USA > North Carolina > Sketches of North Carolina, historical and biographical : illustrative of the principles of a portion of her early settlers > Part 12
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II. They claimed, and persisted in claiming, the privilege of choosing their own ministers, or religious instructors, as an inhe- rent right that could not be given up, and any civil or religious liberty be preserved. Here was the ground of all the difficulty of the Presbyterians in Ireland ; they would choose their own minis- ters,-and with the choice of ministers was of course connected the forms of religious worship, and the articles of their religious creed ; a difficulty that was removed only by first emigrating to America, and then toiling through the Revolution. They desired in Ireland what the Scotch are now asking in Scotland, the liberty of choosing their own ministry. The Irish conceded what the Scotch concede now, that the king might prescribe the way the minister should be supported ; they were willing to be taxed in large or small parishes, but insisted on the liberty of choosing their own teachers, and deciding on the forms with which they would worship God. They yielded to the civil authority all honor and service and money, and demanded protection for their persons in the enjoyment of their property and religion. Their folly, if folly it might be called, in their circumstances, was, to expect that freedom in religion, under a monarchy, which never had been
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found ; and which never has existed under any government except in these United States. These people had advanced far in the know- ledge of human rights; were in the high road to republicanism, with- out, perhaps, being aware of the lengths they had already advanced ; that, judging from their answer to the parliamentary committee -that men are called to the magistracy by the suffrage of the people-they were already republicans. Perhaps they did not fully understand liberty of conscience ; or if they did, as there is some reason to believe, they had not room or opportunity for its exer- cise ; hemmed in to choose one form of religion as the paramount one, they of course chose their own for the religion of the whole. How they would have acted had the power of the State been at their command, it is in vain perhaps to conjecture.
They also demanded that their ministers should be ordained by Presbyteries, and not by prelatic bishops ; the apparent yielding of some things under the influence of Archbishop Usher, soon being turned to uncompromising sternness, by the exercise of arbitrary power to compel them to conform. The principle of the house of Stuart was, " no Prelate, no King ;" that of the Presbyterian Irish was, " the king without Prelates ; all sufferings at home rather than Prelates ; exile rather than Prelates."
III. Strict discipline in morals, and full instruction of youth and children. These were connected with the Presbyterian body in Scotland ; were transplanted to Ireland, there cherished, and were the foundation principles on which their society was built ; were taken to America by the emigrants, and have been characteristic of the Scotch-Irish settlements throughout the land. Children were early taught to read, and exercised in reading the Bible every day ; and became familiar with the word of God in the family, in the school, and in the house devoted to the worship of the Almighty God. Their moral principles were derived from the words of him who lives and abides for ever ; and the commands of God, and the awful retributions of eternity, gave force to these principles, which became a living power, and a controlling influ- ence. The time has but just passed, when the schoolmaster from Ireland taught the children of the Valley of Virginia, and the upper part of the Carolinas, as they taught in the mother country, -when the children and youth at school recited the Assembly's shorter Catechism once a week, and read parts of the Bible every day. The circle of their instruction was circumscribed ; but the children were taught to speak the truth, and defend it,-to keep a
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conscience and fear God,-the foundation of good citizens, and truly great men.
Wherever they settled in America, besides the common schools, they turned their attention to high schools or academies, and to colleges, to educate men for all the departments of life, carrying in their emigration, the deep conviction, that without sound and extensive education, there could be no permanence in religious or civil institutions, or any pure and undebased enjoyments of domes- tic life. The religious creed of the emigrants made part of their politics, so far as to decide that no law of human government ought to be tolerated in opposition to the expressed will of God. It was on this ground, their fathers in Ireland resisted the arbitrary exactions of the Charleses and the Jameses, whom they consi- dered lawful rulers, whom they had recognized in the solemn League, and whom they were bound, and willing to obey in all things that did not involve violation of conscience by sinning against God.
Whether they were aware how far their principles actually led them, before they came to America, is doubtful; they had acknowledged that the authority of human government was from the same divine hand that made the world, fashion- ing the fabric of human society to require the exercise of good and wholesome laws for the promotion of the greatest good ;- and had also claimed the right of choosing those who should frame and execute these laws ;- contending that rulers, as well as the meanest subject, were bound by law. These prin- ciples, modified by experience, and digested into extended form, are the republican principles of the Scotch-Irish in America. On matters of national policy, and the smaller concerns of political organizations, they have differed in opinion and differ still, and will probably differ for ever, from the nature of the human mind in the independent exercise of thought. But on the great principles of freedom of conscience in matters of religion- on the supremacy of the laws-on the choice of rulers by the ex- pressed will of a free people-and the undisturbed enjoyment of life, limb and property, in submission to constituted government- there never has been, and probably never will be, any division of sentiment or feeling. In the blood shed on the Alamance, and in the declaration of independence in Mecklenburg, a casual observer must see, it was opposition to tyranny, and not the execution of the laws of a just government, that urged the people on. A people educated as they had been for generations, and placed in circum-
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stances calculated to provoke independence of action, could not have acted differently, and retain their identity of character.
The siege of Derry was undertaken and sustained with its in- numerable and unmeasured sufferings, in opposition to a king they had repudiated, and a hierarchy they abhorred ; and to defend the government from which they hoped for freedom and quietness, and the exercise of their religious principles and forms without tyran- nical interference. It is not probable that these men,-and some of the men of Derry emigrated to America, and laid their bones south of the Potomac,-or their immediate descendants, who lived in the days of the American Revolution (and there were many such), would hold back their hearts and hands, and belie the great principles that had done so much for Protestant England, and ultimately so much for America. Tyrannical government of colonies of such people must produce a revolution ; and had Governor Martin studied the character and circumstances of the people he marched to subdue, with any feelings of justice and humanity, he would first have re- dressed their grievances, and then bound to his government a wil- ling, grateful people, and at least for a time stayed the progress of revolution in North Carolina, and by the wholesome example, de- layed, if not prevented it, throughout the United Provinces.
The Presbyterians in Carolina have ever been a law-loving, law- abiding people ; differing sometimes about the extent of powers to be granted to magistrates, all unite in reverence for the laws enacted by the regular authorities under the adopted Constitution. They have always felt it was better to endure some evils than en- counter the horrors of a revolutionary war ; but they have always felt it better to endure all the protracted miseries of a revolution- ary struggle than fail to enjoy liberty of person, property, and con- science. Their ideas of religious liberty have given a coloring to their political notions on all subjects ; perhaps it is more just to say, have been the foundation of their political creed. The Bible has been their text-book on all subjects of importance ; and the principles of the Bible carried out will produce a course of action like the emigration of the Scotch-Irish to America,-and their re- sistance to tyranny, in the blood shed on the Alamance, and their Declaration of Independence at Charlotte.
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CHAPTER X.
THE SETTLEMENT OF THE SCOTCH ON THE RIVER CAPE FEAR ; AND THE REVEREND JAMES CAMPBELL.
THE time of the settlement of the first Scotch families upon the river Cape Fear, is not known with exactness. There were some at the time of the separation of the province into North and South Carolina, in the year 1729. In consequence of disabilities in their native land, the enterprising Scotch followed the example of their relations in Ireland, and sought refuge and abundance in America ; and some time previous to the emigration from the province of Ulster to the Yadkin, numerous families occupied the extended plains along the Cape Fear, in that part of Bladen county, now Cumber- land. From records in possession of the descendants of Alexan- der Clark, it appears that he came over and took his residence on the river in the year 1736, and that a " ship load" of emigrants came over with him. It also appears that he found " a good many" Scotch settled in Cumberland at the time of his arrival, amongst whom was Hector McNeill, called Bluff Hector, from his resi- dence near the bluffs above Cross Creeks, or Fayetteville, and John Smith, with his two children, Malcolm and Janet, his wife, Margaret Gilchrist, having died on the passage up the river.
Alexander Clark came from Jura, one of the Hebrides. His ancestors, particularly his grandfather, had suffered much in the wars that had desolated Scotland, and fell heaviest on the Presby- terians. Being constrained to flee for his life, his grandfather took two of his sons and went to Ireland, and saw many trials and suf- ferings, which were brought to a close by the battle of the Boyne, that decided the fate of the British dominions. Returning to Scotland after the peace, he sought his family ; leaving the vessel, he ascended a hill that overlooked his residence, and gazed in sad- ness over the desolation that met his eye ; to use his own words, "but three smokes in all Jura could be seen." Not a member of his family could be found to tell the fate of the rest. They had all perished in the persecutions. He returned to Ireland to find his cup of bitterness, overflowing as it was, made still more bitter
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by the death of one of his two sons. After some time he return- ed, and spent the remainder of his days in Jura, having for his second wife one whose sufferings had been equal to his own. Her infant had been taken from her arms, its head severed from its body in her presence, and used by a ruffian, twisting his hand in its hair, to beat the mother on the breast till she was left for dead. Gilbert, the only surviving child of his first wife, returned with his father to Jura, and there lived and reared a family. One of his (Gilbert's) sons, Alexander, married Flora McLean, and reared four sons and four daughters, and when his eldest son Gilbert was sixteen years of age, removed to America, and settled in Cumberland county, on the Cape Fear. Some of the descendants of Keneth Clark, half brother of Gilbert, came to America. From this stock arose numerous families in the south and west.
When Alexander Clark emigrated to America, he paid the pas- sage of many poor emigrants, and gave them employment till the price was repaid. Many companies of Scotchmen came to Ame- rica in a similar way, some person of property paying their passage, and giving them employ upon their lands until they were able to set up for themselves.
Could the history of families be traced out with certainty, there is little doubt that vague traditions of sufferings and trials from the hands of the Catholics, would prove to have been derived from as sad realities as are found in the family of the Clarks. Almost without exception these Scotchmen were Presbyterians, who held the Confession of Faith, the Solemn League and Covenant, and the Form of Government and Discipline now in use in Scotland. And for their creed they were willing to suffer ; for, as little as liberty of conscience was understood at that time, the Scotch had found that yielding their religious creed to authority was giving up them- selves to hopeless tyranny ; and through many political mistakes they held the palladium, their Confession of Faith and Form of Government, with an unwavering spirit.
More than sixty years had passed from the decisive battle of the Boyne, July 1st, 1690, in which the forces of James II. were entirely routed by William III., Prince of Orange, and the royal fugitive James took refuge in Paris, abandoning his throne to his rival, when his grandson CHARLES EDWARD began to make pre- parations for a descent upon England. From his very cradle he was inspired with an unquenchable desire to regain the throne of his ancestors ; of this he talked by day and dreamed by night, and in his delusive plan was encouraged by the thoughtless and
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the imaginative, till he came to believe that the principal men in the kingdom were discontented with the reigning house of Han- over, and desirous of seeing a male descendant of the house of Stuart on the throne. After much solicitation he obtained some encouragement from the King of France, but no public acknow- ledgment either of the present enterprise or the validity of his claim. On the 16th of July, a day remarked by some as fatal to his family, in 1745, he landed on the coast of Lochaber, in Scot- land, with some money, a few stands of arms, and scarce an at- tendant, relying on the national feelings of the Scotch, whom he expected to rally around his standard. Of the rising in his favor, or rebellion against the constituted authorities of the kingdom, which followed, an account may be found in any extended history of England or of Europe, sufficient to satisfy a general reader. The Pretender to the crown of England, Prince Charles Edward, soon discovered that while the Scotch loved his family from their hearts, as their own royal house, the Lowlanders had become so attached to the reigning house, or satisfied with their government, that no solicitations could engage them in a hasty rebellion against George II. ; and that among the Highlanders, the most powerful chiefs were either so connected with the government as to be alto- gether averse to any attempt to shake its peace and security, or were so convinced of its stability as to consider any efforts to regain the crown to their own royal house but a feeble rebellion. The head of the Makenzies, and also the head of the McLeods, were members of parliament ; the head of the McDonalds, the strongest and most numerous of the clans that had favored the father and grandfather of Prince Charles Edward, was entirely opposed to a rising, or insurrection, or rebellion, having no hope of final success. In their view neither time nor circumstance was propitious ; nor were they prepared to say that any govern- ment they might hope for, under the house of Stuart, would be more favorable to Scotland and the united kingdom than the do- minion of the reigning family.
Lord Lovat declared for him, and with him were united some of the feebler noblemen ; some of the smaller clans in the High- lands unanimously raised the standard for the Pretender ; and many of the young men of the clans of the McDonalds, the McLeods, the Makenzies, and others whose leaders would not favor the enterprise, gave way to the impulse of national enthusi- asm and chivalric enterprise, and joined his ranks. For a time it is well known that he was successful, and on his march towards
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the capital of the kingdom, spread terror through the country, and struck alarm in the cabinet of King George. Whether his success had reached its boundary and necessarily subsided into misfortune and calamity, or whether his delays and revelries wasted the golden hours of enterprise, and suffered the rising enthusiasm of the nation, warmed for a young prince claiming his ancestors' throne, to grow cool, his tide of success soon changed, and he retired, whether wisely or unwisely, first to the borders of Scotland, and then to the northern part, and took possession of Inverness. The disposition to declare for their royal house was spreading in Scotland, and could he have maintained his post in England, or have delayed a battle for a time, the mass of the nation would have taken arms in his cause. On the 16th of April, 1746, he fought, a few miles north of Inverness, against the Duke of Cum- berland, the disastrous battle of Culloden; and with his defeat his hopes of empire vanished. Dismissing his followers, whose hopes and courage were better than his own, he wandered a fu- gitive among the mountains and crags, and, never again rallying his forces, sought his safety in secresy and flight.
His followers were taken captive in great numbers ; three no- blemen, after summary trial, perished on the scaffold ; one of them, Lord Lovat, in his eightieth year, exclaiming with his latest breath, " Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori." The English army rav- aged with fire and sword all that part of Scotland that had favored the prince. The men were hunted down like wild beasts, and shot on the smallest resistance ; the huts were burned over the heads of the women and children, and the cattle and provisions were carried away or destroyed. The very appearance of rebellion, and in many places even of population itself, was extinguished in the Highlands before the Duke of Cumberland returned to London. Yet in all this misery of the people, and the keen scrutiny of the soldiers, the prince finally escaped. In his wanderings he experi- enced all the variety of dangers and hair-breadth escapes that can be imagined from the efforts of a chivalrous young man whose greatest errors and misfortunes had sprung from the success of his gallantry among the ladies of his court and country,-and a people rough and untutored, but loyal to a proverb, and though poor, too staunch to be bribed by the offer of £30,000 to deliver up the fugitive whose hiding-places were known to many and could easily be guessed at by multitudes. During the five months of his wan- derings, no less than fifty individuals were in possession of his person, many of whom had been opposed to the rising in his favor,
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from the conviction of its uselessness, and had suffered themselves to be drawn into the rebellion by the enthusiasm of their nation for their own royal house.
Many pleasing instances of heroic devotion to the prince in his misfortunes are related to the everlasting honor of the Highlands. Immediately after the battle of Culloden, he took refuge in Ross- shire ; and to save him from the hot pursuit of the soldiers, his adherents and friends not only fought, but suffered themselves to be slain that he might escape. One gentleman, always known as opposed to the rebellion, being apprehended for aiding him in his necessity, pleaded before his judges-" I only gave him what nature seemed to require, a night's lodging and an humble repast. And who among my judges, though poor as I am, would have sought to acquire riches by violating the rights of hospitality in order to earn the price of blood ?" This generous plea gained him his dis- mission with applause. Another by the name of Kennedy, who often exposed his life for his prince, and though poor, despised the large reward offered for betraying the royal fugitive, was some time after seized at Inverness and executed on the charge of steal- ing a cow. At the place of his execution he pulled off his bonnet, and looking round upon the assembly, exclaimed, " I give most hearty thanks to Almighty God that I never proved false to an en- gagement of any kind ; that I never injured a poor man ; and never refused to share whatever I had with the stranger and those in want."
On the return of the army under the Duke of Cumberland, a large number of prisoners were taken along, and after a hasty trial by a military court, publicly executed. Seventeen suffered death at Kennington Common, near London; thirty-two were put to death in Cumberland ; and twenty-two in Yorkshire. This was probably done by way of vengeance and alarm. But kinder thoughts prevailed with his Majesty George II. ; and a large num- ber were pardoned, on condition of their emigrating to the planta- tions, after having taken the solemn oath of allegiance. This is the origin of the large settlements of Highlanders on Cape Fear River. For a large number who had taken arms for the Pretender, preferred exile to death, or subjugation in their native land; and during the years 1746 and 1747, with their families and the fami- lies of many of their friends, removed to North Carolina and settled along the Cape Fear River, occupying a large space of country of which Crosscreek, afterwards Campbelton, now Fayetteville, was the centre. Probably the report from those who had settled along
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this river, of the mild winters, the open forests, the abundant cane- brakes and wild grass, turned the attention of these emigrants to this part of America, where lands were abundant and cheap. Per- haps, too, the royal authority was exerted in fixing a location for the pardoned exiles, that Carolina might have a hardy race of industrious people to occupy her waste lands, increase her popula- tion and her revenue to the royal coffers. This wilderness become a refuge to the harassed Highlanders ; and shipload after ship- load landed at Wilmington in 1746 and 1747. The emigration once fairly begun by royal authority and clemency, was carried on by those who wished to improve their condition, and become owners of the soil upon which they lived and labored ; and in the course of a few years large companies of industrious Highlanders joined their countrymen in Bladen county, North Carolina. Their descendants are found in the counties of Cumberland, Bladen, Sampson, Moore, Robeson, Richmond and Anson, all of which were included in Bladen at the time of the first emigration; and are a moral, religious people, noted for their industry and economy, perseverance and prosperity ; forming a most interesting and im- portant part of the State. Their present descendants are to be found everywhere in the South and West.
The religious principles of these emigrants have been better known and more generally understood, and better expressed, by writers of American history, whether sectional or general, than those of the people who took possession of the upper country, and acted so nobly in the Revolution ; and better, perhaps, than those of any other section of the State in its earlier years. The religion of the Scotch Church is known to the world; it is the religion of the nation. The religion of Ireland is part Protestant and part Papist ; the predominant being of the Church of Rome, and the Protestant being divided between the Presbyterian and the Church of England. To say a company of emigrants are from Ireland does not decide either the political or religious creed ; to say they are from Scotland, in general, decides both. In the former case we inquire for their birth-place and their creed; in the latter, we take it for granted we know what their creed is, unless we are warned to the contrary.
From the time of the introduction of the Christian religion into Scotland the bias of the national mind has been to the creed and forms of Presbytery. The Culdees were to all intents and pur- poses Presbyterians ; they held strenuously to the parity of the clergy ; had but one ordination ; and governed the Church by a
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Council of Presbyters. Popery for a time did obtain the ascend- ency in Scotland, all the time struggling against the spirit of the nation that demanded independence in religion. But from the time of John Knox, there has been no doubt respecting the religious forms or the creed desired by the great body of the people. The National Covenant adopted and signed publicly in 1638, and re- peated afterwards, and the Confession of Faith, which has been used now more than two hundred years by the Presbyterians in Scotland, England, and Ireland, and about a century and a half in America, leave no doubt what their views of church government, church order, and belief, were. The fact that many of them had borne arms for the Pretender, a Papist sent over by the instigation of the Pope and his adherents, for the purpose of introducing Popery once more into England, is easily and very truly accounted for on other feelings and principles than any sympathy in reli- gious belief, of which it is known there was none.
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