The history of South Carolina, from its first European discovery to its erection into a republic: with a supplementary chronicle of events to the present time, Part 8

Author: Simms, William Gilmore, 1806-1870. cn
Publication date: 1840
Publisher: Charleston, S. Babcock & co.
Number of Pages: 372


USA > South Carolina > The history of South Carolina, from its first European discovery to its erection into a republic: with a supplementary chronicle of events to the present time > Part 8


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Carolinians gathered in arms, and when the chiefs of the Cherokees became aware of the fact, they sent a deputa- tion to Charlestown to disarm the anger of the people by a timely reconciliation. Unhappily, governor Lyttleton treated these messengers with indignity, and finally made them prisoners. Having resolved upon a military expe- dition, he refused to listen to their orator, but proceeded,


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with his force-the chiefs being under guard-to his ren- dezvous on Congaree river, where he mustered fourteen hundred men.


The Cherokees, burning with indignation at this treat- ment, were yet subtle enough to suppress the show of it. They agreed to such terms as Lyttleton proposed,-gave up twenty-two out of twenty-four hostages which he de- manded, to be kept till the young warriors who had committed the murders upon the Carolinians, could be secured and delivered,-and renewed their pledges of peace and alliance. But he had scarcely returned to the capital when he received the news of the murder of fourteen whites within a mile of Fort George. A colonel Cotymore had been left in charge of that fortress. To this officer the Indians had taken an unconquerable aversion. Occonostota, a chief of great influence, had become a most implacable enemy of the Carolinians, and proposed to himself the task of taking Prince George. Having gathered a strong force of Cherokees, he sur- rounded it ; but finding that he could make no impression on the works, nor alarm the commander, he had recourse to stratagem to effect his object. He placed a select body of savages in a dark thicket by the river side, and sent an Indian woman to tell Cotymore that he wished to see him at the river, where he had some thing of conse- quence to communicate. Cotymore, accompanied by his two lieutenants, Bell and Foster, imprudently consented. When he reached the river, Occonostota appeared on the opposite side, having in his hand a bridle. He told Coty- more that he was on his way to Charlestown, to procure a release of the prisoners, and would be glad of a white


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man to go with him as a safeguard,-adding, that he was about to hunt for a horse for the journey. Cotymore told him that he should have a guard; and while they par- leyed, Occonostota thrice waved the bridle over his head. This signal to the savages in ambush, for such it was, proved fatal to the three officers, who were instantly shot down. Cotymore was slain on the spot ; the two officers were wounded. In consequence of this deed, the gar- rison proceeded to put in irons the twenty hostages that had been left with them. They resisted the attempt, and stabbed three of the men who endeavored to put the manacles on them. The garrison, in the highest degre e exasperated, fell upon them in fury, and butchered them to a man.


This catastrophe maddened the whole nation. There were few Cherokee families that did not lose a friend or relative in this massacre, and with one voice they de- clared for battle. They seized the hatchet, and singing their songs of war, and burning with indignation for re- venge, they rushed down-a reckless and countless horde-upon the frontiers of Carolina. Men, women and children, without discrimination, fell victims to their merciless fury ; and, to add to the misfortunes of the bor- derers, Charlestown, laboring under the presence of that dreadful scourge, the small-pox, was too feeble to send them succor. What could be done, however, was done. Seven troops of rangers were furnished by Virginia and North Carolina; and a British force, under the command of colonel Montgomery, afterwards earl of Eglintoun, was sent by general Amherst, the commander-in-chief in Amer- ica at that time, to the relief of the province. Montgomery


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chastised the Cherokees in several severe engagements, in which they lost large numbers of their warriors; but without humbling them to submission. He was compel- led to return to New York, leaving his work unfinished.


In the meantime, the distant garrison of Fort Loudon, on the Tennessee river, consisting of two hundred men, was reduced by famine. The Virginians had undertaken to relieve it, but failed to do so; and the miserable occu- pants were reduced to the necessity of submitting to the mercy of the Cherokees. Captain Stuart, an officer of great sagacity and address, to whom the post had been entrusted, succeeded in obtaining good terms of safety; upon which he capitulated. By these terms the garrison were permitted to march out with their arms and drums, as much ammunition as was necessary on their march, and such baggage as they might choose to carry. The Indians were to take the lame and wounded soldiers into their towns, provide as many horses as they could for the garrison, furnish guides, and an escort which was to pro- tect them ;- for all of which they were to be paid accord- ing to certain estimates which were understood among them. The fort, cannon, powder and ball, were deliv- ered up to the Indians.


The capitulation took effect, and the garrison had pro- ceeded fifteen miles upon their march, when they were deserted by their guides and escort, beset by a large body of savages, and, though fighting gallantly, were overcome. Twenty-six men fell at the first fire, a few escaped by flight, while Stuart, the commander, with many others, was carried into captivity. Stuart, through the friendship of one of their chiefs, finally escaped, after


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many hardships, into Virginia ; but the rest of the pris- oners were kept in a miserable captivity for some time, and redeemed at last only at great expense.


Though the Cherokees had suffered severely from the measures of Montgomery, they were not yet disposed for peace. The French maintained emissaries among them who continually fomented the appetite for war. "I am for war!" cried a young warrior of Estatoe, in a council where an agent of France had been busy to make them discountenance the efforts of some of their own chiefs, who labored in the cause of peace : "I am still for war! The spirits of our brothers call upon us to avenge their death. He is a woman who will not follow me !" The savages, moved by his wild eloquence, seized the tomahawk anew, and the war was renewed in all its former fury.


CHAPTER XII.


On the part of the Carolinians, every effort was made to meet the emergency and to open the campaign with vigor. A provincial regiment was raised, the command of which was given to colonel Middleton. Among the other field officers were Henry Laurens, William Moul- trie, Francis Marion, Isaac Huger, and Andrew Pickens ; gentlemen, all of whom subsequently became burning and shining lights in the history of Carolina achievement. In the expedition thus resolved upon, they commenced that admirable course of training, which prepared them for the arduous trials and severe conflicts of the revolution, which shortly after followed. An additional force of


British regulars, under colonel James Grant, landed at Charlestown early in the year 1761; and the combined troops, together with a number of friendly Indians, in all twenty-six hundred men, were placed under the com- mand of this gentleman.


The Cherokees encountered Grant, with all their strength, near the town of Etchoe, on the spot where they had fought with Montgomery in the previous campaign. They were posted upon a hill on the right flank of the army, from whence they rushed down upon the advanced guard, pouring in a destructive fire as they came. The guard repulsed them, and continued to advance. The Cherokees recovered the heights, and the endeavor to dislodge them brought on a general engagement, which


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was fought on both sides with great bravery. The Caro linians contended against several disadvantages, which made the issue for some time doubtful. They had come suddenly within sight of the foe, and had advanced to im- mediate conflict, after a fatiguing march in rainy weather. They were surrounded with woods of which they had no knowledge, and which completely sheltered the enemy from their aim; galled by the scattering fire of the sava- ges, who fell back whenever they advanced, only to rally and begin the fight in another quarter. For three hours did this sort of warfare continue, until the persevering valor of the whites succeeded in completely expelling the Indians from the field. They fled, fighting while they ran, in different directions. They were pursued with energy, and found no opportunity to unite or rally. Their loss in the action is unknown ; that of the Carolinians was fif- ty or sixty, killed and wounded. The slain were not bu- ried, but sunk in the river, that their bodies might not be exposed to the indignities of the savage.


After this victory, Grant advanced upon Etchoe, a large Cherokee town, which was reduced to ashes .- Every other town in the middle settlements shared the same fate. Their granaries and corn fields were like- wise destroyed, and their miserable families were driven to the barren mountains which, in yielding them a shel- ter, could yield them nothing more, The name of Grant became, in consequence of this chastisement, a word sig- nifying devastation. The savages, who had fought with great vigor and spirit for a time, and who, it is conjec- tured, had been posted and counselled by some experien- ced French officers, were completely overcome. The na-


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tional spirit was for a while subdued, and they beheld, with the supineness of despair, the flames of their towns, and the desolation of their settlements. They humbly sued for peace, through the medium of the old and friendly chief, Attakullakulla. "I am come," said the venerable chief, "to see what can be done for my people, who are in great distress. As to what has taken place, I be- lieve it has been ordered by the great Master, above. He is father of the whites and Indians : as we all live in one land, let us all live as one people." His prayer was granted; peace was ratified between the parties, and the end of this bloody war, which was supposed to have originated in the machinations of French emissaries, was among the last humbling blows given to the expiring power of France in North America.


This campaign, which was so creditable to the valor of all concerned in it, was followed by an unhappy differ- ence between the commanders of the regular and pro- vincial forces. Colonel Grant was a Scotch officer of high spirit. He possessed much of that haughty feeling of superiority which was so apt to distinguish the conduct of soldiers of the mother country in their treatment of the provincials ; a signal example of which exhibited itself but a short period before, in a neighboring colony, in the deportment of the depraved and arrogant Braddock to the brave and virtuous. Washington. In its indulgence, he gave offence to colonel Middleton; his associate in command, a gentleman no less tenacious of the honor of the province than of his own position. During the expe- dition, Grant had displayed an offensive indifference to the counsels of the provincial officers, whom the British


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were but too apt to consider incapable of a correct judg- ment in military operations. He had also claimed the chief credit of having conquered the Cherokees. This claim was resisted by Middleton with energy and spirit. A controversy ensued: Middleton challenged Grant to the field of personal combat, and a meeting took place, which happily terminated without bloodshed. But the controversy aroused a feeling in the Carolinians, who generally sided with their champion ; and the bitter ani- mosities which this affair enkindled in their bosoms, it is not improbable, contributed to awaken the provincials to a more keen conviction of the haughty, domineering spirit of the mother country-a spirit which spared no opportunity of displaying itself, and which was no less insolent in its deportment, than unjust in most of its exactions.


From this period we may date the true beginning, not only of the prosperity, but the independence of Carolina. The Indians were subdued upon her frontiers, and the ' peace of Paris' had relieved her from the secret machi- nations and the open hostility of France. Security from all foreign enemies, left her free to the consideration of the true relation in which she stood with Great Britain- a question which forced itself upon all the American colonies at the same period of time ; and opened that spirit of inquiry and examination, which, passing from fact to fact, and from principle to principle, with amazing rapidity, arrived at length at those convictions of political truth, which have placed the united country at the very summit of political freedom. Never did any colony flourish in a more surprising degree than South Carolina,


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as soon as the Cherokees were overcome, and the French and Spaniards driven from her borders. Multitudes of emigrants from all parts of Europe, flocked to the interior, and pursuing the devious progress of the streams, sought out their sources, and planted their little colonies on the sides of lofty hills, or in the bosom of lovely vallies. Six hundred poor German settlers arrived in one body ; Ireland poured forth such numbers from her northern counties, as almost threatened the depopulation of the kingdom. Scarce a ship sailed for any of the plantations, that was not crowded with men, women and children, seeking the warm and fertile regions of Carolina, of which such glowing tidings had reached their ears, and where the land was proffered in bounties to all new comers. Nor did the colony receive these accessions from Europe only. In the space of a single year, more than a thou- sand families with their effects, their cattle, hogs and horses, crossed the Alleghanies from the eastern settle- ments, and pitched their tents upon the Carolinian fron- tier. These accessions brought strength and security to the province. In proportion as the number of white in- habitants increased, its danger from the savages was les- sened. With numbers came the exercise of mind as well as body, and this exercise, as it taught them their impor- tance to Great Britain, soon induced a natural pride in their own strength, and a proper jealousy of their liber- ties. They had hitherto obeyed a foreign government, as they had been indebted to its power for protection. But their increase of numbers, their vast extent of terri- tory, the variety of their productions, and the wealth which these necessarily procured, gradually subtracted


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from the overweening estimate which, in their depend- ence, they were willing to put upon British valor and genius, and the advantages of an intimate British con- nection. The great stretch of sea which divided them from the governing power, led, necessarily, to their gradual alienation from it. They saw few of its pomps ; they shared in few of its favors ; and when the arrogance of parliament endeavored to make them more familiar with its powers, by reason of its exactions, they were then willing to know it only as a foe. From the moment when the peace of Europe led to the withdrawal of all pressure from an external enemy, they had been receive ing those impressions, and acquiring that strength, which prepared them to perceive, and enabled them to resist, all such laws as they deemed hostile to their interests, or dangerous to their liberties. The hardships they had en- dured, made them singularly jealous from the beginning : many of them had inherited a natural aversion to monar- chy from their ancestors, the puritans ; and the removal of the cavaliers from the sources and shows of royalty, had gradually weaned them from that faith in its saving virtues, by which they had been so ready of old to swear. A new race had succeeded to them in Carolina, and puri- tans and cavaliers had merged their hostility of doctrine in that unanimity of practice, which alone could give them success in the seventy years of strife and trial, through which they had struggled together; so that, long before the British parliament began to vex them by its strained authority, they were disposed to deny its suprem- acy, and cut asunder those cords which bound them to the mother country-cords too much attenuated by the


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distance between the parties, to endure very long the pressure or the violence of either.


The strength of these connecting cords was soon to be tested fatally. The first British statute that awakened the general opposition of the colonies, was one enti- tled the " Stamp act." It was passed in the year 1765. By this it was enacted, that all instruments of writing which are in use among a commercial people, should be void in law, unless executed upon stamped paper or parch- ment, charged with a duty imposed by parliament .- South Carolina declared her opposition to this assump- tion of arbitrary power, without waiting to consult with any other colony. Her example had considerable effect in recommending measures of like opposition to many others, who were more tardy in their concurrence. The assembly of Carolina embodied the sentiments of the greater number of the people, in the principles contained in the following resolution:


" Resolved, That his majesty's subjects in Carolina, owe the same allegiance to the crown of Great Britain, that is due from its subjects born there. That his majes- ty's liege subjects of this province, are entitled to all the inherent rights and liberties of his natural born subjects within the kingdom of Great Britain. That the inhab- itants of this province appear also to be confirmed in all the rights aforementioned, not only by their charter, but by an act of parliament, 13th, George II. That it is in- separably essential to the freedom of a people, and the undoubted right of Englishmen, that no taxes be imposed on them, but with their own consent. That the people of this province are not, and from their local circumstances


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cannot be, represented in the house of commons in Great Britain ; and farther, that, in the opinion of this house, the several powers of legislation in America, were con- stituted in some measure upon the apprehension of this impracticability. That the only representatives of the people of this province, are persons chosen therein by themselves, and that no taxes ever have been, or can be, constitutionally imposed on them, but by the legislature of this province. That all supplies to the crown being free gifts of the people, it is unreasonable and inconsistent with the principles and spirit of the British constitution, for the people of Great Britain to grant to his majesty the property of the people of this province. That trial by jury is the inherent and invaluable right of every British subject in this province. That the act of parliament, en- titled, an act for granting and applying certain stamp- duties and other duties on the British colonies and plan- tations in America, &c., by imposing taxes on the inhab- itants of this province ; and the said act and several other acts, by extending the jurisdiction of the courts of admi- ralty beyond its ancient limits, have a manifest tendency to subvert the rights and liberties of this province. That the duties imposed by several late acts of parlia- ment, on the people of this province, will be extremely burdensome and grievous ; and, from the scarcity of gold and silver, the payment of them absolutely impractica- ble. That as the profits of the trade of the people of this province ultimately centre in Great Britain, to pay for the manufactures which they are obliged to take from thence, they eventually contribute very largely to all the supplies granted to the crown; and besides, as every in-


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dividual in this province is as advantageous, at least, to Great Britain, as if he were in Great Britain, as they pay their full proportion of taxes for the support of his majesty's government here, (which taxes are equal, or more, in proportion to our estates, than those paid by our fellow-subjects in Great Britain upon theirs,) it is unrea- sonable for them to be called upon to pay any further part of the charges of government there. That the as- semblies of this province have from time to time, when- ever requisitions have been made to them by his majesty, for carrying on military operations, either for the defence of themselves or America in general, most cheerfully and liberally contributed their full proportion of men and money for these services. That though the representa- tives of the people of this province had equal assurances and reasons with those of the other provinces, to expect a proportional reimbursement of those immense charges they had been at for his majesty's service in the late war, out of the several parliamentary grants for the use of America ; yet they have obtained only their proportion of the first of those grants, and the small sum of £285 sterling received since. That, notwithstanding, when- ever his majesty's service shall for the future require the aid of the inhabitants of this province, and they shall be called upon for this purpose, in a constitutional way, it shall be their indispensable duty most cheerfully and lib- erally to grant to his majesty their proportion, according to their ability, of men and money, for the defence, secu- rity, and other public services of the British American colonies. That the restrictions on the trade of the peo- ple of this province, together with the late duties and


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taxes imposed on them by act of parliament, must neces- sarily greatly lessen the consumption of British manu- factures among them. That the increase, prosperity, and happiness of the people of this province, depend on the full and free enjoyment of their rights and liberties, and on an affectionate intercourse with Great Britain. That the readiness of the colonies to comply with his majesty's requisitions, as well as their inability to bear any addi- tional taxes beyond what is laid on them by their res- pective legislatures, is apparent from several grants of parliament, to reimburse them part of the heavy expen- ses they were at in the late war in America. That it is the right of the British subjects of this province to peti- tion the king, or either house of parliament. Ordered, That these votes be printed and made public, that a just sense of the liberty, and the firm sentiments of loyalty of the representatives of the people of this province, may be known to their constituents, and transmitted to posterity."


The stamp act was repealed, in consequence of the universal hostility which it provoked in America; but a like measure of arbitrary authority was attempted in the year following. Duties were imposed upon glass, paper, tea, and painters' colors. The opposition of the colonies was renewed with partial success; the duties, with the exception of that upon tea, were all withdrawn; and the Americans determined to defeat the effect of this reser- vation, by refusing to consume a commodity which was made the medium of unjust taxation. This resolution was rendered inoperative, by a scheme of the West Indian company. It sent to the colonies large shipments of tea,


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to be sold on account of the company. This measure increased the anger of the colonists, who promptly entered into combinations to obstruct or prevent its sale. In some places the landing of it was forbidden ; the car- goes sent to South Carolina 'were stored, and the con- signees restrained from exposing it in the market. It rotted in the ware-houses. In Boston a more summary and vio- lent measure was adopted. A few men, disguised as In- dians, entered the vessels and threw the cargoes over- board. This trespass on private property, provoked the British parliament to take legislative vengeance upon the town where it was committed. Acts were passed which virtually put Boston in a state of blockade. Other acts followed, by which the whole executive government was taken out of the hands of the people, the nomination of all officers vested in the king or his representative, and the charter of the province violated in some of its most vital features.


These proceedings had the effect of producing a gene- ral confederacy of the colonies, to sustain Massachusetts against measures which threatened the colonists with utter subjugation to the dominion of arbitrary authority. South Carolina, in an assembly of the people, declared, "that the late act for shutting up the port of Boston, and the other late acts relative to Boston, and the province of Massachusetts, are calculated to deprive many thousand Americans of their rights, properties and privileges, in a most cruel, oppressive, and unconstitutional manner ; are most dangerous precedents, and though leveled immedi- ately at the people of Boston, very manifestly and plainly show, if the inhabitants of that town are intimidated into




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