USA > North Carolina > The history of North Carolina from the earliest period, Volume I > Part 26
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contradictions with you have not been confined to words only; they have been equally extended to ac- tions. On other occasions, you have played the gov- ernor with an air of greater dignity and importance than any of your predecessors; on this. your excel- lency was meanly content to solicit the currency of stamped paper in private companies. But, alas! mi- nisterial approbation is the first wish of your heart; it is the best security you have for your office. En- gaged as you were in this disgraceful negociation, the more important duties of the governor were for- gotten, or wilfully neglected. In murmuring, dis- content and public confusion, you left the colony committed to your care, for near eighteen months to- gether, without calling an assembly. The stamp act repealed, you called one; and a fatal one it was! un- der every influence your character afforded you, at this assembly, was laid the foundation of all the mis- chief which has since befalled this unhappy province. A grant was made to the crown of five thousand pounds, to erect a house for the residence of a gov- ernor; and you, Sir, were solely intrusted with the management of it. The infant and impoverished state of this country could not afford to make such a grant, and it was your duty to have been acquainted with the circumstances of the colony you governed. This trust proved equally fatal to the interest of the
province and to your excellency's honour.
You
made use of it, Sir, to gratify your vanity, at the ex- pense of both. It at once afforded you an opportu- nity of leaving an elegant monument of your taste in building behind you, and giving the ministry an in- stance of your great influence and address in your
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new government. You, therefore, regardless of ev- ery moral, as well as legal obligation, changed the plan of a province house for that of a palace, worthy the residence of a prince of the blood, and augment- ed the expense to fifteen thousand pounds. Here, Sir, yon betrayed your trust, disgracefully, to the governour, and dishonorably to the man. This lib- eral and ingenious stroke in politics may, for all I know, have promoted you to the government of New- York. Promotions may have been the reward of such sort of merit. Be this as it may, you reduced the next assembly you met to the unjust alternative of granting ten thousand pounds more, or sinking the five thousand they had already granted. They chose the former. It was most pleasing to the governour, but directly contrary to the sense of their constituents. This public imposition upon a people, who, from poverty, were hardly able to pay the necessary ex- penses of government, occasioned general discontent, which your excellency, with wonderful address, im- proved into a civil war.
In a colony without money, and among a people, almost desperate with distress, public .profusion should have been carefully avoided; but, unfortu- nately for the country, you were bred a soldier, and have a natural, as well as acquired fondness for mi- litary parade. You were intrusted to run a Cher- okee boundary about ninety miles in length; this lit- tle service at once afforded you an opportunity of exercising your military talents, and making a splen- did exhibition of yourself to the Indians. To a gentle- man of your excellency's turn of mind, this was no unpleasing prospect; you marched to perform it, in a
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time of profound peace, at the head of a company of militia, in all the pomp of war, and returned with the honorable title, conferred on you by the Cherokees, of Great Wolf of North Carolina. This line or marked trees, and your excellency's prophetic title, cost the province a greater sum than two pence a head, on all the taxable persons in it for. one year, would pay.
Your next expedition, Sir, was a more important one. Four or five hundred ignorant people, who called themselves regulators, took it into their head to quarrel with their representative, a gentleman hon- ored with your excellency's esteem. They foolish- ly charged him with every distress they felt; and, in revenge, shot two or three musket balls through his bouse. They at the same time rescued a horse which had been seized for the public tax. These crimes were punishable in the courts of law, and at that time, the criminals were amenable to legal process. Your excellency and your confidential friends, it seems, were of a different opinion. All your duty could possibly require of you on this occasion, if it required any thing at all, was to direct a prosecution against the offenders. You should have carefully avoided becoming a party in the dispute. But, Nir, your ge- nius could not lie still; you enlisted yourself a vol- unteer in this service, and entered into a negotiation with the regulators, which at once disgraced you and encouraged them. They despised the governor who had degraded his own character by taking part in a private quarrel, and insulted the man whom they considered, as personnally their enemy. The terms of accommodation your excellency had offered them
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were treated with contempt What they were I never knew; they could not have related to public offences; these belong to another jurisdiction. All hopes of settling the mighty contest by treaty ceasing, you prepared to decide it by means more agreeable to your martial disposition, an appeal to the sword. You took the field in September 1768, at the head of ten or twelve hundred men, and published an oral manifesto, the substance of which was, that you had taken up arms to protect a superior court of justice from insult. Permit me here to ask you, Sir, why you were apprehensive for the court? Was the court apprehensive for itself? Did the judges, or the at- torney-general, address your excellency for protec- tion? So far from it, Sir, if these gentlemen are to be believed, they never entertained the least suspi- cion of any insult, unless it was that, which they af- terwards experienced from the undue influence you offered to extend to them, and the military display of drums, colours and guards, with which they were surrounded and disturbed. How fully has your con- duct, on a like occasion since, testified, that you acted in this instance from passion, and not from principle! In September 1770, the regulators forcibly obstruct- ed the proceedings of Hillsborough superior court, obliged the officers to leave it, and blotted out the re- cords. A little before the next term, when their con- tempt of courts was sufficiently proved, you wrote an insolent letter to the judges, and attorney general, commanding them to attend it. Why did you not protect the court at this time? You will blush at the | answer, Sir. The conduct of the regulators, at the preceding term, made it more than probable that those
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gentlemen would be insulted at this, and you were not unwilling to sacrifice them to increase the guilt of your enemies.
Your excellency said, that you had armed, to pro- tect a court. Had you said to revenge the iosult you and your friends had received, it would have been more generally credited in this country. The men, for the trial of whom the court was thus extra- vagantly protected, of their own accord, squeezed through a crowd of soldiers, and surrendered them- selves, as if they were bound to do so by their recog- nizance.
Some of these people were convicted, fined and imprisoned; which put a end to a piece of knight errantry, equally aggravating to the populace and burthensome to the country. On this occasion, Sir, you were alike successful in the diffusion of a mili- tary spirit through the colony in the warlike ex- hibition you set before the public: you at once dis- posed the vulgar to hostilities, and proved the lega- lity of arming, in cases of dispute, by example. Thus warranted by precedent and tempered by sympathy, popular discontent soon became resentment and op- position; revenge superceded justice, and force the laws of the country: courts of law were treated with contempt, and government itself set at defiance. For upwards of two months was the frontier part of the country left in a state of perfect anarchy. Your ex- cellency then though fit to consult the representatives of the people, who presented you a bill which you passed into a law. The design of this act was to punish past riots in a new jurisdiction. to create new offences and to secure the collection of the public
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tax; which, ever since the province had been saddled with a palace. the regulators had refused to pay. The jurisdiction for holding pleas of all capital of- fences was, by a former law, confined to the particu- lar district in which they were committed. This act did not change that jurisdiction; yet your excel- lency, in the fulness of your power, established a new one for the trial of such crimes in a different district. Whether you did this through ignorance or design can only be determined in your own breast; it was equally violative of a sacred right, every British sub- ject is entitled to, of being tried by his neighbours. and a positive law of the province you yourself had ratified. In this foreign jurisdiction, bills of indict- ment were preferred, and found, as well for felonies as riots against a number of regulators; they refused to surrender themselves within the time limited by the riot act, and your excellency opened your third campaign. These indictments charged the crimes to have been committed in Orange county in a distinct district from that in which the court was held. The superior court law prohibits prosecution for capital offences in any other district, than that in which they were committed. What distinctions the gentlemen of the long robe might make on such an occasion I do not know, but it appears to me those indictments might as well have been found in your excellency's kitchen; and give me leave to tell you, Sir, that a man is not bound to answer to a charge that a court has no authority to make, nor doth the law punish a neglect to perform that, which it does not command. The riot act declared those only outlawed who re- fused to answer to indictments legally found. Those
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who had been capitally charged were illegally indict- ed, and could not be outlaws; yet, your excellency proceeded against them as such. I mean to expose your blunders, not to defend their conduct; that was as insolent and daring as the desperate state your ad- ministration had reduced them to could possibly oc- casion. I am willing to give you full credit for ev- ery service you have rendered this country. Your active and gallant behaviour, in extinguishing the flame you yourself had kindled, does you great hon- our. For once your military talents were useful to the province; you bravely met in the field, and van- quished, an host of scoundrels whom you had made intrepid by abuse. It seems difficult to determine, Sir, whether your excellency is more to be admired for your skill in creating the cause, or your bravery in suppressing the effect. This single action would have blotted out, for ever, half the evils of your ad- ministration; but alas, Sir! the conduct of the gener- al after his victory, was more disgraceful to the hero who obtained it, than that, of the man before it had been to the governor. Why did you stain so great an action with the blood of a prisoner who was in a state of insanity? The execution of James Few was inhuman; that miserable wretch was entitled to life till nature, or the laws of his country, deprived him of it. The battle of the Alamance was over; the soldier was crowned with success, and the peace of the province restored. There was no necessity for the infamous example of an arbitrary execution, with- out judge or jury. I can freely forgive you, Sir, for killing Robert Thompson, at the beginning of the battle; he was your prisoner, and was making his
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escape to fight against you. The laws of self pre- servation sanctified the action, and justly entitle your excellency to an act of indemnity.
The sacrifice of Few, under its criminal circum- stances, could neither atone for his crime nor abate your rage; this task was reserved for his unhappy parents. Your vengeance, sir, in this instance, it seems moved in a retrograde direction to that pro- posed in the second commandment against idolaters; you visited the sins of the child upon the father, and, for want of the third and fourth generation to extend it to, collaterally divided it between brothers and sisters. The heavy affliction with which the untime- ly death of a son had burthened his parents was suf- ficient to have cooled the resentment of any man, whose heart was susceptible of the feelings of hu- manity; yours, I am afraid, is not a heart of that kind? If it is, why did you add to the distresses of that family? Why refuse the petition of the town of Hillsborough in favour of them, and unresentingly destroy, as far as you could, the means of their future existence? It was cruel, sir, and unworthy a soldier.
Your conduct to others after your success, whether it respected person or property, was as lawless as it was unnecessarily expensive to the colony. When your excellency had exemplified the power of gov- ernment in the death of a hundred regulators, the survivors, to a man, became proselytes to govern- ment; they readily swallowed your new coined oath, to be obedient to the laws of the province, and to pay the public taxes. It is a pity, sir, that in devising this oath you had not attended to the morals of those people. You might easily have restrained every cri-
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minal inclination, and have made them good men, as well as good subjects. The battle of the Alamance had equally disposed them to moral and to political conversion; there was no necessity, sir, when the people were reduced to obedience, to ravage the coun- try, or to insult individuals.
Had your excellency nothing else in view than to enforce a submission to the laws of the country, you might safely have disbanded the army within ten days after your victory; in that time the chiefs of the regulators were run away, and their deluded follow- ers had returned to their homes. Such a measure would have saved the province twenty thousand pounds at least. But, sir, you had farther employ- ment for the army; you were, by an extraordinary bustle in administering oaths, and disarming the count- try. to give a serious appearance of rebellion to the outrage of a mob; you were to aggravate the import- ance of your own services by changing a general dis- like of your administration into disaffection to his ma- jesty's person and government, and the riotous con- duct that dislike had occasioned into premeditated re- bellion. This scheme, sir, is really an ingenious one; if it succeeds, you may possibly be rewarded for your services with the honour of knighthood.
From the 16th of May to the 16th of June, you were busied in securing the allegiance of rioters, and levy- ing contributions of beef and flour. You occasion- ally amused yourself with burning a few houses, tread- ing down corn, insulting the suspected, and holding courts martial. These courts took cognizance of ci- vil as well as military offences, and even extended their jurisdiction to ill breeding and want of good
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manners. One Johnston, who was a reputed regu- lator, but whose greatest crime, I believe, was write ing an impudent letter to your lady, was sentenced,. in one of these military courts, to receive five hundred lashes, and received two hundred and fifty of them accordingly. But, sir, however exceptionable your conduct may have been on this occasion, it bears lit. tle proportion to that which you adopted on the trial of the prisoners you had taken. These miserable wretches were to be tried for a crime made capital by a temporary act of assembly, of twelve months duration. That act had, in great tenderness to his majesty's subjects, converted riots into treasons. A rigorous and punctual execution of it was as unjust, as it was politically unnecessary. The terror of the examples now proposed to be made under it was to expire, with the law, in less than nine months after The sufferings of these people could therefore amount to little more than mere punishment to themselves. Their offences were derived from public and from private impositions; and they were the followers, not the leaders, in the crimes they had committed. Nev- er were criminals more justly entitled to every lenitv the law could afford them; but, sir, no consideration could abate your zeal in a cause you had transferred from yourself to your sovereign. You shamefully ex- erted every influence of your character against the lives of these people. As soon as you were told that an indulgence of one day had been granted by the court to two men to send for witnesses, who actually established their innocence, and saved their lives, you sent an aid-de-camp to the judges, and attorney gen eral to acquaint them that you were dissatisfied with
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the inactivity of their conduct, and threatened to re- present them unfavourably in England, if they did not proceed with more spirit and despatch. Had the. court submitted to influence, all testimony, on the part of the prisoners, would have been excluded: they must have been condemned, to a man. You said that your solicitude for the condemnation of these people arose from your desire of manifesting the lenity of government, in their pardon. How have your actions contradicted your words! Out of twelve that were condemned, the lives of six only were spared. Do- you know, sir, that your lenity on this occasion was less than that of the bloody Jeffries in 1685? He con- . demned five hundred persons, but saved the lives of , two hundred and seventy.
In the execution of the six devoted offenders, your excellency was as short of general Kirk in form, as you were of judge Jeffries in lenity. That general honoured the execution he had the charge of with play of pipes, sound of trumpets, and beat of drums; you were content with the silent display of colours only. The disgraceful part you acted in this 'cere- mony, of pointing out the spot for erecting the gal- lows, and clearing the field around for drawing up the army in form, has left a ridiculous idea of your character behind you, which bears a strong resemb- lance to that of a busy undertaker at a funeral. This scene closed your excellency's administration in this country, to the great joy of every man in it, a few of your own contemptible tools only excepted.
Where I personally your excellency's enemy, I would follow you into the shade of life, and show
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you equally the object of pity and contempt to the wise and serious, and of jest and ridicule to the lu- dicrous and sarcastic. Truly pitiable, sir, is the pale and trembling impatience of your temper. No character, however distinguished for wisdom and virtue, can sanctify the least degree of contradiction to your political opinions. On such occasions, sir. in a rage, you renounce the character of a gentle- man, and precipitately, mark the most exalted merit with every disgrace the haughty insolence of a gov- ernor can inflict upon it. To this unhappy temper, sir, may be ascribed most of the absurdities of your administration in this country. It deprived you of every assistance men of spirit and abilities could have given you, and left you, with all your passions and inexperience about you, to blunder through the duties of your office, supported and approved by the most profound ignorance and abject servility.
Your pride has as often exposed you to ridicule, as the rude petulance of your disposition has to con- tempt. Your solicitude about the title of her excel- lency for Mrs. Tryon, and the arrogant reception you gave to a respectable company at an entertainment of your own making, seated with your lady by your side on elbow chairs, in the middle of the ball room, bespeak a littleness of mind, which, believe me, sir, when blended with the dignity and importance of your office, renders you truly ridiculous.
High stations have often proved fatal to those who have been promoted to them; yours, sir, has proved so to you. Had you been contented to pass through life in a subordinate military character; with the pri-
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vate virtues you have, you might have lived ser- viceable to your country, and reputable to yourself; but sir, when, with every disqualifying circum- stance, you took upon you the government of a province, though you gratified your ambition, yon made a sacrifice of yourself.
Your's &c. ATTICUS
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OK- LXX III
THE Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina: as com. piled by JOHN LOCKE.
OUR sovereign lord the king, having, out of bis royal grace and bounty. granted unto us the province of Carolina, with all the royalties, properties, juris- dictions and privileges of a county palatine, as large and ample as the county palatine of Durham, with other great privileges; for the better settlement of the government of said place, and establishing the inter- est of the lords proprietors with equality, and with- out confusion: and that the government of this pro- vince may be made most agreeable to the monarchy under which we live, and of which this province is a part; and that we may avoid erecting a numerous de- mocracy: we the lords and proprietors of the pro- vince aforesaid, have agreed to this following form of government, to be perpetually established amongst us, unto which we do oblige ourselves, our heirs and successors, in the most binding ways that can be devised.
1. The eldest of the lords proprietors shall be pal- atine: and. upon the decease of the palatine. the eldest of the seven surviving proprietors shall always succeed him.
2. There shall be seven other chief officers erect- ed, viz. the admirals, chamberlains, chancellors. con- stables, chief justices, high stewards and treasurers; which places shall be enjoyed by noue but the lords 10*
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proprietors, to be assigned at first by lot; and, upon the vacancy of any one of the seven great offices by death, or otherwise, the eldest proprietor shall have his choice of the said place.
3. The whole province shall be divided into coun- ties; each county shall consist of eight signiories; eight baronies, and four precincts; each precinct shall consist of six colonies.
4. Each signiory, barony and colony, shall consist of twelve thousand acres; the eight signiories being the share of the eight proprietors, and the eight ba- ronies of n bility; both which shares, being each of them one fifth part of the whole, are to be perpetu- ally annexed, the one to the proprietors, the other to the hereditary nobility, leaving the colonies, being three fifths, amongst the people; so that in setting out and planting the lands, the balance of the government may be preserved.
5. At any time before the year one thousand seven hundred and one. any of the lords proprietors shall have power to relinquish, alienate and dispose, to any other person, his proprietorship, and all the sig- niories, powers and interest, thereunto belonging, wholly and entirely together, and not otherwise. But, after the year one thousand seven hundred, those who are then lords proprietors shall not have power to alienate or make over their proprietorship, with the signiories and privileges thereunto belonging, or any part thereof, to any person whatsoever, otherwise than as in S. XVIII; but it shall all descend unto their heirs male, and, for waut of heirs male, it shall all
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descend on that landgrave or cassique of Carolina, who is descended of the next heirs female of the pro- prietor; and. for want of such heirs, it shall descend on the next heir general; and, for want of such heirs, the remaining seven proprietors shall, upon the va- cancy, choose a landgrave to succeed the deceased proprietor, who being chosen by the majority of the seven surviving proprietors, he and his heirs success- ively, shall be proprietors, as fully to all intents and purposes as any of the rest.
6. That the number of eight proprietors may be constantly kept; if, upon the vacancy of any proprie- torship, the seven surviving proprietors shall not choose a landgrave to be a proprietor, before the se- cond biennial parliament after the vacancy; then the next biennial parliament but one, after such va- cancy, shall have power to choose any landgrave to be a proprietor.
7. Whosoever, after the year one thousand seven hundred, either by inheritance or choice, shall suc- ceed any proprietor in his proprietorship, and signo- ries thereunto belonging; shall be obliged to take the name and arms of that proprietor whom be succeeds; which from thenceforth shall be the name and arms of his family and their posterity.
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8. Whatsoever landgrave or cassique shall any way come to be a proprietor, shall take the signiories annexed to the said proprietorship; but his former dignity, with the baronnies annexed, shall devolve into the hands of the lords proprietors.
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