...Says Frohock to Fanning, to tell the plain truth,Says Fanning to Frohock, 'tis a folly to lie;When I came to this country I was but a youth;I rode an old mare that was blind ol an eye;My father sent for me; I wa'nt worth a cross,Five shillings in money I had in my purse.And then my first study was to steal for a horse.My coat it was patched, but not much the worse;I quickly got credit, and then ran away,But now we've got rich, and 'tis very well knownAnd hav'n't paid for him to this very dayThat we'll do very well if they'll let us alone."
* In a song which became very popular, Howell thus lampooned Colonel Fanning:
"When Fanning first to Orange came,Both man and mare wa'n't worth five pounds,He looked both pale and wan;As I've been often told,An old patched coat upon his back—But by his civil robberiesAn old mare he rode on.He's laced his coat with gold."
* In 1771, s pamphlet was published in Boston, entitled "A Fan for Fanning, and a Touch for Tryon; containing an Impartial Account of the Rise and Progress of the so-much-talked-of Regulators in North Carolina. By Regulus." In this pamphlet, Tryon and Fauning were sufficiently scorched to need a "fan.
Outrages upon Fanning—Sketch of his Public Life.—Mock Court and Trials.—Yorke
ing the night. On the following morning, when they discovered that the judge had escaped, they beat Fanning again, demolished his costly furniture, and pulled down his house. They intended to burn it, but the wind was high, and they apprehended the destruction of other property. * These proceedings were highly disgraceful, and the harsh treatment of Fanning was condemned by all right-minded men.
When this violence was completed, they repaired to the court-house, and appointed a schoolmaster of Randolph county, named Yorke, clerk;
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chose one of their number for judge; took up the several eases as they appeared upon the docket, and adjudicated them, making Fanning plead law; and then decided several suits.
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As the whole proceedings were intended as a farce, their decisions were perfectly ridiculous, while some of the "remarks" by Yorke were vulgar and profane. **
* Fanning's house was upon the site of the present Masonic Hall, a handsome brick building within a grove on King Street. On the opposite side of the street is his office, too much modernized for a drawing of it to possess any interest. Edmund Fanning was a native of Long Island, New York, son of Colonel Phineas Fanning. He was educated at Yale College, and graduated with honor in 1757. He soon afterward went to North Carolina, and began the profession of a lawyer at Hillsborough, then called Childsborough. In 1760, the degree of L.L.D.'was conferred upon him by his alma mater. In 1763, he was appointed colonel of Orange county, and in 1765 was made clerk of the Superior Court at Hillsborough. He also represented Orange county in the Colonial Legislature. In common with other lawyers, he appears to have exacted exorbitant fees for legal services, and consequently incurred the dislike of the people, which was finally manifested by acts of violence. He accompanied Governor Tryon to New York, in 1771, as his secretary. Governor Marlin asked the Legislature to indemnify Colonel Fanning for his losses; the representatives of the people rebuked the governor for presenting such a petition. In 1776, General Howe gave Fanning the commission of colonel, and he raised and commanded a corps called the Kings American Regiment of Foot. He was afterward appointed to the lucrative office of surveyor general, which he retained until his flight, with other Loyalists, to Nova Scotia, in 1783. In 1786 he was made lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia, and in 1794 he was appointed governor of Prince Edward's Island. He held the latter office about nineteen years, a part of which time he was also a brigadier in the British armv, having received his commission in 1808. He married in Nova Scotia, where some of his family yet reside. General Fanning died in London, in 1818, at the age of about eighty-one years. His widow and two daughters yet (1852) survive. One daughter, Lady Wood, a widow, resides near London with her mother; the other, wife of Captain Bentwick Cumberland, a nephew of Lord Bentwick, resides at Charlotte's Town, New Brunswick. I am indebted to John Fanning Watson, Esq., the Annalist of Philadelphia and New York, for the portrait here given. General Fanning's early career, while in North Carolina, seems not to have given promise of that life of usefulness which he exhibited after leaving Republican America. It has been recorded, it is true, by partisan pens, yet it is said that he often expressed regrets for his indiscreet course at Hillsborough. His after life bore no reproaches, and the Gentlemen's Magazine (1818), when noting his death, remarked, ''The world contained no better man in all the relations of life."
** The fae similes here given of the writing of Fanning and Yorke are copies which I made from the original in the old record book. The first shows the names of parties to the suit entered by Fanning on the record. The mock court, of course, decided in favor of the defendant, Smith, and opposite these names and the record of the verdict, Yorke wrote, with a wretched pen, the sentence here engraved: "Fanning pays cost, but loses nothing." He being clerk of the court, and the lawyer, the costs were payable to himself, and so he lost nothing. Yorke was a man of great personal courage, and when, a few years later, the war of the Revolution was progressing, he became the terror of the Loyalists in that region. An old man on the banks of the Allamance, who knew him well, related to me an instance of his daring. On one occasion, while Cornwallis was marching victoriously through that section, Yorke, while riding on horseback in the neighborhood of the Deep River, was nearly surrounded by a band of Tories. He spurred his horse toward the river, his enemies in hot pursuit. Reaching the bank, he discovered he was upon a cliff almost fifty feet above the stream, and sloping from the top. The Tories were too close to allow him to escape along the margin of the river. Gathering the reins lightly in his hands, he spurred his strong horse over the precipice. The force of the descent was partially broken by the horse striking the smooth sloping surface of the rock, when half way down. Fortunately the water was deep below, and horse and rider, rising to the surface, escaped unhurt. It was a much greater feat than Putnam's at Horse Neck.
Military Expedition against the Regulators.—Bad Treatment of Husband.—Tryon's March to Hillsborough.—His Officers.
Judge Henderson, who was driven from the bench, called upon Tryon to restore order in his district. The governor perceived that a temporizing policy would no longer be expedient, and resolved to employ the military force to subdue the rebellious spirit of the Regulators. He deferred operations, however, until the meeting of the Legislature, in December. Herman Husband was a member of the Lower House, from Orange, and there were others in that body who sympathized with the oppressed people. Various measures were proposed to weaken the strength of the Regulators; and among others, four new counties were formed of portions of Orange, Cumberland, and Johnson. * Finally, when the Legislature was about to adjourn without authorizing a military expedition, information came that the Regulators had assembled in great numbers at Cross Creek (Fayetteville), with the intention of marching upon Newbern, having heard that their representative (Husband) had been imprisoned. ** The Assembly immediately voted two thousand dollars for the use of the governor. The alarmed chief magistrate fortified his palace, and placed the town in a state of defense. He also issued a proclamation,Feb 7, 1771and orders to the colonels of the counties in the vicinity, to have the militia in readiness. These precautions were unnecessary, for the Regulators, after crossing the Haw, a few miles above Pittsborough, to the number of more than one thousand, met Husband on his way home, and retraced their steps.
The governor soon issued another proclamation, prohibiting the sale of powder, shot, or lead, until further notice. This was to prevent the Regulators supplying themselves with munitions of war. This measure added fuel to the flame of excitement, and finally, the governor becoming again alarmed, he made a virtual declaration of war, through his council. That body authorized him to raise a sufficient force to march into the rebellious districts and establish law and order. The governor issued a circularMarch 18, 1771to the colonels, ordering them to select fifty volunteers from their respective regiments and send them to Newbern. With about three hundred militia-men, a small train of artillery, some baggage wagons, and several personal friends, Tryon left Newbern on the twenty-fourth of April. On the fourth of May he encamped on the Eno, having been re-enforced by detachments on the way. *** General Hugh Waddel was directed to collect the forces from the western counties, rendezvous at Salisbury, and join the governor in Orange (now Guilford) county. While he was waiting at Salisbury for the arrival of powder from Charleston, a company of men assembled in Cabarras county, blackened their faces, intercepted the convoy with the ammunition, between Charlotte and Salisbury, routed the guard, and destroyed the powder.
* These were Guilford, Chatham, Wake, and Surrey.
** Tryon, who feared and hated Husband, procured the preferment of several charges against him, and he was finally arrested, by order of the council, and imprisoned for several days. The charges, on investigation, were not sustained, and he was released.
***Colonel Joseph Leech commanded the infantry, Captain Moore the artillery, and Captain Neale a company of rangers.
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* On his way to the Eno, he was joined by a detachment from Hanover, under Colonel John Ashe: another from Carteret, under Colonel Craig; another from Johnston, under Colonel William Thompson; another from Beaufort, under Colonel Needham Bryan: another from Wake, under Colonel Johnson Hinton; and at his camp on the Eno, he was joined by Fanning, with a corps of clerks, constables, sheriffs, and other materials of a similar kind. The signatures here given, of two of Tryon s officers on this occasion, I copied from original committee reports to the Colonial Legislature, now in possession of the Reverend Dr. Hawks. Some of these officers were afterward active patriots. Several other signatures of North Carolina men given in this work, I copied from the same documents.
Dispersion of Waddel's Troops.—Tyron's March toward the Allamance.—Dr. Caldwell's Mediation.—Battle.
General Waddel crossed the Yadkin on the morning of the tenth of May,1771intending to join Governor Tryon. He had advanced but a short distance, when he received a message from a body of Regulators, warning him to halt or retreat. Finding that many of his men were averse to fighting, and that others were favorable to the Regulators, and were thinning his ranks by desertions, he retreated across the Yadkin, hotly pursued by the insurgents. They surrounded Waddel's small army, and took several of them prisoners, after a slight skirmish. The general and a few followers escaped to Salisbury.
Tryon, informed of the disaster of Waddel, broke up his camp on the Eno, crossed the Haw just below the Falls,May 13and pressed forward toward the Allamance, where he understood the Regulators were collecting in force on the Salisbury Road. He encamped very near the scene of Colonel Pyles's defeat in 1781, within six miles of the insurgents, just at sunset, and during the night sent out some scouts to reconnoiter. * On the fifteenth he received a message from the Regulators, proposing terms of accommodation, and demanding an answer within four hours. ** He promised a response by noon the next day.
At dawn the following morningMay 16he crossed the Allamance, a little above the present site of Holt and Carrigan's cotton factory, and marched silently and undiscovered along the Salisbury Road, until within half a mile of the camp of the Regulators, where he formed his line in battle order. Dr. Caldwell, who was there, with many of his parishioners, now visited the governor a second time, and obtained a renewal of a promise made the night before to abstain from bloodshed; but Tryon demanded unconditional submission. Both parties advanced to within three hundred yards of each other, when Tryon sent a magistrate, with a proclamation, ordering the Regulators to disperse within an hour. Robert Thompson, an amiable, but bold, outspoken man, who had gone to Tryon's camp to negotiate, was detained as a prisoner. Indignant because of such perfidy, he told the governor some plain truths, and was about to leave for the ranks of the Regulators, when the irritated governor snatched a gun from the hands of a militia-man and shot Thompson dead. Tryon perceived his folly in a moment, and sent out a flag of truce. The Regulators had seen Thompson fall, and, deeply exasperated, they paid no respect due to a flag, and immediately fired upon it. *** At this moment Dr. Caldwell rode along the lines and urged his people and their friends to disperse; and had an equal desire to avoid bloodshed guided the will of Tryon, valuable lives might have been spared. But he took counsel of his passions, and gave the word "Fire!" The militia hesitated, and the Regulators dared them to fire. Maddened with rage, the governor rose in his stirrups and shouted "Fire!fire on them, or on me!" A volley ensued, and the cannons were discharged with deadly effect. The fire was returned, and the governor's hat was pierced by a musket-ball. He sent out a flag of truce, but the bearer immediately fell. Some young men among the Regulators rushed forward and took possession of the cannons. They did not know how to manage them, and soon abandoned them. The military now fired with vigor, and the Regulators fell back to a ledge of rocks on the verge of a ravine, not, however, until their scanty supply of ammunition was exhausted. They had no acknowledged leader;**** for as soon as it was evident
* Colonel Ashe and Captain John Walker, who were out reconnoitering, were caught by the Regulators, tied to a tree, severely whipped, and detained as prisoners. The great body of the Regulators in camp censured this cruelty and disclaimed approval.
** The Reverend David Caldwell, D.D., of Orange, many of whose congregation were with the Regulators, was the messenger on this occasion, and received from Tryon the most positive assurances that no blood should be shed unless the insurgents should be the first aggressors. Dr. Caldwell was a pure patriot, and during the war which ensued a few years later, himself and family were great sufferers for "conscience' sake."
*** Tradition currently reported that Donald Malcolm, one of Governor Tryon's aids, and who was afterward a very obnoxious under-officer of the customs at Boston, was the bearer of the flag. When the firing commenced, he retreated with safety to his person, but had the misfortune to have the buttons of his small clothes leave their fastenings. Trumbull, in his M'Fingall, with rather more wit than modesty, notices the circumstance in four lines.
* Captain Montgomery, who commanded a company of Mountain Boys, was considered the principal leader, if any might be called by that name. He was killed by the second fire of the cannon, when most of the Regulators fled. James Pugh, a young gunsmith from Hillsborough, and three others, shielded by a ledge of rocks on the edge of a ravine, did great execution with rifles. Pugh fired while the others loaded, and he killed fifteen men. He was made prisoner, and was one of six who were hung at Hillsborough.
Flight of Husband.—Defeat of the Regulators.—The Battle-ground.—Cruelty of Tryon.
that blood would be shed, Herman Husband, the soul of the agitation, declared that his peace principles as a Quaker would not allow him to fight, and he rode off, and was not seen again in North Carolina until the close of the Revolution.
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Charity must stretch her mantle to cover this delinquency of the leader of the Regulators; for why should he have urged the people to assemble for resistance unless they were to fight? All was confusion when the conflict began, and each fought for life and liberty in his own way. Although they were defeated in that early conflict—thatfirst battle of our war for independence—they were not subdued, and many of the survivors were among the most determined opposers of Cornwallis a few years later. Nine of the Regulators and twenty-seven of the militia fell in that conflict, and a great number on both sides were wounded. * Tryon, in his report, said, "The loss of our army in killed, wounded, and missing, amounted to about sixty men."
The admitted excesses of the Regulators afford no excuse for the cruelty of Tryon after the battle on the Allamance. With the implacable spirit of revenge, he spent his wrath upon his prisoners, and some of his acts were worthy only of a barbarian. *** Having rested a few days near the battle-ground, he went on as far as the Yadkin,
* Martin, Williamson, Caruthers, Foote.
** This view is from the south side of the Salisbury Road, which is marked by the fence on the left. The belligerents confronted in the open field seen on the north of the road, beyond the fence. Between the blasted pine, to which a muscadine is clinging, and the road, on the edge of a small morass, several of those who were slain in that engagement were buried. I saw the mounds of four graves by the fence, where the sheep, seen in the picture, are standing. The tree by the road side is a venerable oak, in which are a few scars produced by the bullets.
*** Among his victims was a young carpenter of Hillsborough, named James Few. He was the sole support of his widowed mother, and had suffered greatly, it is said, at the hands of Fanning. Young Few alleged that he had not only made him feel the curse of his exactions, but had actually seduced a young girl who was his betrothed. Driven to madness, he joined the Regulators, was taken prisoner, and was hung on the night after the battle, without trial, and without witnessing friends. * Justice to the dead, and a regard for the truth of history, demand the acknowledgment that this story, like the apocryphal one that the Regulators cut off Fanning's ears, ** needs confirmation, and rests solely upon uncertain tradition. It is further related that Tryon destroyed the property of Few's mother when he reached Hillsborough! Captain Messer, who was made prisoner, was sentenced to be hanged the day after the battle. His wife, informed of his intended fate, hastened to him with her little son, a lad ten years old. She pleaded for her husband's life in vain. Messer was led to execution, while his wife lay weeping upon the ground, her boy by her side. Just as Messer was to be drawn up, the boy went to Tryon and said, "Sir, hang me, and let my father live." "Who told you to say that?" said the governor. "Nobody," replied the lad. "And why," said the governor, "do you ask that?" "Because," the boy replied, "if you hang my father, my mother will die, and the children will perish." The heart of the governor was touched, and he said, "Your father shall not be hanged to-day." Messer was offered his liberty if he would bring Husband back. He consented, and his wife and children were kept as hostages. He returned in the course of a few days, and reported that he overtook Husband in Virginia, but could not bring him. Messer was immediately bound, and, after being exhibited with the other prisoners, was hung at Hillsborough.
* Foote's Sketches of North Carolina, pages 61, 62.
** See Johnson's Traditions and Reminiscences of the Revolution, page 573.
Tryon's Prisoners exhibited in Chains.—Execution of Six of them.—Effect of the Regulator Movement—Career of Husband.
and, after issuing a proclamationMay 17, 1771of pardon to all who should lay down their arms and take the oath of allegiance before the tenth of July, except a few whom he named, he made a circuitous route through Stokes, Rockingham, and Guilford counties, back to Hillsborough, exhibiting his prisoners in chains in the villages through which he passed. He exacted an oath of allegiance from the people; levied contributions of provisions; chastised those who dared to offend him; and at Hillsborough he offered a large reward for the bodies of Husband and other Regulators, "dead or alive." * On his march he held courts-martial for trying civil cases, burned houses, and destroyed the crops of inoffensive people. At Hillsborough he held a court-martial for the trial of his prisoners. Twelve were condemned to suffer death; six were reprieved, and the others were hung,June 19, 1771]among whom was Captain Messer, whose life had been spared a few days before by the intercession of his little child. His thirst for revenge satiated, Tryon returned to his palace at Newbern, where he remained but a short time, having been called to the administration of affairs in the province of New York. Joseph Martin succeeded him as governor, and acted with judgment. He so conciliated the Regulators that many of them were firm Loyalists when the governor was finally driven away by the Whigs.
The movements of the Regulators and the result of the battle on the Allamance, form an important episode in the history of our Revolution. Their resistance arose from oppressions more personal and real than those which aroused the people of New England. It was not wholly the abstract idea of freedom for which they contended; their strife consisted of efforts to relieve themselves of actual burdens. While the tea-duty was but a "pepper-corn tribute," imposing no real burden upon the industry of the people in New England, extortion in every form, and not to be evaded, was eating out the substance of the working-men in North Carolina. Implied despotism armed the New Englanders; actual despotism panoplied the Carolinians. Each were equally patriotic, and deserve our reverent gratitude. The defeat on the Allamance did not break the spirit of the patriots; and many, determined no longer to suffer the oppressions of extortioners, abandoned their homes, with their wives and children, went beyond the mountains, and began settlements in the fertile valleys of Tennessee. As Mr. Bancroft, in a letter to the Honorable David L. Swain, happily expressed it, "Like the mammoth, they shook the bolt from their brow, and crossed the mountains."
While the Regulator movement planted deep the seeds of resistance to tyranny, the result of the battle on the Allamance was disastrous in its subsequent effects. The people, from whom Tryon wrung an oath of allegiance, were conscientious, and held a vow in deep reverence. Nothing could make them swerve from the line of duty; and when the hostilities of the Revolution fully commenced, hundreds, whose sympathies were with the patriots, felt bound by that oath to remain passive. Hundreds of men, with strong hearts and hands, would have flocked around the standards of Gates and Greene, in Guilford, Orange, and the neighboring counties, had not their oath been held too sacred to be violated, even when it was evident that the king could no longer protect them. Loyalty to conscience, not opposition to the principles of the Revolutionists, made these men passive; for their friends and neighbors on the other side of the Yadkin, where Tryon's oath was not exacted, were among those who earliest cast off their allegiance to the British crown.
The course of Governor Martin was generally so judicious, that the people of North Car-
* Husband fled to Pennsylvania, and settled near Pittsburgh. He went to North Carolina on business soon after the close of the war, but did not remain long. In 1794 he was concerned in the "Whisky Insurrection," in Western Pennsylvania, and was appointed on the Committee of Safety with Brackenridge, Bradford, and Gallatin. Husband was arrested, and taken a prisoner to Philadelphia, where he was pardoned, through the interposition of Dr. Caldwell who happened to be there, Dr. Rush, and the North Carolina senators. He met his wife on his return home, and died at an inn before he reached his own neighborhood. Husband was a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature for some years.
Committees of Correspondence.—Difficulties between the Governor and People.—Conventions of the Patriots.
olina were not very restive, while the Northern colonies were all on fire with rebellion in 1774. Yet sympathy for the people of Boston, suffering from the effects of the Port Bill, was general and sincere, and the inhabitants of Wilmington and other towns made large contributions for their relief. When the final decision was to be made respecting allegiance to, or independence of the British crown, very many remained loyal, and the ardent Whigs required the full exercise of all their zeal to leaven the inactive population of the state. The efficient machinery of corresponding committees was put in operation early In December, 1773, the resolution of the House of Burgesses, of Virginia, recommending the appointment of committees of correspondence, was received by the Assembly of North Carolina and approved of. A committee was appointed, and instructed to be vigilant and industrious in the performance of their duties. * Governor Martin was then in New York, and the duties of his office devolved upon James Hasell, the president of the council. Hasell was rather favorably inclined toward republicanism, and opposed the patriots only so far as his official duty demanded action.
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The proceedings of that short session were quite offensive to the governor and most of his council, as representatives of the imperial government, and the amity of the provincial legislation was disturbed. The governor soon returned home, and prorogued the Assembly until March following,1774that the members might "reflect upon their proceedings, learn the sentiments of their constituents, and adopt a more loyal course." When they again met, strengthened by the approval of their constituents, they were firmer than ever in their opposition to some of the measures of government; and that the sincerity and courage of those who professed patriotic proclivities might be tested, the Yeas and Nays were taken upon the adoption of an important bill. ** A committee was appointed to address the king, and on the twenty-fifth of March the Assembly was again prorogued. Four days afterward, it was dissolved by the governor's proclamation; an act considered unconstitutional, and which highly offended the people.
During the summer of 1774, a majority of the inhabitants, in primary meetings assembled, openly avowed their approval of a Continental Congress, as proposed by Massachusetts. A general meeting of delegates from the several towns was proposed to be held at Newbern on the twenty-fifth of August. On the thirteenth of that month, the governor issued his proclamation, disapproving of the district meetings, and requiring the people to forbear sending delegates to the general convention. The people did not heed his proclamation, and the delegates met on that day. John Harvey, of Perquimans, the late speaker of the Assembly, was chosen moderator. The council convened by the governor, seeing the gathering of the people's representatives, decided that "nothing could be done." The convention expressed its firm loyalty to the king; claimed only the common rights of Englishmen; asserted the doctrine that they ought not to be taxed without their own consent; reprobated the tea and other duties; expressed great sympathy for the people of Massachusetts; condemned the Boston Port Bill, as a "cruel infringement of the rights and privileges of the people," and other measures of government as unrighteous; signed a non-importation
* The committee consisted of John Harvey (speaker of the Assembly), Robert Howe (afterward a general in the Continental army), Cornelius Harnett, William Hooper (one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence), Richard Caswell, Edward Vail, John Ashe, Joseph Hewes (another signer), and Samuel Johnson.
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* John Harvey was an active citizen in public life, before the war of the Revolution began. He was a member of the Colonial Legislature for a number of years, and in 1766 succeeded John Ashe as speaker of the House. He presided with dignity for three years, and at the close of each session received the unanimous thanks of the House for his impartiality. He early espoused the patriot cause; was active in the first Revolutionary movements in his state, but died before the struggle had advanced far toward a successful issue.
** A bill for the establishment of Superior Courts upon a new basis, which was calculated to remove the powers of the judiciary further from the control of the people.
Approval of a General Congress, and Appointment of Deputies.—Provincial Congress.—Maneuvers of Governor Martin.
agreement, and expressed their hearty approval of the proposition for a general Congress. This approval was further manifested by the choice of deputies to represent the province in the Continental council. *
Pursuant to the recommendations of the general Congress when it convened in September, contributions were raised in all parts of the province for the relief of the people of Boston; and committees of safety were appointed in every county and chief town, to see that the articles of association adopted by the Congress were signed and faithfully observed. Activity every where prevailed among the Whigs during the winter; and when Governor Martin fixed the day for the assembling of the Legislature,April 5, 1775John Harvey, who presided over the convention at Newbern several months before, now summoned those delegates to meet as a Provincial Congress on the same day. Governor Martin attempted, by proclamation, to prevent the meeting of the deputies, but in vain. The two bodies, composed chiefly of the same men, met at the same time, and Harvey was called upon to preside over both. The governor attempted to keep the two Assemblies distinct. He besought the legal Assembly to discountenance the irregular convention of the other deputies, chosen by the people, and expressed his determination to use all the means in his power to counteract their treasonable influence. He denounced the Continental Congress as "seditious and wicked," "highly offensive to his majesty," and in firm but respectful language urged the people to remember their allegiance and to faithfully maintain it. His appeals were of no avail, for both Assemblies were too intimately allied in sentiment to act in opposition to each other. Both bodies concurred in approving of the proceedings of the Congress of 1774, and in appointing delegates to a new one, to meet in Philadelphia in May following.May 10, 1775The governor, perceiving the Assembly to be intractable, consulted his council, and by their recommendation dissolved it, by proclamation, on the eighth of April.
Governor Martin and the representatives of the people were now fairly at issue. The latter organized a Provincial Congress, and, assuming the functions of government, sent forth an address to the people, recommending the adoption of measures for resistance, similar to those pursued in other colonies. After transacting some other business for the public good, they quietly separated. As soon as the deputies had departed, the governor, perceiving the tide of public opinion setting strongly against him, became alarmed, and sought to intimidate the people, and at the same time to protect his person, by placing some cannon in front of the palace. He dispatched messengers to the Highlanders at Cross Creek, upon whose loyalty he relied, and others were sent into the more westerly districts to promise the Regulators exemption from the punishments to which they were still liable for past misdeeds, if they would assist the king's government against its opposers. These promises had great effect, and, strange as it may seem, many of the Regulators were active Loyalists. About this time, a letter which the governor had sent to General Gage at Boston, soliciting a supply of arms and ammunition, was intercepted. The people were greatly exasperated, and the Committee of Safety of Newbern seized and carried off six of the cannons which had been placed in front of the palace. From every quarter the governor heard of hostile preparations, and becoming alarmed for his personal safety, he fled to Fort Johnson, on the Cape Fear River, near Wilmington,June 14, 1775whence he sent forth a menacing proclamation. **June 16
At the beginning of July, preparations for a servile insurrection on the Tar River were
* William Hooper, of the county of Orange, Joseph Hewes, of the town of Edenton, and Richard Caswell, of the county of Dobbs were chosen deputies. They were instructed to carry out the principles embodied in the preamble and resolutions adopted by the convention, the substance of which is given in the text.
** To this proclamation the General Committee of Safety of the District of Wilmington, as appears by their proceedings, issued an answer, denying many of its allegations, and proclaiming the governor to be an instrument in the hands of administration to rivet those chains so wickedly forged for America." This answer was drawn up and adopted in the session of the committee, at the court-house in Wilmington, on the twentieth of June, 1775.
Symptoms of a Servile Insurrection.—Destruction of Fort Johnson.—Provincial Congress at Hillsborough
discovered. This plot was disclosed to Thomas Rispess, a former member of the Assembly from Beaufort, by one of his slaves. It was generally supposed that Governor Martin was an accessory in inducing the slaves to rise and murder their masters. *
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Fired with indignation by this opinion, the exasperated people determined to demolish Fort Johnson, lest the governor should strengthen it, and make it a place of reception for a hostile force and insurgent negroes. Under Colonel John Ashe, a body of about five hundred men marched to the fort, when it was ascertained that the governor had fled to the sloop of warCruiser, lying in the river, and that Collett, the commander of the fortress, had removed all the small arms, ammunition, and part of the artillery, to a transport hired for the purpose. The militia immediately set fire to the buildings, and demolished a large portion of the walls of the fort. ** The Committee of Safety of Wilmington, at the same time, publicly charged the governor with fomenting a civil war, and endeavoring to excite an insurrection among the negroes. They declared him an enemy to his country and the province, and forbade all persons holding any communication with him. While these events were transpiring on the coast, the people of Mecklenburg county, over the Yadkin, met by representatives, and, by a series of resolutions, virtually declared themselves independent of the British crown, and established republican government in that county. This important movement will be considered in the next chapter.
Pursuant to a resolve of the late convention, delegates from the several towns in the state were summoned to meet in Provincial Congress at Hillsborough, on the twentieth of August. * When this summons appeared, Governor Martin, yet on board theCruiser,issued a long proclamation, in which he stigmatized the incendiaries of Fort Johnson as traitors to the king; pronounced the proceedings of the Wilmington committee as base and scandalous; denounced the movement in Mecklenburg in May; *** warned the people not to send delegates to Hillsborough; denounced Colonels Ashe **** and Howe as rebels; and offered the king's pardon for all past outrages to those who should return to their allegiance. The people defied the governor's threats, and mocked his proffers of forgiveness; and on Sunday, the twentieth of August, every county and chief town in the province had a delegate in Hillsborough. They organized on Monday, (v) when one hundred and eighty-four deputies were present. One of their first acts was to declare their determination to hold the ægis of popular power over the Regulators, who were liable to punishment, and had not been cajoled into submission by the governor's promises. They also declared the governor's proclamation to be a "false, scurrilous, malicious, and seditious libel," and tending to stir up
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* In a letter to Lewis Henry de Rosset, the governor endeavored to vindicate himself, and denied all knowledge of the matter. He said in his letter, "that nothing could justify such a measure but the actual and designed rebellion of the king's subjects, and the failure of all other means to maintain his government." From these expressions and the language held in a pamphlet, entitled Taxation no Tyranny, written by the celebrated Dr. Johnson, together with the conduct of Lord Dunmore, of Virginia, it was evident that the inciting of the slaves to massacre their masters was a part of the programme of ministers for crushing the rebellion. *
** Fort Johnson was on the west side of the Cape Fear River, two miles above its mouth, where the present town of Smithville, the capital of Brunswick county, is situated. There is now a fortress and small garrison there.
***An account of the proceedings in Mecklenburg were published in the Cape Fear Mercury.
**** This was the same officer who accompanied Tryon to the Allamance, and was flogged by the Regulators. He resigned his commission as colonel of the militia of Hanover, under the king, and espoused the patriot cause. We shall meet him in the field hereafter.
* (v) The members of the Provincial Congress assembled in the Presbyterian Church, which stood where the present place of worship of that denomination, in Hillsborough, is located.
* "The slave should be set free," said Johnson; "an act which the lovers of liberty must surely commend. If they are furnished with arms for defense and utensils of husbandry, and settled in some simple form of government, within the country, they may be more honest and grateful than their masters."
Action of the Congress.—Military Organization.—Minute-men.—Sketch of Cornelius Harnett.
tumult and insurrections, dangerous to the peace of the king's government." It was then directed to be burned by the common hangman. They also provided for raising and equipping a military force of one thousand men for the defense of the liberties of the province. This force was divided into two regiments. The command of the first regiment was given to Colonel James Moore (one of Tryon's officers when he marched against the Regulators), of New Hanover; the second to Colonel Robert Howe, of Brunswick. In addition to this regular force, a battalion of ten companies, of fifty men each, was directed to be raised in each district, to be calledminute-men, their uniform to be a hunting-shirt, leggings or spatterdashes, and black gaiters. To pay these troops and other expenses of the government, the Provincial Congress directed the emission of bills of credit to the amount of $150,000, for the redemption of which a poll tax was levied for nine years, commencing in 1777. The deputies closed their labors by agreeing to an address to the inhabitants of the British empire (which was drawn up by William Hooper), and in organizing a provisional government. * The Congress adjourned on the nineteenth of September.1775
The provincial council met for the first time on the eighteenth of October following, and appointed Cornelius Harnett, of Wilmington, president. ** Already the Continental Congress
* A provincial council was established, composed of two persons duly chosen by the delegates of each district, and one by the whole Congress. * A Committee of Safety, composed of a president and twelve members, were chosen for each district; the freeholders were also directed to choose a committee. The provincial council and the committees of safety exercised the functions of government in the management of civil and military affairs. Secret committees of correspondence were also organized. Premiums were voted for the manufacture of saltpetre, gunpowder, cotton and woolen cards, pins, needles, linen and woolen cloth, and for the erection of rolling and slitting mills, furnaces for the manufacture of steel and iron, paper-mills, salt-works, and for refining sulphur.