School History of North Carolina Part 16

After the meeting of the first Provincial Congress, at New Bern, there were, to all observers of intelligence throughout the world, evident signs of an approaching rupture between the Royal Government and the people of North Carolina. Each day widened the breach between them and rendered more difficult an arrangement of the troubles.

2. In the regular course of events, if North Carolina would continue to keep abreast of her sister colonies in the movement for the preservation of the inherent rights of British subjects, it was necessary that she should formally ratify and approve the action recently taken by the Continental Congress, and to elect delegates to that Congress for a new term. Accordingly, on the 11th of February, 1775, after the Governor had ordered an election to be held for a new Legislature to meet in New Bern on the 3d of April, Colonel Harvey also issued handbills for the election of another Congress to meet at the same time and place.

3. Both elections were held and both bodies met at the appointed time and place. Indeed the same individuals were members of both the House of a.s.sembly and of the Congress. The records show that every member of the House of a.s.sembly who was present was also present as a member of the Congress, with only three exceptions.

Colonel Harvey was chosen to preside over both bodies. When sitting at the House of a.s.sembly the members called him "Mr.

Speaker," but when sitting as a Congress they called him "Mr.

Moderator." According to the journals of their proceedings, the Congress met at nine o'clock and the a.s.sembly at ten o'clock in the morning. Upon the face of the journals of the two bodies their proceedings seem to have been entirely separate and distinct; it is said, however, to have been otherwise in fact, and that at one moment the members would be sitting with Mr.

Speaker Harvey as a House of a.s.sembly, under the authority of the Crown, and at another with Mr. Moderator Harvey, as a Congress in defiance of the Crown.

4. As the two Houses of the Legislature met Governor Martin in the palace, according to the custom of that day, at the beginning of a session, he saluted them with indignant remonstrances, which were, the next day, most ably answered in an address prepared by Captain Robert Howe, of Brunswick. A chief ground of his complaint was that the a.s.sembly would take no action against the Congress. He was aptly reminded, however, in reply, that as the a.s.sembly had no control over its sessions, holding them at his will and pleasure only, and remembering how that will and pleasure had been exercised, a Congress that did have control over itself was absolutely necessary for the protection of the people. The result was a proclamation dissolving the a.s.sembly on the 8th of April, that being the fourth day of its session.

5. The Congress, however, could neither be dissolved nor dispersed, and proceeded in its work with much deliberation. The same delegation was returned to Philadelphia; and articles of a.s.sociation, pledging the members to abstain from all commerce with British marts, were signed by all except Thomas McKnight, of Currituck.

6. It was seen that a crisis was near at hand. Boston had been held, for months past, in a state of siege. At length, on April 19th, came the encounter at Lexington. Accidents are constantly heard of wherein more lives are lost, but this little skirmish, small as it was, was enough, with its tidings, to fire the hearts of a continent.

7. The tidings of such an occurrence in our day outstrips the winds. In less than an hour it is known all over the Mississippi Valley, across the Rocky Mountains, and along the sh.o.r.es of the Pacific Ocean. But our ancestors of that day had no railways or telegraphs; so, it was fully two weeks after the militiamen slain at Lexington had stiffened in their blood that Richard Caswell heard of it in Petersburg, Virginia.

8. A courier was hurrying southward with the tidings, but it was not until May 19th that the people of Mecklenburg, in North Carolina, became aware of what had occurred. At the village of Charlotte upon that day a large concourse of the leading men of that county had a.s.sembled. Fired at the nature of the startling intelligence, they held a convention, and after remaining in session all night, on the morning of the 20th, pa.s.sed resolutions of independence that will immortalize their names.

9. All America, while arming for the war, was still protesting loyalty to the King, but these men of Mecklenburg leaped to a conclusion, the expediency of which more than a year of blood was required to impress on the minds of their countrymen. Abraham Alexander presided in the meeting, and the famous "Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence" was drawn by Dr. Ephraim Breyard.

[NOTE--The men of Mecklenburg held another meeting on May 31st, and adopted a system of government and military commissions.

These people publicly declared themselves free from English rule nearly fourteen months before the Declaration of Independence at Philadelphia.]

10. The news from Boston was speedily followed, in North Carolina, by mournful tidings from Perquimans county. Colonel John Harvey, after so many strenuous efforts to put North Carolina in readiness for the storm, sank under disease, and died at his place in "Harvey's Neck," on the Albemarle Sound. No braver or wiser man has ever borne a part in the conduct of affairs in North Carolina.

11. Apprehensive for his own safety and that of his family, Governor Martin at once made preparations for leaving New Bern.

He sent his family to New York by sea, but went himself by land to Fort Johnston, at the mouth of the Cape Fear. * But even Fort Johnston proved unsafe as a place of refuge, and in July the Governor left it and went on board the war sloop Cruiser, then lying in the river before the fort. On the same day Colonel Ashe, with five hundred men, burned the fort to the ground.

*Governor Martin took advantage of this journey to visit the Scotch settlements on the upper Cape Fear, and set on foot the insurrection that culminated in the battle of Moore's Creek Bridge.

QUESTIONS.

1. What signs were observed after the first Provincial Congress?

2. What was necessary for North Carolina to do? What was done on February 11, 1775?

3. What is said of this election ? Describe the Legislature and Congress?

4. How was the Legislature received by the Governor? How did Captain Howe answer him?

5. What was done by the Congress?

6. What startling news was received on April 19th.

7. How did the circulation of news in 1775 differ from the present? Who was first to receive the news of Lexington?

8. When did the tidings reach Mecklenburg? What great event occurred at Charlotte? Find this city on the map.

9. What was the att.i.tude of the American people at this time? By what name have the Charlotte resolutions always been known?

10. What sad news next thrilled North Carolina?

11. What was done by Governor Martin? What occurred at Fort Johnston?

CHAPTER XXV.

THE CONGRESS AT HILLSBORO.

A. D. 1775.

It had been seen at New Bern that Colonel Harvey's days were numbered, and Samuel Johnston had been empowered, in case of the Moderator's death, to order an election for another Congress to meet at Hillsboro whenever he should deem it necessary.

Accordingly (Colonel Harvey having died) the Congress met, at the call of Mr. Johnston, in Hillsboro, on the 20th of August, 1775, and a memorable Congress it was. Samuel Johnston was its President.

2. When Governor Martin left New Bern royal authority was virtually at an end in North Carolina, but it was at Hillsboro, and by the Congress there a.s.sembled, that its last vestige was swept away. The time had come when, if North Carolina intended to stand with her sister colonies, she must take up arms and appeal to the G.o.d of battles. This she was ready to do without any hesitation, and this she did do at Hillsboro, giving publicly to the world her reasons for so doing.

3. The Governor sent to Samuel Johnston a copy of his proclamation, dated on board His Majesty's s.h.i.+p Cruiser, at Cape Fear, on the 8th of August, 1775, in which he warned the people against the Hillsboro Congress as a dangerous and unconst.i.tutional a.s.sembly, and of baneful influence; and further, that to a.s.semble men in arms in the province without authority from the King, was a violation of law for which they would be held answerable. In reply to this proclamation, which was duly laid before the Congress by the Moderator, Mr.

Johnston, it was formally resolved that the proclamation was a false, scandalous, scurrilous and seditious libel, tending to disunite the good people of the province; "and further, that the said paper be burnt by the common hangman."

4. Accepting the recent flight of Governor Martin to the British war-sloop Cruiser as an abdication of the government of the Crown, the Congress proceeded to put in its place a government of the people, and established what in this day would be called a provisional government. Cornelius Harnett* was at its head.

*This man was the second of the name. His father came to Clarendon in Governor Burrington's time, and was all his life afterwards a member of the council. This Cornelius Harnett was well educated, and was so intensely devoted to the American cause that he was called in that day "the Samuel Adams of North Carolina."

5. On the third Tuesday in October in each year delegates to a Congress were to be elected, which Congress was to meet on the 10th of November following, unless otherwise directed. When in session Congress was, of course, supreme; when not in session, ample authority was vested in a general or provisional council and subordinate or district committees of safety. The province was divided into six military districts, and as far as possible, put on a war footing.

6. The ordinary militia organization was perfected and monthly drills ordered; a special organization of minutemen, as that cla.s.s of troops was called, was provided for each district, and, in addition, two regiments of regulars were ordered as the contingent of the province for the Continental army. Provision was also made for the purchase, anywhere and everywhere, of arms, powder, lead, salt and saltpetre; for the manufacture at home of salt, saltpetre, powder, and for the refining of sulphur; for the manufacture of brown and writing paper, cotton and woolen cards, linen and woolen cloths, pins and needles, and for the erection of furnaces for making iron and steel and iron hollow ware, and of rolling mills for making nails, large premiums were offered. A census, too, was ordered to be taken without delay.

7. An issue of money to meet expenses was also provided for. In a word, every function of government was from that time exercised in the name and by the authority of the people of North Carolina. Virtually the province was under martial law, but it was under martial law self-imposed.

8. It is evident that the men who const.i.tuted the Hillsboro, or third Provincial Congress, knew perfectly well what they were doing, and had fully counted the cost. Success meant freedom, and would make them patriots; failure meant abject submission to a foreign government, and would make them traitors. Knowing this, they deliberately put a government of the people in the place of the government of the King; they put an army in the field and provided it with arms and ammunition; and, as if looking ahead to a long and protracted struggle, during which their ports would be doubtless blockaded, they sought at once, by the offer of large bounties to encourage the manufacture at home of such articles as were of common use and prime necessity.

They were indeed both bold and far-seeing, those men of the Hillsboro Congress, and well they might be, for they were the best and bravest of the province-men whose names are now household words throughout the State.

9. The Hillsboro Congress had not called out troops any too soon, for it was discovered that both Governor Martin, in North Carolina, and Lord Dunmore, in Virginia, were engaged in schemes to excite insurrections among the negro slaves. Colonel Robert Howe, with the Second North Carolina Regiment, was sent to Norfolk, in Virginia, where the British troops, being beaten at Great Bridge, were soon driven from the soil of the "Old Dominion."

10. This occurred in December, 1775. About the same time Colonels Griffith Rutherford, Thomas Polk and James Martin embodied their militia regiments and went to South Carolina, where they speedily crushed a Tory insurrection of certain men called the "Scovilites." The militia were, of course, aided by Whig troops of that province. The readiness with which North Carolina marched troops both to Virginia and to South Carolina caused her to stand very high in the estimation of the Continental Congress.

11. The term "Tory" was applied to men who upheld the royal authority, and were opposed to any movement to defend the colonies against the exactions of the Crown and Parliament. The "Whigs," on the contrary, were at that day demanding that American commerce should be free, and that no taxes should be imposed by Great Britain upon the colonies. They were not enemies to the King, and only opposed to that which they considered oppressive in the designs of his ministers.

QUESTIONS.

1. Who had been selected to take Colonel Harvey's place?

When and where did the third Provincial Congress meet?

2. In what condition were public affairs when the Congress met?