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North Carolina State Normal & Industrial
College Historical Publications
Number 2
REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS
OF NORTH CAROLINA
BY R. D. W. CONNOR
SECRETARY NORTH CAROLINA HISTORICAL COMMISSION
Lecturer on North Carolina History, State Normal College
Issued under the Direction of the Department of History
W. C. JACKSON, EDITOR
PUBLISHED BY THE COLLEGE
1916
PRESSES OF
THE PETRIE COMPANY
HIOH POINT. N. C
I
NORTH CAROLINA FROM
1765 TO 1790
INTRODUCTORY LECTURE
Two periods in the history of the United States
seem to me to stand out above all others in dramatic
interest and historic importance. One is the decade
from 1860 to 1870, the other is the quarter-century
from 1765 to 1790. Of the two both in interest and
importance precedence must be given to the latter.
The former was a period of almost superhuman ef
fort, achievement, and sacrifice for the preservation
of the life of the nation, but it did not evolve any new
social, political, or economic principles. Great prin
ciples already thought out and established were saved
from annihilation, and given a broader scope than
ever before in the history of mankind, but no new
idea or ideal was involved in the struggle. The ideas
and ideals involved in the struggle of the sixties were
those that had already been established during the
quarter-century from 1765 to 1790. That epoch was
a period of origins. Ideas and ideals of government
developed in America then came into conflict with the
ideas and ideals of Europe. Colonies founded on
these new principles revolted against the old, threw
off the yoke of their mother country, organized inde
pendent states, and having achieved their independ
ence, established a self-governing nation on the fed
eral principle on a scale never before attempted in the
history of the world.
It was a period of ideals. Other great revolutions
have found their origin in actual physical suffering
531^55
4 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF
and oppression. People of other ages and countries
have dared and suffered as much for freedom as
Americans, but probably nowhere else have a people,
free, contented, prosperous, and happy, deliberately
imperilled all for the sake of an ideal. At the time of
the American Revolution the condition of the Ameri
can people was the envy of the world. No other peo
ple enjoyed so much political freedom, or so much
material prosperity. The acts of the British govern
ment of which they complained and against which
they revolted were not oppressive, and among any
other people at that time would have been accepted
quietly, as the acts of a benevolent government. But
they violated a principle, which the American people
conceived to be the foundation of their liberty, pros
perity, and happiness. Other peoples perhaps would
have waited until the acts became actually oppres
sive ; the Americans chose to resist the first trespass on
their privileges and liberties. As Burke said : "In other
countries, the people, more simple, and of a less mer
curial cast, judge of an ill principle in government
only by an actual grievance; here they anticipate the
evil, and judge of the pressure of the grievance by the
badness of the principle. They foresee misgovern-
ment at a distance ; and snuff the approach of tyranny
in every tainted breeze."
It is this fact, it seems to me, that makes the Ameri
can Revolution the most interesting event in our his
tory. From 1861 to 1865, the American people raised
armies that make Washington s little band of Conti
nentals appear like a small body-guard; they fought
battles which by comparison dwarf Bunker Hill,
Moore s Creek Bridge, Saratoga, and Guilford Court
House into mere skirmishes. But when we look
NORTH CAROLINA, 1765-1790 5
beneath the surface and see the motives which
inspired the men of the Revolution, when we under
stand the ideals and principles for which they fought,
and when we see the momentous results that hung
upon their deeds, we shall better understand why it is
that Washington and those who followed him must
always remain first in the list of American immortals.
The part which North Carolina played in that con
test as seen in the careers of four of her leaders will
form the theme of the first series of these lectures.
Four events stand out as the chief achievements of
that period in North Carolina. They were, first, the
incitement and organization of the people for revolu
tion; second, the development of the sentiment for
independence; third, the adoption of the state consti
tution and the inauguration of the independent state
government; fourth, the ratification of the constitu
tion of the United States and the formation of the
American Union. In each of these movements a man
of commanding genius led the people. It was John
Harvey who from 1765 to 1775 fanned the spirit of
revolt and organized the colony for revolution ; it was
Cornelius Harnett who embodied the spirit of inde
pendence and became its mouth-piece ; it was Richard
Caswell who, having stood watch over the state
government at its birth, was placed in charge during
its infancy and guided it in its growth into strength
and power; and it was Samuel Johnston, leader of the
North Carolina Federalists, around whom the friends
of the Union and good government rallied in the fight
to make permanent the results of the Revolution.
The lives and works of these four men, therefore, will
be the topics which I shall discuss; but before enter-
6 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF
ing upon my task, something must be said of the stage
upon which they moved and of the means with which
they worked.
Let us take a glance first of all at the stage upon
which the drama was enacted. In 1765 North Caro
lina stretched from the Atlantic on the east to the
Mississippi on the west and embraced more than one
hundred thousand square miles of territory. A large
part of this territory was a wilderness, inhabited by
wild beasts and hostile barbarians. Its white popula
tion was thinly scattered along the coast, the river-
banks, and up and down the fertile valleys of the
Piedmont section. Daniel Boone, James Robertson,
and a few other bold hunters and pioneers were just
beginning to get a peep over the mountain wall on
the west, where they were to be followed during the
next decade by a few adventurous spirits who were
to lay the foundations of the states of Tennessee and
Kentucky. The white population of North Carolina
at that time, as nearly as can be estimated, numbered
perhaps 300,000. In this respect North Carolina
ranked fourth among the thirteen colonies, following
Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. 1 In the
eastern part of the colony, along the Atlantic coast,
the banks of the Roanoke, the Pamlico, the Neuse, and
the lower Cape Fear, the predominating element was
English. These people, proud of their English
ancestry and their connection with the British Empire,
were thoroughly imbued with the spirit of English con
stitutional liberty, jealous of their rights, and quick
to resent any trespass upon them. Their leaders
thoroughly understood the British constitution, and
1. Colonial Records of North Carolina, XVIIL, xlv.-xlvi.
NORTH CAROLINA, 1765-1790 7
conceived themselves, even in the wilds of America,
to be fully protected by its principles ; and when those
principles, as they understood them, were violated by
the British Crown and Parliament, they were ready
to appeal to arms in their defense. To the west of
these English settlements, on the upper waters of the
Cape Fear, were the Scotch-Highlanders, a brave,
war-like race, newly settled in the province, and
wholly ignorant of the causes of the revolt against
the mother country. They knew nothing of the
British constitution or of the charters upon which the
colonial government was founded. Accustomed to be
governed by an hereditary chief, whose word was their
only law, and having recently sworn allegiance to the
Crown, they looked upon the king as the chief to
whom they owed explicit and unquestioned obedi
ence. Scattered among the hills of the Piedmont
section were the Scotch-Irish, a democratic people,
trained to self-government in their church affairs and
as little likely as their English cousins of the East to
submit to oppression. The German, whose settle
ments bordered on those of the Scotch-Irish, were an
industrial people. Neither in their native land nor
in America had they taken any part in the govern
ment. It was a matter of indifference to them
whether they were governed by a sovereign in Eng
land or by one in America, by a monarchy or by a
democracy. So long as the government maintained
peace, protected them in the enjoyment of their prop
erty, and allowed them freedom of conscience in their
religious life, they did not trouble themselves as to
who wielded the power of the state. During the Revo
lution, therefore, they remained neutral, distributing
their supplies and offering their hospitality to Britons
8 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF
and Americans alike. The Revolution in North Caro
lina, therefore, was waged by the English of the
eastern and the Scotch-Irish of the western parts of
the province, against the active opposition of the
Scotch-Highlanders and the passive indifference of the
Germans.
Agriculture was the principal occupation of the
people. In the East, among the English, agriculture
was carried on by slave labor ; among the Scotch-Irish
the settlers owned but few slaves and largely per
formed their own labor. Accordingly the prevailing
sentiment of the East, socially and politically, was
aristocratic ; in the West it was democratic. It is
characteristic of an aristocracy that its leaders are
efficient and well-trained. While the great mass of
the people were illiterate, the wealthy planters were
well educated. Many of them were graduates of the
English universities, while others were educated at
Harvard, Yale, and William and Mary College. The
greatest difficulty with which the Americans had to
contend during the Revolution was the lack of manu
factures. Such manufactures as existed in North
Carolina were home-made. Most of the manufactured
articles used in the colony were imported from Eng
land and exchanged for farm products. Thus quite
an extensive commerce had been established between
North Carolina and the other colonies, and between
North Carolina and the mother country. Wilmington,
New Bern, and Edenton were the chief towns on the
coast; in the interior Halifax, Hillsboro, and Salis
bury were centers of political and social life. Four
teen miles below Wilmington on the west bank of the
Cape Fear, was an important town which has since
been abandoned. This was Brunswick, the residence
NORTH CAROLINA, 1765-1790 9
of Governor Tryon, and the scene of the resistance
to the Stamp Act. Before 1771 there was no per
manent seat of government; the governors resided
where they pleased and the Assembly met at Wilming
ton, New Bern, Halifax, or Edenton as it pleased the
governor. But after the completion of the Tryon
Palace in 1771, New Bern became the capital.
In order to understand the careers of the men whom
we shall study, it is important that we shall under
stand the organization of the colonial government
and the relations of the several departments to each
other. The organization followed the plan of the
British government. 2 Corresponding to the king was
the governor; to the judiciary, the colonial courts;
and to Parliament, the General Assembly. The
governor was, of course, the chief of the executive
branch. He received his appointment from the king,
was responsible only to the king, and could be re
moved by the king. None of our colonial governors,
during the period of royal rule, was selected from
among the colonists themselves. The governor was
usually some favorite of the king, or the friend of
some nobleman influential at Court. He thus came
among the people totally ignorant of their conditions,
needs, and ideals, and, as a rule, hostile to their
political principles. All of his important acts were
controlled by instructions sent him from time to time
from England, and these instructions he was com
pelled to obey regardless of the wishes or the interests
of the colony. As they frequently conflicted with the
views of the colonists, the result was an almost con-
2. See Raper, C. L. : North Carolina : A Study in English
Colonial Government.
10 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF
tinuous state of political warfare between the
Assembly, representing the people, and the governor,
representing the Crown. The people did not regard
the governor as their representative, nor did the
governor regard himself as such. He represented the
Crown, and he regarded his duty to the king as
superior to any obligation he owed to the people. He
was, in a word, not the people s governor ; he was the
king s vice-gerent, and his first duty was to obey the
commands of his master. This is a point of cardinal
importance in the study of the Revolution.
In his executive duties the governor was assisted
by a Council, but the Council had no control over his
actions beyond the giving of advice. The members
of the Council were appointed by the Crown upon the
recommendation of the governor, and as they owed
their selection to the governor, we may easily imagine
that their advice did not often conflict with his wishes.
This tendency, however, was to a certain degree off
set by the fact that the councillors, as a rule, were
residents of the colony, imbued with the same ideas
as their fellow-colonists, and controlled, to a certain
extent, by public opinion. We occasionally find, there
fore, a councillor willing to risk the governor s dis
approval and removal from office, in the interest of
the colony. The Council formed part of the judicial
branch of the government; and also formed the
upper chamber of the General Assembly. Appoint
ment to the Council was regarded as one of the highest
honors that could be conferred upon a colonist and
was sought by the wealthiest and most prominent men
of the province.
The legislative power of the government was vested
in the General Assembly which, like the British
NORTH CAROLINA, 1765-1790 11
Parliament, was composed of two houses the
Council and the House of Commons. The members
of the House of Commons were elected by the people.
Each county was entitled to two members, except
Pasquotank, Perquimans, Tyrrell, Chowan, and Curri-
tuck, which under an old law were entitled to five, and
Northampton to three. Certain towns, viz : New Bern,
Wilmington, Brunswick, Edenton, Halifax, Hillsboro,
and Salisbury, were entitled to send one member each.
Members of the Colonial Assembly like members of
the British Parliament, were not required to live in
the county or town which they represented, and they
were not elected for any specific term. The life of
an Assembly depended solely upon the will of the
governor. He had the power to call the Assembly
together, to select the place for it to meet, to dismiss
it for any length of time that pleased him, or to dis
solve it altogether and order a new election when he
pleased, and it could not meet or remain in session
except by his will. If, therefore, as sometimes
happened, an Assembly was composed of men who
were disposed to please the governor, he would keep
that Assembly for several years, calling the members
together or proroguing them according to his own
wishes ; on the other hand, if the members were hostile
to him and his measures, he might either refuse to
call them together at all, or dissolve them and order
a new election as he pleased. Thus Assemblies some
times lasted ten or a dozen years, at other times ten
or a dozen days, according to the whim of the
governor. Several attempts were made to pass laws
setting regular times for elections and for the sessions,
but the governor had the veto power and always used
it against such bills. He could either veto a bill him-
12 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF
self, or if he did not care to take the responsibility he
could refer it to the king for his approval or disap
proval. In either event the king had the power to
approve or revoke the governor s action. The
Assembly elected its own officers, but its choice was
subject to the approval of the governor. The speaker
of the Assembly was the highest officer over which
the people, or their representatives had any control,
and consequently the leader of the popular party was
usually elected to it. Thus it happened that the
governor, as the representative of the Crown and the
royal party in the colony, and the speaker, as the
representative of the Assembly and the popular party,
were frequently the leaders of hostile factions; and
much of the politics of colonial times turns on this
relationship. It was as speaker of the Assembly that
John Harvey, from 1765 to 1775, became the leader
of the revolutionary party and the organizer of the
Revolution.
The Revolution was due to the fact that the
colonists and the British government held conflicting
theories as to the relation existing between the colonies
and the British Parliament. The colonial government
of North Carolina was based upon charters issued by
the Crown to the Lords Proprietors. In every one of
these charters, in the charter granted to Sir Walter
Raleigh by Queen Elizabeth in 1584, 3 in that granted
by Charles I. to Sir Robert Heath in 1629, 4 and in those
granted by Charles II to the Lords Proprietors in 1663
and in 1665, 5 it was distinctly set forth that the people
3. Printed in Thorpe: American Charters, Constitutions and
Organic Laws, I., 53-57.
4. Printed in Col. Rec., I., 5-13
5. Printed in Col. Rec., I., 20-33, 102-114.
NORTH CAROLINA, 1765-1790 13
of the colony should be entitled to all the privileges,
franchises and liberties held and enjoyed by the
people of England. The English people considered
that the foundation of all their privileges and liberties
rested upon the principle that the subject should not
be taxed except by his own consent or the consent of
his representatives. This principle was not denied by
George III and his ministry. Their trouble with the
colonies arose over the question, who were the repre
sentatives of the colonists? The ministry declared
that they were represented in Parliament ; the Atntri-
cans replied that they were represented only in their
colonial assemblies. Parliament, they contended,
was supreme in all imperial affairs; but the
Parliament of England had no more power over
the local affairs of the several colonies than
the assemblies had over the local affairs of
England. Within their spheres the assemblies were
supreme; they bore the same relation to the in
ternal affairs of the colonies that Parliament bore to
the internal affairs of Great Britain. Between the
colonies and England, according to the colonial theory,
there existed the same relation as existed between the
several colonies themselves; that is to say, they
acknowledged allegiance to the same sovereign, but
in all other respects they were independent of each
other. Therefore, in all the controversy between the
colonies and the mother country the former addressed
all of their petitions and remonstrances to the king.
They did not send petition to Parliament, because to
do so would be to acknowledge the very thing they were
protesting against, i.e., the authority of Parliament,
and when they came to declare their independence,
it was the king, not Parliament, against whom they
14 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF
brought their charges of misgovernment. They could
not declare themselves independent of Parliament, be
cause they denied that Parliament had ever had any
constitutional control over them. Read the Declaration
of Independence, you will observe that nowhere in
that document is Parliament mentioned. It was the
king who had refused his assent to wholesome and
necessary laws; the king who had obstructed the
administration of justice; the king who had quartered
soldiers on the people ; the king who had rendered the
civil power dependent upon the military power. The
only reference made to Parliament in the Declaration
of Independence, is the charge that the king "has com
bined with others [i. e. Parliament] to subject us to
a jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution and un
acknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their
acts of pretended legislation."
You are, of course, familiar with these "acts of
pretended legislation," but let me recall them briefly
to your memory in the order in which they occurred
so that in the future mere reference to them will be
sufficient. First came the Stamp Act in 1765. Noth
ing could have been further from the thought of the
British ministry, when this act was passed, than the
idea that it would be resisted in America. The taxes
levied under it were not oppressive indeed, no form
of taxation is so little vexatious as a stamp act. So
little did anyone in England dream of resistance, that
Benjamin Franklin, then representing Pennsylvania
in London, recommended one of his friends in Phil
adelphia as the stamp agent for his colony, and thought
that he was doing his friend a service. England was
astonished at the outburst of wrath with which
America greeted the Stamp Act. As you know, it
NORTH CAROLINA, 1765-1790 15
was promptly repealed the next year. Its repeal how
ever, was coupled with the passage of another act,
little noticed at the time in the celebrations over the
repeal of the Stamp Act, but very important in its
bearing on the Revolution. This was the Declaratory
Act, passed in 1766, which declared that Parliament
had the right to legislate for the colonies "in all cases
whatsoever." If the matter had been allowed to drop
there, nothing would ever have been heard of the
Declaratory Act. But in 1767 an effort was made
to put this declaration into effect. Then was passed
the Townshend Acts, better known in our history as
the Tea Tax. The object of this act was to raise
money to pay the colonial governors and other officials
so as to render them independent of the colonial
assemblies. As the resistance to this act was led by
Massachusetts, five acts were passed to punish that
colony. Under these acts, persons in Massachusetts
suspected of encouraging resistance to Parliament
were to be arrested and sent to England for trial;
town-meetings were forbidden and two regiments of
British troops were ordered to Boston to overawe
the people of that town. The blow was aimed at
Massachusetts alone, but the other colonies promptly
rallied to her support and raised the cry that the
cause of Massachusetts was the cause of all. Finally
after ten years of petitions, remonstrances, and ad
dresses, the dispute came to blows and bloodshed.
Then it was, in February, 1775, that the king issued
his proclamation, declaring the colonies out of his
protection, ordering his fleets and armies to enforce
obedience to the acts of Parliament, and thus drove
the colonies into open war and revolution. These five
steps, therefore, must be borne carefully in mind if
16 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF
you would follow my story of the careers of Harvey,
Harnett, Caswell, and Johnston, viz: the Stamp Act
of 1765, the Declaratory Act of 1766, the Townshend
Acts of 1767, the five Massachusetts Acts of 1774,
and the king s proclamation of 1775.
In North Carolina, as in the other colonies,
resistance to these acts was first made through the
Assembly. From 1765 to 1774, the voice of the
Assembly was the voice of the people, and so long as
this voice was free there was no thought of substi
tuting any other for it. But it must be remembered
that this voice was not always free as the life of the
Assembly was dependent upon the will of the governor
who, of course, supported the Crown in this contro
versy. Thus, in 1765, when North Carolina was asked
to send delegates to the Stamp Act Congress, Governor
Tryon, in order to prevent it, refused to call the
Assembly together until it was too late to elect dele
gates. The colony, therefore, was not represented in
the Stamp Act Congress. Again, in 1774, when the
colony was asked to send delegates to a continental
congress, Governor Martin, who had succeeded Tryon,
tried the same tactics. He too refused to call a meet
ing of the Assembly. But the revolutionary leaders
were prepared for such a contingency. John Harvey,
speaker of the Assembly, met the governor s refusal
by issuing a call for a provincial congress independent
of the governor. This Congress met in August, 1774,
and was the beginning of the revolutionary govern
ment which superseded the royal government and
ruled the colony until the establishment of the state
government in 1777. It is necessary to describe this
provincial, or revolutionary government. At its head
was the Provincial Congress. While supreme in all
NORTH CAROLINA, 1765-1790 17
civil and military affairs, it was really the successor
of the General Assembly and its especial functions
were legislative. Under this Congress was the Pro
vincial Council, later the Council of Safety, which
was the chief executive power of the government,
although at times it also exercised certain judicial
functions. Under the control of the Council were the
committees of safety.
Congress was the supreme power in the state. It
met annually at such time and place as were desig
nated by the Provincial Council. Each county was
represented by five delegates elected by the people
just as the members of the Assembly had been elected.
The borough towns each had one delegate. No con
stitutional limitation was placed on the powers of
Congress, and as the supreme power in the province
it could review and pass upon the acts of the execu
tive branch of the government. The executive branch
consisted of the Provincial Council and the com
mittees of safety. Committees of safety were
organized in each town and county. It was their duty
to execute the orders of the Provincial Council and
the Continental Congress ; to collect taxes ; to purchase
arms, gunpowder, and other munitions of war; to
arrest, try, and punish persons suspected of disaffec
tion to the American cause; and to make such rules
and regulations as they saw fit to enforce their
authority. The Provincial Council was the chief
executive authority of the new government. It was
composed of thirteen members elected by the Con
gress. Authority was given to the Council to direct
the military operations of the province, to call out
the militia when needed, and to execute the acts of the
Congress. It could issue commissions, suspend
18 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF
officers, order courts-martial, reject officers of the
militia chosen by the people, and fill vacancies. But
its real power lay in a sort of "general welfare" clause
which empowered it "to do and transact all such
matters and things as they [sic] may judge expedient
to strengthen, secure, and defend the colony." To
carry out its powers, the Council was authorized to
draw on the public treasury for such sums of money
as it needed, for which it was accountable to Congress.
In all matters it was given authority over the com
mittees of safety, and in turn was subject to the
authority of Congress. Its authority continued only
during the recess of Congress, and Congress at each
session was to review and pass upon its proceedings.
Such was the government that was to organize, equip,
and direct the military forces raised by the Congress
and to inaugurate the great war about to burst upon
the colony. 6
This revolutionary government ruled the colony
from 1774 to 1777. After the Declaration of Inde
pendence, it became necessary to organize and
establish a more permanent form of government. An
effort was made by the Congress at Halifax in April,
1776 to adopt a constitution, but the members could
not agree, and the matter was postponed until the fol
lowing December. The Congress met in November
and after two months of arduous work, finally agreed
on a constitution which was adopted December 18.
1776. 7 Under this constitution the powers of the
government were divided into three departments
6. For a more detailed account of this provisional govern
ment, see Connor: Cornelius Harnett: An Essay in
North Carolina History, 102-119, 152-178.
7. Col. Rec., X., 1006-1013.
NORTH CAROLINA, 1765-1790 19
executive, embracing a governor and his Council;
judicial, embracing a superior court and inferior
county courts; legislative, embracing two houses, the
Senate and the House of Commons. The governor
and his Council were to be elected by the Legislature
for one year and no man could serve as governor for
more than three years in any term of six years. The
judges were also elected by the Legislature, and held
office for life, or during good behavior. The General
Assembly was composed of two representatives and
one senator from each county. Warned by its experi
ence with the royal governors the Congress gave the
governor under the Constitution no power over the
General Assembly. "What powers, sir," asked one
of William Hooper s friends, "were conferred upon
the governor by the new constitution?" "Power," re
plied Hooper, "to sign a receipt for his salary," and
indeed, that was about all. The Assembly met
annually at such time and place as it chose, deter
mined the length of its sessions for itself, and its acts
did not require the approval of the governor. This
relation between the governor and the Assembly
established in 1776 continues until this day, and
though there are those who think the governor should
be granted the veto power, nevertheless in view of our
past history, the burden of proving the advantage of
this innovation is certainly upon them. The govern
ment as inaugurated under the constitution of 1776
was put into operation January 1, 1777, with Richard
Caswell at its head, and more than half a century
passed before any changes were made in it. 8
8. Col. Rec., X., 1013.
20 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF
The grand result of the war of the Revolution was,
of course, the formation of the American Union.
How great an event it was the framers of the consti
tution themselves could not fully appreciate ; and even
today we can appreciate only by calling in the aid of
our imagination. As the United States continues to
grow in wealth and in power, as English-speaking peo
ple continue to spread over the face of the earth, car
rying with them their social and political ideals, the
world will come to appreciate more and more the mag
nitude of the work accomplished by the little band of
English-speaking colonies which fringed the Atlantic
coast during the quarter-century from 1765 to 1790.
Already we see the influence that the ideals for which
they struggled have had in liberalizing and democratiz
ing the older governments of the world, until today we
behold the people of the most ancient empire on earth
seeking admission into the ranks of the world s re
publics. 9 As we recede in years further and further
from the men who started this movement in 1765 and
brought it to its successful consummation in 1790,
their figures will loom larger and larger on the pages
of history. It remains for me now briefly to trace
the beginning of this movement.
I have already pointed out the relations of the
thirteen English colonies to each other in 1765.
Politically their only bond of union was the fact that
each acknowledged allegiance to the Crown of Eng
land. Otherwise they were, as regards each other, as
separate and distinct as they were from the Spanish
colonies to the south of them. Not only was there
9. When these lectures were delivered the short-lived Chinese
Republic had just been organized.
NORTH CAROLINA, 1765-1790 21
no bond of union between them : there was little senti
ment favorable to the formation of any such union.
You will remember that in 1754, during the French
and Indian War, Benjamin Franklin proposed a plan
of union for the purpose of resisting the French, and
urged it with all of his great ability, but he found no
responsive chord in the hearts of the colonists. What
was needed to effect this object was a common cause
in which the fate of every colony was involved. This
common cause was supplied in 1765 when Parliament
without a thought of its consequence passed the Stamp
Act. Here was a cause that involved the oldest as
well as the youngest of the colonies, the largest equally
with the smallest, the wealthiest no less than the
poorest, New England in common with the South. In
the movement which resulted in the Federal Union
there were five steps to which it is necessary for me
to call your attention. First, the Massachusetts and
Virginia circulars; second, the committees of corres
pondence; third, the Continental Congress; fourth,
the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union ;
fifth, the Constitution of the United States.
As soon as news of the passage of the Stamp Act
reached America, it became apparent that the colonies
ought to adopt some uniform method of protest and
resistance. It was important that in presenting their
arguments against the measure there should be sub
stantial agreement as to the principles upon which
their opposition rested. Accordingly Massachusetts,
through her Assembly, adopted and sent to each of
the colonies a circular letter suggesting the line of
argument to be followed and urging unity of action.
Virginia adopted the same tactics after the passage of
the Townshend Acts. Most of the colonies responded
22 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF
favorably and thus in this simple way took the first
step toward union. As the contest progressed it be
came necessary that there should be in each colony
some permanent agency for co-operation in order that
each colony might keep in close touch with all the
others. The assemblies could not serve this purpose
because, as we have seen, they were too dependent
upon the royal governors who, of course, sympathized
with the Crown and Parliament. Virginia, therefore,
suggested that each colony should appoint a com
mittee composed of nine of its leading men who should
be a committee of correspondence, to keep in close
touch with each other and to keep alive the spirit of
resistance throughout the continent. Thus a still
stronger bond of union was forged. But even this
soon proved inadequate for the task, and men began
to ask themselves, why should these committees do
their work by correspondence only? Why should
they not all hold a great meeting in New York or
Philadelphia, a sort of congress of committees, and
discuss our common affairs face to face? This idea
found favor, and so the call went forth for a con
tinental congress to which each colony was invited to
send delegates. Thus, by this third step, a real union,
never more to be dissolved, was effected. At first, of
course, the Continental Congress had no real power.
It had to depend upon public sentiment for the enforce
ment of its decrees. In the beginning when the
enthusiasm of the people was high, this was sufficient ;
but as the struggle dragged on, it became apparent
that Congress must have behind it some power more
real than public opinion. And so a plan of union was
drawn up, and submitted to the several states, called
"The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union."
XDKTU CAROLINA, 1765-1790 23
But this plan had many serious defects in it. Under
it, Virginia, the largest of the states had no more
power than Rhode Island, the smallest. Congress still
had no power to enforce its own decrees, but had to
depend on the states for it, and the states, after the
danger from the common enemy was removed, fre
quently refused. Congress could not punish an indi
vidual for violation of its ordinances ; it could not levy
or collect taxes, but had to look to the several states
for the very means of its existence. In a few years,
therefore, Congress through its inherent weakness,
fell into disrepute. It lost the respect of the people,
and with the loss of respect of course it lost even its
semblance of authority. The country was on the
verge of civil war and anarchy through the lack of
an effective national government, when Washington
again came to the rescue and persuaded Virginia to
invite the colonies to elect delegates to a convention
at Philadelphia to amend the Articles of Confedera
tion. The invitation was accepted, the great conven
tion of 1787 met, and after a long summer of hard
work, agreed upon a constitution and submitted it to
the several states for ratification. It met with a great
deal of opposition, but nowhere with so much as in
Rhode Island and North Carolina. North Carolina
held a convention at Hillsboro in 1788 to consider the
new constitution. The friends of the Union rallied
around their leader, Samuel Johnston, and fought a
great battle for it; but they were defeated. All the
other states, except Rhode Island, adopted the con
stitution, and the United States government was put
into operation without the help of North Carolina and
24 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF
Rhode Island. But the friends of the constitution in
North Carolina had not lost heart. They continued
their fight in its favor, and in 1789 had a second con
vention called, this time at Fayetteville, and after a
session of only six days, succeeded in having the con
stitution ratified.
In the movements which I have thus hastily and
briefly sketched four men came to the front as the
embodiments of the thoughts, the sentiments, and the
ideals of the people of North Carolina. It was John
Harvey who fanned the spirit of the people into action
and organized them for revolt; it was Cornelius
Harnett who nursed the sentiment of the people for
independence and became their spokesman on that
subject; it was Richard Caswell who led the people
in battle and on the battle-field helped to win that
independence for which he had spoken in the halls of
legislation ; and it was Samuel Johnston whose leader
ship resulted in the ratification of the Constitution of
the United States and who first represented his state
in the Senate of the Federal Union which he had
done so much to make possible. It is to a considera
tion of the lives, services, and characters of these four
patriots that I shall now invite your attention.
II
JOHN HARVEY
During the decade from 1765 to 1775 the decade
that witnessed the revolt against the authority of
Parliament, the inauguration of the Revolution, and
the overthrow of the royal government in North Caro
lina the dominant figure in our history is the figure
of John Harvey. Although Harvey was truly the
"Father of the Revolution in North Carolina," less
perhaps is known of his life, character, and services
than of any of the other Revolutionary leaders of
North Carolina. But little has been written about
his career, and outside of the official records the stu
dent will find little more than a bare mention of
the public offices that he held. Beyond the simple
fact that he was born about the year 1725 in Per-
quimans County and, according to the injunctions of
his father s will, 1 received a good education, we know
nothing of his early years. We may assume that like
other boys of his time and situation he gave due atten
tion to riding, hunting, fishing, swimming, rowing, and
other sports common to frontier settlements. As soon
as he was old enough to understand such things he
manifested a lively interest in colonial politics; and as
he was a promising member of a large, wealthy and
influential family he early attracted the attention of
the local politicians of the popular party. He was
barely turned twenty-one when they brought him for
ward as a candidate for the General Assembly and
1. Grimes, J. B. (Ed.) : North Carolina Wills and Inventories,
230-32.
26 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
elected him a member of the session held at New
Bern, June 12, 1746. 2 From that day till the day of
his death twenty-nine years later, he served con
tinuously in the Assembly, and gradually forged his
way to the front until in 1766 he was elected speaker
of the House of Commons, thus becoming the leader
of the people in their contest with the Crown and its
representative, the governor.
During the second decade of his services, that is
from 1754 to 1764, the most important work with
which Harvey was concerned was in connection with
the French and Indian War. During this critical
period in our history, it was the misfortune of the
colony to be governed by Arthur Dobbs, a dull, over
bearing Irishman, who was so bitterly hostile to the
French both as his country s hereditary foes and as
Roman Catholics, that he made the wringing of money
and soldiers out of the province for the prosecution
of the war almost the sole object of his administra
tion. The Assembly met his demands as liberally as
it thought the situation and circumstances of the
province justified, but it could not satisfy the governor.
Greater demands pressed in impolitic language gave
rise to sharp controversies over the powers of the
Crown and the privileges of the Assembly. The
governor, caring nothing for the privileges of the
people and eager only to please the king and his
ministry, was willing to raise troops and levy taxes for
their support without regard to the Assembly; the
Assembly, on the other hand, determined to keep the
purse strings in its own hands and stoutly maintained
that the only authority on earth that could legally levy
2. Col. Rec. IV., 318.
JOHN HARVEY 27
taxes on the people of North Carolina was their repre
sentatives in the General Assembly. It was in these
debates that John Harvey won his way to the leader
ship of the people.
Though Harvey was firm in opposing the governor s
efforts to usurp the functions of the Assembly, he
nevertheless took broad and liberal views as to the
duty of North Carolina in the struggle against the
French. In the Assembly of 1754 he served on a com
mittee which recommended an appropriation of 8,000
for war purposes, and secured its passage. 3 Within
less than a year, all British- America was thrown into
consternation by the disastrous ending of Braddock s
expedition. Governor Dobbs promptly called the
Assembly together in special session and in a sensible,
well-written address suggested that "a proper sum
cheerfully granted at once will accomplish what a very
great sum may not do hereafter." 4 The House im
mediately went into committee of the whole with John
Harvey as its presiding officer, to consider the means
of raising 10,000. Harvey was on the committee
which prepared the bill, by which 10,000 and three
companies of soldiers were placed at the disposal of
the governor. In 1756 the Assembly voted an appro
priation of 4,400, 5 and in 1757 an appropriation of
5,000, for war purposes. 6 Harvey was again the
leader of the House in securing these appropriations.
In the meantime the war had been going against the
English. The summer of 1757 was one of the
3. Col. Rec., V., 243 et seq.
4. Col. Rec., V., 495 et seq.
5. Col. Rec., V., 734.
6. Col. Rec., V., 829 et seq.
28 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
gloomiest in the annals of the British empire. Suc
cess everywhere, in Europe, in India, and in America,
crowned the arms of France. In America the French
Empire "stretched without a break over the vast terri
tory from Louisiana to the St. Lawrence." 7 The
Indians called Montcalm the "famous man who
tramples the English under his feet." 8 In July, how
ever, a new force, fortunately for the American
colonies, was introduced into the contest which, it is
not mere rhetoric to say, in a few months raised the
banner of England from the dust of humiliation to
float among the most exalted stars of national glory.
This force was the genius of William Pitt, "the
greatest war minister and organizer of victory that
the world has seen." 9 Under the inspiration of his
genius British armies in every quarter of the globe
marched from victory to victory; and the summer of
1758 was as glorious as the summer of 1757 had been
gloomy. In America the French stronghold at Louis-
burg fell before the assaults of the New England
militia; Fort Frontenac, the strongest French post on
the frontier of New York, surrendered; while Vir
ginia and North Carolina troops took Fort Duquesne
and rebaptized the place as Fort Pitt in honor of Eng
land s great war minister.
Within his sphere, as William Pitt did within his,
John Harvey contributed his full share toward the
achievement of these triumphs. The North Carolina
Assembly had quarrelled with Governor Dobbs, but
inspired by the words and spirit of Pitt it made
renewed efforts to support the war. Under the
7. Green : Short History of the English People.
8. Parkman: Montcalm and Wolf, I., 489.
9. Fiske: New France and New England, 315.
JOHN HARVEY 29
leadership of John Harvey, it voted to raise three more
companies of troops and appropriated 7,000 for
their support; and requested that the governor send
them forward to the army in Virginia "without loss
of time." 10 These troops, under the command of
Colonel George Washington, led the party that cap
tured Fort Duquesne. In the winter of 1758, the
Assembly voted another appropriation, 2,500, for
the North Carolina troops then serving on the Ohio. 11
After this Governor Dobbs made a total failure in his
efforts to direct the Assembly. More zealous than
judicious, he allowed himself to become involved in
a foolish quarrel over a trifling matter, and rather
than yield a little where resistance could do no good,
he foolishly threw away the supplies which a burdened
people reluctantly offered. Quarrel followed quarrel ;
the sessions were consumed with quarrels. The
Assembly, insisting upon its constitutional rights, re
fused to vote appropriations and levy taxes at the
command of a royal governor; and Dobbs, in an out
burst of wrath, wrote to the authorities in England
that the members were "as stubborn as mules," and
appealed to the king to strengthen his authority so that
he might "prevent the rising spirit of independency
stealing into this colony." 12
In March, 1765, Dobbs died and was succeeded by
William Tryon. Tryon called a new Assembly to
meet at New Bern, November 3, 1766. 13 On the first
day of the session, records the journal, Richard Cas-
10. Col. Rec., V., 1003.
11. Col. Rec., V., 1063.
12. Col. Rec., VI., 251.
13. Col. Rec., VII., 342.
30 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
well "moved that John Harvey, Esquire, be chosen
speaker; and [he] was unanimously chosen speaker
and placed in the chair accordingly. Mr. Howe and
Mr. Fanning waited on his Excellency, the Governor,
and acquainted him the members had made choice of
a speaker, and desired to know when they should wait
on him for his approbation ; and being returned
acquainted the members that his Excellency said he
would receive them immediately. The members
waited on his Excellency the Governor in the Council
Chamber and presented John Harvey, Esquire, to his
Excellency for approbation, who was pleased to ap
prove of their choice. Then Mr. Speaker asked his
Excellency to confirm the usual privileges of the
House, particularly of that of freedom of speech, to
which his Excellency for answer was pleased to say
that the House might depend he would preserve to
them all their just rights and privileges."
Thus John Harvey at last had come to his own.
Since the people then had no voice in the choice of
their governor, the highest office within the gift of
their representatives was the speakership of the
Assembly. To this office the ambitious politician
aspired, and to it the leader of the popular party was
generally elected. This position John Harvey now
assumed and during the remaining ten years of his life
he never lost it, though he was once forced by ill health
to lay it aside temporarily. It is of course impossible
from the bare records that have been preserved to
estimate accurately the exact share which he had in
all of the stirring scenes enacted in the province during
the next ten years ; nevertheless, we know that as the
recognized leader of the popular party his was the
mind that directed the movements which inaugurated
JOHN HARVEY 31
the Revolution in North Carolina, that he was himself
the author of many of them, while none was attempted
until he had been consulted and his co-operation
secured.
Grave matters, destined to change the course of
history, awaited the attention of Mr. Speaker Harvey
and the Assembly of 1768. The Stamp Act had been
repealed, but the continent was now in a turmoil over
the Townshend Acts. Massachusetts and Virginia
had issued their famous circular letters inviting the
co-operation of the other colonies in concerting
measures of resistance in order, as they said, that
their petitions and remonstrances to the king "should
harmonize with each other." These circular letters,
as I have already pointed out, were the first step in
the formation of the American Union. On Novem
ber 11, 1768, Mr. Speaker Harvey laid them before
the Assembly for consideration. 14 The Assembly
promptly directed the speaker to answer them and
ordered that a committee, of which Harvey was chair
man, be appointed to prepare an address to the king
protesting against the acts of Parliament levying
taxes on the colonists. In his letter to the speaker
of the Massachusetts Assembly Harvey said :
"I am directed to inform you that they [the mem
bers of the North Carolina Assembly] are extremely
obliged to the Assembly of Massachusetts Bay for
communicating their sentiments on so interesting a
subject; and shall ever be ready firmly to unite with
their sister colonies in pursuing every constitutional
measure for redress of the grievance so justly com
plained of. This House is desirous to cultivate the
14. Col. Rec., VII., 928.
32 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
strictest harmony and friendship with the assemblies
of the colonies in general, and with your House in
particular. . . . The Assembly of this colony will at
all times receive with pleasure the opinion of your
House in matters of general concern to America, and
be equally willing on every such occasion to communi
cate their sentiments, not doubting of their meeting a
candid and friendly acceptance." 15
In the address to the king, which Harvey as chair
man of the committee probably wrote, the king was
reminded that in the past whenever money was needed
for the service of the public, the Assembly, upon the
request of the king, had "cheerfully and liberally"
voted it; and a like compliance in the future was
promised. Then occurs the following passage remark
able for the plainness and boldness of its utterance :
"We therefore humbly beseech your Majesty to do
us the justice to believe that on any future demand of
a necessary supply for the support of Government or
defence of your Majesty s dominions, the inhabitants
of this province will, with the utmost cheerfulness and
alacrity, contribute their full quota, but humbly con
ceive that their representatives in Assembly can alone
be the proper judges not only what sum they are able
to pay, but likewise of the most eligible method of
collecting the same. Our ancestors at their first
settling, amidst the horrors of a long and bloody war
with the savages, which nothing could possibly render
supportable but the prospects of enjoying here that
freedom which Britons can never purchase at so [too?]
dear a rate, brought with them inherent in their
persons, and transmitted down to their posterity, all
15. The Boston Evening Post, May 15, 1769.
JOHN HARVEY 33
the rights and liberties of your Majesty s natural
born subjects within the parent State, and have ever
since enjoyed as Britons the privileges of an exemp
tion from any taxations but such as have been im
posed upon them by themselves or their representa
tives, and this privilege we esteem so invaluable that
we are fully convinced no other can possibly exist
without it. It is therefore with the utmost anxiety
and concern we observe duties have lately been im
posed on us by Parliament for the sole and express
purpose of raising a revenue. This is a taxation which
we are firmly persuaded the acknowledged principles
of the British Constitution ought to protect us from.
Free men cannot legally be taxed but by themselves
or their representatives, and that your Majesty s sub
jects within this province are represented in Parlia
ment we cannot allow, and are convinced that from
our situation we never can be." 16
The king turned a deaf ear to all such addresses
and petitions. Thereupon the Americans began a
movement to impress the people of England with a
sense of the seriousness of the situation in order that
public opinion in England itself might be brought to
bear on the Crown and on Parliament. This plan pro
posed that all the colonies should bind themselves to
purchase and import no more goods from British
merchants and manufacturers until the acts of which
they complained were repealed. The Americans
shrewdly conceived that the quickest and surest way
to strike John Bull s sense of justice was through his
pocket-book. Such agreements, called the "Non-Im
portation Association," were drawn up and sent to
16. Col. Rec., VIL, 980.
34 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
all the colonies for adoption. John Harvey brought
the matter to the attention of the North Carolina
Assembly, November 2, 1769. 17 The Assembly had
it under consideration when the governor, hearing of
its purpose, hastily put an end to the session.
This sudden turn of affairs would have been a fatal
blow to the patriot cause in North Carolina had it not
been for the courage and prompt decision of John
Harvey. Everybody knew that the effectiveness of
the "Non-Importation Association" as a weapon for
fighting the Townshend duties depended upon the
unanimity with which it was adopted and enforced.
Any one colony, especially so large and important a
colony as North Carolina, could defeat the whole
scheme. Governor Tryon knew that well enough and
doubtless congratulated himself that he had been in
time to prevent its adoption in North Carolina. But
Tryon underestimated the boldness and resourceful
ness of John Harvey, who resolutely threw himself
into the breech and called upon the members of the
Assembly to meet in a convention independent of the
governor "to take measures for preserving the true
and essential interests of the colony." Sixty-four of
the seventy-seven members rallied at his call, organ
ized as a convention, and elected Harvey moderator.
After discussing the situation fully during a session of
two days, the convention agreed upon a complete plan
of non-importation and recommended it to the
people in order to show their "readiness to join
heartily with the other colonies in every legal method
which may most probably tend to procure a redress"
17. Col. Rec., VIII., 121-24.
JOHN HARVEY 35
of grievances. 18 When this same plan of non-importa
tion was tried in opposition to the Stamp Act it was
not successful and the Loyalists were disposed to
ridicule the attempt to revive it against the Townshend
Acts. But a new element had now entered into the
controversy : the union sentiment had developed into
a reality, and the patriots taking advantage of this
fact, pushed the new movement with vigor and suc
cess. Colony after colony joined in the agreement,
and when North Carolina, under the leadership of
John Harvey, came in, the Whig papers declared with
great satisfaction: "This completes the chain of
union throughout the continent for the measure of
non-importation and economy."
In 1771 Governor Tryon was appointed governor
of New York and was succeeded in North Carolina
by Josiah Martin. Martin was a man ill calculated
to conduct an administration successfully even in
ordinary times. Stubborn and tactless, obsequious to
those in authority and overbearing to those under
authority, he suddenly found himself in a position
that required almost every quality of mind and
character that he did not possess. No worse selection
could have been made at that time; the people of
North Carolina were in no mood to brook the petty
tyranny of a provincial governor, and Martin s
personality became one of the chief factors that drove
men headlong into revolution, and prepared the
colony, first of all the colonies, to take a definite stand
for independence.
18. For a complete copy of these proceedings see Connor s
"John Harvey," in North Carolina Booklet, Vol. VIII.,
No. 1, pp. 21-26.
36 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
At the very outset of his administration the dull,
unelastic mind of Martin came into sharp contact
with the vigorous intellect and determined spirit of
John Harvey. One of the vexing problems with which
the Assembly had long been dealing was the boundary
line between North Carolina and South Carolina. The
king had ordered the line to be run in such a way as
to work to the disadvantage of North Carolina, but
the Assembly had declined to vote any money for the
purpose. Finally, in the summer of 1772, the king
instructed Governor Martin to have the line run and
to send the bill to the Assembly with the royal com
mand that it be paid. But when Martin sent his
demand for the money, it was met by a prompt and
sharp refusal. In order to give it an opportunity to
reconsider its action which, under its rules it seems
could not be done at that session, Martin prorogued
the Assembly for three days. When he was ready
to meet the Assembly on the third day he found to
his astonishment that the majority of the members
had gone home. He convened those who had re
mained and commanded them to proceed to business.
There had long been a dispute between the Assembly
and the royal governors as to the number of members
necessary to make a quorum. The Assembly insisted
that a majority was necessary; the governors fixed
upon a smaller number. The dispute now became a
practical matter. The members refused to organize
for business unless a majority should return. Martin
sent for Harvey and asked if he expected a sufficient
number to return to make a majority. Harvey replied
that he had not the least expectation that any such
event would occur; whereupon Martin in an outburst
of rage declared that "the Assembly had deserted the
JOHN HARVEY 37
business and interests of their constituents and
flagrantly insulted the dignity and authority of govern
ment," and forthwith dissolved them. 19
In the meantime the quarrel with the king and
Parliament continued with increasing bitterness, and
it had become apparent to all that if the Americans
expected to make a successful stand for their liberties
they must stand and act in concert. In the spring of
1774, therefore, Virginia sent out her call for a con
tinental congress. When Governor Martin learned
that North Carolina intended to join in this Congress,
he determined to prevent it by refusing to call the
Assembly together until it was too late to elect dele
gates. 20 Tryon as we have seen had adopted this plan
to prevent the election of delegates to the Stamp Act
Congress, but Martin lacked a good deal of Tryon s
tact and personality, and the men with whom he was
contending were not the kind to be caught twice in
the same trap. James Biggleston, the governor s
private secretary, let the secret out by communicating
the governor s intention to John Harvey. Harvey
flew into a rage. "In that event," he exclaimed, "the
people will convene an assembly themselves." He
promptly consulted Samuel Johnston, Edward Bun
combe, and other leaders. On April 5, 1774, John
ston wrote the following interesting letter to William
Hooper :
"Colonel Harvey and myself lodged last night with
Colonel Buncombe, and as we sat up very late the con
versation turned on continental and provincial affairs.
Colonel Harvey said during the night, that Mr.
19. Col. Rec., IX., 594-96.
20. Col. Rec., IX., 959.
38 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
Biggleston told him, that the governor did not intend
to convene another Assembly until he saw some chance
of a better one than the last; and that he told the
secretary that then the people would convene one
themselves. He was in a very violent mood, and
declared he was for assembling a convention inde
pendent of the Governor, and urged upon us to co
operate with him. He says he will lead the way and
will issue hand-bills under his own name. ... As for
my part, I do not know what better can be done. . . .
Colonel Harvey said that he had mentioned the matter
only to Willie Jones, of Halifax, whom he had met
the day before, and that he thought well of it, and
promised to exert himself in its favor. I beg your
friendly counsel and advice on the subject, and hope
you will speak of it to Mr. Harnett and Colonel Ashe,
or any other such men." 21
Harvey s bold and revolutionary proposition fell
upon willing ears. The people rallied to his support,
the convention was called, and in defiance of Governor
Martin s proclamation forbidding it, met at New Bern,
August 25, 1774. 22 Seventy-one delegates were
present. When they came to choose their presiding
officer, all involuntarily turned to one man, the father
of the convention. A series of resolutions was
adopted denouncing the acts of Parliament, stating
the position of the Americans, expressing approval of
the call for a continental congress, and naming three
delegates to represent North Carolina. John Harvey
was then authorized to call another convention when
ever he deemed it necessary. It was then unanimously
21. Col. Rec., IX., 968.
22. Col. Rec., IX., 1029, 1041.
JOHN HARVEY 39
resolved "that the thanks of this meeting be given to
the Hon. John Harvey, Esquire, moderator, for his
faithful exercise of that office and the services he has
thereby rendered to this province and to the friends
of America in general."
No more significant step was ever taken in North
Carolina than the successful meeting of this conven
tion. It revealed the people to themselves; they now
began to understand that there was no special magic
in the writs and proclamations of a royal governor;
they themselves could elect delegates, organize con
ventions, and enact laws without the intervention of
a king s authority. This was a long step toward
independence and self-government; John Harvey took
it, the people followed.
Because Boston would not pay for the tea destroyed
by the Boston Tea Party, Parliament passed the
Boston Port Bill closing that port and forbidding any
vessel to import or export any cargoes into or out of
its harbor. During the summer of 1774 the distressed
condition of the people of Boston, because of this
measure, touched the hearts of the American people.
"The cause of Boston is the cause of all," became the
watch word of the patriots throughout the continent.
The Congress of North Carolina took up the cry
and the people, by their contributions, showed that
their sympathy lay deeper than words. Wilmington,
New Bern, Edenton and the surrounding counties
dispatched ship-loads of supplies free of all freight
charges to be used for the poor of the New England
40 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
city. On September 20, 1774, John Harvey addressed
the following letter to the Boston Committee of Cor
respondence :
Perquimans Co., 20th Sept., 1774. 23
HONORABLE GENTLEMEN :
Joseph Hewes, Esquire, appointed a trustee with
me to collect the donations of the inhabitants of two
or three counties in the neighborhood of Edenton, for
the relief of our distressed brethren of Boston, being
absent attending the Continental Congress at Phila
delphia, I have the pleasure to send you, as per en
closed bill of lading, of the sloop Penelope, Edward
Herbert, master, which [I] wish safe to hand, and
that you will cause the amount of the same to be
divided among the poor inhabitants according to their
necessities.
"The Captain has received the most of his freight
here. The balance will be paid him on return, the
cargo to be delivered clear of any expense ; which you
would have received some months sooner, but the dif
ficulty of getting a vessel on freight prevented. [I]
hope to be able to send another cargo this winter, for
the same charitable purpose, as the American inhabi
tants of this colony entertain a just sense of the suf
ferings of our brethren in Boston, and have yet hopes
that when the united determinations of the Continent
reach the royal ear, they will have redress from the
cruel, unjust, illegal and oppressive late acts of the
British Parliament. I take the liberty to inclose you
23. Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 4th Series,
Vol. 4, p. 85-86.
JOHN HARVEY 41
the resolves of our provincial meeting of deputies, and
have the honor to be, with the most perfect respect
and esteem, in behalf of Mr. Hewes and self,
"Honorable Gentlemen, your most obedient and
very humble servant,
JOHN HARVEY/
This cargo was received October 15th probably at
Salem or Marblehead, which towns had offered their
harbors and wharves free of charge to Boston. It
consisted of 2,096 bushels of corn, 22 barrels of flour,
and 17 barrels of pork, which, as the Boston commit-
teemen said in their letter of thanks to Harvey, was
a noble and generous donation from their worthy
brethren and fellow countrymen of the two or three
counties in the neighborhood of Edenton. "We thank
you," continued the Boston Committee, "for the re
solves of your provincial meeting of deputies, which
you were so kind as to inclose. We esteem them as
manly, sprited and noble, worthy of our patriotic
brethren of North Carolina." 24
Foiled by Harvey s bold and determined action in
his purpose to keep North Carolina aloof from the
Continental Congress, Governor Martin made the best
of a bad situation and summoned the Assembly to
meet him at New Bern April 4, 1775. John Harvey
immediately called a second congress to meet at the
same place April 3rd. 25 It was a wise precaution, for
the Assembly sat only at the pleasure of the governor
who would of course dissolve it at the first manifesta
tion of opposition to the Crown. It was Harvey s
24. Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 4th Series,
Vol. 4, p. 86-88.
25. Col. Rec. f IX., 1125.
42 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
plan that the members of the Assembly should also be
members of the Congress, and this plan was gener
ally carried out. There were, however, a few mem
bers of each body who were not members of the
other. Martin was furious and denounced Harvey s
action in two resounding proclamations. 26 The Con
gress replied to it by electing Harvey moderator, the
Assembly by electing him speaker. 27 The governor
roundly scored both bodies, and both bodies roundly
scored the governor. It was indeed a pretty situation.
One set of men composed two bodies one legal, sit
ting by authority of the royal governor and in obe
dience to his writ ; the other illegal, sitting in defiance
of his authority and in direct disobedience to his proc
lamation. The governor impotently demanded that
the former join him in denouncing and dispersing the
latter, composed of the very men whose aid he so
licited. The two bodies met in the same hall, the Con
gress at nine o clock, the Assembly at ten, and were
presided over by the same man. When the governor s
private secretary was announced at the door, says
Colonel Saunders, in an instant, in the twinkling of
an eye, Mr. Moderator Harvey would become Mr.
Speaker Harvey, and gravely receive his Excellency s
message. 28
Neither body accomplished much. The Congress
adopted resolutions approving the measures of the
Continental Congress and recommended them to the
people of the province. A resolution declaring that
the people had a right to assemble in person or through
26. Col. Rec., IX., 1145, 1177.
27. For proceedings of these two bodies see Col. Rec., IX.,
1178-1185, 1187-1205.
28. Col. Rec., Prefatory Notes, IX., xxxiv.
JOHN HARVEY 43
their representatives to petition the Throne for redress
of grievances was adopted and the governor s procla
mation forbidding the meeting of the Congress was de
nounced as "illegal and an infringement of our just
rights and, therefore, ought to be disregarded as wan
ton and arbitrary exertions of power." Hooper,
Hewes, and Caswell were re-elected delegates to the
Continental Congress, and a resolution thanking them
for their services was adopted. Finally a resolution
was adopted authorizing John Harvey, or in the event
of his death Samuel Johnston, to call a session of
Congress whenever he deemed it necessary. The
Congress then adjourned.
The Assembly had time only to organize and ex
change messages with the governor when it, too, came
to a sudden end. Its first offense was the election of
John Harvey speaker. The governor had authority to
veto the Assembly s choice if he saw fit, but however
bitter the pill was he did not dare reject it. In a let
ter to Lord Dartmouth the secretary of state for the
colonies, Martin described his humiliation in the fol
lowing language:
"On the 3d instant, the time appointed for the meet
ing of the Convention . . . hearing that many deputies
from the counties were come here, I issued the
proclamation, of which I now transmit your Lordship
a copy numbered I, 29 notwithstanding which I found
this unlawful body met for a short time and elected
Mr. Harvey moderator, by whose advertisement it had
been convened. I still hoped the Assembly on what
I had to say to it would secede from this Convention,
although I well knew that many of the members had
29. Col. Rec., IX., 1177.
44 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
been sent as deputies to it. And this hope, together
with my desire to lay no difficulties in the way of the
public business, induced me on the next day to admit
the election of Mr. Harvey, who was chosen speaker
of the Assembly, and presented by the House for my
approbation. Indeed, to say the truth, my Lord, it
was a measure to which I submitted upon these prin
ciples not without repugnance even after I found the
Council unanimously of the opinion that it would not
be expedient to give a new handle of discontent to
the Assembly by rejecting its choice if it should fall
as was expected upon Mr. Harvey, for I considered
his guilt of too conspicuous a nature to be passed over
with neglect. The manner, however, of my admitt : ng
him, I believe sufficiently testified my disapprobation
of his conduct while it marked my respect to the elec
tion of the House." 30
The next day the Assembly committed its second
offense by inviting the delegates to the Congress, who
were not also members of the Assembly, to join in the
latter s deliberations. The governor promptly sent the
sheriff of Craven county with his proclamation to for
bid this unhallowed union. The only notice taken of
it was by James Coor, one of the members from Cra
ven. After the sheriff had read the proclamation,
Coor retorted : "Well, you have read it and now you
can take it back to the governor." 31 "Not a man obeyed
it," reported Martin to Lord Dartmouth. Thus far
the governor had kept his temper very well. But on
the fourth day of the session, the Assembly adopted
resolutions approving of the measures of the Conti-
30. Col. Rec., IX., 1212.
31. Col. Rec., IX., 1213.
JOHN HARVEY 45
nental Congress, thanking the North Carolina dele
gates for their services, and endorsing their re-election.
This was more than the governor had bargained for,
and when he learned of it his wrath boiled over. He
promptly issued his proclamation dissolving the As
sembly, April 8, 1775. This was the last Assembly
that ever met in North Carolina under the authority
of Great Britain and by its dissolution, Josiah Mar
tin put an end forever to British rule in that province.
In a letter to Lord Dartmouth describing these events
he said:
"I am bound in conscience and duty to add, my
Lord, that government is here as absolutely prostrate
as impotent, and that nothing but the shadow of it is
left. . . . I must further say, too, my Lord, that it is
my serious opinion which I communicate with the last
degree of concern that unless effectual measures, such
as British spirit may dictate, are speedily taken there
will not long remain a trace of Britain s dominion over
these colonies." 32
It was impossible for Josiah Martin to let slip an
opportunity to vent his wrath at a rival. John Harvey
had long been a justice of the peace in Perquimans
County. Three days after the dissolution of the As
sembly, Governor Martin laid before the Council the
proceedings of the late Provincial Congress, which
were signed by "John Harvey, moderator, wherein,"
says the journal of the Council, "are certain resolves
highly derogatory to the honor and dignity of his
Majesty s government, tending to destroy the peace
and welfare of this province, in the highest degree op
pressive of the people, and utterly subversive of the
32. Col. Rec., IX., 1215.
46 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
established constitution. He therefore submitted to
the consideration of this Board the propriety of mark
ing its indignation of such unlawful and dangerous
proceedings by striking Mr. John Harvey out of his
Majesty s commission of the peace for the county of
Perquimans where he resides." 33 The councillors of
his Majesty s governor gravely concurred in these
sentiments, and John Harvey s judicial head fell at
the block.
But little cared John Harvey. His time for earthly
honors and earthly contests was rapidly drawing to
its close. His pale cheeks and wasted frame warned
both him and his colleagues that his end was not far
off and, as we have seen, the Congress had prepared
for the vacancy his death would make in their ranks
by selecting as his successor his life-long friend and
neighbor, Samuel Johnston. Within less than two
months after the adjournment of his last Congress
and the dissolution of his last Assembly the expected
event occurred, hastened by the shock of a fall from
a horse. These last days were passed under the
clouds of a rapidly approaching revolution. That rev
olution no man in North Carolina had done so much
to produce as John Harvey. No man had watched its
outcome with greater confidence, or awaited it with
greater hope. How well he had marked out the course
it was to take, how carefully he had watched over its
feeble beginnings, and how effectively he had organ
ized the forces which were to propel and guide it, is
shown by the fact that though his strong hand was
snatched from the helm at the most critical moment,
nevertheless the Revolution moved on apace without
33. Col. Rec., IX., 1215.
JOHN HARVEY 47
a jar, without swerving an instant from its destined
end. It is one of the tragedies of human life that men
often are not permitted to see and enjoy the fruits of
their labors and sacrifices. So it was with this man
of the people, this political leader with the vision of
a prophet, this organizer of a Revolution destined to
mark the beginning of an era in the history of man
kind. The South Carolina Gazette and Country Jour
nal, published at Charleston June 6, 1775, contained
the following letter written at New Bern, May 19th :
"With inexpressible grief and concern we have re
ceived from Edenton the melancholy account of the
death of Col. John Harvey, of Perquimans County,
who a few days since died at his seat there after a
very short illness, occasioned, it is said, by a fall from
his horse. The respectable and uncommon character
of this worthy member of society has, for many years
past, placed him in the highest department of this prov
ince in the gift of the people, that of speaker of the
House of Assembly ; and the great assiduity and dili
gence with which he discharged that, and many other
important trusts committed to his care, and his perse
verance in seeking the real and substantial good of
his country, renders his death a public loss, which will
be truly lamented by a grateful people. It is hoped
that some abler pen will do justice to his Manes; we
can only say, that as in public life all his actions were
directed to the good of his country, so in private his
house was one continued scene of hospitality and be
nevolence, and his purse, his hand and heart, were
ever devoted to the service and relief of the distressed.
In him the advocates for American freedom have lost
a real and true friend ! In him this province may
mourn a substantial and irretrievable loss."
48 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
On the last day of May, Robert Howe, Cornelius
Harnett and John Ashe, three patriots who had never
failed to follow when John Harvey led the way, wrote
to Samuel Johnston: "We sincerely condole with all
the friends of American liberty in this province on
the death of our worthy friend, Colonel Harvey. We
regret it as a public loss, especially at this critical junc
ture." 34
"He will be much missed," wrote Joseph Hewes
from Philadelphia. "I wish to God he could have been
spared."
Few the words, but sincere the tribute, from men
who knew his virtues and appreciated his worth. 35
34. Col. Rec., IX., 1285.
35. For a fuller account of the career of John Harvey see
Connor s "John Harvey" in North Carolina Booklet,
Vol. VIIL, No. 1 (July, 1908).
Ill
CORNELIUS HARNETT
Cornelius Harnett was one of that group of North
Carolina statesmen whose leadership during the dec
ade and a half following the passage of the Stamp
Act swung North Carolina into line with the great
continental movement of the American colonies, over
threw the royal authority in the province, and set in
motion the wheels of government in the independent
state. From this group his conspicuous ability as an
organizer and administrator led his associates to place
him at the head of the Revolutionary government
where his great executive powers contributed largely
to the success of the Revolution in North Carolina.
Harnett first came into prominence in the affairs
of the province as the leader of the Cape Fear sec
tion. Born the same year in which that region was
opened to settlement, and taken thither by his father
from Chowan county when a babe of three years, Cor
nelius Harnett grew to manhood as the settlement de
veloped from a wilderness into a civilized community.
He entered upon his public career just as the Cape
Fear section was on the point of wresting the palm
of leadership in colonial affairs from the Albemarle
section, and during the two decades in which he was
the leader of the Cape Fear that section reached the
highest point of influence it has ever attained in the
history of the state. He early became identified with
the interests of Wilmington and was one of the lead
ers in the industrial development of that town and
the surrounding country. Growing up with the Cape
Fear section, he became thoroughly imbued with the
50 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
spirit of the new country, of which the dominant note,
then, as now, was high standards of personal integrity
and honor, and passionate devotion to that ideal of
individual liberty which calls every man s house his
castle. The customs of the people, their habits of
thought, their feelings and sentiments, and their faults
and virtues, all became his own. His intimate knowl
edge of their life and character, his sympathy with
their ideals and ambitions, his wealth and his attrac
tive social qualities, his genius and his culture, com
bined to make him the leader in the movements of
which Wilmington was soon to become the center, and
produced in him, as he has been called, "the represen
tative man of the Cape Fear."
Harnett s public career extended over a period of
thirty years. In April, 1750, he entered upon the du
ties of his first office. In April, 1781, he died. Between
these two dates he was continuously in the service of
his town, his county, his state, and his country. In
1754 he became a member of the General Assembly
as the representative of the borough of Wilmington.
Twelve other Assemblies were held in North Caro
lina under the authority of the British Crown in all
of which Harnett sat for Wilmington. His legislative
career covered a period of twenty-seven years and
embraced service in the Colonial Assembly, in the
Provincial Congress, and in the Continental Congress.
There was nothing dramatic about his services. He
had no power, as William Hooper had, to stir men s
passions with an outburst of eloquence, nor had he,
like Richard Caswell, the military genius to inflame
their imaginations by a brilliant feat of arms. Yet
a careful and scholarly student after a painstaking
study of the records more than a century after Har-
CORNELIUS HARNETT 51
nett s death unhesitatingly declared as his sober judg
ment : "To one who studies impartially the annals of
this state during the last half of the eighteenth cen
tury, the conviction will become irresistible that the
mightiest single force in North Carolina history during
the whole of the Revolutionary period was Cornelius
Harnett, of New Hanover county." 1
The second decade of Harnett s legislative career
began with the coming of William Tryon and the pas
sage of the Stamp Act. Tryon took the oath of office
April 3, 1765. At that time the Stamp Act was the
chief topic of discussion in the political circles of
America. The opposition to it in North Carolina
brought to the front a new set of leaders and for the
first time put them in touch with continental affairs.
Among these leaders Cornelius Harnett soon became
conspicuous. Even before the passage of the Stamp
Act, the Assembly, through a committee of which
Harnett was a member, had united with the other
colonies in protesting against the proposed stamp
duty. 2 During the summer following its passage pub
lic demonstrations were made against it in various
parts of the colony. At Wilmington large crowds
gathered from the surrounding counties, listened to
the harangues of popular orators on the rights of the
colonies, drank toasts to "Liberty, Property and no
Stamp Duty," hanged Lord Bute, the king s minister,
in effigy, compelled the stamp agent to resign his of
fice, required the printer to publish his newspaper
without affixing the necessary stamps, and organized
an association pledged to resist the Stamp Act to the
1. Smith, C. Alphonso: "Our Debt to Cornelius Harnett," in
North Carolina University Magazine, May, 1907, p. 379.
2. Colonial Records, VI., 12%.
52 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
death. 3 A few weeks later the royal sloop-of-war,
Diligence, Captain Phipps, with a cargo of stamps for
the colony, cast anchor off Brunswick. Quickly
spread the news of her arrival. Up and down the
Cape Fear, and far into the country, men snatched
their rifles, and hurried to Brunswick where they de
clared their purpose to resist any attempt to land the
stamps in North Carolina. A month later Governor
Tryon wrote to the authorities in England, "the
stamps remain on board the said ship;" and after
still another month, he added, "where they still re
main."
Day by day the people and the governor kept watch
on each other, anxiously awaiting the result of the
contest. With the opening of the new year, 1766, the
struggle reached its climax. Three merchant vessels
which arrived at Brunswick without stamps on their
clearance papers, were instantly seized by the man-of-
war, Viper, and their cargoes confiscated. The people
now rose in open rebellion, and with arms in their
hands boarded the royal Cruizer, and forced her com
mander to release the captured vessels. To prevent
any further danger from this source, the leaders of
the people now determined to require all royal offi
cials, except the governor, to take an oath not to make
any further attempt to execute the Stamp Act. One
of these officials, a Mr. Pennington, the king s comp
troller, sought refuge in the governor s house. The
people surrounded the house and demanded that they
be permitted to speak with Pennington. Tryon re
plied: "Mr. Pennington being employed by his Ex-
3. For the proceedings against the Stamp Act on the Cape
Fear see Colonial Records, VII., 123 et seq.
CORNELIUS HARNETT 53
cellency on dispatches for his Majesty s service, any
gentleman that has business with him may see him at
the governor s house." A few hours later Tryon ob
served "a body of men in arms from four to five hun
dred," moving about his house. Three hundred yards
away they drew up in line and sent a detachment of
sixty men down the long avenue to the front door of
the governor s mansion. At the head of this detach
ment as its leader and spokesman marched Cornelius
Harnett.
Now followed the most dramatic scene of the
struggle over the Stamp Act, a brief but intense
interview between William Tryon, representative
of the king s authority, and Cornelius Harnett,
representative of the people s will, for possession
of one of the king s officers. Harnett opened
the interview by demanding that Pennington
be allowed to go with him. Tryon replied that
Pennington had come to his house seeking refuge, that
he was an official of the Crown, and as such should
receive all the protection the governor s roof and dig
nity of character could afford him. Harnett insisted.
"The people," said he, "are determined to take him out
of the house if he is longer detained, an insult," he
added quickly, "which they wish to avoid offering to
your Excellency." "An insult," retorted Tryon, "that
will not tend to any consequence, since they have al
ready offered every insult in their power, by surround
ing my house and making me in effect a prisoner be
fore any grievance or oppression had been first repre
sented to me." During this interview Pennington be
came restless and finally said that he would go with
Harnett. To Tryon he declared that whatever oaths
might be imposed upon him, he would consider as acts
54 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
of compulsion and not of free will. "I would rather re
sign my office," he added, "than do anything contrary to
my duty to the king and to your Excellency." "If that is
your determination," replied the disgusted governor,
"you had better resign before you leave here." Har-
nett quickly interposed his objection to this sudden
turn of affairs, but Pennington sided with the gover
nor. Paper and ink were accordingly brought and the
resignation was written and promptly accepted. "Now,
sir," said Tryon, bitterly, "you may go ;" and Harnett
led the frightened official out of the house to his fol
lowers who were waiting for him outside. They then
rejoined the main body of the "inhabitants in arms,"
and the whole withdrew to the town. There they drew
up in a large circle, placed the royal officials in the
center, and administered to them all an oath "that they
would not, directly or indirectly, by themselves or by
any other person employed under them, sign or exe
cute in their several offices any stamped papers, until
the Stamp Act should be accepted by the province."
The clerk of the court and all the lawyers were sworn
to the same effect; and as each took the pledge the
cheers of the crowd bore the news to the enraged and
baffled governor as he sat alone in his room keenly
conscious of his defeat. 4
Throughout this contest the conduct of no man
stands out so conspicuously as that of Cornelius Har
nett. From the announcement of the British minis
try s intention to levy a stamp duty in America, he was
4. For more detailed accounts of these proceedings see Con
nor; Cornelius Harnett: An Essay in North Carolina
History, 30-47; Waddell : A Colonial Officer and His
Times, 73-129; Ashe: History of North Carolina, I.,
310-325; Sprunt: Cape Fear Chronicles, 67-78.
CORNELIUS HARNETT 55
among the foremost in opposition ; and it is stating
nothing more than the records will bear out to say
that when the struggle closed, no man could justly
claim more credit for the failure of the Stamp Act in
North Carolina than he. At the beginning of the
struggle there were several strong, forceful men in
Wilmington and Brunswick capable of leading the
opposition, but none of them stood so conspicuously
above the others that he can be designated as the
leader; but as the contest progressed the opposition
centers more and more around Cornelius Harnett, un
til at its climax he and Tryon stand face to face, the
acknowledged leaders of their respective causes. "Be
fore this incident," as Dr. C. Alphonso Smith has so
well said, "Harnett had been best known as a skillful
financier. . . . But after his defiance of Tryon in 1766
an act performed ten years before the Declaration
of Independence and seven years before the Boston
Tea Party Harnett became in an especial sense the
leader of his people and the target of British malevol
ence and denunciation. Every State boasts its heroes
of the Stamp Act, but in all the examples of resistance
to this oppressive act, I find no deed that equals Har-
nett s in its blend of courage, dignity and orderliness.
He and Tryon had looked each other in the eyes, and
the eyes of the Englishman had quailed."
In the struggle over the Stamp Act was born a un
ion sentiment that contained the germs of nationality,
and the development of this sentiment in the contests
with the mother country from 1765 to 1775 gives to
the events of that decade their chief significance. Cor
nelius Harnett enlisted heartily in this movement, and
contributed largely to its success in North Carolina.
So far, then, as North Carolina s adherence to the con-
56 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
tinental or national cause was a factor in its success,
so far must we think of Harnett s work as of national
significance, and of himself as entitled to rank as
among American statesmen.
The first step taken toward union was the adoption
of the Non-Importation Association by the several
colonies. But it was a much simpler matter to adopt
such an association than to enforce it, for the Tories,
of course, opposed the whole scheme, and would gladly
have welcomed an opportunity to defeat it. In North
Carolina the merchants of the Cape Fear section were
the largest importers of British goods in the colony
and everybody recognized that their action would de
termine the matter. No non-importation association
could be enforced without their co-operation. For
tunately, Cornelius Harnett, one of the chief mer
chants of the province, was also chairman of the Sons
of Liberty; and under his leadership this powerful
organization, representing the towns of Wilmington
and Brunswick and the six counties on the Cape Fear,
determined that the association should be enforced.
They declared that they would have no dealings with
any merchant who imported goods "contrary to the
spirit and intention" of the Non-Importation Associa
tion; and constituted themselves a special committee
to inspect all goods imported into the Cape Fear and
to keep the public informed of any that were brought
in contrary to the association. They then ordered their
resolves to be "immediately transmitted to all the trad
ing towns in this colony;" and in the spirit of co
operation, Cornelius Harnett wrote to the Sons of
Liberty of South Carolina to inform them of their
action. In this letter he said:
CORNELIUS HARNETT 57
"We beg leave to assure you that the inhabitants of
those six counties and we doubt not of every county
in this province, . . . are tenacious of their just rights
as any of their brethren on the continent and firmly
resolved to stand or fall with them in support of the
common cause of American liberty. Worthless men
. . . are the production of every country, and we are
also unhappy as to have a few among us who have
not virtue enough to resist the allurement of present
gain/ Yet we can venture to assert, that the people
in general of this colony, will be spirited and steady
in support of their rights as English subjects, and will
not tamely submit to the yoke of oppression. But if
by the iron hand of power, they are at last crushed;
it is however their fixed resolution, either to fall with
the same dignity and spirit you so justly mention, or
to transmit to their posterity entire, the inestimable
blessings of our free Constitution. The disinterested
and public spirited behavior of the merchants and
other inhabitants of your colony justly merits the ap
plause of every lover of liberty on the continent. The
people of any colony who have not virtue enough to
follow so glorious examples must be lost to every
sense of freedom and consequently deserve to be
slaves." 6
In the meantime, while Cornelius Harnett and his
colleagues were bending all their energies toward the
union of the colonies against the authority of Parlia
ment, the revolt of the Regulators in the interior of
the province came near to counteracting all the good
results of their work. Harnett sympathized with the
5. South Carolina Gazette and Country Journal, July 5, 1770;
July 26, 1770; August 9, 1770.
58 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
grievances of the Regulators and in the Assembly ad
vocated measures to relieve them of their burdens; 6
but he disapproved of their violent and destructive
methods, and when Governor Tryon marched against
them, Harnett accompanied him on his Alamance
campaign and contributed largely from his private for
tune to the support of his army.
It is not difficult to understand Harnett s feelings.
He was keenly aware of the injury the conduct of the
Regulators would do to the American cause in Eng
land. Though the opposition to the Stamp Act and
the Townhend Acts had been firm and decided, it had
been carried on peaceably and orderly ; yet the Amer
icans had been freely denounced in England as law
less and violent men, delighting in riot and rebellion.
They had found it by no means the easiest part of their
work to counteract this view even among those who
wished them well. The proceedings of the Regula
tors, when reported to the home government, could
not fail to give to their enemies a decided advantage,
for the people of the mother country would draw no
distinction between the Sons of Liberty on the Cape
Fear and the Regulators on the Eno. All would be
classed as rebellious subjects who deserved punish
ment. Besides this, the course of the Regulators, if
successful, would divide the people into warring fac
tions at the very time when union was the great essen
tial. Cornelius Harnett understood this. He was too
clear sighted and practical a statesman not to see that
the movements of the Regulators were antagonistic to
the continental movement toward the union of the
American colonies against the encroachments of Par-
6. Col. Rec., VIII.. 388-89.
CORNELIUS HARNETT 59
liament. He accordingly threw himself into the cam
paign against the Regulators with so much earnestness
that the Assembly passed special resolutions expressive
of its appreciation "of the great service rendered his
country by his zeal and activity therein/ and voted to
reimburse him for "the extraordinary expenses he was
at in that service." 7
The condition of the colony and the quarrels be
tween the Assembly and Governor Josiah Martin, who
succeeded Try on in 1771, made it imperative that the
leaders of the popular party should not rest in idle
ness, and many an anxious conference was held for
the purpose of devising a more effective plan of united
action. One of the most important, as it was one of
the most interesting of these conferences, was held
between Josiah Quincy, Jr., of Massachusetts, and
Cornelius Harnett, of North Carolina, at the home of
the latter on the Cape Fear. Quincy arrived at Bruns
wick March 26, and spent the next five days enjoying
the hospitality of the Cape Fear patriots. In his diary
he left us a record of his conferences with these men.
This one he found "seemingly warm" against the
measures of Parliament; another was "apparently in
the Whig interest." The night of March 30th he spent
at the home of Cornelius Harnett. Here all doubt of
his host s political sentiments vanished. "Spent the
night," he records, "at Mr. Harnett s, the Samuel
Adams of North Carolina (except in point of for
tune). Robert Howe, Esq., Harnett and myself made
the social triumvirate of the evening. The plan of
continental correspondence highly relished, much
wished for, and resolved upon as proper to be pur-
7. Col. Rec., IX., 195-205.
60 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
sued." Quincy was so delighted at finding Harnett s
views coinciding so entirely with his own, that he
sprang up from his chair and gave his host a cordial
embrace. Both esteemed the opportunity for further
conference of such importance that Quincy remained
with Harnett through the next day and night, and
then and there they agreed upon the plan for a sys
tem of committees of correspondence. 8 This system,
as we have seen, was adopted by the North Carolina
Assembly at its next session in December. The North
Carolina Committee of Correspondence was composed
of John Harvey, Robert Howe, Cornelius Harnett,
William Hooper, Richard Caswell, Edward Vail, John
Ashe, Joseph Hewes and Samuel Johnston. 9
The work of the committee bore good fruit, for the
members brought to their work a truly national spirit
in dealing with continental affairs. To use a modern
political term, they adopted a platform in which they
declared that the inhabitants of all the colonies "ought
to consider themselves interested in the cause of the
town of Boston as the cause of America in general ;"
that they would "concur with and co-operate in such
measures as may be concerted and agreed on by their
sister colonies" for resisting the measures of the Brit
ish ministry; and that in order to promote "con
formity and unanimity in the councils of America" a
continental congress was "absolutely necessary." 10
The significance of this system of committees of cor
respondence was soon apparent. Indeed, as John
Fiske declares, it "was nothing less than the beginning
of the American Union. ... It only remained for the
8. Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings, June, 1916.
10. State Records, XL, 245-48.
CORNELIUS HARNETT 61
various inter-colonial committees to assemble together,
and there would be a Congress speaking in the name
of the Continent." 11
We have already seen how the call for a conti
nental congress was made and how, under the leader
ship of John Harvey, it led to the assembling of the
first Provincial Congress of North Carolina, in August,
1774. The most important action of this Congress was
the adoption of a resolution providing for the organi
zation of a system of committees of safety to execute
the ordinances of the Provincial and Continental Con
gresses. The plan contemplated one committee in
each of the towns, one in each of the counties, one
in each of the six military districts into which the
colony was divided and one for the province at large.
The most active and efficient of these committees
were those of Wilmington and New Hanover county. 12
Of these committees Cornelius Harnett was the mas
ter-spirit. When the Wilmington committee was or
ganized, November 23, 1774, though he was then ab
sent from the colony, he was unanimously elected
chairman. When the New Hanover committee was
organized, January 5, 1775, "to join and co-operate
with the committee of the town," he was promptly-
placed at the head of the joint committee. The people
were fully alive to the importance of the step they took
11. The American Revolution, I., 81.
12. The proceedings of the Wilmington-New Hanover com
mittees may be found in the Colonial Records, Vol. IX.,
pp. 1088, 1095, 1098, 1101, 1107, 1108, 1118, 1120, 1122,
1126, 1127, 1135, 1143, 1149, 1166, 1168, 1170, 1185, 1222,
1265, 1285 ; Vol. X., pp. 12, 15, 24, 50, 64, 65, 68, 72, 87,
89, 91, 93, 112, 116, 121, 124, 141, 151, 157, 158, 220, 262,
263, 279, 282, 298, 304, 328, 331, 334, 335, 336, 345, 348,
363, 388, 389, 393, 405, 410, 411, 418, 421, 425, 431, 435,
477.
62 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
in organizing these committees. The men whom they
selected represented the wealth, the intelligence and the
culture of the community. They were men of ap
proved character and ability. Some of them after
wards achieved eminence in the history of North Car
olina. Seldom have men entrusted with such exten
sive authority fulfilled their trust with greater fidelity.
They discharged every duty with firmness and pa
tience, with prudence and wisdom, and in the interest
of the public welfare. From the first, we are told,
Cornelius Harnett was "the very soul of the enter
prise," "the life-breathing spirit of liberty among the
people/ possessing their confidence "to an extent that
seems incredible." Archibald Maclaine Hooper
says : "The first motions of disaffection on the Cape
Fear were prompted by him. When the conjunction
favorable for his projects arrived, he kept concealed
behind the curtain, while the puppets of the drama
were stirred by his wires into acts of turbulence and
disloyalty. Afterwards when a meeting was convened
at Wilmington, he was bold in the avowal of his senti
ments and in the expression of his opinions." As
chairman of the joint committee, by his activity in
"warning and watching the disaffected, encouraging
the timid, collecting the means of defense, and com
municating its enthusiasm to all orders," he made this
local committee the most effective agency in the prov
ince, except the Congress itself, in getting the Revolu
tion under way in North Carolina. Governor Martin
recognized in him the chief source of opposition to the
royal government; and the Provincial Congress
demanded his services for the province at large. When
the Provincial Council was created Harnett was
unanimously elected president, a position that made
CORNELIUS HARNETT 63
him in all but name the first chief executive of the
newborn state. The work of this Council, too, was
largely his work, and its success is proof of the ability
which he brought to his task. 13
The effect of the activity of these committees was
immediately felt. Under their stimulus the Revolution
moved on apace, and by April of 1775, when Governor
Martin dissolved the last Assembly under British rule,
was in full swing. April of 1775 was a stirring month
in North Carolina. It witnessed the convocation and
adjournment of the most revolutionary body ever held
in the state. It saw the convening and dissolution of
the last Assembly ever held under the authority of the
British Crown. It saw the governor of the province
openly defied in his palace at the capital, closely
watched by armed men, and virtually beseiged in his
own house. It saw the guns he had set up for his own
protection seized and carried off by men he had been
sent to rule. It closed upon the flight of the terrified
governor from the capital to the protection of the guns
at Fort Johnston at the mouth of the Cape Fear river.
The atmosphere was charged with the revolutionary
spirit. Men breathed it in with the very air they
sucked into their lungs and then showed it forth to the
world by their actions. Events crowded one upon
another in rapid succession. The committees of safety
were everywhere active in the discharge of their
various duties, legislating, judging, executing, com
bining in themselves all the functions of government.
The news of the battle of Lexington spread like wild
fire through the province, arousing the forward,
13. The proceedings of the Provincial Council are printed in
the Colonial Records, X., 283-294, 349-362, 469-477.
64 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
stirring the backward, and putting an end everywhere
to all hope of a peaceful conclusion of the difficulties.
The news was sped on its way by the committees and
in no other instance did they give better evidence of
their usefulness. 14 Governor Martin complained that
the rebel leaders knew about the battle at least two
months before he did, and that he did not learn of it in
time to counteract the influence which the "infamous
and false reports of that transaction" had on the
people. 15 The news reached Cornelius Harnett on the
Cape Fear in the afternoon of May 8, and he at once
hurried it on to the Brunswick committee with the
admonition, "For God s sake send the man on without
the least delay and write to Mr. Marion to forward it
by night and day." The proceedings of the second
Continental Congress, which met amid all this excite
ment, were followed with the closest attention. John
Harvey, after a life devoted to the interest and liberty
of his country, died at his home in Perquimans county,
leaving a gap in the ranks of the patriots impossible to
be filled. Scarcely had this sad news reached the Cape
Fear before Cornelius Harnett was joined by Robert
Howe and John Ashe in a letter to Samuel Johnston
urging him to call a provincial convention without
delay. 16 The suggestion met with favor, was endorsed
by the committees of several counties, and approved
by Johnston. He issued his call July 10th. Six days
later Governor Martin wrote to Lord Dartmouth :
"Hearing of a proclamation of the king, proscribing
John Hancock and Samuel Adams, of Massachusetts
14. Col. Rec., IX., 1229-1239.
15. Col. Rec., X., 44.
16. State Records, XL, 255.
CORNELIUS HARNETT 65
Bay, and seeing clearly that further proscriptions will
be necessary before government can be settled again
upon sure, foundations in America, I hold it my
indispensable duty to mention to your lordship
Cornelius Harnett, John Ashe, Robert Howes, 17 and
Abner Nash, as persons who have marked themselves
out as proper persons for such distinction in this
colony by their unremitting labours to promote sedi
tion and rebellion here from the beginnings of the dis
contents in America to this time, that they stand fore
most among the patrons of revolt and anarchy." 18
Within less than a week after this letter was written
500 men, wearied of Governor Martin s abusive proc
lamations, placed themselves under the leadership of
John Ashe and Cornelius Harnett, marched to Fort
Johnston, and burned the hated structure to the
ground. 19 "Mr. John Ashe and Mr. Cornelius
Harnett/ wrote the frightened governor, "were ring
leaders of this savage and audacious mob." 20 Thirty
days later, at the time and place appointed, the third
Provincial Congress met in open session in defiance of
the rewards offered by the impotent ruler for the
arrest of the leaders.
The Congress met at Hillsborough, August 20th. 21
One hundred and eighty- four delegates were present.
Cornelius Harnett was there from Wilmington, asso
ciated, however, with Archibald Maclaine. Harriett s
share in the work of the convention was of the greatest
importance, but lack of space forbids an account of it
17. For this spelling see Col. Rec., X., 98.
18. Col. Rec., X, 98.
19. Col. Rec., X., 114.
20. Col. Rec., X., 108-109.
21. Its proceedings are printed in Col. Rec., X., 164-220.
66 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
here. The one thing that can be noticed was the reor
ganization of the committee system. At the head of
the new system and acting as executive head of the
new government, was placed a provincial committee,
called the Provincial Council. Its membership was
composed of thirteen persons, one from the province
at large and two from each of the six military dis
tricts into which the province had been divided.
Serving under this Council were to be committees in
the several districts. 22
Extensive powers were given to the Provincial
Council. It was, as I have said, the executive head of
the government, subject to no authority except that of
the Provincial Congress. The success of this new
scheme depended entirely upon the character and abil
ity of the men who were to put it into operation. They
were chosen as follows : Samuel Johnston, for the prov
ince at large ; Cornelius Harnett and Samuel Ashe, for
the Wilmington district ; Abner Nash and James
Coor, for the New Bern district ; Thomas Person and
John Kinchen, for the Hillsborough district ; Willie
Jones and Thomas Eaton for the Halifax district ;
Samuel Spencer and Waightstill Avery for the Salis
bury district.
The first meeting was held October 18th, at Johnston
Court House. Of this meeting Bancroft writes :
"Among its members were Samuel Johnston, Samuel
Ashe, a man whose integrity even his enemies never
questioned, whose name a mountain county and the
fairest town in the western part of the commonwealth
keep in memory ; Abner Nash, an eminent lawyer, de-
22. For a more detailed account see Connor : "Cornelius Har
nett," 106-110.
CORNELIUS HARNETT 67
scribed by Martin as the oracle of the committee of
Newbern and a principal supporter of sedition; but
on none of these three did the choice of president fall ;
that office of peril and power was bestowed unan
imously on Cornelius Harnett, of New Hanover
whose disinterested zeal had made him honored as the
Samuel Adams of North Carolina." 23 By virtue of
this office Harnett became the chief executive of the
new government. The establishment of this central
committee with adequate powers and authority im
mediately bore good fruit. Governor Martin wrote
that the authority, the edicts and the ordinances of the
congresses and conventions and committees had be
come supreme and omnipotent and that "lawful
government" was completely annihilated. 24 There can
be no better comment upon the effectiveness of the
administration of Harnett and his colleagues. Every
where the spirits and activity of the patriots took on
new life, and everywhere, according to Martin him
self, the spirits of the Loyalists drooped and declined
daily. So effective was the work and so necessary
did the Council prove itself to the welfare of the prov
ince, the next convention passed a resolution requiring
it to sit continuously instead of only once every three
months. The Council, now called the Council of
Safety, continued at the head of the government until
the adoption of the state constitution ; and Cornelius
Harnett remained at the head of the Council until
elected a delegate to the Continental Congress.
It was under the direction of this Council that the
North Carolina troops marched to Moore s Creek
23. History of the United States, Ed. I860, IV. 98.
24. Col. Rec., X., 49, 232, 244.
68 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
Bridge and on the 27th of February, won the initial
victory of the Revolution. General Moore s report of
his victory was made to President Harnett 25 This
battle entirely changed the aspect of affairs in North
Carolina. Heretofore the people had not considered
seriously the question of independence; but now no
other proposition met with such nearly universal
acceptance. Day by day the conviction steadily grew
upon them that there was no hope of coming to terms
with the royal government, except upon humiliating
conditions, and rather than submit to these the people
preferred to risk all in a cast for independence. 26 The
Congress, which met at Halifax April 4, 1776, was
expected to take some definite steps to give official ex
pression to the prevailing desire. 27 The day after the
assembling of the Congress Samuel Johnston wrote
to James Iredell : "All our people here are up for
independence." Accordingly on April 8, a committee
was appointed, composed of Cornelius Harnett, Allen
Jones, Thomas Burke, Abner Nash, John Kinchen,
Thomas Person and Thomas Jones, "to take into con
sideration the usurpations and violences attempted by
the king and Parliament of Great Britain against
America, and the further measures to be taken for
frustrating the same, and for the better defence of this
province." To Cornelius Harnett fell the task of
drafting the committee s report. In a report remark
able for its calm dignity and restraint, but alive with
25. Col. Rec., X., 482, 485 ; State Rec., XL, 383.
26. For a discussion of the development of the sentiment for
independence see Connor : "Cornelius Harnett," pp. 120-
27. The Journal of this Congress is printed in Col. Rec., X.,
499-590.
CORNELIUS HARNETT 69
suppressed emotion, he drew an indictment against the
British ministry not equalled by any similar document
of the Revolutionary period and surpassed only by
the great Declaration itself. "In ringing sentences,
not unworthy of Burke or Pitt," says Dr. Smith, "the
report set forth in a short preamble the usurpations of
the British ministry and the moderation hitherto mani
fested by the United Colonies/ Then came the
declaration which to those who made it meant long
years of desolating war, smoking homesteads, widowed
mothers, and fatherless children, but to us and our
descendants a heritage of imperishable glory." This
report, read by Harnett and unanimously adopted by
the Congress, April 12, 1776, was as follows:
"It appears to your committee, that pursuant to the
plan concerted by the British ministry for subjugating
America, the king and Parliament of Great Britain
have usurped a power over the persons and properties
of the people, unlimited and uncontrolled and disre
garding their humble petitions for peace, liberty and
safety, have made divers legislative acts, denouncing
war, famine and every species of calamity, against the
continent in general. That British fleets and armies
have been, and still are, daily employed in destroying
the people, and committing the most horrid devasta
tions on the country. That governors in different
colonies have declared protection to slaves, who should
imbrue their hands in the blood of their masters. That
ships belonging to America are declared prizes of war,
and many of them have been violently seized and con
fiscated. In consequence of all which multitudes of
the people have been destroyed or from easy circum
stances reduced to the most lamentable distress.
70 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
"And whereas, the moderation hitherto manifested
by the United Colonies and their sincere desire to be
reconciled to the mother country on constitutional
principles, have procured no mitigation of the afore
said wrongs and usurpations and no hopes remain of
obtaining redress by those means alone which have
hitherto been tried, your committee are of opinion that
the house should enter into the following resolve, to
wit:
"Resolved, That the delegates for this colony in the
Continental Congress be empowered to concur with
the delegates of the other colonies in declaring inde
pendency, and forming foreign alliances, reserving to
this colony the sole and exclusive right of forming a
constitution and laws for this colony, and of appoint
ing delegates from time to time (under the direction
of the general representation thereof), to meet the
delegates of the other colonies for such purposes as
shall be hereafter pointed out."
The Congress unanimously adopted the report.
Comment is unnecessary. The actors, the place, th^
occasion, the time, the action itself, tell their own story
far beyond the power of pen to add to it or detract
from it. Discussing the growth of the sentiment for
independence in America, Bancroft says :
"The American Congress needed an impulse from
the resolute spirit of some colonial convention, and the
example of a government springing wholly from the
people." Following an account of how South Caro
lina let slip the honor of giving this impulse, Bancroft
continues : "The word which South Carolina hesitated
to pronounce was given by North Carolina. That
colony, proud of its victory over domestic enemies,
and roused to defiance by the presence of Clinton, the
CORNELIUS HARNETT 71
British general, in one of their rivers, . . . unani
mously" voted for independence. "North Carolina
was the first colony to vote explicit sanction to inde
pendence." 28
Immediately after the adoption of this report the
Congress took up the consideration of a constitu
tion for the state. Harnett was a member of the com
mittee to prepare the document. But this was a matter
too important for slight consideration, and the com
mittee recommended that it be postponed until the
next session of the Congress. At the same time the
powers and authority of the Council of Safety were
extended and the Council was ordered to sit con
tinuously instead of quarterly.
A few days before the adjournment of the Con
gress the enemy again paid their compliments to
Harnett s zeal and influence. This time they came
from Sir Henry Clinton. Sir Henry had reached the
Cape Fear too late to co-operate with the Highlanders
in their disastrous attempts to subdue the colony, so
there was nothing left for him to do but issue a
proclamation and sail away. Accordingly, just before
sailing, he proclaimed from the deck of his majesty s
man-of-war, Pallisser, that a horrid rebellion existed
in North Carolina, but that in the name of his sacred
majesty, he now offered a free pardon to all who would
acknowledge the error of their way, lay down their
arms, and return to their duty to the king, "excepting
only from the benefits of such pardon Cornelius
Harnett and Robert Howes." 29
28. History of the United States (Ed. 1860), VIII., 345-352.
29. Col. Rec., X., 591-92.
72 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
To this proclamation the Council of Safety replied
by unanimously re-electing Cornelius Harnett presi
dent. 30 This occurred at its Wilmington session in
June. In July it adjourned to meet at Halifax. On
the 22nd of the month the Council received news of
the action of the Continental Congress on July 4.
Five days later it resolved that August 1, be the day
for publicly and officially proclaiming the Declaration
of Independence at Halifax. Thursday, August 1,
1776, becomes, therefore, a marked day in the annals
of the state. The sun rose clear on this first day of
the new month, symbolic of the new state just rising
out of a night of oppression and wrong. With the
rising of the sun came the vanguard of the large
crowd that was to assemble that day from the sur
rounding country to hear the official announcement
of North Carolina s newborn independence. By noon
the village was alive with the eager throng. The cere
mony was simple but none the less impressive. The
provincial troops and militia companies, proudly
bedecked in such uniforms as they could boast, were
present in full battle array. With drums beating and
flags unfurled to catch the first breath of freedom, this
martial escort conducted the president of the Council
to the front of the court-house. As the August sun
reached its mid-course in the heavens, Cornelius
Harnett, bare-headed, bearing in his hand the document
which bore the words so full of meaning for all future
generations, cheered by the enthusiastic throng,
solemnly ascended the platform and faced the people.
Even as he unrolled the scroll the enthusiasm of the
30. The proceedings of the Council of Safety are printed in
Col. Rec., X., 618-647; 682-707; 826-830; 873-881.
CORNEUUS HARNETT 73
crowd gave vent in one prolonged cheer, and then a
solemn hush fell upon the audience. Every ear was
strained to catch the words that fell from the lips of
the popular speaker. As he closed with those solemn
words pledging the lives, the fortunes and the sacred
honor of the people to the declaration, the tumultuous
shouts of joy, the waving of flags, and the booming of
cannon, proclaimed that North Carolina was prepared
to uphold her part. As Harnett came down the plat
form the soldiers dashed at him, seized him, and bore
him aloft on their shoulders through the crowded
streets, cheering him as their champion and swearing
allegiance to the new nation. 31
Soon after this the fifth and last provincial conven
tion assembled at Halifax. 32 Harnett sat for Bruns
wick county. This convention adopted the first con
stitution of the state of North Carolina. Harnett was
a member of the committee which drafted it and ex
ercised a large influence in its preparation. His in
fluence and efforts caused the insertion of that im
perishable clause which forbids the establishment of
a state church in North Carolina, and secures forever
to every person in the state the right to worship God
"according to the dictates of his own conscience." If
Thomas Jefferson rightly considered the authorship of
a similar clause in the Virginia constitution, one of
the three really great events of his life, surely the
authorship of this clause in the North Carolina con
stitution was none the less one of the great events of
Cornelius Harriett s useful career. But he did not
blazon it to the world by having it recorded on his
tomb!
31. Jones : Defence of North Carolina, 268-69.
32. The proceedings are printed in Col. Rec., X., 913-1003.
74 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
This convention elected the first officers of the new
state. Richard Caswell was elected governor.
Harnett was elected president of the Council of
State. 33 By the election of Caswell as governor the
presidency of the convention became vacant, and
Harnett was chosen to fill the vacancy. The journal
of the last one of those remarkable conventions that
separated North Carolina from the British Empire
is signed by "Cornelius Harnett, President."
Harnett was re-elected to the Council by the first
Legislature which met under the constitution. He
did not serve long, however, as he was soon after
wards selected a delegate to the Continental Congress
and resigned his seat in the Council. He took this
action reluctantly. It meant loss of comfort and ease,
sacrifice of both money and health, but he did not feel
justified in declining, for purely personal reasons,
the service the state desired of him. He, therefore,
entered upon his duties in June, 1777, and served three
years in Congress. A detailed account of his services
there is impossible in this sketch. 34 They were faith
ful and able. The field was narrow, however; the
situation disagreeable; his health poor; and the ex
pense of living great. He wrote to his friend Thomas
Burke, that living in Philadelphia cost him 6,000
more than his salary, but he adds: "Do not mention
this complaint to any person. I am content to sit
down with this loss and much more if my country
requires it." He missed the comforts of home,
33. State Rec., XL, 363; XXII., 906-909.
34. For an account in detail see Connor : "Cornelius Harnett,"
179-192.
CORNELIUS HARNETT 75
wearied of the quarrels and bickerings of Congress,
suffered with the gout, until he was thoroughly worn
out.
In February, 1780, Harnett made his last journey
from Philadelphia to Wilmington, "the most fatiguing
and most disagreeable journey any old fellow ever
took." He had not long to rest under the shade of his
vine and fig tree as he had hoped to do. Only one
year of life remained to him, a year of gloom, hard
ship and suffering. The summer of 1780 was the
gloomiest time of the war for the Americans. Charles
ton fell, Colonel Bu fort s Virginia regiment was anni
hilated at Waxhaws; Gates exchanged his northern
laurels for southern willows at Camden; Ninety-Six
was captured, and Cornwallis marched into North
Carolina. Here came relief. On the top of King s
Mountain came the first break in the clouds; soon
after this Tarleton s renowned corps was cut to pieces
at Cowpens.
Scarcely had this good news revived the drooping
spirits of the patriots when a great disaster befell the
Cape Fear section. On January 29, 1781, Major
James H. Craige, one of the most energetic officers of
the British army, sailed into the Cape Fear river with
a fleet of eighteen vessels and four hundred and fifty
men. Wilmington was occupied without opposition.
Major Craige had come with express orders to capture
Cornelius Harnett, and one of his first expeditions
from Wilmington was sent out for this purpose.
Harnett was warned in time and attempted to escape ;
but he had gone only about thirty miles when he was
seized by a paroxysm of the gout and was compelled
to take to his bed at the home of his friend, Colonel
Spicer, in Onslow county. The enemy overtook him
76 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
here, and regardless of his age and condition, flung
him across a horse like a sack of flour, and carried him
to Wilmington. 35 Here he was confined for three days
in a block-house. His condition had now become so
precarious that Craige was induced to release him on
parole.
He had not long to enjoy his freedom, and none
realized it better than he. On April 28, he wrote with
his own hands his will, bequeathing "to my beloved
wife, Mary, all my estate, real, personal, and mixed,
of what nature or kind whatsoever, to her, her heirs
and assigns, forever." He then breathed his last.
Harnett lived just outside of Wilmington. His
house, surrounded by a grove of magnificent live-oaks,
stood on an eminence on the east bank of the Cape
Fear, commanding a fine view of the river. Here
Harnett lived at ease, for he was a man of wealth,
entertaining upon such a scale as to win a reputation
for his hospitality, even in the hospitable Cape Fear
country.
"His stature," says Hooper, 36 "was about five feet
nine inches. In his person he was rather slender than
stout. His hair was of a light brown, and his eyes
hazel. The contour of his face was not striking; nor
were his features, which were small, remarkable for
symmetry; but his countenance was pleasing, and his
35. Catherine DeRosset Meares : Annals of the DeRosset
Family, 50.
36. Archibald Maclaine Hooper, grandson of Archibald Mac-
claine, and son of George Hooper (brother of William
Hooper), intimate friends of Harnett s. Hooper s ob
servations may undoubtedly be regarded as presenting
the views of those men and Harnett s other contempo
raries whom Hooper knew.
CORNELIUS HARNETT
figure, though not commanding, was neither inelegant
nor ungraceful.
"In his private transactions he was guided by a
spirit of probity, honor and liberality ; and in his
political career he was animated by an ardent and
enlightened and disinterested zeal for liberty, in
whose cause he exposed his life and endangered his
fortune. He had no tinge of the visionary or of the
fanatic in the complexion of his politics. He read
the volume of human nature and understood it/ He
studied closely that complicated machine, man, and
he managed it to the good of his country. That he
sometimes adopted artifice, when it seemed necessary
for the attainment of his purpose, may be admitted
with little imputation on his morals and without dis
paragement to his understanding. His general course
of action in public life was marked by boldness and
decision.
"He practiced all the duties of a kind and charit
able and elegant hospitality; and yet with all this
liberality he was an exact and minute economist.
"Easy in manner, affable, courteous, with a fine
taste for letters and a genius for music, he was always
an interesting, sometimes a fascinating companion.
"He had read extensively, for one engaged so much
in the bustle of the world, and he had read with a
critical eye and inquisitive mind. ... In conversation
he was never voluble. The tongue, an unruly member
in most men, was in him nicely regulated by a sound
and discriminating judgment. He paid, nevertheless,
his full quota into the common stock, for what was
wanting in continuity or fullness of expression, was
supplied by a glance of his eye, the movement of his
hand and the impressiveness of his pause. Occasion-
78 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
ally, too, he imparted animation to his discourse by a
characteristic smile of such peculiar sweetness and
benignity, as enlivened every mind and cheered every
bosom, within the sphere of its radiance.
"Although affable in address, he was reserved in
opinion. He could be wary and circumspect, or
decided and daring as exigency dictated or emergency
required. At one moment abandoned to the gratifi
cations of sense, in the next he could recover his self-
possession and resume his dignity. Addicted to
pleasure, he was always ready to devote himself to
business, and always prompt in execution. An in
flexible republican, he was beloved and honored by
the adherents of monarchy amid the fury of a civil war.
. . . Such was Cornelius Harnett. Once the favorite
of the Cape Fear and the idol of the town of Wilming
ton, his applauses filled the ears as his character filled
the eyes of the public/
IV
RICHARD CASWELL
In North Carolina the decade from 1744 to 1754 was
a period of extraordinary growth and expansion. A
tide of immigration set in which brought into the
colony thousands of sturdy settlers who pushed the
frontiers of the province westward from the Cape
Fear to the foothills of the Blue Ridge. It was during
this period that the Highlanders secured their foot
hold on the waters of the upper Cape Fear, and the
Scotch-Irish and Germans settled by the thousands
among the hills and valleys of the Piedmont section.
This in-pouring of settlers eager for fertile land made
North Carolina at that time an attractive field for
surveyors, and many of them came offering their
services to the Crown and to Lord Granville in whose
vast possessions thousands of these immigrants
settled.
Among those who came in 1746 seeking such em
ployment was Richard Caswell, a native of Maryland,
who brought a letter of introduction from the governor
of that province to the governor of North Carolina.
Though then but seventeen years old, Caswell had
already become skilled in his profession, and his
letters from the governor of Maryland induced
Governor Johnston to offer him employment. His
energy and skill commended him to the governor who,
three years later, appointed him deputy-surveyor for
the province. At that time this was one of the most
1. A more elaborate sketch of Caswell by E. C. Brooks ap
pears in Ashe (Ed.) : Biographical History of North
Carolina, Vol. 3, pp. 65-80.
80 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
important offices in the province for at every sitting
of the Council thousands of acres were disposed of,
and upon the skill, the activity, and the integrity of the
surveyor depended not only the interests of the Crown
but the security of thousands of pioneers who had
braved all the hardships and dangers of the wilderness
in their search for homes. The surveyor s life was
full of hardships, dangers, and adventure. A cool
head, steady nerves, keen eyes, and trained muscles
were prime essentials for a successful surveyor on
the frontier. He had to know how to repel the at
tacks of wild beasts, to circumvent the cunning of
the savage ; and he must be skilled in woodcraft. His
work, too, brought him in close touch with the people,
and he became familiar with their habits of thought.
There could have been found no better school for the
training of the man who was to become the civil and
military leader of a pioneer people in a great revolu
tion. It is interesting to note that at the same time
that Richard Caswell was attending this school of
experience in the wilderness of North Carolina,
another young surveyor, a few years his junior, was
surveying the vast estates of Lord Fairfax in the
wilds of western Virginia. The same training that
fitted George Washington for his career as com-
mander-in-chief of the armies and the first chief
executive of the United States, fitted Richard Caswell
for similar duties in his more contracted field.
Of North Carolinians, Richard Caswell was perhaps
the most versatile man of his day. He was a surveyor,
a lawyer, an orator, a statesman, and a soldier, and in
each of these fields of activity won distinction among
his contemporaries. In all those contests between the
Assembly and the governor, which led up to the Revo-
RICHARD CASWELL 81
lution, Caswell stood in the forefront along with
Harvey and Harnett in support of popular govern
ment. It is not, however, Caswell s political career
that I shall discuss today. I could not do so without
repeating much that has already been said. It is to
Caswell the soldier that I shall invite your attention.
I do not subscribe to the dictum of some of our modern
teachers and universal-peace-advocates that we should
omit the wars of mankind from our histories and
anathematize the soldiers of the world. For one,
though I should like to live to see the day of universal
peace, I shall not join with some of its enthusiasts
in declaring that all war is "only murder" and in
denouncing the Washingtons of history as "man-
killers." The man who is forced to wage war in a
righteous cause deserves well of his country: the
soldier who goes forth to battle at his country s com
mand deserves to be held in high honor by all who
admire courage and self-sacrifice and patriotism. Nor
would we get a true perspective of history were we
to omit the wars and battles of the past. A dis
tinguished soldier and historian once pointed out that
there were fifteen great battles the results of which
changed the whole course of human history. The
most convincing evidence of the greatness of our
revolutionary ancestors is that they were willing to
contend in battle in defense of those principles of
political liberty for which they contended in the
forum. I feel, therefore, that I need not apologize
today for inviting your attention to the career of one
of those revolutionary soldiers whose skill and cour
age in battle secured for us those liberties which
Harvey and Harnett claimed for us in the halls of
legislation.
82 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
Caswell s first real military service was in the cam
paign against the Regulators in 1771. 2 At that time
he was colonel of the militia of Dobbs (now L,enoir
and Greene) county; and when Tryon organized his
army to march against the Regulators, Caswell led his
militiamen to join him. The army moved out of New
Bern April 23, and after a long march during which
it was joined by troops from several of the interior
counties, pitched their tents, May 14th, at Great
Alamance Camp. The next morning, at break of day,
the troops, leaving their tents standing, moved for
ward to a position within half a mile of the army
of the Regulators, and were formed into a line of
battle. The right wing of Tryon s army was composed
of the troops from Craven, Beaufort, New Hanover
and Dobbs counties, and was under the command of
Colonel Caswell. It is not necessary to go into the
details of the battle. The outcome was the same that
always results from a clash between a disorganized
mob and a well-appointed army. The militia, well-
equipped and organized, all circumstances considered,
were commanded by an experienced officer, and the
Regulators were driven pell-mell from the field.
The important feature of the contest from our point
of view is that it gave to Caswell his first real military
experience. For some time he had been colonel of
the militia of Dobbs county, but beyond the drilling
of a few ill-organized farmers, he had seen nothing
that could be called a military organization. Tryon s
army, though numbering but little more than 1000
men, was the largest body of troops that had ever been
2. Col. Rec., VIII., 574-600, 660-718; State Rec., XIX., 838,
841. For a good account of this campaign see Hay-
wood : Governor Tryon of North Carolina, 104 et seq.
RICHARD CAS WELL 83
assembled in the colony. Tryon himself was a soldier
not without military knowledge and skill. For the
first time, therefore, except for the companies of
rangers which guarded the frontier from the Indians,
the militia officers of the colony saw a considerable
body of men under arms brought together, organized
and equipped for war ; saw them go through their
military maneuvers, marching and counter-marching;
saw them enter upon an extended campaign, drawn
up in battle-lines and, finally, actually engage in a
sanguinary battle under the command of a skillful
leader. It was fine training for Richard Caswell and
served to prepare him for his subsequent military
career in the same way that the campaigns of the
French and Indian War served to prepare a greater
American soldier for his greater career. At Alamance,
Caswell and the other future revolutionary soldiers of
North Carolina, under the leadership of William
Tryon, learned lessons in war which they were soon
to put into use in a way that Tryon liked little enough.
Caswell was one of the first of the Whig leaders
to foresee that the contest between England and her
colonies would probably result in war; and he was
urgent in his appeals to the Provincial Congress to
organize, equip and drill troops for the emergency.
One of the most interesting documents of that period
now extant is a letter which he wrote to his son from
Philadelphia whither he had gone to take his seat in
the second Continental Congress. In this letter he
describes in detail the incidents of his journey, in com
pany with Joseph Hewes, from Halifax, which he left
April 30, to Philadelphia, where he arrived May 9th;
and the incidents upon which he dwells reveal the
trend of his thought. At Petersburg, Virginia, he
84 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
and Hewes received their first news of the battle of
Lexington, and from then on at every stage of their
journey they met companies of hurrying and excited
soldiers. At Hanover Court House he and Hewes
met a body of 1,500 Virginians, under the command
of Patrick Henry, on their way to Williamsburg to
force Governor Dunmore to restore some powder and
arms that he had captured. After that, as Caswell
wrote, they "were constantly meeting armed men who
had been to escort the delegates of Virginia on their
way" to Philadelphia. When they reached the
Potomac river, over which the Virginia delegates had
just passed, they found the militia of three counties,
in their uniforms of hunting shirts, drawn up under
arms. As soon as the Virginia soldiers learned of the
arrival of the Carolinians, they marched out to receive
them, and to escort them to the water s edge, as Cas
well wrote, "with all the military honors due to gen
eral officers." At Port Tobacco in Maryland, they
met one of the Maryland independent companies who,
declared Caswell, "made a most glorious appearance.
Their company consisted of 68 men beside officers
all genteelly dressed in scarlet and well equipped with
arms and war-like implements, with drum and fife."
Here they also overtook the Virginia delegates. "The
next morning," writes Caswell, "we all set out together
and were attended by the Independents to the verge of
their county, where they delivered us to another com
pany of Independents, in Prince George county, they
in like manner to a second, and that to a third, which
brought us through their county. We lodged that
night at Marlborough ; and the next day, though we
met with a most terrible gust, lightning, thunder,
wind, hail and rain, arrived at Baltimore, at the
RICHARD CASWELL 85
entrance of which town we were received by four
Independent Companies who conducted us with their
colors flying, drums beating and fifes playing, to our
lodging at the Fountain Tavern. The next day we
were prevailed on to stay at Baltimore where Colonel
Washington accompanied by the rest of the delegates
received the troops. They have four companies of 68
men each, who go through their exercises extremely
clever." At Philadelphia, Caswell found that "a
greater martial spirit prevails if possible than I have
been describing in Virginia and Maryland. They had
28 companies complete which make near 2000 men
who march out to the command and go through their
exercises twice a day regularly. Scarce anything but
warlike music is to be heard in the streets."
All these preparations the clash of arms, the
glitter of bayonets, the roll of drums, the tramp of
soldiers, the military honors with which he had been
everywhere greeted aroused Caswell s military ardor
and fired his ambition. He made no secret of his joy
at the prospects of war and military renown, and
urged his son to show his letter to his friends in North
Carolina and stir them to action. "Show them
this letter," he wrote, "and tell them it will be a re
flection on their country to be behind their neighbors,
that it is indispensably necessary for them to arm and
form into a company or companies of independents.
When their companies are full 68 private men each
to elect officers, viz, a captain, two lieutenants, an
ensign and subalterns and to meet as often as possible
and go through the exercises. Receive no man but
such as can be depended on, at the same time reject
none who will not discredit the company. If I live to
return I shall most cheerfully join any of my country-
86 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
men, even as a rank and file man, and . . . that or any
other difficulties, I shall not shun whilst I have any
blood in my veins, but freely offer it in support of the
liberties of my country. . . . You my dear boy must
become a soldier and risk your life in support of those
invaluable blessings which once lost, posterity will
never be able to regain. Some men, I fear, will start
objections to the enrolling of companies and exercising
the men and will say it will be acting against the
government. That may be answered that it is not so,
that we are only qualifying ourselves and preparing to
defend our country and support our liberties." 3
The two most important matters that came before
the Provincial Congress of August, 1775, were the
formation of a temporary government and the organi
zation of an army. 4 The first of these problems, as
I pointed out in my account of the career of Cornelius
Harnett, was met by creating the Provincial Council
and the system of committees of safety. After this
the Congress took up the military situation. "Our
principal debates," wrote Samuel Johnston, president
of Congress, "will be about raising troops." As a
preliminary to this step, the Congress first issued
what we may not inaptly call a declaration of war.
They declared that whereas "hostilities being actually
commenced in Massachusetts Bay by the British
troops under the command of General Gage; . . . and
whereas his Excellency Governor Martin hath taken
a very ?ctive and instrumental share in opposition to
the means which have been adopted by this and the
other United Colonies for the common safety, . . .
3. Col. Rec., IX., 1247-1250.
4. Col. Rec., X., 164-220.
RICHARD CASWELL 87
Therefore [be it resolved that] this colony be im
mediately put into a state of defence." 3 Accordingly
it was ordered that two regiments, of 500 men
each, be raised for the continental army which the
Continental Congress had determined to raise and
over which Washington had been placed in command.
Colonel James Moore, of New Hanover, and Colonel
Robert Howe, of Brunswick, were put in command
of these troops. 6 The province was then divided into
six military districts, and in each of these a regiment
of 500 men was to be raised. When called into active
service these troops were to be under the same dis
cipline and regulations as the continental troops. 7
They differed from the militia in that, until inde
pendence should be declared, the militia were subject
to the orders of the royal governor ; these independent
troops were subject to the orders only of the revolu
tionary government. Thus 4000 troops were ordered
to be raised by Congress for resistance to the Crown.
In addition to these, authority was given for the en
listment of companies of minute men, and provision
was made for a more effective organization of the
militia. It was also ordered "that a bounty of twenty-
five shillings be allowed for each private man and non
commissioned officer to buy a hunting-shirt, leggings,
or splater-dashes and black garters, which shall be
the uniform."
In all these military arrangements, Caswell had
taken a prominent part; and when Congress came to
select officers to command these troops, his services
5. Col. Rec., X., 185-186.
6. Col. Rec., X., 186-187.
7. Col. Rec., X., 196-200.
88 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
were duly acknowledged by his being elected colonel
of the New Bern district. 8 Preferring a military
career to political service, he resigned his seat in the
Continental Congress, and took prompt and energetic
measures to raise, arm, equip and drill his regiment.
The time in which he had to work was short, for
Governor Martin was also actively at work organizing
the Royalists for the subjugation of the colony.
Within less than six months after his appointment to
his command, Caswell came into collision with
Martin s Royalists at Moore s Creek Bridge and
fought there a battle on which hung the fate of all
the southern colonies.
Governor Martin, as we have seen, had fled from
the governor s palace at New Bern and taken refuge
in Fort Johnston near the mouth of Cape Fear river.
From Fort Johnston he was driven to seek refuge on
board the king s sloop-of-war Cruiser, stationed in the
Cape Fear. Almost at the very moment of his flight,
Lord Dartmouth, secretary of state for the colonies*
was writing to him: "I hope his Majesty s govern
ment in North Carolina may be preserved, and his
governor and other officers not reduced to the dis
graceful necessity of seeking protection on board the
king s ships." 9 Smarting keenly under the disgrace of
his flight to the Cruiser, Martin determined to leave
no stone unturned by which he might restore himself
to the good graces of the king. He busied himself
with perfecting a well-conceived plan for the reduc
tion of the four southern colonies Virginia, North
8. Col. Rec., X., 205.
9. Col. Rec., X., 90.
RICHARD CASWELL 89
Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Briefly his
plan was as follows :
He proposed to raise an army of 10,000 Tories,
Regulators and Scotch Highlanders in the interior of
North Carolina and to assemble them at Wilmington
about the middle of February, 1776. There they were
to be joined by seven regiments of British regulars
from Ireland under the command of Lord Cornwallis,
supported by a fleet of seventy-two vessels under Sir
Peter Parker. Sir Henry Clinton, with an additional
force of 2,000 regulars from the British army at
Boston, was to sail for the Cape Fear and take com
mand of the campaign. Martin represented to the
king that the great majority of the people of North
Carolina were Loyalists at heart, and when this force
should assemble in the Cape Fear, they would rise in
their might, overthrow the rebel government, restore
the royal authority in North Carolina, and then with
this province as a base of operation proceed to the
conquest of the other southern colonies. The plan
was received with favor by the king, who ordered it
to be carried into execution. 10 Had it succeeded, there
can be little doubt that Virginia, North Carolina,
South Carolina, and Georgia would have been
crushed, and the Revolution ended before it had well
begun. That it did not succeed was due to the skill
and energy of Richard Caswell and his regiment of
independent companies.
The middle of February was the time set for the
conjunction of the forces at Wilmington. Accord -
10. Col. Rec., X., 45-47, 89-91, 230-237, 247-248, 264-278, 299-
300, 306-308, 313-314, 325-328, 364, 396-397. 406-409, 412-
413, 420-421, 428-431, 441-445, 452-454, 465-468.
90 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
ingly Governor Martin ordered the Loyalists to press
down on Brunswick by February 15th. He was in
formed that the Regulators and Highlanders were
fast collecting and that they would place him in pos
session of the rebellious town of Wilmington by
February 25th. General Donald McDonald, a dis
tinguished veteran of Culloden, had been sent from
Boston to take command of the Highlanders, and on
February 18th with an army of 1600 men, he set out
from Cross Creek and took the road on the west bank
of the Cape Fear for Wilmington and Brunswick.
In the meantime the Whig leaders had been making
active preparations to meet the danger. Colonel
James Moore, with the first regiment of continentals,
had taken a strong position on Rockfish creek, a small
stream a few miles south of Cross Creek, and there
awaited the approach of the Highlanders. McDonald s
object was to reach Brunswick and he wished, if pos
sible, to avoid a battle. Accordingly, finding Moore s
position too strong to be taken without a bloody con
test, he fell back to Cross Creek, crossed to the east
bank of Cape Fear river, and took the Negro Head
Point to Wilmington with the Cape Fear between
him and Colonel Moore. This road crossed Moore s
creek on a bridge about sixteen miles north of Wil
mington.
In the meantime several Whig forces were hurrying
to the scene of action. Colonel Alexander Martin
was approaching with a small force from Guilford
county; Colonel James Thackston with another force
was hurrying up from the southwest; Colonels
Alexander Lillington and John Ashe, with 250 men,
were coming from Wilmington; and Colonel Richard
Caswell was making a forced march through the
RICHARD CASWELL 91
country with 800 militia and independents from the
New Bern district. In the afternoon of February 26,
Caswell took a position at the west end of Moore s
Creek Bridge, on the same side of the stream toward
which McDonald was approaching, while Ashe and
Lillington, with 250 troops, held the east end. The
three, when united, had together about 1100 men;
McDonald was approaching with 1600 well-trained
Highlanders.
During the night the Highlanders reached within
striking distance of Caswell s camp. McDonald was
pleased to find that Caswell had made his camp with
Moore s creek in his rear and between his force and
that of Lillington and Ashe and he anticipated an
easy victory. He accordingly formed his line of battle
and awaited the dawn of day with confidence. But
Caswell was not so simple minded as the Highland
chief imagined. Having deceived McDonald into
believing that he intended to receive the attack with
the creek in his rear, during the night Caswell left his
camp fires burning, as Washington afterwards did at
Trenton (a fact which Caswell s friends commented
on at the time), 11 crossed the bridge under cover of
darkness, and took up a new position in conjunction
With the forces of Lillington and Ashe. When the
Highlanders advanced to the attack at daybreak, they
were surprised to find Caswell s camp deserted, and
11. Thomas Burke, delegate to the Continental Congress, writ
ing Jan. 27, 1777, to Caswell, of Washington s victory
at Trenton, says : "Washington practiced the same ex
pedient to deceive the enemy, which you, Sir, did at
Moore s Creek Bridge and while his fires were burning
he decamped, passed the enemy, and surprised three
battalions of Hessians which were in the rear." State
Rec., XL, 368.
92 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
believing their enemy had fled they rushed forward
without order. They were met by a well-directed fire
from the Americans which, after a few minutes, drove
them back with a heavy loss. The victory could not
have been more complete. More than seventy of the
Highlanders were killed, and so vigorously did Cas-
well press his advantage that more than half of their
number were made prisoners of war, including their
commanding general. Caswell s loss was one killed
and one wounded. The Highlanders never recovered
from this blow and remained neutral during the re
mainder of the war. 12
Thus Governor Martin measured the military
strength of the province and was disastrously beaten.
Clinton and Cornwallrs came with their powerful
armaments, but finding nobody to welcome them at
Cape Fear, save a beaten and dispirited governor, they
sailed away to beat in vain against the log walls of
Fort Moultrie. Very different would have been the
history of North Carolina, and in all probability the
history of the United States, if the battle of Moore s
creek had resulted differently. If the Highlanders
had defeated Caswell, Clinton and Cornwallis would
have been received at Wilmington by an army of ten
thousand Loyalists and North Carolina would surely
have been subjugated, while South Carolina and
Georgia would have been overrun in the summer of
1776 instead of in the summer of 1779. Of the effects
of this victory, Bancroft writes:
12. Col. Rec., X., 482, 483-484, 485, 486-493 ; State Rec., XL,
383. For an excellent account of the battle of Moore s
Creek see Noble, M. C. S. : Battle of Moore s Creek
Bridge, North Carolina Booklet, Vol. Ill, No. 11, re
printed in Peele, W. J. (Ed.) : Literary and Historical
Activities in North Carolina, 1900-1905, pp. 215-238.
RICHARD CAS WELL 93
"In less than a fortnight, more than nine thousand
four hundred men of North Carolina rose against the
enemy; and the coming of Clinton inspired no terror.
. . . Almost every man was ready to turn out at an
hour s warning. . . . Virginia offered assistance, and
South Carolina would gladly have contributed relief ;
but North Carolina had men enough of her own to
crush insurrection and guard against invasion; and
as they marched in triumph through their piney
forests, they were persuaded that in their own woods
they could win an easy victory over British regulars.
The terrors of a fate like that of Norfolk could not
dismay the patriots of Wilmington; the people spoke
more and more of independence; and the Provincial
Congress, at its impending session was expected to
give an authoritative form to the prevailing desire." 1
When this Congress met at Halifax in April, 1776,
it unanimously adopted the following resolution :
"Resolved, That the thanks of this Congress be
given to Colonel Richard Caswell, and the brave
officers and soldiers under his command, for the very
essential service by them rendered this country at the
battle of Moore s Creek." 14
The tide of war now turned away from North Caro
lina and during the next four years the state was free
both from invasion from without and from insurrec
tion from within. Her troops however marched
northward and joined the Continental Army under
Washington. In the meantime Caswell had been
elected governor, and during these years bent all of
13. History of the United States (Ed. of 1860), VIII., 289-
290.
14. Col. Rec., X., 513, 515-516.
94 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
his energy to keep the state s regiments up to their full
quotas and to keep them properly armed and equipped.
Under the stimulus of his activity iron works sprung
up in the state, gun factories were established, powder
mills were set up, privateers patrolled the coast and
brought in supplies from the West Indies, and large
quantities of arms, ammunition, clothes, and food
were sent to supply Washington s suffering veterans.
At all times he was solicitous for the conduct and wel
fare of the North Carolina troops. To his son, serv
ing under Washington in the battles around Philadel
phia, he wrote: "Do tell me of the conduct and be
havior of the North Carolina men how some of them
have fallen, whether bravely or otherwise. Though
the latter, I flatter myself, you will have no account
to give, yet if you have, I wish to know it." 15
In the autumn of 1778 the South again became the
scene of war. Having failed in their campaign against
New England and the Middle Atlantic colonies, the
king and ministry determined to make another attempt
on the Carolinas and Georgia. "If the rebellion could
not be broken at the center, it was hoped that it might
at least be frayed away at the edges; and should
fortune so far smile upon the royal armies as to give
them Virginia also, perhaps the campaigns against
the wearied North might be renewed at some later
time and under better auspices." 16 This plan came
dangerously near to being successful. Savannah,
Augusta, Charleston, Ninety-Six and other strategic
points one after another fell into the hands of the
British, and South Carolina and Georgia were reduced
15. State Rec., XV., 707.
16. Fiske: The American Revolution, II., 163-164.
RICHARD CAS WELL 95
once more to royal rule. It was not until Cornwallis
turned his arms against North Carolina that his
victorious career was checked.
As soon as it was learned that an invasion of
Georgia and South Carolina was intended, those two
colonies turned to North Carolina for assistance. At
their request the Continental Congress, September 25,
1778, passed a resolution urging Virginia to send 1000
troops, and North Carolina to send 3,000, "without
loss of time," to the aid of South Carolina and
Georgia; and at the special request of the former
state, adopted the following resolution:
Resolved, That in case Governor Caswell shall find
it consistent with the duties of his station, and shall
be inclined to march to the aid of South Carolina and
Georgia, at the head of the North Carolina troops, he
shall, while on this expedition, have the rank and pay
of major-general in the army of the United States of
America." 17
The troops were sent, but fortunately for the state
Caswell could not go with them. He accordingly
appointed General John Ashe to the command; and
Ashe and his entire army, through the folly of the
commander-in-chief, General Benjamin Lincoln, were
captured at the fall of Charleston.
After the fall of Charleston there was not the
vestige of an American army in the South. Georgia
and South Carolina lay crushed under the heels of the
British army, and the hope of the American cause lay
in North Carolina. Toward this state, therefore,
Lord Cornwallis now turned his victorious arms.
17. Ford, W. C. (Ed.) : Journals of the Continental Congress,
XII., 950; State Rec., XXII., 983, 984, 986.
96 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
Caswell s third successive term as governor expired
in April, 1780, and he could not succeed himself.
Accordingly, in view of the crisis which the state was
facing, he was commissioned major-general and given
command of all the North Carolina militia. 18 He set
himself energetically to arouse the state to a sense of
her danger and responsibility, and to collect the militia
to repel the threatened invasion. How well he suc
ceeded, Governor Josiah Martin describes more
effectively than I can. Writing to the secretary of
state, August 18, 1780, immediately after the battle of
Camden, he says :
"The state of our affairs in this country, in the hour
of this memorable action, was so delicate and full of
embarrassment and difficulty as can be imagined.
From the time the rebel army assembled at Hills-
borough, early in June, every devise had been prac
ticed upon the adherents of the usurpation in this
province to prepare them for a new revolt ; and it ap
pears that they were found very generally prone to
the enemy s purpose as they could wish for. By the
latter end of July, or sooner, they were joining the
rebel armies, or arming against us more or less in all
quarters of it. ... The main body of the enemy s army
marched by the North Carolina militia under Caswell,
crossed the Pedee about the 1st or 2nd inst., by their
approach spreading such terror and dismay among the
well affected as intimidated all the ordinary as well as
extraordinary spies employed by Lord Rawdon to a
degree so great that every channel of intelligence
failed him, a circumstance I could have scarcely be
lieved if I had not been witness to the fact." 19
18. State Rec., XVIL, 678, 681 ; XXIV., 341.
19. State Rec., XV., 49-56.
RICHARD CASWELL 97
It is perhaps idle to speculate as to what would have
been the result of this campaign if Caswell had been
left in command. As it was, the Continental Congress
sent General Horatio Gates to Hillsboro, and being an
officer in the Continental Army he superseded Caswell.
It was an unlucky choice. Gates, hailed throughout
the country as the "hero of Saratoga," was puffed up
with an enlarged sense of his own importance, and
would listen to advice from nobody. He chose first
one route of advance, then another ; one day he pressed
forward rashly, another he hesitated; he vacillated
between this plan and that, until the whole army,
which had set forward in confidence, was filled with a
spirit of unrest and uncertainty. He ignored the use
of cavalry and as a consequence was in total ignorance
of Lord Cornwallis movements. Suddenly, about
two o clock in the night of August 15th, his army,
while leisurely on the march, came unexpectedly into
collision with the British army which had set out to
surprise Gates. Both armies then lay on their arms
awaiting the break of day. Gates formed his line of
battle, with the Maryland and Delaware continentals
on his right, the North Carolina militia under Caswell
in the center, and the Virginia militia on the left. The
battle opened with an assault on the Virginia troops
by Cornwallis right, composed of disciplined British
regulars. They drove the Virginians in confusion
from the field and then turned on Caswell s flank
while at the same time he was assaulted by another
brigade in the front. His inexperienced troops, unable
to withstand this double attack, soon gave way in re
treat, which quickly became a rout. Caswell
struggled manfully to rally his broken lines, but in
vain. The Maryland troops, and Dixon s regiment of
98 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
North Carolina militia, made a determined stand,
fought like veterans, and retreated from the field in
good order. As for the rest of the army, it fled in the
wildest confusion, bringing to a shameful close the
worst defeat ever suffered by an American army.
Gates and Caswell hurried to Hillsboro to collect the
fragments and save what they could from the wreck.
After this defeat the tide of public sentiment in
North Carolina for a time turned strongly against Cas
well and he was superseded in command of the militia
by General William Smallwood, an experienced Mary
land officer. This appointment was received with
great indignation by the North Carolina officers. 20
The new year, 1781, opened under a dark cloud for the
American cause. The British held Wilmington, Char
lotte, Hillsboro, and it appeared that there was nothing
to prevent their moving at will wheresoever they de
sired. Caswell had been elected to the Senate from
Dobbs county, and now again, in this hour of gloom,
the state turned to him for counsel and guidance. He
was requested to recommend proper measures for the
defense of the state. The measure he suggested was
that the Legislature should appoint "a council extra
ordinary, to consist of three men in whom the Legisla
ture can place the highest confidence, to advise his
Excellency in the exigencies of the state, and that the
governor, with the advice of any two of them, be in
vested with full power to take such measures as shall
be deemed necessary for the defense and preservation
of the state in all cases whatsoever." 21 This sugges-
20. State Rec., XIV., 400, 401, 402, 419, 425-426, 435, 771, 772,
785, 787; XV., 131.
21. State Rec., XVII., 658, 676, 745, 746, 756, 757, 774; XXIV.,
378-379.
RICHARD CAS WELL, 99
tion was adopted by the Legislature which chose Cas-
well, Alexander Martin, and Allen Jones as members
of the Council. At the same time the Legislature
adopted a resolution declaring that the appointment of
General Smallwood to the command of the North
Carolina militia, was not intended as any reflection on
General Caswell but that "as there were sundry and
sufficient reasons why Major-General Caswell could
not immediately take the field, that Brigadier-General
Smallwood, being the oldest brigadier in the Southern
Department, should take the command of the militia
in his absence." 22 Desirous, therefore, of utilizing his
services for the state and of restoring him to his rank
and command, the two houses of the Legislature
adopted the following resolution:
"Whereas, it is essential to the public service and a
measure that will tend to draw a large force into the
field, that an officer of ability, integrity, and experi
ence, should take the command of the militia.
"Resolved unanimously, That Richard Caswell, Esq.,
be appointed a major-general in the Continental Army,
in a separate department, and that he be requested to
take command and call on the several continental
officers in this state not on duty, requiring them to
assist in the immediate defense of the same, and to
appoint them to such commands as he shall find nec
essary, which may tend to promote order and discipline
in the militia, give satisfaction to the regular and not
disgust the militia officers."
Thus Caswell was given entire control over the
military affairs of the state. He did not, however,
again take the field. Elected chairman of the Council
22. State Rec., XVII., 670-671.
100 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
Extraordinary, his time and energies were consumed
in administrative affairs. It was largely through his
efforts in raising and equipping troops, collecting and
forwarding ammunition and supplies, that General
Greene was enabled to turn on Cornwallis at Guilford
Court House and check his victorious advance. In
this work Caswell continued active until the last
British soldier had left the state forever.
Of Caswell s civil and political services I have not
had time to speak. He served the state in almost
every capacity possible. In closing this account of his
career, I cannot do better than quote the following
somewhat exaggerated summary of his biographer :
"Richard Caswell, surveyor, lawyer, legislator,
speaker of the Assembly, colonel, treasurer, delegate
to the Continental Congress, president of the Provin
cial Congress, brigadier-general, major-general, chair
man of the Council Extraordinary, speaker of the
Senate, comptroller-general and governor, was more
variously honored by the people of North Carolina
than any other citizen before or since his day. He
was distinguished as a lawyer, and as a legislator none
has excelled him in statecraft, judging from his popu
larity and continued power. As a war governor he
had a popularity, a power and efficiency that made him
at least the equal of Vance, who stands unsurpassed
in modern history. As a military officer, in organizing
and equipping troops for service, North Carolina has
never produced a man who had such control among
so many difficulties. Nathaniel Macon, who received
his first training in statecraft under Richard Caswell,
says of him : Governor Caswell of Lenoir was one of
RICHARD CASWELL 101
the most powerful men that ever lived in this or any
other country. As a statesman, his patriotism was
unquestioned, his discernment was quick, his judg
ment sound; as a soldier, his courage was undaunted,
his vigilance untiring, his success triumphant."
SAMUEL JOHNSTON
On the east coast of Scotland, twelve miles from the
confluence of the Firth of Tay with the German
Ocean, lies the ancient town of Dundee, in population
third, in commercial importance second among the
cities of Scotland. The general appearance of Dundee,
we are told, is picturesque and pleasing, and its sur
rounding scenery beautiful and inspiring. Thrift,
intelligence, and independence are characteristics of
its inhabitants. It is noted for its varied industrial
enterprises, and from time immemorial has been
famous among the cities of Britain for its extensive
linen manufactures. A long line of men eminent in
war, in statecraft, in law,and in letters adorns its annals.
Its history carries us back to the time of the Crusades.
In the twelfth century it received a charter as a royal
borough from the hand of King William the Lion.
Within its walls William Wallace was educated, and
there he struck his first blow against the domination of
England. In the great Reformation of the sixteenth
century its inhabitants took such an active and leading
part as to earn for their town the appellation of "the
Scottish Geneva/ During the civil wars of the fol
lowing century they twice gave over their property to
pillage and themselves to massacre rather than submit
to the tyranny of the House of Stuart. But in every
crisis the indomitable spirit of Dundee rose superior
to disaster and her people adhered to their convictions
with a loyalty that never faltered and a faith that
never failed.
SAMUEL JOHNSTON 103
In this fine old city, among its true and loyal people,
the ancestors of Samuel Johnston lived, and here, in
1733, he himself was born. The spirit of Dundee, its
loyalty to principle, its unconquerable courage, its
inflexible adherence to duty, entered into his soul at
his very birth, and developed and strengthened as he
grew in years and in powers of body and mind.
Throughout his life he displayed in public and in
private affairs many of those qualities of mind and
character which have given the Scotch, though small
in number, such a large place in the world s history.
Says Mr. Henry Cabot Lodge, "six centuries of bitter
struggle for life and independence, waged continuously
against nature and man, not only made the Scotch
formidable in battle, renowned in every camp in
Europe, but developed qualities of mind and character
which became inseparable from the race. . . . Under
the stress of all these centuries of trial they learned
to be patient and persistent, with a fixity of purpose
which never weakened, a tenacity which never slack
ened, and a determination which never wavered. The
Scotch intellect, passing through the same severe
ordeals, as it was quickened, tempered, and sharpened,
so it acquired a certain relentlessness in reasoning
which it never lost. It emerged at last complete,
vigorous, acute, and penetrating. With all these strong
qualities of mind and character was joined an intensity
of conviction which burned beneath the cool and
calculating manner of which the stern and unmoved
exterior gave no sign, like the fire of a furnace, rarely
flaming, but giving forth a fierce and lasting heat." 1
1. Address in the United States Senate, March 12, 1910, upon
the presentation to the United States by the State of
South Carolina, of a statue of John C. Calhoun.
104 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
Had the author of these fine lines had the character
of Samuel Johnston in his mind s eye, as he did have
that of another eminent Scotch-descended Carolinian,
his description could not have been more accurate.
In the great crises of our history in which he figured
so largely, immediately following the American Revo
lution, Samuel Johnston with keen penetrating vision
saw more clearly than any of his colleagues the true
nature of the problem confronting them. This prob
lem was, on the one hand, to preserve in America the
fundamental principles of English liberty against the
encroachments of the British Parliament, and on the
other, to secure the guarantees of law and order
against the well-meant but ill-considered schemes of
honest but ignorant reformers. For a full quarter of
a century he pursued both of these ends, patiently and
persistently, "with a fixity of purpose which never
weakened, a tenacity which never slackened, and a
determination which never wavered." Neither the
wrath of a royal governor, threatening withdrawal of
royal favor and deprivation of office, nor the fierce
and unjust denunciations of party leaders, menacing
him with loss of popular support and defeat at the
polls, could swerve him one inch from the path of his
public duty as he understood it. Beneath his cool and
calculating manner burned "an intensity of conviction"
which gave him in the fullest degree that rarest of all
virtues in men who serve the public I mean courage,
courage to fight the battles of the people, if need be,
against the people themselves. Of course Johnston
never questioned the right of the people to decide
public questions as they chose, but he frequently
doubted the wisdom of their decisions; and when a
doubt arose in his mind he spoke his sentiments with-
SAMUEL JOHNSTON 105
out fear or favor and no appeal or threat could move
him. He was ready on all occasions to maintain his
positions with a "relentlessness in reasoning" that
carried conviction and out of defeat invariably wrung
ultimate victory. More than once in his public career
the people, when confronted by his immovable will,
in fits of party passion discarded his leadership for
that of more compliant leaders; but only in their
calmer moments to turn to him again to point the way
out of the mazes into which their folly had entangled
them.
A Scotchman by birth, Samuel Johnston was fortu
nate in his ancestral inheritance; an American by
adoption, he was equally fortunate in his rearing and
education. In early infancy 2 his lot was cast in North
2. In his third year. His parents, Samuel and Helen (Scry-
moure) Johnston came to North Carolina some time
prior to May 25, 1735. Colonial Records of North
Carolina, IV., 9. They probably accompanied Samuel s
brother, Gabriel, who became governor of the colony,
November 2, 1734. McRee incorrectly gives the name
of Governor Samuel Johnston s father as John. Ire-
dell, I., 36. Letters of his at "Hayes" show that his
name was Samuel. See also Grimes : Abstracts of
North Carolina Wills, 187, 188; and Col. Rec., IV.,
1080, 1110. He resided in Onslow county, but owned
large tracts of land not only in Onslow, but also in
Craven, Bladen, New Hanover, and Chowan. Col. Rec.,
IV., 72, 219, 222, 329, 594, 601, 628, 650, 800, 805, 1249.
He was a justice of the peace in New Hanover, Bla
den, Craven, and Onslow. Col. Rec., IV., 218, 275,
346, 347, 814, 1239. He served also as collector of the
customs at the port of Brunswick. Col. Rec., IV., 395,
725, 998, 1287; and as road commissioner for Onslow
county, State Records, XXIIL, 221. His will dated No
vember 13, 1756, was probated in January, 1757. Ab
stracts, 188. His wife having died of childbirth in 1751
(letter to his son), his family at the time of his death
consisted of two sons, Samuel and John, and five
daughters, Jane, Penelope, Isabelle, Ann, and Hannah.
To his sons he devised 6,500 acres of land, and to his
daughters land and slaves. Abstracts, 188.
106 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
Carolina, the most democratic of the American
colonies, and whatever tendency this fact may have
given him toward democratic ideals was later
strengthened by a New England education 3 and by his
legal studies. At the age of twenty-one he became a
resident of Edenton, then a small village of four or
five hundred inhabitants, but the industrial, political,
and social center for a large and fertile section of the
province. Its leading inhabitants were men and
women of wealth, education, and culture. Their
social intercourse was easy, simple, and cordial.
Cards, billiards, backgammon, dancing, tea-drinking,
hunting, fishing and other outdoor sports, were their
chief amusements. They read with appreciative in
sight the best literature of the day, welcomed with
eager delight the periodical appearance of the Specta
tor and the Tatler, and followed with sympathetic in
terest the fortunes of Sir Charles Grandison and
Clarissa Harlowe. They kept in close touch with
political events in England, studied critically the
Parliamentary debates, and among themselves dis
cussed great constitutional questions with an ability
that would have done honor to the most learned
3. Governor Josiah Martin, writing of Johnston, to Lord
George Germain, May 17, 1777, says : "This Gentle
man, my Lord, was educated in New England, where
. . . it may be supposed he received that bent to De
mocracy which he has manifested upon all occasions."
Col. Rec., X., 401. Letters from his father, addressed
to him while he was at school in New Haven, Conn.,
bear dates from 1750 to 1753. I have not yet been able
to ascertain what school he attended. There are refer
ences in these letters which seem to refer to Yale Col
lege as the institution which he was attending, but the
records of Yale University do not contain Governor
Johnston s name among its students. In 1754 he went
to Edenton to study law under Thomas Barker.
SAMUEL JOHNSTON 107
lawyers of the highest courts of Great Britain.* With
in the town and its immediate vicinity dwelt John
Harvey, Joseph Hewes, Edward Buncombe, Stephen
Cabarrus, and after 1768, James Iredell. Preceding
Iredell by a little more than a decade came Samuel
Johnston, possessed of an ample fortune, a vigorous
and penetrating intellect, and a sound and varied learn
ing which soon won for him a place of pre-eminence
in the province. "He bore," says McRee, "the greatest
weight of care and labor as the mountain its crown of
granite. His powerful frame was a fit engine for the
vigorous intellect that gave it animation. Strength
was his characteristic. In his relations to the public,
an inflexible sense of duty and justice dominated.
There was a remarkable degree of self-reliance and
majesty about the man. His erect carriage and his
intolerance of indolence, meanness, vice, and wrong,
gave to him an air of sternness. He commanded the
respect and admiration, but not the love of the people." 5
At Edenton, surrounded by a group of loyal friends,
Johnston entered upon the practice of his profession
and in 1759 began a public career which, for length
of service, extremes of political fortune, and lasting
contributions to the welfare of the state, still stands
unsurpassed in our history.
Johnston was twelve times elected to the General
Assembly, serving from 1759 to 1775 inclusive. On
April 25, 1768, he was appointed clerk of the court
for the Edenton district. In 1770 he was appointed
deputy naval officer of the province, but was removed
by Governor Martin, November 16, 1775, on account
4. See the picture of Edenton society drawn by James Iredell
in his diary printed in McRee s Iredell.
5. Life and Correspondence of James Iredell, I., 37-38.
108 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
of his activity in the revolutionary movement. Decem
ber 8, 1773, he was selected as one of the Committee
of Continental Correspondence appointed by the Gen
eral Assembly. He served in the first four provincial
congresses, which met August 25, 1774, April 3, 1775,
August 20, 1775, and April 4, 1776. Of the third and
fourth he was elected president. The Congress, Sep
tember 8, 1775, elected him treasurer for the northern
district. September 9, 1775, he was elected as the
member-at-large of the Provincial Council, the execu
tive body of the revolutionary government. The
Provincial Council, October 20, 1775, elected him
paymaster of troops for the Edenton district. Decem
ber 21, 1776, he was appointed by the Provincial Con
gress a commissioner to codify the laws of the state.
In 1779, 1783, 1784 he represented Chowan county in
the state Senate. The General Assembly, July 12,
1781, elected him a delegate to the Continental Con
gress. In 1785 the states of New York and Massachu
setts selected him as one of the commissioners to
settle a boundary line dispute between them. He was
three times elected governor of North Carolina,
December 12, 1787, November 11, 1788, and Novem
ber 14, 1789. He resigned the governorship in
December 1789 to accept election to the United
States Senate, being the first senator from North Caro
lina. In 1788 and 1789 he was president of the two
constitutional conventions, at Hillsboro and Fayette-
ville, called to consider the ratification of the Federal
Constitution. December 11, 1789 he was elected a
trustee of the University of North Carolina. From
1800 to 1803 he served as superior court judge. He
died in 1816.
SAMUEL JOHNSTON 109
Johnston s public career covered a period of forty-
four years and embraced every branch of the public
service. As legislator, as delegate to four provincial
congresses, as president of two constitutional conven
tions, as member of the Continental Congress, as
judge, as governor, as United States senator, he
rendered services to the state and the nation which
rank him second to none among the statesmen of
North Carolina.
You are of course familiar with the principal events
which led up to the outbreak of the Revolution.
Johnston watched the course of these events with the
keenest interest and the most profound insight.
From the passage of the Stamp Act in 1765 he main
tained a firm and decided stand against every step
taken by the British ministry to subject the colonies
in their local affairs to the jurisdiction of Parliament.
A special significance attaches to his services. His
birth in Scotland, his residence in North Carolina, his
education in Connecticut, his intimate correspondence
with friends in England, all served to lift him above
any narrow, contracted, local view of the contest and
fitted him to be what he certainly was, the leader in
North Carolina in the great continental movement
which finally resulted in the American Union. Union
was the great bugbear of the king and ministry, and
for some years before the actual outbreak of the Revo
lution the principal object of their policy was to pre
vent the union of the colonies. They sought, there
fore, as far as possible, to avoid all measures which,
by giving them a common grievance, would also afford
a basis upon which they could unite. In order to ac
complish this purpose more effectively acts of Parlia
ment, to a large extent, gave way in the government
110 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
of the colonies to instructions from the king issued to
the royal governors. These instructions the governors
were required to consider as of higher authority than
acts of the assemblies, and as binding on both the
governors and the assemblies. A set was not framed
to apply to all the colonies alike, but special instruc
tions were sent to each colony as local circumstances
dictated. Since these local circumstances differed
widely in the several colonies, the king and his
ministers thought the colonists would not be able to
find in them any common grievance to serve as a basis
for union.
In North Carolina the battle was fought out on three
very important local measures, on all three of which
the king issued positive instructions directing the
course which the Assembly should pursue. Thus a
momentous issue was presented for the consideration
of its members : Should they permit the Assembly to
degenerate into a mere machine whose highest func
tion was to register the will of the sovereign ; or should
they maintain it as their charters intended it to be,
a free, deliberative, law-making body, responsible for
its acts only to the people ? Upon their answer to this
question it is not too much to say hung the fate of the
remotest posterity in this state. I record it as one of
the proudest events in our history, beside which the
glories of Moore s Creek, King s Mountain, Guilford
Court House, and even Gettysburg itself pale into
insignificance, that the Assembly of North Carolina
had the insight to preceive their problem clearly, the
courage to meet it boldly, and the statesmanship to
solve it wisely.
"Appointed by the people (they declared) to watch
over their rights and privileges, and to guard them
SAMUEL JOHNSTON 111
from every encroachment of a private and public
nature, it becomes our duty and will be our constant
endeavor to preserve them secure and inviolate to the
present age, and to transmit them unimpaired to
posterity. . . . The rules of right and wrong, the limits
of the prerogative of the Crown and of the privileges
of the people are, in the present refined age, well
known and ascertained; to exceed either of them is
highly unjustifiable." 6
Hurling this declaration into the face of the royal
governor the Assembly peremptorily refused obedi
ence to the royal instructions. In this momentous
affair Samuel Johnston stood fully abreast of the fore
most in maintaining the dignity of the Assembly, the
independence of the judiciary, and the right of the
people to self-government. With unclouded vision
he saw straight through the policy of the king and
stood forth a more earnest advocate of union than
ever. He urged the appointment of the committees
of correspondence throughout the continent, served
on the North Carolina committee, and favored the
calling of a continental congress. When John Har
vey, in the spring of 1774, suggested a provincial
congress, Johnston gave the plan his powerful sup
port, 7 and when the Congress met at New Bern,
August 25, 1774, he was there as one of the members
from Chowan. Upon the completion of its business
this Congress authorized Johnston, in the event of
Harvey s death, to summon another congress when
ever he should deem it necessary. No more fit suc-
6. For a more extended account of this great contest see
Connor : Cornelius Harnett : An Essay in North Caro
lina History, 68-78.
7. Col. Rec., X., 968.
112 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
cessor to Harvey could have been found. Johnston s
unimpeachable personal character commanded the
respect of the Loyalists, 8 his known conservatism was
a guarantee that the revolutionary program under his
leadership would be conducted with proper regard for
the rights of all and in an orderly manner, and his
thorough sympathy with the spirit and purposes of the
movement assured the loyal support of the entire
Whig party. How thoroughly he sympathized with
the whole program is set forth in the following letter
written to an English friend who once resided in
North Carolina:
"You will not wonder (he writes) at my being
more warmly affected with affairs of America than
you seem to be. I came over so early and am now so
riveted to it by my connections that I can not help
feeling for it as if it were my natale solum. The
ministry from the time of passing the Declaratory
Act, on the repeal of the Stamp Act, seemed to have
used every opportunity of teasing and fretting the
people here as if on purpose to draw them into rebel
lion or some violent opposition to Government. At a
time when the inhabitants of Boston were every man
quietly employed about their own private affairs, the
wise members of your House of Commons on the
authority of ministerial scribblers declare they are in
8. Archibald Neilspn, a prominent Loyalist whom Governor
Martin appointed Johnston s successor as deputy naval
officer, wrote to James Iredell, July 8, 1775 : "For Mr.
Johnston, I have the truest esteem and regard. In
these times, in spite of my opinion of his judgment, in
spite of myself I tremble for him. He is in an ar
duous situation : the eyes of all more especially of the
friends of order are anxiously fixed on him." Mc-
Ree s Iredell, I., 260.
SAMUEL JOHNSTON 113
a state of open rebellion. On the strength of this they
pass a set of laws which from their severity and in
justice can not be carried into execution but by a
military force, which they have very wisely provided,
being conscious that no people who had once tasted
the sweets of freedom would ever submit to them
except in the last extremity. They have now brought
things to a crisis and God only knows where it will
end. It is useless, in disputes between different
countries, to talk about the right which one has to
give laws to the other, as that generally attends the
power, though where that power is wantonly or
cruelly exercised, there are instances where the
weaker State has resisted with success; for when
once the sword is drawn all nice distinctions fall to
the ground ; the difference between internal and ex
ternal taxation will be little attended to, and it will
hereafter be considered of no consequence whether
the act be to regulate trade or raise a fund to support
a majority in the House of Commons. By this
desperate push the ministry will either confirm their
power of making laws to bind the colonies in all cases
whatsoever, or give up the right of making laws to
bind them in any case." 9
This is a very remarkable letter. Consider first of
all its date. It was written at Edenton, September 23,
1774. At that time the boldest radicals in America,
even such men as Samuel Adams, of Massachusetts;
Patrick Henry, of Virginia; Cornelius Harnett, of
North Carolina, scarcely dared breathe the word in
dependence. But here is Samuel Johnston, most con
servative of revolutionists, boldly declaring that the
9. To Alexander Elmsly, of London. Col. Rec., IX., 1071.
114 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
contest between England and her colonies was a dis
pute "between different countries," and threatening an
appeal to arms to decide whether the British Parlia
ment should make laws "to bind the colonies in all
cases whatsoever," or be compelled to surrender "the
right of making laws to bind them in any case." The
man who ventured this declaration was no unknown
individual, safe from ministerial wrath by reason of
his obscurity, but was one of the foremost statesmen of
an important colony, and his name was not unfamiliar
to those who gathered in the council chamber of the
king.
At the beginning of the Revolution, in common with
the other Whig leaders throughout the continent,
Johnston disclaimed any purpose of declaring inde
pendence of Great Britain. But once caught in the
full sweep of the revolutionary movement the patriots
were carried along from one position to another until,
by the opening of the year 1776, they had reached a
situation which admitted of no other alternative, and
Samuel Johnston stood forth among the foremost
advocates of it in North Carolina. As we have seen,
North Carolina acted on this subject at Halifax, April
12, 1776, and immediately afterwards appointed a
committee "to prepare a temporary civil constitution."
Among its members were Johnston, Harnett, Abner
Nash, Thomas Burke, Thomas Person, and William
Hooper. They were men of political sagacity and
ability, but their ideas of the kind of constitution that
ought to be adopted were woefully inharmonious.
Heretofore in the measures of resistance to the British
ministry remarkable unanimity had prevailed in the
councils of the Whigs. But when they undertook to
frame a constitution faction at once raised its head.
SAMUEL JOHNSTON 115
Historians have designated these factions as "Con
servatives" and Radicals," terms which carry their
own meanings and need no further explanation. The
leader of the Radicals was undoubtedly Willie Jones,
while no one could have been found to question the
supremacy of Samuel Johnston among the Conserva
tives. Congress soon found that no agreement be
tween the two could be reached while continued
debate on the constitution would only consume time
which ought to be given to more pressing matters.
Consequently the committee was discharged and the
adoption of a constitution was postponed till the next
meeting of Congress in November. Thus the contest
was removed from Congress to the people and became
the leading issue of the election in October.
Willie Jones and his faction determined that
Samuel Johnston should not have a seat in the Novem
ber Congress, and at once began against him a cam
paign famous in our history for its violence.
Democracy exulting in a freedom too newly acquired
for it to have learned the virtue of self-restraint, struck
blindly to right and left and laid low some of the
sturdiest champions of constitutional liberty in the
province. The contest raged fiercest in Chowan. "No
means," says McRee, "were spared to poison the
minds of the people ; to inflame their prejudices ; excite
alarm ; and sow in them, by indefinite charges and
whispers, the seeds of distrust. ... It were bootless
now to inquire what base arts prevailed, or what
calumnies were propagated. Mr. Johnston was
defeated. The triumph was celebrated with riot and
debauchery; and the orgies were concluded by burn
ing Mr. Johnston in effigy." 10
10. Iredell, I., 334.
116 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
From that day to this much nonsense has been
written and spoken about Johnston s hostility to
democracy and his hankering after the fleshpots of
monarchy, and the followers of Willie Jones from
then till now have expected us to believe that the man
who for ten years had been willing to sacrifice his
fortune, his ease, his peace of mind, his friends and
family, even life itself, to overthrow the rule of
monarchy was ready, immediately upon the achieve
ment of that end, to conspire with his fellow-workers
against that liberty which they had suffered so much
to preserve. That Johnston did not believe in the
"infallibility of the popular voice;" that he thought it
right in a democracy for minorities to have sufficient
safeguards against the tyranny of majorities; that he
considered intelligence and experience more likely to
conduct a government successfully than ignorance and
inexperience, is all true enough. But that he also
ascribed fully to the sentiment that all governments
derive "their just powers from the consent of the
governed;" that he believed frequency of elections to
be the surest safeguard of liberty ; that he thought
representatives should be held directly responsible to
their constituents and to nobody else, we have not only
his most solemn declarations, but his whole public
career to prove. 11 He advocated it is true a govern
ment of energy and power, but a government deriving
its energy and power wholly from the people. This is
the very essence of true, genuine democracy.
Johnston s eclipse was temporary. Accepting his
defeat philosophically, he withdrew, after the framing
of the constitution, from all participation in politics,
11. See his letter to Iredell in McRee s Iredell, I., 277.
SAMUEL JOHNSTON 117
and watched the course of events in silence. For
assuming this attitude he has been severely censured,
both by his contemporaries and by posterity, who have
charged him with yielding to pique, and with being
"supine" and indifferent to the welfare of the state
because he could not conduct its affairs according to
his own wishes. 12 But is it not pertinent to ask what
other course he could have pursued? He was not an
ordinary politician. He had no inordinate itching for
public office. He was, indeed, ambitious to serve his
country, but his country had pointedly and emphati
cally repudiated his leadership. Was it not, then, the
part of wisdom to bow to the decree? Did not patriot
ism require him to refrain from futile opposition?
The event clearly demonstrated that his course was
both wise and patriotic, for the people soon came to
their sober second thought and the reaction in John
ston s favor set in earlier than he could possibly have
anticipated. They sent him to the state Senate, the
General Assembly elected him treasurer, the governor
appointed him to the bench, the General Assembly
chose him a delegate to the Continental Congress, and
the Continental Congress elected him its presiding
officer. 13 The reaction finally culminated in his elec
tion as governor in 1781, and his re-election in 1788,
and again in 1789. Among the many interesting prob
lems of his administration were the settlement of
Indian affairs, the adjustment of the war debt, the
treatment of the Loyalists, the cession of the western
territory to the Federal government, and the "State of
Franklin ;" but today time does not permit that we con-
12. See letters of Archibald Maclaine to George Hooper,
State Records, XVI., 957, 963.
13. He declined to serve.
118 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
sider his policy toward them. The chief issue of his
administration was the ratification of the Federal Con
stitution to the consideration of which we must devote
a few moments.
The convention to consider the new constitution
met at Hillsboro, July 21, 1788. 14 "Conservatives"
and "Radicals" now rapidly crystallizing into political
parties as Federalists and Anti-Federalists, arrayed
themselves for the contest under their former leaders,
Samuel Johnston and Willie Jones. The Anti-
Federalists controlled the convention by a large
majority, nevertheless out of respect for his office they
unanimously elected Governor Johnston president.
All the debates, however, were held in committee of
the whole and this plan, by calling Governor Johnston
out of the chair, placed him in the arena in the very
midst of the contest. Though he was the accepted
leader of the Federalists, the burden of the debate fell
upon the younger men among whom James Iredell
stood pre-eminent. Contesting pre-eminence with
Iredell, but never endangering his position, were
William R. Davie, Archibald Maclaine, and Richard
Dobbs Spaight. Governor Johnston but rarely in
dulged his great talent for debate, but when he did
enter the lists he manifested such a candor and
courtesy toward his opponents that he won their
respect and confidence, and he spoke with such a
"relentlessness in reasoning" that but few cared to
engage him in discussion. Johnston could not have
been anything else than a Federalist. Since the sign
ing of the treaty of peace with England the country
14. The Journal of this Convention is printed in State Rec.,
XXII., 1-35.
SAMUEL JOHNSTON 119
had been drifting toward disunion and anarchy with
a rapidity that alarmed conservative and thoughtful
men. The issue presented in 1787 and 1788, there
fore, was not the preservation of liberty but the pre
vention of anarchy, and on this issue there could be
but one decision for Samuel Johnston. The day for
the speculative theories and well turned epigrams of
the Declaration of Independence had passed ; the time
for the practical provisions of the Federal Constitu
tion had come. Consequently the debates at Hillsboro
dealt less with theories of government than with the
practical operations of the particular plan under con
sideration.
In this plan Willie Jones and his followers saw all
sorts of political hobgoblins, and professed to discover
therein a purpose to destroy the autonomy of the
states and to establish a consolidated nation. They
attacked the impeachment clause on the ground that
it placed not only Federal senators and representatives,
but also state officials and members of the state legisla
tures completely at the mercy of the National Con
gress. Johnston very effectively disposed of this
ridiculous contention by pointing out that "only
officers of the United States were impeachable," and
contended that senators and representatives were not
Federal officers but officers of the states. Continuing
he said:
"I never knew any instance of a man being im
peached for a legislative act; nay, I never heard it
suggested before. A representative is answerable to
no power but his constituents. He is accountable to
no being under heaven but the people who appoint him.
. . . Removal from office is the punishment, to which
is added future disqualification. How can a man be
120 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
removed from office who has no office? An officer
of this state it not liable to the United States. Con
gress cannot disqualify an officer of this state. No
body can disqualify but the body which creates. . . .1
should laugh at any judgment they should give against
any officer of our own." 15
But, said the opponents of the Constitution, "Con
gress is given power to control the time, place, and
manner of electing senators and representatives. This
clause does away with the right of the people to choose
representatives every year;" under it Congress may
pass an act "to continue the members for twenty
years, or even for their natural lives;" and it plainly
points "forward to the time when there will be no
state legislatures, to the consolidation of all the states."
To these arguments Johnston replied :
"I conceive that Congress can have no other power
than the states had .... The powers of Congress are
all circumscribed, defined, and clearly laid down. So
far they may go, but no farther. . . . They are bound to
act by the Constitution. They dare not recede from
it."
All these arguments sound very learned and very
eloquent, retorted the opponents of the Constitution,
but the proposed Constitution does not contain a bill
of rights to "keep the states from being swallowed up
by a consolidated government." But Governor John
ston, in an exceedingly clear-cut argument, pointed
out not only the absurdity but even the danger of in
cluding a bill of rights in the Constitution. Said he :
"It appears to me, sir, that it would have been the
15. Elliott s Debates. The extracts from Johnston s speeches
on the Constitution, which follow, are all from the
same source.
SAMUEL JOHNSTON 121
highest absurdity to undertake to define what rights
the people of the United States are entitled to; for
that would be as much as to say they are entitled to
nothing else. A bill of rights may be necessary in a
monarchial government whose powers are undefined.
Were we in the situation of a monarchial country?
No, sir. Every right could not be enumerated, and the
omitted rights would be sacrificed if security arose
from an enumeration. The Congress cannot assume
any other powers than those expressly given them
without a palpable violation of the Constitution. . . .In
a monarchy all power may be supposed to be vested
in the monarch, except what may be reserved by a bill
of rights. In England, in every instance where the
rights of the people are not declared, the prerogative
of the king is supposed to extend. But in this country
we say that what rights we do not give away remain
with us."
Though Johnston desired to throw all necessary
safeguards around the rights of the people, he did not
desire a Union that would be a mere rope of sand.
The Union must have authority to enforce its decrees
and maintain its integrity, and if he foresaw the rise
of the doctrines of nullification and secession, he fore
saw them only to expose what he thought was their
fallacy.
"The Constitution (he declared) must be the
supreme law of the land, otherwise it will be in the
power of any state to counteract the other states, and
withdraw itself from the Union. The laws made in
pursuance thereof by Congress, ought to be the
supreme law of the land, otherwise any one state
might repeal the laws of the Union at large. . . . Every
122 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
treaty should be the supreme law of the land ; without
this, any one state might involve the whole union in
war."
Acts of Congress, however, must be in "pursuance"
of the powers granted by the Constitution, for John
ston had no sympathy with the notion that the courts
must enforce acts of legislative bodies regardless of
their constitutionality. As he said :
"When Congress makes a law in virtue of their
(sic) constitutional authority, it will be actual law. . . .
Every law consistent with the Constitution will have
been made in pursuance of the powers granted by it.
Every usurpation, or law repugnant to it, cannot have
been made in pursuance of its powers. The latter
will be nugatory and void."
Johnston, of course, did not think the Constitution
perfect and he was as anxious as Willie Jones to have
certain amendments made to it. But he took the posi
tion that North Carolina, then fourth of the thirteen
states in population, would have more weight in
securing amendments in the Union than out of it.
Indeed, he reasoned, as long as the state remains out
of the Union there is no constitutional way in which
she can propose amendments. Accordingly, as the
leader of the Federalists, on July 30, he offered a reso
lution :
"That though certain amendments to the said Con
stitution may be wished for, yet that those amendments
should be proposed subsequent to the ratification on
the part of this state, and not previous to it."
Willie Jones promptly rallied his followers against
this action and defeated Johnston s resolution by a vote
of 184 to 84. Then after proposing a series of amend
ments, including a bill of rights, the Convention, by
SAMUEL JOHNSTON 123
the same vote of 184 to 84, refused to ratify the Con
stitution and, August 2, adjourned sine die.
Thus a second time, in a second great political crisis,
Willie Jones triumphed over his rival ; but again, as in
1776, his triumph was shortlived. With wise fore
thought Iredell and Davie had caused the debates of
the Convention to be reported and published, and
through them appealed from the Convention to the
people. How far these debates influenced public
opinion it is of course impossible to say, but certain
it is that no intelligent, impartial reader can rise from
their perusal without being convinced that the
Federalists had much the better of the argument.
Public opinion so far shifted toward the Federalists
position that when the second Convention met at
Fayetteville, November 16, 1789, the Federalists had
a larger majority than their opponents had had the year
before. 16 Again Samuel Johnston was unanimously
elected president. The debates of this Convention
were not reported; indeed, the debates of the former
Convention had rendered further discussion unnec
essary. The people of the state had read those debates
and had recorded their decision by sending to the Con
vention a Federalist majority of more than one hun
dred. Accordingly after a brief session of only six
days the Convention, November 21, 1789, by a vote
of 195 to 77, ratified the Constitution of the United
States and North Carolina re-entered the Federal
Union.
The privilege of transmitting the resolution of rati
fication to the President of the United States and of
receiving from him an acknowledgment of his sincere
16. The Journal is printed in State Rec., XXII., 36-53.
124 REVOLUTIONARY LEADERS OF NORTH CAROLINA
gratification at this important event, fell to the lot of
Samuel Johnston. It was fitting, too, that he who, for
more than twenty years, had stood among the states
men of North Carolina as the very personification of
the spirit of union and nationalism should be the first
to represent the state in the Federal Senate. Of his
services there I cannot speak today more than to say
that he represented the interests of North Carolina
with the same fidelity to convictions and courage in
the discharge of his duties which had always charac
terized his course in public life ; and that on the great
national issues of the day he lifted himself far above
the narrow provincialism which characterized the
politics of North Carolina at that time and stood forth
in the Federal Senate a truly national statesman. It
had been well for North Carolina and her future posi
tion in the Union had she adhered to the leadership of
Johnston, Davie, Iredell, and the men who stood with
them men too wise to trifle with their principles, too
sincere to conceal their convictions, and too brave and
high-minded to mislead the people even for so great a
reward as popular favor. But in the loud and some
what blatant politics of that day these men could play
no part, and one by one they were gradually forced
from public life to make way for other leaders who
possessed neither their wisdom, their sincerity, nor
their courage. In 1793 Samuel Johnston retired from
the Senate, and, except for a brief term on the bench,
spent the remaining twenty-three years of his life in
the full enjoyment of his happy family circle.
Samuel Johnston deserves a high rank among the
constructive statesmen of North Carolina. On the
mere score of office-holding he has been equalled by
few and surpassed by none of the public men of this
SAMUEL JOHNSTON 125
Commonwealth. But in the fierce light of histor>
what a paltry thing is the mere holding of public office ;
and how quickly posterity forgets those who present
no other claim to fame! Posterity remembers and
honors him only who to other claims adds those of
high character, lofty ideals, and unselfish service;
whose only aims in public life are the maintenance of
law, the establishment of justice, and the preservation
of liberty; who pursues these ends with a fixity of
purpose which never weakens, a tenacity which never
slackens, and a determination which never wavers.
Measuring Samuel Johnston by this standard, I am
prepared to say that among the statesmen of North
Carolina he stands without a superior. Indeed, taking
him all in all, it seems to me that he approaches nearer
than any other man in our history to Tennyson s fine
ideal of the "Patriot Statesman."
"O Patriot Statesman, be thou wise to know
The limits of resistance, and the bounds
Determining concession ; still be bold
Not only to slight praise but suffer scorn ;
And be thy heart a fortress to maintain
The day against the moment, and the year
Against the day ; thy voice, a music heard
Thro all the yells and counter yells of feud
And faction, and thy will, a power to make
This ever-changing world of circumstance^
In changing, chime to never-changing Law."
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