Part 15 (2/2)
FIRST PROVINCIAL CONGRESS.
A. D. 1774.
1774. By this time the propriety of holding a general or Continental Congress, composed of delegates or representatives duly chosen by the several colonies, had suggested itself to men of sagacity in every portion of the country. Wherever made, the suggestion at once found a lodgment in public favor, and by the time summer had come it was a generally accepted fact that such a congress would be held, and the time and place of its session pretty well agreed upon. During the month of June, 1774, each colony, through its Committee of Correspondence, was invited to send delegates to a Continental Congress, to be held in Philadelphia during the coming September.
2. From its first agitation, the project of a Continental Congress, to consider the best ways and means of redressing the grievances of the colonists, was exceedingly distasteful to Governor Martin, for he regarded it as a most efficient way to organize rebellion. He resolved that he would prevent North Carolina from partic.i.p.ating in such a Congress, as Governor Tryon had prevented her from partic.i.p.ating in a similar one in 1765.
To this end he determined that during the continuance of the existing disturbed condition of the colonies no Legislature should meet in North Carolina, thinking thereby to prevent the due election of delegates from the province.
3. To this fixed purpose on the part of Governor Martin, made known to John Harvey through Mr. Biggleston, the Governor's Private Secretary, the Congress held at New Bern in August, 1774, owed its existence. When Mr. Biggleston told him the Governor did not intend to call another Legislature ”until he saw a chance to get a better one,” Harvey replied, ”then the people will convene one themselves.” Accordingly, about the first of July, in accordance with a plan agreed upon three months before between Willie Jones of Halifax, Samuel Johnston of Chowan and Edward Buncombe of Tyrrell, Harvey, the Speaker of the House of a.s.sembly, issued handbills calling upon the people to elect delegates to a Provincial Congress, as it was called, to a.s.semble in New Bern on the 25th of August, to express the sentiments of the people on the acts lately pa.s.sed by the Parliament of Great Britain, and to appoint delegates to represent the province in a Continental Congress. The handbills of this bold Speaker also invited the people to invest the deputies whom they might send to New Bern ”with powers obligatory on the future conduct of the inhabitants.”
4. The elections for deputies were duly held about the first of August, and the Governor, finding himself thus completely checkmated, was furious. The calm audacity of the Speaker, in summoning such a body to meet in New Bern, in the very presence of the King's represent representatives, as the Governor said, ”to concert treasonable schemes against the Crown,” astounded him.
5. Up to this time Governor Martin had not at all realized how weak had become the ties that bound the people of the colony of North Carolina to the mother country. Nor did he believe they would, with any degree of unanimity whatever, take so bold and defiant a step in the direction of open rebellion as that involved in the election of a Congress with powers obligatory on the people, but owing no obedience to the authority of the Crown.
Yet, at the appointed times and places, with few exceptions, the people throughout the provinces openly a.s.sembled and elected delegates to the proposed Congress, clothing them with most extraordinary powers.
6. This evidence of the condition of popular sentiment in the province could neither be doubted nor disregarded. Accordingly, on the 12th of August, 1774, the Governor asked his Council to advise him what to do in a state of affairs so inconsistent with the peace and good order of the government and so injurious to the maintenance of the authority of the Crown. After deliberating for a day on the matter, the Council advised him to issue a proclamation, and he did so, condemning the elections just held as highly illegal, and warning all officers of the King, both civil and military, to do all in their power to prevent such a.s.semblages of the people, and especially the meeting of the deputies or delegates at New Bern on the 25th instant.
7. In spite of all this, the first Provincial Congress in North Carolina met at New Bern, August 25th, 1774, and elected John Harvey as Moderator or President. Richard Caswell, Joseph Hewes and William Hooper were chosen as delegates to the Continental Congress. Protesting their loyalty to the Crown, but expressing a full determination to defend their rights as freemen, the members entered into an agreement that unless their grievances were redressed they would discontinue all trade with English merchants.
8. This Congress was the first great step in the Revolution, which was to deliver North Carolina and America from the dominion of a distant King and Parliament. The men of America were soon to be free from all foreign interference in their government. It was a bold and hazardous step in Colonel Harvey and the men over whom he presided as Moderator, but safety in the end was the reward of those who thus dared to be free.
QUESTIONS.
1. What important step was suggesting itself to the people? How was the suggestion received? What was done in June, 1774?
2. How did Governor Martin regard this matter? What did he determine to do?
3. What vas the result of the Governor's plan? What was done by John Harvey?
4. How was Governor Martin affected by Harvey's success?
5. What had the Governor begun to realize? What was done by the people?
6. What advice did the Governor seek? What was given?
7. When and where did the first Provincial Congress of North Carolina meet? Who was Moderator? Who were chosen as delegates to the Continental Congress?
8. What is said of this Provincial congress?
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE SECOND PROVINCIAL CONGRESS.
A. D. 1775.
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