Part 16 (2/2)

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?

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