence of so many men of experience who had been accustomed to manage public affairs, the laws passed at that and the adjourned session attest the industry and high capacity of the assemblymen. Maclaine in the senate and Hooper in the house were probably the most influential in managing busi- ness. The former was in particular a strong, learned and painstaking lawyer and a patriot of the first water. The Assembly now levied an ad valorem tax on land. negroes, and all other property, thus inaugurating a great change in the system of taxation. It established two new counties at the west. one named in honor of the governor and the other for Dr. Burke. "a compliment never before paid to a private citizen," so high was the popular regard for the talented Irishman, who was then representing the State in the Con- tinental Congress with much ability. At the east, also, a county was created and called Camden, in grateful recog- nition of that nobleman's efforts in Parliament to befriend the colonies.
The election of officers by the congress in December had been merely for a temporary purpose, and now the Assembly re-elected Caswell and the members of the council. County courts were provided for. and courts of oyer and terminer were established, and Samuel Spencer was chosen to hold these courts in four districts, while Bonfield and James Davis were appointed for the Edenton and New Bern districts. Associated with these were others not lawyers. Because of the uncertainty of the times, it was considered best to postpone the establishment of civil courts until the next session, and the senate rejected the bill introduced to create them. Courts of admiralty were established and collectors of customs appointed for the various ports.
1777
S. R., XXIV, 6 Property tax
Caswell, Burke, and Camden Counties
S. R., XII, 109: XXIV, 39
574
CASIVELL'S ADMINISTRATION, 1776-80
1727
S. R., XII, 109
S. R .. XXIV, 1, 11, 15
An act was passed regulating the militia, dividing cach company into four classes, which should in turn be calli out when the necessity arose for making a draft. The brig- adiers-general were all re-elected except Thomas Person. who was succeeded by John Butler ;* but General Val dying soon. General Simpson was appointed by the council to take his place. A particular act was passed to encourage volunteers in the existing Indian war, and a premium of fio was offered for each scalp taken from and "fleeced off the head of an Indian man" by a captor being in the service of the State, and £4o for each scalp taken by one not in the pay of the State, "who shall voluntarily undertake to make war upon the said Indians." Particular efforts were also made to promote recruiting for the continental service. To suppress the Tories, the county courts were authorized to require every inhabitant who should refuse to take the oath of allegiance to depart from the State in sixty days. For this purpose the counties were to be laid off into small districts, in which a justice of the peace was to warn the inhabitants to come and take the oath, and on the failure of any to do so, they were to be banished. Banished persons had the right to sell their property before leaving, but in case they did not, their property became forfeited to the State. The patriots of that day realized the necessity of reducing the number of the disaffected within the limits of the State as far as practicable, and although these were harsh and rigorous exactions, yet they seem to have been necessary and wise.
Sam Johnston and John Ashe were re-elected treasurers, and apparently there was no particular contest over any appointment, except alone for one of the delegates to the Continental Congress. Penn was a member of the house. and desired to replace Hewes. He made a determined and personal effort. alleging that Hewes, who as a member of the Marine Committee was transacting very important busi- ness for the congress, was holding two offices, a method of
*General Butler, like Rutherford. had been one of those county officers of whose excesses the Regulators complained. He was sheriff of Orange in December, 1770, although his brother William was one of the Regulators.
575
PENN . DEFE.ITS HEITES
electioneering that greatly disgusted Hewes and his friends. A warm struggle ensued, and Penn succeeded by ten votes. The delegates chosen were Burke, Hooper, and Penn. Hooper declined, for the expense had been too heavy for his purse, and his friend Harnett was chosen to fill the vacancy. It was, however, said that had Hewes then been willing to accept he would have been chosen unanimously to replace Hooper, but his friends asserted that he would not accept under the circumstances. If his great and patri- otic service at Philadelphia was not appreciated by the Assembly, he was content to attend to his private affairs.
At that time the militia battalions sent to South Carolina were still in that State, one of them being commanded by Colonel Abraham Sheppard. It being resolved to raise a new continental battalion. Sheppard was appointed colonel of it, and he was directed to select his own officers and recruit his men. He had been Caswell's lieutenant-colonel at Alamance, had commanded the Dobbs militia with Cas- well at Moore's Creek, and was in service on the Cape Fear under General Ashe. He was regarded as particularly effi- cient, and Caswell reposed the highest confidence in him.
Eventually, after a session of a month, in the course of which the new State was launched with its officers and laws, suited to the changed conditions, the Assembly adjourned.
Conditions within the State
The counties now became organized with their courts, S. R., X1, justices, clerks, sheriffs, registrars and other officers. and 525 there was a general feeling of stability, and that the new government was permanently established. But yet the inhabitants were by no means of one mind on the subject of independence. Disaffection manifested itself more or less in every community. In July there were Tories in arms in Surry, and trouble in Guilford ; and in that month the Council of State, writing to General Rutherford, told him that they could not send any troops from the Hillsboro brigade, as he "well knew how many disaffected persons reside in that district and neighborhood."
Indeed, this was a time of fearful commotion and anxious solicitude in many parts of the State. A test oath being
1777 --
April McRee's Iredell, I, 359
Sheppard's regiment S. R., XI, 457
July, 1777
S. R., XI, 521-523. 526
576
CASIT'ELL'S ADMINISTRATION. 1776-80
1777 May required of all citizens, and those refusing to take it being ordered to depart the State within sixty days. a dread alter- native was presented that brought sorrow and lamentations. The Tories Deplorable in the extreme was the situation of a great num- ber of inhabitants who determined to abandon their homes and become wanderers on the face of the earth rather than engage in what they considered unjustifiable rebellion. A very large part of Cumberland, estimated at two-thirds of the county, prepared to leave the State, and in other com- munities considerable numbers had the same gloomy pros- S. R., XI. 534, 560 pects. The Scotch refused to take the oath almost to a man. They preferred exile to renouncing their allegiance ; and being much exasperated, they became very troublesome.
The salt riots
S R, XI. 527. 533 et seq. June
The interruption of regular commerce resulted in general privation of the necessaries of life. Chief among the indis- pensable articles for domestic use was salt, and of this there was a scarcity. The first highways known to history were made by the denizens of the interior seeking the seashore for this commodity. The human system hungers for it, and when the supply among the inhabitants of the interior ran short they fell into great commotions-the people demanded salt and would have it; and now began a disturbance that might well be denominated the salt riot. The State had a quantity stored at Cross Creek for the use of the public, and thither bodies of men began to congregate. It was reported that a thousand assembled in Orange alone, and crowds gathered in Duplin, Guilford, Chatham and other counties with such a threatening aspect that an alarming insurrection was feared. It was apprehended that the ulti- mate purpose was to seize the military stores at Wilmington. Colonel Williams, in command of the continentals at Hali- fax, and Colonel Sheppard, whose Tenth Regiment was at Kinston, were directed to move on Cross Creek, and Gen- eral Ashe was ordered to call out the militia of that district. The rising, however, seems only to have been with a view of taking the salt. and it was that which drew together the crowds in the disaffected territory.
500 S. R., XI,
On July 30th a mob of one hundred and forty persons
TORY UPRISINGS
577
from Duplin and Johnston entered Cross Creek, but Robert Rowan met them with his company, and having required July them to take the oath, sold them salt at $5 per bushel. Five hundred more came in somewhat later, and probably were appeased in the same way.
The task of the patriots
Just at the same time, July, 1777, a conspiracy was dis- covered among the eastern Tories to rise and fall upon their neighbors. "I am sorry to inform you," wrote Colonel Irwin to Governor Caswell. "that many evil persons in Edgecombe and the neighboring counties have been joined in a most wicked conspiracy. About thirty of them made an attempt on Tarboro, but luckily I had about twenty-five men to op- pose them, and I disarmed the whole and made many take the oath."
S. R., XI. 521
Had there been more unanimity, the task of the patriot leaders had been easier: but their daring, their constancy, and fortitude would not have entitled them so thoroughly to the gratitude and admiration of succeeding generations. Notwithstanding the division in sentiment of the inhabitants. it is to the honor of the public men of that period that no man who had been honored with the confidence of the people flinched when the test came or failed to move forward through the gloom and obscurity of the doubtful and hazard- ous issue. They doubtless felt as Franklin in the Conti- nental Congress expressed it, "we must all hang together, or we will be sure to hang separately."
There were, however, two Englishmen who, after the S. R., XI, formation of the State government, withdrew their support 539 Brimage from the cause. One, William Brimage. of Edenton, was appointed by Governor Caswell to hold the court of over in March. He declined, and not long afterward planned an insurrection, proposing to join the British vessel at Ocra- coke. For this he was arrested. The other prominent in- habitant who fell from the cause was John Slingsby, a mer- Slingsby chant of Wilmington, who at first entered zealously into the revolutionary measures, but subsequently adhered to the Crown, and in 1781 was colonel of the Lovalist militia of Bladen, and lost his life at the battle of Elizabethtown.
1777 --
2
578
C.ISIT'ELL'S ADMINISTRATION. 1776-80
1777 July
S. R., XI, 4$8, 504
Johnston dissatisfied
Samuel Johnston, although always true to the cause, was much dissatisfied with the form of government, and doubt- less suffered mortification at his treatment by the people of Chowan. Governor Caswell offered to appoint him to hold the court of over in the Edenton district, but Johnston ques- tioned Caswell's right to make the appointment. The legis- lature in April re-elected him one of the state treasurers, but he declined, saying : "In the infancy of our glorious struggle. when the minds of many were unsettled and doubtful of the event. I jovfully accepted every appointment that was offered by my fellow-citizens, and readily stood forth to give testimony of my concurrence and approbation of every meas- ure which tends to the security of the most inestimable rights of mankind ; at this period, when the constitution of this State is happily, and, I flatter myself, permanently es- tablished. when all doubts and apprehensions are entirely removed. . . . I . . . request . . . the favor of being per- mitted to decline that very honorable and lucrative appoint- ment." The cause of his declination was deep-seated. He was dissatisfied, mortified, and doubtless animated by resent- ment. The people had framed a government without his aid, and he had been treated by the inhabitants of his own county as if he were an odious character. Two months after he declined the treasureship he wrote to Dr. Burke : "I have had an opportunity of seeing an experiment of the new legislature. and am as little pleased with it in practice as I was formerly in theory, and am still of opinion that though your plan might, for aught I know. be well adapted to the government of a numerous, cultivated people, it will by no means be attended with those salutary ends which were in the contemplation of its framers." He characterized many of the representatives as "fools and knaves, who by their low arts have worked themselves into the good graces of the populace." "I saw with indignation such men as Griffith Rutherford. Thomas Person, and your colleague, J. Penn. . . . principal leaders in both houses, you will not expect that anything good or great . . . from the counsels of men of such narrow, contracted principle, supported by
579
TORIES EXPELLED
the most contemptible abilities. Hewes was supplanted . . . in congress by the most insidious arts and glaring falsehoods, July and Hooper, though no competitor appeared to oppose hin, lost a great number of votes." He concludes : "I am now out of office and totally abstracted from all political con- cerns." But in less than two years his resentment was molli- fied, and he again took his place in the Assembly as senator from Chowan, and in the dark days of the war he put forth his best efforts for success.
Loyalists depart
Throughout the province, however, there were large num- bers of local standing who remained fixed in their opposi- tion to the new government. These malcontents interfered with the recruiting and were a menace to the public peace, threatening the magazines in the different sections of the State, and it was desirable to free the inhabitants from their influence. Toward the last of July a large vessel sailed from New Bern having on board a great number of Tories with their wives and families, chiefly Scotchmen. Among the passengers were Martin Howard, the late chief justice of the province, and his wife and daughter. Since the beginning of hostilities he had been living quietly in seclusion on his plantation, Richmond, in Craven County. October 27th an- other transport sailed from New Bern for Jamaica, hav- ing on board John Hamilton and his brother Archibald, of Halifax, and many other Scotchmen. In January Governor Martin wrote from New York that many refugees from North Carolina had arrived there, "among them John Hamil- ton and Mr. Macleod, the former a merchant of considerable note, long settled there, and the latter a Presbyterian clergy- man of good character. who have formed a very spirited . . and well-concerted plan by drawing out of that prov- ince for his Majesty's service the loyal Highlanders, of whom they have two hundred and seventy odd men actually under the most solemn engagements to join them on a sum- mons." Later these men were embodied in a regiment un- der Hamilton's command, and were actively engaged during the war.
1777
S. R., XI. 656, 765; X111, 363
: The H.uniltons
580
CASIDELL'S ADMINISTRATION, 1776-80
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