USA > South Carolina > The history of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1780-1783 > Part 56
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" It will, I suppose," he continued, " be objected, is South Carolina then to enjoy the protection of the confederacy and to contribute nothing to its support, or to the main- tenance of that army which had afforded her citizens safety and security and placed them in a situation of peace and quietness ? They, her people, have given the fullest answer to this objection, in a manner not to be contro- verted, through a series of years and by the most explicit declarations. Equally in words and actions, in the most un- equivocal nature, they have demonstrated their love, their
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ardor, their long attachment to their sister States. They have always been ready, not only to contribute to the expenses of the government, but likewise to the wants and necessities of others. In some instances they have far ex- ceeded the cold line of prudence ; with cheerful hearts they gave all they had in their power and contended with them against a common enemy of the liberties of America. The last House will bear witness to the grateful sense they had of the important services of General Greene, and their acts give the fullest proof of the warm affections of their hearts to the army, and of their readiness to bear their share of the public expense and burdens when in a situation to contrib- ute, but the whole was the gift of freemen, who feel that they are, and know that they have a right to be, free."
Then, turning to the other subject, " Hampden " went on to say, "The vesting Congress with the power of levying an impost of five per centum, which the last House had no right to pass, would never be submitted to by the freemen of America. The spirit of it is hostile in the extreme to liberty. It is enacting a permanent revenue -it is a char- ter of slavery. I deny the principle of the act. We bewilder ourselves with fantastic expressions of the hap- piness of America under congressional influence. The gentlest natures are too often fond of power, though they do not abuse it. There are many things which the legis- lature cannot do, many cases in which it has no power. They cannot create themselves perpetual. They are merely a delegated power from the people, and therefore cannot surrender their share of power.
"I will never admit," he continued, "arbitrary power to be lodged in any man or body of men. Many things are so closely woven in with the constitution, like the trial by jury, that they cannot be separated unless the body of the people expressly declare otherwise, after a full considera-
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tion. There are fundamental, inalienable rights, landmarks of the constitution, which cannot be removed."
It is said that nothing could exceed the astonishment of General Greene that his interference should have been received as it was. Upon the advice of friends he thought proper the next day to address another letter to the gov- ernor, exculpating himself from the charge of intending to dictate or offend ; but the second letter, says Johnson, was not calculated to allay the ferment. Its stubborn vindica- tion and cast of satire were not adapted to make its apolo- gies acceptable.1 Upon the receipt of the governor's message laying the letter of March 8th before the General Assembly, that body, on the 16th of March, resolved : 2-
" That the Legislature of the State has strained every nerve in endeavors to contribute their share towards the continental expense. That in the beginning of last year when the country was desolated by the ravages of the enemy they passed a law for the payment of their full quota as assessed by Congress and have every reason to believe that the said law has been complied with. That the State did further furnish a considerable supply of clothing to such of our quota of troops as was raised, which expenditure has been acknowledged to have been received as part of their quota by the Financier. That during the present session of Assembly, taxes have been laid upon this country which must be burthensome and distressing to our con- stituents with a view to comply with the requirements of Congress. That in aid of the taxes above mentioned, a considerable portion of confiscated property has been appropriated to the supplies of the cur- rent year. That in addition to the current taxes the legislature have voted the necessary forage for the cavalry which must amount to a very considerable sum, and that the continental forms a part of the supplies.
"Resolved that no public creditors have any reasonable cause of complaint against the State for want of raising supplies towards the general expense."
1 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 389.
2 Journal General Assembly, March 16, 1783. The letters of General Greene are not recorded in the journal, and the text of the first only is to be found, and to be found only in Johnson's Life of Greene as above.
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The act repealing the impost duty was promptly passed 1 and the measures looking to a conditional of the impress- ments abandoned. It was not long before another cause of offence was given. Captain Ker of the British army, the friend, as we have seen, of General Pickens, and who, it was said, had saved the life of Colonel Washington at the Eutaws, who had married in Charlestown, and was there well known and liked, had arrived with a flag from Governor Tonyn of East Florida to the military com- mander of the Southern Department.2 By him it was duly received and acknowledged, and the usual forms on such occasions regularly observed. But Governor Guerard construed the reception of an embassy from the civil gov-
1 Statutes of So. Ca. vol. IV, 560, March 16, 1783.
2 It is unfortunate that we do not know the subject of this embassy or flag-as it was called. Our only knowledge of it is derived from Judge Johnson's work, which we have followed. It is probable, however, that Captain Ker's flag was not the beginning of the matter, for in a manuscript book in the Secretary of State's office in Columbia, entitled Index to Loose Documents, we find an entry, "Letter of Gov. Tonyn to Gov. Guerard demanding the person of Dr. Wells (M. 94, 1783). Other papers relat- ing to the subject (M. 11, 28, 29, 1784)." And again, "Letter to Gov. Tonyn of East Florida, respecting the right of British subjects under the provisional treaty (M. 11, 102, 1784). . . . Letter to Captain Wyly agent for Gov. Tonyn (M. 103, 105, 1784)." This index refers to Revo- lutionary documents which had been arranged and classified, but upon the burning of the State-House by the Federal army in 1865, were, with other manuscripts, tumbled out, but fortunately not destroyed, and now lie in a confused mass in a room in the present State-House, and for the rearrangement and classification of which the General Assembly has just made an appropriation.
There is also this entry in the Journal of the House, August 13, 1783 : "With respect to the correspondence passed between Governor Guerard and the governor of St. Augustine and the letter of Mr. Read Head to Sir Guy Carleton and the answer relating to the vesting of the property of citizens of the State carried off by the British army. The committee are of opinion that copies of that correspondence be forthwith transmitted to our delegates in Congress to be made use of as they may prefer in order to make reparation for the property so taken away."
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ernor of a foreign power, by the military commandant of the United States troops accidentally within the borders of his State, without reference to him as governor and com- mander-in-chief, as an indignity to the State. It was not, it will be observed, a flag from a military officer in the field, but from the civil governor of Florida. The articles of confederation had certainly not clothed the United States, still less its military officer, with the power of sovereignty. Would General Washington himself have received an em- bassy from the governor of Canada without referring it to Congress ? The articles of confederation, it is true, provided that no State without the consent of the United States in Congress assembled should send any embassy to, or receive any embassy from, any king, prince, or State.1 But did that authorize an officer of Congress, the military comman- dant in the field, to do so? The governor, holding that it did not, issued his mandate to arrest the whole party, even the crew of the vessel which brought the British officer. Captain Ker immediately claimed the protection of General Greene. To himself it was effectually extended; but the sheriff, supported by the governor, insisted on detaining the crew as prisoners under civil process. The case now became one of extreme delicacy, which General Greene promptly resolved to solve by force. He first, however, called a council of war, to which he submitted the question whether Captain Ker had committed any violation of his
he ust lag ? This point, which does not appear to have been nvolved in the controversy with the governor, the council unanimously decided in the negative. Troops were there- ipon ordered to take possession of Fort Johnson and Wap- boo Cut, and to permit no one to pass or repass, under flags, without permission from Greene's headquarters. Seeing hat General Greene had taken his resolution, and knowing
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that he would adhere to them, the governor and council concluded to discharge the prisoners, but to order Ker to leave the city immediately and the State in three days. From this new indignity, as he conceived, Ker again appealed, and received from the general the following reply : 1-
" The order sent you by the Governor you will pay no regard to. When I am ready to discharge your flag I will inform you. The time and manner of your leaving the State shall be made as agreeable as possible. I confide in the honor of the flag and will not impose impossibilities. I shall have my letter ready for you to leave this the day following the time the Governor has set for your departure. I am exceedingly unhappy at this further instance of indelicate treatment you have met with. Instead of an apology for the injury past, you are subjected to further indignity; and instead of being dismissed with the politeness due to a flag, you are ordered out of the State like a criminal and threatened with the vengeance of government. Noth- ing but my wishes to preserve the tranquillity of the people and the respect and regard I have for their peace and quiet could have pre- vailed on me to have suffered your flag to be treated in the manner it has been. And although I do not think this a sufficient apology for the indignities to which the flag has been subjected yet I hope some allowance will be made for my truly delicate situation. I know it was my duty to afford you complete protection at every hazard, and was the same insult to be offered to one of my flags I must be silent after what has happened here. However I shall write to Governor Tonyn. I hope you will relate the peculiarity of the case on your arrival with the same liberality you speak of it here," etc.
In his communication to General Lincoln 2 on the sub- ject, General Greene requested the latter to lay it immedi- ately before Congress, as he was resolved not to submit to a second attack on the United States authority, "a prece- dent for such encroachments shall not be founded upon
1 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 390.
2 The office of Secretary of War had been established in 1781, and General Benjamin Lincoln, who had formerly commanded the Southerr Department, was appointed to it.
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his failure to resist them." He further observed that "this is not one of those cases where the right was doubtful or public safety the object, but appears to be a matter of temper, and pursued without regard to either."1 Thus dogmatically, with sword in hand, did the general decide a most delicate question, in which the right was neverthe- less most doubtful. His detaining the flag a day longer than necessary was a mere matter of boastful insult, as to which he well knew there was no power to resent or resist.
It was not true that this was "not one of those cases where the right was doubtful." The position he assumed was, on the contrary, to say the least, most questionable. Nor had he any right to call in question the sincerity of Governer Guerard's motives as he did, when he assumed to write to General Lincoln that the public safety was not the governor's object, but that his course was a matter of temper. Such reflection upon the governor's conduct was unbecoming the conduct of public business and his inter- course with one occupying the official position of chief magistrate of a State. Whatever may or may not have been Governor Guerard's personal motives, -and there was no ground to impute improper ones, -the question raised was one which no governor could have afforded to ignore in the uncertain relations of the State to the Con- gress under the Confederation. The State had not waived her newly acquired sovereignty by the articles of con- federation to which she was a party. She was still the mistress of her territory, and competent to say who should or who should not enter upon it; and this she had done. She had forbidden the presence of any one upon her soil who did not acknowledge her sovereign authority. By the act of 1778, to enforce allegiance, the State had or- dained that every person thereafter coming into the State,
1 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 390.
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either by land or by water, should repair immediately to the nearest justice of the peace, and take the oath of alle- giance prescribed.1 No subject of Great Britain had, therefore, any right to land upon her coast, and any such person was liable to arrest if he did so. Nor did the fact that such person claimed to come with a message from the governor of Florida to General Greene alter the case. General Greene, as military commander in the South, would undoubtedly, with propriety, have received a flag of truce from the military commandant in the field, against whom he was operating. But it will be observed that such was not the case in point. Captain Ker, though himself a British army officer, did not come from the commander of the British military forces, but came bearing a message from the civil governor of Florida. The communication, though spoken of at the time as "a flag," was not prop- erly so termed -a flag of truce is technically a communi- cation from an officer in the field to his opponent, upon some matter relating to the conduct of the war in which they are engaged. The communication in question was one of a civil nature from the civil governor of that prov- ince, and as such Governor Guerard may well have held that General Greene had no right to receive and entertain it upon the territory of his State-and that in violation of a fundamental statute thereof.2 The peace commis-
1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. I, 147.
2 In the invasion of the State, 1779, and the investment of the city by General Prévost, it will be remembered that he followed this rule, and as a general in the field refused to receive a communication from Governor Rutledge, and declined to deal with any but the military commandant on the American side. [Hist. of So. Ca. in the Revolution, 1775-80, (McCrady), 375.] And curiously enough, General Greene himself had just acted upon the same principle when, in replying to General Leslie in regard to the Confiscation Act, he had written that "he had the honor to command the forces of the United States in the Southern Department, but had nothing to do with the internal police of any State." - Ante 683.
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sioners from England had not addressed themselves to General Washington, the Commander-in-chief of the armies of the United States ; nor had Washington undertaken to receive them. Sir Henry Clinton announced by flag their arrival to Washington, and requested a passport or safe- conduct for their secretary through his lines, as bearer of despatches to Congress; and this was refused. What would have been thought of Washington had he received and entertained the commissioners at his headquarters, regardless of the Congress and Henry Laurens, its presi- dent, because, forsooth, they had come under a flag? To Congress, if not to Governor Guerard, should General Greene have referred any message from the governor of Florida. Under the articles of confederation, it is true, it had been agreed that no State should, without the consent of the United States, send or receive any embassy from Whether Gov- or to any king, prince, or foreign State. ernor Tonyn's communications came within this prohibi- tion or not does not appear, but it did not follow, if they did, that the military officer of Congress in command of the United States troops in any particular State was authorized to carry on a correspondence with a British civil magistrate in British territory. But whether this reason- ing be accepted as sound or not, it cannot be denied that there was much force in the view, and that Governor Guerard, acting for the State of South Carolina, did not transcend the duties of his position in making the ques- tion; nor do we think that General Greene's arbitrary manner of deciding it can be approved as wise, generous, or dignified. And so it was that, in the very throes of her birth, South Carolina had trained upon her the guns of a Federal army.
The army and its commander, says Johnson, had now become very unpopular. The people of the State regarded
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them as little else than the last enemy to be got rid of. Mutual discontents were exasperated by mutual reproaches. The former considered the latter as ungrateful protégés, who, after being delivered from their enemies, would leave their protectors to starve; the latter denied their obliga- tion to maintain their so-called deliverers, urged their liberal advances to the common cause, and referred them to the Congress.1
Thus every day the relation between the army and the people became more strained. New difficulties were daily presenting themselves. The rumors of peace checked the sale of goods, and the plundering crews of small craft from St. Augustine, as in the days of the early settlement of the province, so infested the coast and inlets as often to inter- cept the provisioning vessels, there being no other means of transportation. If this supply failed, impressment must follow, and the general knew not what might be the con- sequences. He might have found himself cooped up in his military territory of James Island, or forced to open his way from it with the bayonet. The smothered feeling -that the State had been abandoned by Congress in the most critical periods, a feeling shared and expressed by Greene himself; that she had been saved by her own sons when there was not a Continental soldier within her borders; that when her sons had opened the way for the return of the Continental army, that body, with the concurrence of its commander, had assumed airs of superi- ority and arrogance galling to her own leaders; and that now, before the war was actually over, her people were left to support those who bore themselves more as conquerors than deliverers - had now broken out. Congress and its minions became most unpopular. The people believed their newly acquired State sovereignty already in danger, 1 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 391.
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and rallied around it with ardor and enthusiasm.1 It has been well observed that, happily for the people of the United States, Great Britain desisted from the contest exactly at that point of time when she ought most to have pressed it. She had regained the mastery of the ocean ; Charlestown lay exposed without a piece of cannon to defend it ; a few frigates could at any time have repossessed it; and three thousand men had only to move forward to regain the control in the three Southern States.2
On the 16th of April, the South-Carolina Gazette and General Advertiser announced the arrival, at General Greene's headquarters, of an express with the news of the confirmation of a general peace having been concluded. Unhappily, with the news of the approach of peace came also a confirmation of that of the mutinous condition of the Northern army, and of the famous Newburg address, calling upon the army to retain their swords until their wrongs were redressed and their services rewarded. The effect upon the temper and discipline of the Southern army was immediately felt. As none of the soldiers were enlisted for a period beyond the war, they began all to clamor for their discharges, contending that they had an immediate right to be released from duty. In the Maryland line, particularly, it required all the energy of their officers to prevent a general insurrection and their moving off in a body. Upon one occasion General Greene had actually to draw up the
1 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 393. This hostile sentiment to the Continental army and impressments was not limited to South Carolina, says Johnson. It is not easy to conceive how it would have been possible for the Southern commander, perhaps for the United States, to have maintained another campaign. The people were utterly worn out and disgusted with the system of impressments and specific contributions, and the refusal in some States to contribute their quotas in cash or permit the collection of a duty must have produced (and finally did produce) a general resolution of the States to the same effect. 2 Ibid.
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troops in whom he could confide, charge his artillery with grape, and post the artillerists with lighted matches to awe down the mutinous spirit which had indicated itself by the most unequivocal signs. The cavalry, which had been sent to the Congaree for the convenience of forage, broke through all control; one hundred of them, placing a Sergeant Dangerfield at their head, moved off in a body, and actually seized the horses of those who would not join them, and apportioned them to their own use.
Orders were received from the Secretary of War for fur- loughing the troops until the signing of the definitive articles of peace, which were immediately carried into effect as to the few troops of South Carolina and Georgia; but those of North Carolina and Virginia were ordered to their respective States to be furloughed, and those of Maryland and Pennsylvania it was proposed to send home by water. A trifle of pay had been voted them by Congress, and as soon as that could be distributed the troops of North Caro- lina and Virginia were promptly despatched; but such were the delays that attended the collection of transports that the other troops did not get off until July, 1783. Nothing could exceed the uneasiness that this occasioned. A contract had been entered into by Mr. Morris with some merchants in Philadelphia to furnish the necessary trans- ports, but from delays in collecting them, and their un- usually long passage, the stay of the army was protracted until the diseases of the climate began to reappear among them. Their murmurs then ran high; they charged the government with having deceived them, and hundreds who had served, some for seven years, deserted in groups, and forfeited their pay. Nearly one-third of their number were on the sick list when the transports left Charlestown. Upon arriving at Philadelphia, these remnants of the 1 Johnson's Life of Greene, vol. II, 398-400.
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Southern army, as it was called, were received with the ringing of bells and every other testimony which a gratified people could render to their merits and services. St. Michael's bells would have rung for joy upon their depar- ture from South Carolina, had those bells not been carried off by the British. Their reception in Philadelphia was soon after rewarded by outrage and renewed mutiny.1
But whatever were the sentiments of the State in regard to the army and its commander, the legislature stood liberally to its purpose of rewarding General Greene for his services. Boone's Barony, a very valuable body of land on the south of the Edisto, with a portion of the slaves attached to the land as the property of one of the confiscated estates, were ordered by the legislature to be conveyed to General Greene ; the rest of the negroes be- longing to the plantation, the legislature, upon his appli- cation, set a value upon, and allowed a credit to enable General Greene to purchase them. The slaves were valued and transferred to him. And thus, as it was observed, the Rhode Island Quaker soldier became a South Carolina slaveholder and planter. He did not, however, remain in South Carolina. He removed to Georgia, where he settled upon a plantation called Mulberry Grove, confiscated prop- erty which had been bestowed upon him by the State of Georgia. There he died, on the 19th of June, 1786.
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