SESS. “Ta SSDS Date Bate St DN Nn AE NR pa SNE NSA IS a A REI IOAN nee eee 5 eae teeny en ‘ sar ac eS G8 A ROA AS : cape ss seggncmcmees ag - ng pene me tne EE WTS west o am 8 2 om 8 ; ii e ae it ba tf Net 2 et ae LF RT STE a A a 90 A Ant LIS mete A nc Be bs Vachedl ee ea a — ae sia bit ~h Fs nl Sn a sine ee A COLONIAL OFFICER AND HIS TIMES. 1754-1773. A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF CEN. HUGH WADDELL, OF NORTH CAROLINA. FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR IN THE WITH NOTICES OF THE SOUTHERN COLONIES ; THE RESISTANCE TO THE STAMP (WITH COPIES OF ORIGI- ACT IN NORTH CAROLINA NAL DOCUMENTS NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED) : THE REGULATORS’ WAR; AND AN HIS- TORICAL SKETCH OF THE FORMER TOWN OF BRUNSWICK, ON THE CAPE FEAR RIVER. BY ALFRED MOORE WADDELL. RALEIGH, N. C.: rps & BROUGHTON, Publishers. 1890. EDWA TO THE MEMORY OF MY GOOD AND GIFTED FATHER, WHO HONORS, THE NAM BORE, WITH ADDED E HUGH WADDELL, THESE PAGES ARE REVERENTL Y DEDICATED. [From Gov. Tryon’s Letter-Book.] No. 59. ; Lorp HILLSBOROUGH: NEWBERN, 28th January, 1771. The death of Mr. Heron and Mr. Eustace McCulloh’s resignation of his seat in Council, making two vacancies in his Majesty’s Coun- cil of this Province, I take the liberty to recom- mend for the King’s nomination the three* following gentlemen as properly qualified to sit at that Board, viz: Colonel Hugh Waddell, Mr. Marmaduke Jones, and Sir Nathaniel Dukinfield. Colonel Waddell had the honor to see your Lordship about two years since in England. He honorably distinguished himself last war while he commanded the provincials of this Province against the Cherokee Indians, pos- sesses an easy fortune, and is in much esteem as a gentleman of honor and spirit. * 2 *NOTE BY THE AUTHOR.—In all cases of vacancy in the Council, three names were forwarded from which a selection was made. PREFACE. To any one in possession of material, how- ever small, which, if published, would prove to be of historical value, the exhortation of Car- lyle, ‘“‘ Were it but the infinitessimalest frac- tion of a product, produce it,’ may well be addressed; and to none with more propriety than to a North Carolinian. The meagreness of the early public records of North Carolina, and the carelessness with which the history of the State has been written, have long been complained of by the historians of the United States, and have caused almost every notable and creditable event in that history to be doubted or denied. Nor has this neglect been remedied by biographical literature, for—ex- cepting McRee’s “T ife and Correspondence of James Iredell,” Caruthers’s ‘Life of Cald- well,” and Hubbard’s “ Life of General Wil- liam R. Davie”—no volume aspiring to the title of a biography has ever been published of a North Carolinian, as such. The lives of a PREFACE. some natives of the State—the three Presidents, Jackson, Polk and Johnson, for €xample—have been written, but these lives were passed out of the State, and were not identified with her history. We are almost as destitute of that sort of literature concerning our distinguished dead as we are of Statues or monuments to their memory. Records, recently obtained in England under an Act of the Genera] Assembly, and now being published under the in vision of Secretary of State supply the long-desired doubtless, stimulate some telligent super. Saunders, will material, and will, ger A i PREFACE. 7 ts in the Colony between the years 1754 even y ich i to most readers. is not familiar d and 1773 whic A sense of duty, stimulated by the expres- s ; ' i éf regret in which several writers have Se ed, that no sketch of General Waddell indulged, 2 . . fc . . gon was ample material for his biography ere i ond- in his letters, papers, and official corresp hich had been carefully preserved by ence, W hi and which would have thrown light is son, i vince and the events occurring in the Pro on lsewhere during the interesting period : sew ms h he lived, but the very means adopte whic V va i i tal 1 f it. His son’ loaned it to Dr. Hugh oss of it. Williamson, who had been a member of Con- 11lla ’ doption of the Federal Constitution, and he adop ye ‘ was then (about the year 1800) writing a who of North Carolina in New York; but history fforts were made ost strenuous e although the m pe , fter Dr. Williamson’s he papers a to recover t 8 PREFACE, death in 1819, they could not be found, and all trace of them was lost. preserve He not only failed to and return them, as he promised to do, but made very little use of them in his two queer and unsatisfactory Dr. Williamson, although a man of culture and integrity, w volumes. as very careless and eccentric, as his whole career proves, and while his his- tory contains some facts not elsewhere to be found, and is marked in some passages by vigor and elegance of style, he betrays his Keltic origin in the climax, and concludes his work by a long, elaborate, and utterly irrele- vant dissertation on fevers, ALFRED Moorrg WADDELL. WILMINGTON, Wit: January, 1889. CONTENTS. PAGE. Rabaeaw ee pve da ("pies peter age Preface’ -+--+- -4-=---=ys-7--5-"" a EE ee SOUNCLOLY iran eae ees SAE ones of Tryon to Lord Hillsborough ---------- 4 GENERAL HUGH WA DDELL. in Ireland—His Father’s Duel and Flight to nee, oe a is f Young Waddell in America—Enters Military Pate “a Lieutenant in 1754—Makes Treaties with Indians erv s d Builds Fort Dobbs—Military Service from 1754 to and Bu 8 —A Vindication of Colonel James Innes and the North 1758 —/ i 7 LB a'albliiedinis OM Carolina Troops in the Campaign of 1754---- 5 CHAPTER II. 1758—1764. iti z u Quesne—Major Waddell Com- ci aa peng be cineca John Rogers— pan N th Carolina Troops and Expedition Against tg : 1 SS Seraatetl Promoted to Coloneley—Peace em peek tee of Dobbs’s Administration—Notice of the Declared— Dobbs Family ---- ------------- CHAPTER HUI. 1765. bs Becomes Governor—His Character and Conduct—The ryon Be S 7 Diligence at Bruns- [os ival of Sloop of War : De as wean with Colonel Ashe and others, wick Resists the Landing of the Stamps ; 10 CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. 1768—1771. The Regulators’ War—Its Origin and History—General Wad- aes Gonnpetion. wath Wier es a Sok ete 130 CHAPTER V. The Social Life of the Colony—Marriage of General Waddell— His Civil Services—Family—Death—Will—Conclusion of MIONTARNY toi nee ea erat. ae ule See CHAPTER VI. Historical Sketch of Former Town of Brunswick ---------- 204 ON, Ss on ee oe re Coe ode geen Cah ae 235 eV“ INTRODUCTORY. The American Colonies in the Early Part of the Eighteenth Century—Their Trade, Population and Government—The French War—Settlements in North Carolina—Condition of the Province at the Beginning of Dobbs’s Administra- tion in 1754. The contest between European powers for supremacy in America, which began with the first settlements in the country, did not assume serious proportions until towards the middle of the eighteenth century, when the increasing trade and population of the New World and the vast possibilities which its future promised, attracted the attention and excited the cupidity of those powers. In the year 1755, the strug- gle between France and England, which, because of the exhaustion of both parties, had temporarily ceased with the Treaty of Peace at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, was renewed by France with increased vigor, not only in Europe, but also in India and America.. On this continent she claimed the valleys of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi, and under- took to hem in all the English settlements by a series of fortifications, and to deny to the settlers the right to cross the Alleghany Moun- tians. In pursuance of her purpose, after 12 INTRODUCTORY. securing the Northern frontier by a chain of posts extending from Canada along the lakes and rivers to the back of those settlements, she had,.as early as the month of January, 1753, seized an English truck-house in the Twigtwees nation, and carried the traders as prisoners to Canada; and in the latter part of that year she built Fort Du Quesne on the Ohio, and erected another fortification on the headwaters of the Alabama river—meantime practicing the shrewdest diplomacy in concili- ating and making treaties with all the Indian tribes from Canada to Louisiana. A new life seemed to be infused into the administration of French interests at home and abroad, while the condition of England was, for once in her history, well-nigh pitiable. Imbecility marked her counsels, and disaster followed her arms. After the miserable failure of Braddock’s expe- dition against Fort Du Quesne in 1755, which even the butchery in which it ended could scarcely save from universal ridicule, and at the close of the year, when the alliance baci England and Prussia was made, there were, according to a reliable authority,* but three : *Newcastle’s “preparations for the great struggle before him may be guessed, from the fact that there were but three regiments fit for service in England at ate the be innin f 4 Green’s Short History, page 716. 8 g of 1756. | INTRODUCTORY. 1% regiments fit for service in England. The following two years, the first of the Seven Years’ War—than which “no war has had greater results on the history of the world, or brought greater triumphs to England”—were so freighted with disaster to her that universal gloom and despondency prevailed. She was humiliated by Admiral Byng’s defeat by Ad- miral Galissoniere in the Mediterranean, by the shameful retreat of the Duke of Cumber- land with an army of fifty thousand men before a French force on the Weser, and his agree- ment by the Convention of Closter-Seven to disband his forces, and by similar events else- where, until ‘““even the impassive Chesterfield,” says the authority above quoted, cried in despair, “We are no longer a nation.” It was at this critical period that the genius of the greatest of English statesmen, William Pitt, asserted itself, and immediately a series of the most splendid triumphs in English his- tory began. Frederick the Great said, “ Eng- land has been a long time in labor, but she has at last brought forth a man.” Well might he say it, for Pitt was his mainstay through all his struggles, and the support he gave to I4 INTRODUCTORY. pire of to-day, just as his break; J eaking down of - barriers which the French Sing to wily: ish in America laid the foundation of the United States. In this way Pitt had, indeed a ; unconsciously changed the history of the Ind; ; dian wars, from Pirates, and from the Span- iards, who often th c reatened and someti attacked the coast towns. metimes te narehe Spain had maintained a sickly ority in Florida, where she had erected one or two forts which were occupied by a small force, but had made no attem ‘ m any further occupation of the territ : ‘ development of its resources, eae _The jurisdiction over the West Indies w divided. France held Canada, Acadia i N aig eA ova Scotia) and Louisiana. In the two first a on the Atlantic seaboard from Canada 0 Georgia, and numbered at an the same ti about one million one hundred pre INTRODUCTORY. 15 sand.* They afterwards acquired Canada and Nova Scotia. The governments in the English Colonies differed in name more than in character. Some were called Provincial, some Proprietary, and some Charter governments, but all were ulti- mately accountable to the Crown. These Colonies soon became very valuable as sources of revenue to Great Britain. Before the middle of the century they were consuming about one-fifth of the woollen manu- factures of the mother country—which consti- tuted at that time her chief staple—and more than twice the value of these woollens in linen and calico, while the consumption of silk, furniture, trinkets, and East India goods was large. (In this connection it may be of inter- est to state that as early as 1716, according to — a memorial of Mr. Beresford to the Commis- sioners of Trade and Plantations, silk culture had been tried in South Carolina, and the product had been sent to London where it was manufactured, “and proves to be of extraordi- nary substance and lustre.”) They sent her valuable cargoes, especially of tobacco, which increased her shipping, gave employment to *Montcalm and Wolfe, by Francis Parkman. Vol. I, page 20, (1885). 16 INTRODUCTORY. her people, and aj ded materially in’ keeping the balance of tr ade in her favor as against 1 and Spain. Except as a he French in Canada, the va Scotia was not a valuable did a larger anda more varied trade than any of them,’ and‘ was the only factures were carried on to any extent. The other Northern Colo- nies exported, Principally, lumber, fish, live stock, and some na val stores, while the South- ern Colonies shipp ed tobacco, rice, beef, pork, Provisions, naval stores and lumber—the last named product going, as did the lumber and live stock of the Northern Colonies, chiefly to the West Indies. [y Mr. Beresford’s “ Me- morial,” above alluded to, occurs the following: “There are also §teat quantities of cedar and INTRODUCTORY. 17 dom, but the importers being obliged to sd duty for tt as sweet wood, amounts to : B : hibition.” (The italics are not Mr. Beres . s. Outside of New England—where a oe from the first settlement it had been one that ‘every township, after the sie 1ath increased them to the number of fifty cnt holders, shall appoint one to teach all 3 sion to write and read; and when any Fink ia increase to the number of a hundred a they shall set up a grammar school as 1e : were very few schools in the country, Z “a 2 the most elementary kind, and not a half ¢ Hh y rs. The wealthier class sent their Sm eae land to be educated, while the Peake Shed destitute of nee . possessed only such as could be anes their own firesides. Agriculture, tra moh ke was largely in the form of barter- an - the Indians, occupied the attention of tl Anas ple—of the Southern Colonies especially st exclusively. . ne the Province of North Carolina the Pro prietary Government, which was Pic uitte in 1663, ended in 1728 when ee es a chased the interest of seven of t Paria? prietors—Lord Carteret retaining his eae and on the 2d July, 1752, when Georg 2 18 INTRODUCTORY. surrendered by her Trustees to the King, there were only two Proprietary Governments left in the country, viz., Maryland and Pennsyl- vania, and some of the Royal Governors were anxious to see these surrendered.* All the Southern Colonies and their Sea-ports. The two Carolinas— which were nominally Separated in September, missioned royal Goy although no boundar commenced betw ernor of South Carolina, y line had then been even een them—and the Province of Georgia were €xposed to attacks from the French and Indians of the Mississippi river settlements, who, before 1735, had built what was called the Alabama fort in the Creek *Dinwiddie Papers, Vol, Il, page 273. INTRODUCTORY. 19 the English settlements, and were not so pa ike in di iti as cunning an like in disposition, although a g merciless when roused. In Florida the Spaniards had now severa strong garrisons, the chief of which a an Augustine, and they controlled the Indians o é ry. sree claimed j urisdiction overa much larger area than was in their actual peer they were not as active and spina: in pushing their claims, and in making al ae with the Indians as the French, who, sag the Mississippi Company surrendered — ait try to the French King, migrated from pe a in considerable numbers to the valley of t 0 river, and acquired complete control of all, the i i ion. Indians in that reg ob In 1741 an expedition was fitted out against the Spaniards at Carthagena, on the coast a8 New Grenada, near the Isthmus of — oO which North Carolina contributed 2 sing under Captain James Innes, but, ite a oe which proved unsuccessful, the ei se re-embarked on Admiral Vernon's ic returned. In retaliation the Spaniards, sev es years after, made forays along the coast, ei in ing different places, and amongst hee e town of Brunswick on the Cape Fear river, eighteen miles below Wilmington. 20 INTRODUCTORY, The population of these Provinces w and scattered chiefly along the coast belt, but notwithstanding the serious injury to their Prosperity which external foes thus inflicted, and the additional] embarrassments caused by the corrupt and inefficient government from which some of them suffered, there was a steady increase of population and trade. In North Carolina, during the administra- tion of Governor Gabriel Johnston, who, at the time of his death in 1752, had been Governor for eighteen years, the white population had increased more than th ree-fold, and at the date above mentioned had reached forty-five thou- sand. The exports for three thousand pork and beef. as sparse, the year 1752 were and three hundred barrels of seven hundred and sixty-two thousand Staves, sixty-one thousand five hun- dred and eighty bushels of corn, one hundred hogsheads of tobacco, sixty-one thousand five y-eight barrels of tar, twelve thousand and fifty-five barrels of pitch, ten thousand four hundred and twenty-nine bar- Tels of turpentine, and thirty-thousand pounds of deer-skins, besides an unknown quantity of wheat, rice, potatoes, bacon, lard, indigo, tanned leather, lumber and other articles.* *Martin. Vol. II, 53. See post., Ch. VI, 217. INTRODUCTORY. 21 The currency, that perpetual niche trouble, had, during the same period, at y risen towards its proper value.* or te had set in from Scotland, Ireland ond ver many, and from Pennsylvania a \ if 0 and these settlers had located themselv eit the coast to that part of the country oi 1e Cherokees and Catawbas east of ne Ridge. Neill McNeill op ed aaben sy hundred Scotch colonists, landing = i mington in 1749, and settling in ate , ‘ Anson; and again in 1754, Cumberland and Anson ; ‘ ape ih and annually thereafter, CBO RE “ e = ceived to this Colony from Scotlan E shag the Moravians, known as the U/nz/as digg Ae made their settlement between the ae ¥ Yadkin, and the emigration from the } ym : Ireland to Pennsylvania, and thence to } e | Carolina, as well as directly to the latter, was active about the same time. Lo Although a boundary line ms his ia menced between North and South = 7 3 as had been done in 1727 between Py : and North Carolina, and had sadivaca : ; point on the Pee Dee river, which was extende a few miles further in 1764, the territory west *Williamson. Vol. II, page 55. 22 INTRODUCTORY. of the Pee Dee was for many years debatable ground so far as jurisdiction was concerned, although it really belonged to the Catawba and Cherokee Indians. These Catawbas and Chero- kees were not hostile to the English settlers until tampered with by the French, but were rather friendly disposed to them. About the beginning of Dobbs’s administra- tion in 1754, however, after the French had built Fort Du Quesne, and scattered their enlissaries among them In the same year an attempted settlement in that part of the territory beyond the Blue Ridge—which was called in 1776, the District of Washington, in 1784 the State of Franklin, and, finally, in 1796 the State of Tennessee, was defeated and the settlers were driven out. In 1756, Fort Loudon, named for the new British comimander-in-chief, the Earl of Loudon, was built about thirty miles from the present city of Knoxvi Alleghanies and south of Pennsylvania. ad not been able, for plish much, and he nand of the British The Earl of Loudon h several reasons, to accom was succeeded in the com1 INTRODUCTORY. 23 forces by General Abercrombie, who Ait d prosecuted a vigorous campaign agains thee h. He was repulsed at Ticonderoga «i eet Cape Breton and afterwards he Prontenac. At the latter place the rs oF of ammunition and provisions whicht es Si had accumulated there for use patina ie caused the abandonment of Fort ie re when Forbes’s expedition approac ied : : hold in 1758, and the communica if Ga their Southern settlements apt ketg being thus destroyed, their oe - ait tinent was broken. But, althoug - 9 ee lina had contributed to the expu ae jist French from Fort Du Quesne, it was “be fd aggravate her own troubles, for it ssa ie ferring French influence and intrigue ogee on her Western border and =a anew their animosity, ing eet ieted by treaties and acts of concilic on Rha ult was a series of outbreaks which eu more than two years, and siti ise leave the settlers in North Carolina sae f absolute security until the treaty of polite France and England was sa eg Very soon after that event, in ray ci fe rumble of the earthquake which was game the British Empire and separate for- i 24 INTRODUCTORY.’ ever the Colonies from the mother country was heard in the passage of the Stamp Act; and ten years later the great convulsion occurred which established American Inde- pendence. The subject of the following sketch was, from 1755 to 1773, the most conspicuous mili- tary figure in the Province of North Carolina but although mentioned as such in all the CHAPTER I. 1784-1737: GENERAL HUGH WADDELL. Born in Ireland—His Father’s Duel and Flight to America— Arrival of young Waddell in North Carolina—Enters the Military Service as Lieutenant in 1754—Makes Treaties with Indians and Builds Fort Dobbs—Military Services from 1754 to 1758—A Vindication of Colonel James Innes and the North Carolina Troops. UGH WADDELL was born in Lisburn, County Down, Ireland. The exact date of his birth is unknown, but, as it appears from a memorandum written by his son, and from a newspaper account of his death, that he was in his 39th year when he died, April gth, 1773, he must have been born in the year 1734 or early in 1735. He was the son of Hugh Wad- dell and Isabella Brown, and his ancestors were among the Scotch emigrants who, in the previous century, had gone over in large numbers and settled in the North of Ireland, and whose descendants in this country were called Scotch-Irish. The celebrated “ blind preacher” of Virginia, James Waddell, who was pronounced by Patrick Henry to be the 7 oO 26 A COoLoniaAL OFFICER most eloquent man he ever heard, came with his parents to America from the North of Ire- land not long before General Waddell came, and is believed to have been his near relative. A highly respected family of the same name are now residing at Lisburn. General Waddell’s father, who was a choleric Irish gentleman, about the year 1742 engaged in a short-sword impromptu duel with another gentleman of like accommodating spirit and killed him; and such events having at that time become so scandalously common in that country as to have caused the severest enact- ments against the survivor, the duelist, after sending for a counsellor and mortgaging (as he supposed) all his property to him, took his little boy, then seven or eight years old, and escaped to America, going to Boston. Remaining there for several years, and until the duelling affair was pardoned or forgotten, and in the meantime providing for the educa- tion of his son, he returned with him to Ireland, only to discover that the counsellor was dead and that the estate, supposed to have been mortgaged, had been conveyed absolutely and had passed into other hands. ‘The authority Anp His TIMegs. 27 of the too confiding duelist, and that the latter was so utterly humiliated and overwhelmed by the double catastrophe that he took to his bed and died. There is an Irish flavor about the tradition which gives it the stamp of truth. Among the friends of the elder Waddell in Ireland was Arthur Dobbs, a man of consid- erable culture, who had been a member of the Irish Parliament, and who, in 1741, had sug- gested the expedition to discover a “northwest passage,” which Captain Middleton undertook the next year. Partly because of his supposed enterprising spirit, but chiefly, probably, be- cause of his super-serviceable loyalty to the reigning family and his extravagant notions of the kingly prerogative, Dobbs was, in 1753, appointed Governor of North Carolina, and qualified by taking the oaths of officeat Newbern on the first day of November, 1754. Whether he had been in the Province previous to his appointment as Governor, or not, does not appear, but he had, as early as January 14th, 1735, received from Governor Gabriel Johnston a grant for 6,000 acres on the “Largest Branch of Black River,” in Dupplin* County (com- monly spelled Duplin), and had purchased lands in Anson County from McCulloch. *So named in honor of Lord Dupplin. 28 A CononraL OFFICER Before Governor Dobbs came over to assume his office, young Waddell had arrived in the Province, having, doubtless, been sent in advance, and arriving in 17530 rearly in 1754. He was a Lieutenant in Colon uncil, who was acting Governor until the arrival of Dobbs, and was the first appearance of Waddell in the history of the Province.+ At the time Dobbs was appointed Governor, e Province was in a condition requiring more than ordinary ability in the Executive, and this ability the aged Governor sadly lacked. When the Legislature assembled, six weeks after his qualification, at Newbern, his first recommendation to the body was to fix a per- manent and adequate revenue on the Crown to *Governor Dobbs to th 279; Dinwiddie Papers, v THis first civil service was rendered after his return from that expedition, when he wa € Board of Trade. Col. Rec., vol. V, ol. I, 367, ouncil, and this writer has two of the uncil in his handwriting and with his dated Tespectively December roth, 1754, and January loth, 1755, which are in a good state of preserva- tion. Anp His TIMEs. 29 meet the expenses of shi a es eA me next was to provide a ee cid yp a . Governor. ‘The latter suggestion i 6 i to excite much enthusiasm among " e at : bers of the Legislature, as no ae Ww re eae of it; but they promptly voted eig = agg pounds for the defence of the Migerzey tonnage duties, payable Sh powder He oN allowed bounties for facilitating os is om dconsidered and acted upon such other reco zs i a of the Governor as they deemed senate especially the Sah inca the Court system for the better Pate pe of crimes, one of which—the counter eiti ae bills of credit—had become an ance ng . But, although Dobbs was not fully equa , os ‘all all the requirements of his position, especially i e matters of civil administration, he was in some mé prompt and earnest in his efforts to ieee Pe Crown all the BAA in his power a Eset aS ; 55, in answer to the request of a “ill-fated Braddock, who had, not zie before, arrived with his fine ey “nada Williamsburg, Va., he met some o i: i ; ' Governors of the Provinces at A exan Ee where the three celebrated gy nei sc Fort Du Quesne, Frontenac and Crown Poin | | 30 A COoLontIAL OFFICER were agreed upon, neither of which was suc- cessful, but the last named of which inspired Dr. Shackburg to compose the tune of Yankee Doodle.* After his return from the meeting of the Governors, and during the summer, Governor Dobbs visited t he Western frontier of North Carolina—as th € region around Salis- as then called—to select sites for the erection of fortifications, and also made a tour along the seacoast to ascertain where he could erect additional forts to those then completed, or in process of completion, at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, at Topsail Inlet, at Bear Inlet and at Ocracoke.+ Upon his return, and at the meeting of the Legislature at Newbern Act of 1745, completed in 1761. Captain John Dalry by General Braddock in M ay,1755. The Fort at Ocracoke was named Fort Granville, Anp His TIMEs. 31 the necessity for renewed exertions to defeat their schemes. He earnestly appealed to them in the King’s name to grant as large a sum as possible, consistent with the resources of the Province, to defend the frontier and to assist in offensive operations against the enemy. He urged, in this connection, the erection of a fort between Third and Fourth Creeks near the South Yadkin River, in Rowan County, which was regarded as nearly a central point on the frontier between the Northern and Southern boundaries of the Province. In response to this appeal, the Legislature appropriated ten thousand pounds for the erec- tion of the fort at that point, and for raising and equipping and paying three companies of fifty men each, exclusive of commissioned officers. And now the name of Hugh Waddell began to be conspicuous in North Carolina annals. He had already acquired some reputation, and had been promoted in the expedition of 1754— although not yet of age—as appears, not only from Governor Dobbs’ letter already cited, but from the following passage in Williamson’s History* in regard to the necessity which arose *Volume II, page 86. 32 A Corontar OFFICER for treating with t “For this Purpose, Hugh Waddell, of Rowan County, an officer o i Tity, was commissio; ‘tawba and Cherokee Indians,” Whether there is any other reason for giving as his residence he Indians at that time, viz: Anp His TIMEs. 33 loswa, King Higlar and others, and oN part of the iC “5 Pe one a i id Orator, Atta-Kulla- aes, parse Indian Chief was a si of pabiesie ability, and was far in advance of — his desire for peace and civilization. : iy fi according to Hewat, ‘“‘esteemed to be the w ise : f the nation and the most steady frien ia : English.” He had visited England as Aa peat and in 1767 cms or New York, where he was treated with mar ages ane of individuals in South Carolina, permitted, if not encouraged, = si ernor Lyttleton of that Province, pectin constantly doing oo rcs bea al sa part o ; a: in the territory of ale x, by the English, as a place of refuge an aa tection for their women and children in of event that their warriors should have to mar 2 PMLA me Carolina built the Chero- kee fort, and North Carolina ninety to build for the Catawbas; but the next year, *Bancroft, Vol. 348. a {Historical Magazine, Sept., 1857, page 282. except by South Carolina Captain Waddell - Dobbs instructed this Catawba Indian fort, in- Legislatu Waddell » of date July roth, 1756, s: “As TI have w to get one, I Anp His TIMEs. 35 was obliged to act as engineer myself, and rub up my former knowledge in fortifications when I was in the army, and have accordingly drawn up a plan, &c.”’ A very unique description of Fort Dobbs was given in the report of the Com- missioners, Francis Brown and Richard Cas- well, to the Legislature. They had been sent outto view the Western settlements, to examine localities suitable for additional forts, and to inspect Fort Dobbs, and in regard to the latter they reported as follows: “And that they had likewise viewed the State of Fort Dobbs, and found it to be a good and Substantial Building of the Dimentions following (that is to say) The Oblong Square fifty three feet by forty, the opposite Angles Twenty four feet and Twenty-Two In height Twenty four and a half feet as by the Plan annexed Appears, The Thickness of the Walls which are made of Oak Logs regularly dimin- ished from sixteen Inches to Six, it contains three floors, and there may be discharged from each floor at one and the same time about one hundred Musketts the same is beautifully sit- uated in the fork of Fourth Creek a Branch of the Yadkin River, And they also found under Command of Capt Hugh Waddel Forty six Effective men Officers and Soldiers as by the A CoLontar Orricer Anp His TIMEs. 37 port Annexed A rough country to the relief of Fort Loudon,* ppears the where Captain Paul Demere} was in great 0 b 7 : ° 7 . Pade tee my is danger. ‘This fort was built by Andrew Lewis od Spirits—Signed vgs as under orders from the Earl of Loudon, Com- 756 Ist mander-in-Chief, and was situated on the South- FRANcis Brown ern bank of the Tennessee River, about thirty miles from the present city of Knoxville, and was the northernmost of a series of forts com- mencing at Augusta, Georgia, and extending up the Savannah River. Lewis informed Governor Dobbs that nego- tiations were going on between the French and the Cherokees, Nantowees and Savannahs, and that after the fort was built, and after Captain Demere, who had been sent there with a garri- son of two hundred men, had taken possession, the Cherokees expressed great dissatisfaction at the presence of so many armed men among them and desired that they should be sent back. Lewis said their intention was to take the fort and surrender it to the French. Upon this information Captain Waddell was sent out with reinforcements.{ *There was also a Fort Loudon at Winchester, Virginia. +Mis-spelled Dennie in all N. C. histories. He was Captain of the South Carolina Independent Company after Captain MacKaye. Commanded at Fort Prince George in 1760, and was killed by the Cherokees. tMartin, vol. II, page go. ap of the country d to be made, will of service required at time. The dis- year 1757, Governor Dobbs der aid to South Carolina nor Lyttleton informed him, continually instigated by the becoming very troublesome and would soon, unless aid was P extended, be beyond his power to control. ‘The Legislature granted the aid asked i the Indians, French, were Anp His TIMEs. 39 in May, 1758, was promoted to pega Major, and assigned to the nae 7 the three companies raised for the final ai a against Fort Du Quesne under Genera or ep an account of which will be given in the nex chapter. Before proceeding to an account of that expedition, however, it will be alike Rake to the subject, and eminently due to t : — ory of another brave and faithful Nort se lina Colonial officer, to recite the facts in dig to the campaign of 1754, with which ie oF the soldiers under him, were connected, we é concerning which there has been some — fication and much Br igevan : publication, in 1884, of the Dinwi die ’a- pers” by the Historical Society of eR sss has thrown much light on the subject, althoug if both sides of the correspondence Dene Governor Dinwiddie and that officer could ~ : been preserved and published, the facts wou be much clearer than they are. ie At the beginning of the year 1754, W e Matthew Rowan, President of the Council, as acting Governor of North Carolina, and be ee the arrival of Governor Dobbs, the Assembly 40 A CononraL OFFICER had voted—as they alw Colonies failed (41 2,000) j ways did, though other —a liberal sum of money tion of Independence. March Governor Dinwiddie the hands of Mr. Ashe, in tion of North Carolina, and expressed his pleasure thereat. He wld his ng a fort; but he did not would raise a much larger tal defence. He said that as doubt that they sum for the gene #66 Except North ¢ ina as , aroli i Wlieted Yak denars 2 » Not one of the other Colonies h Sai ek. be Governor Dinwiddie to C. Hanbury, Anp His TIMEs. 4I the campaign was to be for the common safety of all, each Colony should pay and provision its own forces. He expressed surprise at the liberal pay allowed by North Carolina to her soldiers, viz.: three shillings a day, and begged President Rowan to use his influence with the officers and soldiers to induce them to accept the same pay as the Virginians, which was eight pence a day, but said he feared, if the North Carolinians knew that, they would not come. Then, after some inquiry about pro- visions, Governor Dinwiddie says: “T am glad your regiment comes under the command of Colonel Innes, whose capacity, judgment and cool conduct I have a great regard for. And when he comes here I will do all I can to help him. The march of your people by land will be long and very fatiguing. I advise their coming by sea to Hampton,” &c. On the same day he wrote to Colonel Innes, in answer toa letter from him by Mr. Ashe, addressing him as ‘‘ Dear James,” expressing his pleasure at the prospect of seeing him “at the head of a regiment of 750 men,” telling him that he intended him for the chief com- mand, but that the few troops already raised had to march immediately to the Ohio, and, therefore, he had to commission the officers. 4 42 A COLONIAL OFFICER It would seem that Colonel Innes had alluded to his own age as a possible difficulty in his way, and also to the expectations of the Vir- ginians in regard to the command of the troops, for Governor Dinwiddie says: “Your age is nothing when you reflect on your regular method of living.” And again: “As for the expectations of the people here, I always have regard to merit, and I know yours, and you need not mind or fear any reflections.” Colonel Innes reported in person to Gov- ernor Dinwiddie promptly, and on the 15th April, took a letter from him to President Rowan, from which it appears that there had been a full conference between them in regard to the North Carolina forces. Colonel Joshua Fry, “an English gentle- mA, bred at Oxford,’ was made Commander- in-Chief of the expedition. Lieutenant Colonel George Washington started from Alexandria on the roth May with the first detachment of * ‘ Be Montcalm and i olfe, by Francis Parkman, Vol. I, 142. Anp His TIMEs. 43 Washington then went into camp and awaited reinforcements. Colonel Fry was taken ill, and there was great delay in moving his command to Washington’s assistance. About the first of June Colonel Fry died, and on the 4th Gov- ernor Dinwiddie, writing to Washington, whom he had promoted to the Colonelcy of the Vir- ginia regiment in Fry’s stead, informed him that “Colonel James Innes, an old experienced officer, is daily expected, who is appointed Commander-in-Chief of all the forces, which I am very sensible will be very agreeable to you and the other officers.”” On the same day he made out Colonel Innes’ commission as Com- mander-in-Chief, and his instructions. On the roth, Washington, acknowledging the receipt of the letter to him, says: “I rejoice that Iam likely to be happy under the command of an experienced officer and man of sense. It is what I have ardently wished for.’ On the 20th, Governor Dinwiddie, writing to the Gov- ernor of New York, announced the arrival of the two companies from that Province, but complained bitterly that they were not only not “Compleat in Numbers,” as promised, but that many were too old to stand a march of two hundred miles; that they had no blank- ets, tents or provisions, and were “ burthened 44 A COoLoNnIAL OFFICER with thirty women and children” —a decidedly Falstaffian combination. About the last of June, the North Carolina troops, which, upon the discovery that each of the Colonies would have to support its own forces, had been reduced in number from 750 the force originally determined upon, to 450, began to arrive at Winchester, having pacche hd the country instead of taking ship to me ip as suggested by Governor Dinwid- le, and about the same time Colonel Wash- na was complaining to the Governor that 1s command had had no flour for six days d y a sh not hear of any on the way to them; sue ey did not have provisions of any sort wo days ahead, and that they were in want of ammunition. Colonel Innes was also writing to Governor Dinwiddie about the w of the expedition and all sorts; and, finally, retched mismanagement the want of supplies of “ on the rrth of July, he informed him that unless something was done a Pe disband the North Carolina regiment 1d let them go home. They were not only without supplies, but their pay was in arrears and they could not buy what they needed. Governor Dinwiddie declined to advance any money to ‘ . y to them, Saying, “Our own regiment Anp His TIMEs. 45 has got all the money I can spare,” and repeat- ing that each Colony must subsist its own forces. He said he and the Quartermaster and Commissary were in advance to the North Carolina regiment, and expected payment from the produce of the pork brought from North Carolina, or purchased by Innes, and he advised the latter to consult Governor Dobbs as to what he should do for the future, “and it is probable he will find some method of keeping your regiment together for eight months longer.” After telling him to call a council of officers to consult about building a log fort and magazine, and saying that he did not wish him to proceed towards the Ohio, &c., &c., he again informs him as follows: “I can give no orders for entertaining your regiment, as this Dominion will maintain none but their own forces.” At the same time, as appears by” Governor Dinwiddie’s letter to Abercrombie, he was supplying the two independent companies from New York, and the independent company from South Carolina, with everything they needed, except their pay, which came out ‘of the royal revenue, viz.: “tents, blankets, ket- tles, knapsacks, spatterdashes, wagons and provisions,” and the South Carolina company had gone to the front and joined Washington, 46 A COLONIAL OFFICER and on the 3d of July had surrendered, with the force under him, at the Great Meadows, after a gallant engagement -with much supe- rior numbers. Colonel Innes, who was at Winchester, where the forces were to assemble, soon discovered a strong feeling among the Virginians against his appointment to the chief command, and a mutinous disposition soon developed itself among them, which he reported to the Gov- ernor, who said he was sorry for it, and added that they had been greatly fatigued and not properly paid, “but as money is ordered for them I hope they will proceed with spirit.” The North Carolina troops were not recruited rapidly, and, from various causes, were slow in getting to Virginia. They were, doubtless, apprehensive of the very result which hap- pened. Knowing that their number had been reduced from that originally intended, because of the difficulty of supporting such a force beyond the limits of the Province, where the only money they had would not pass current, they doubtless began the service with misgiv- ings. Finding after they got to Virginia that they were in danger of starvation, and that the Virginians were mutinous about Colonel Innes’ appointment, and that Governor Dinwiddie ! Anp His TIMEs. 47 demanded that they should not receive more than eight pence a day, and that he had written to Colonel Innes “ they cannot have the impu- dence to expect more than eight pence a day, as the other forces have, and if you cannot compel them to serve for it I think they had better be disbanded,” and Governor Dinwiddie having expressed the opinion, 27 advance of any knowledge on the subject, that their com- pany officers were incompetent, and the situa- tion having become well-nigh desperate under the pressure of such circumstances, Colonel Innes disbanded them. These are the facts in regard to this matter, as gathered from the correspondence of Gov- ernor Dinwiddie himself, recently published, but they do not so appear upon the page of history. There the North Carolina troops are represented (as one writer puts it) as having “disbanded themselves in a very disorderly manner,” and “to this unmilitary conduct and lack of patriotism” is attributed the fail- ure of the projected expedition against the French.* None of the reasons for their con- duct are given, except such as make them appear in an unfavorable light. *Sparks’s ‘‘ Washington’s Writings,’’ Vol. IJ, page 63, note. 48 A COLONIAL OFFICER Colonel Innes was ordered to build a fort on Wills’s Creek, afterwards called Fort Cumber- land, as a rallying point, and did so. He remained there in command with about 400 men, only forty of whom were North Caro- linians. The Virginia Assembly met on the 22d day of August, and on the 27th passed a supply bill for £20,000, but the next day put a “rider” on x: to pay a private account, greatly to the disgust of Governor Dinwiddie, who called it “a rider” in a letter to Governor Hamilton, and said in a letter to Lord Fairfax, “I imagine your Lordship, in your observation of the Par- liament’s proceedings, does not remember any tack to a money bill since King William’s reign.” The Council rejected the bill thus clogged, and as the House stuck to their “rider” the Governor prorogued them until the 17th Octo- ber. This refusal to vote money to support the troops, although ostensibly because of the failure of the “rider,” was really because Colonel Innes was occupying the position which the Assembly thought Washington ought to have, and, consequently, there was no attempt at a movement against the French. Colonel Innes became very restive under his Anp His TIMEs. 49 enforced inaction and the many annoyances to which he was. subjected, and so informed the Governor, who begged him to be patient a os while longer. This was on the 5th of October. Between that date and the 20th, Governor Dinwiddie, Governor Dobbs, the newly ap- pointed Governor of North Carolina, and Gov- ernor Sharpe of Maryland met for seeeaprincs and agreed upon a plan of operations; and a this meeting Governor Sharpe produced a com- mission from the King appointing him Com- mander-in-Chief of the proposed expedition, whereupon the Governors agreed to ae Colonel Innes ‘Camp Master General”’ with the rank then held by him, and he was so notified on the 24th. On the 25th, Governor Dinwiddie, writing to Sir Thomas eee said he was glad Governor Sharpe was ge Commander-in-Chief, as it would put an en to some disputes between the independent companies and the officer in comma. . “This person, Colonel J. Innes,” he sai ; “has been in His Majesty’s army and is © an unblemished character, of great reputation for his bravery and conduct, and I aie still endeavor to keep him in the service.” — Innes wanted to resign, and Washington did resign, on account of the impudent claims 50 A COLONIAL OFFICER of the Captains of the independent companies, who refused to recognize their superior rank. Governor Sharpe never had an opportunity to display his military skill that year, and the next year Braddock was sent out from Eng- land as commander of the forces. Colonel Innes remained at Fort Cumberland making treaties with the Indians and organ- izing the forces while completing the fort; and on the 24th June, 1755, was appointed “Governor of Fort Cumberland” by General Braddock, and left in command there when Braddock advanced on his hapless march. And there he received the broken fugitives from the fatal field, and there he was abandoned by Colonel Dunbar, who succeeded Braddock in the command, and who precipitately “ went into winter-quarters ” (in August) in Phila- delphia, leaving Innes with 400 sick and wounded, and a handful of Provincials to defend the frontier. And there this ill-used but true and loyal soldier continued to do his is King and country faithfully and of all sorts of difficulties until the Carolina on leave of absence. Sparks, in a note to his edition of Wash- ington’s Writings (Vol. IT, page 262), says Anp His TIMES. 57 that Colonel Innes was incompetent, and a aside from his incompetency, he was an inhabi- tant of North Carolina, and, as such, a unacceptable to the Virginia troops, and ‘ "9 Governor Dinwiddie was censured on ground that he was partial to Innes arsine he and Innes were both natives of Scot se The charge of incompetency was not ai nate by any evidence whatever, unless ae Innes’ patient endurance of st gn A iso ment, his urgent requests. to be sen hi front, and the commendation of Govern an widdie, and Lord Loudon, the nia ag Chief, can be twisted into such evi site 8 had served as a Captain in the expe pwd against Carthagena in 1740, and was = mate friend of Washington’s elder m4 : : Major Lawrence Washington, men the Captain in Colonel Wm. Gooch’s Virg regi in that affair. ; p08 was not the equal of doen may be cordially admitted, but os neti : remembered that, at that time, Was ingto himself had been the victim of two paneer the surrender at the Great Meadows and pes dock’s defeat—and that no opportunity 288 been presented for the exhibition of vo at capacity; and further, that, however absu 52 A COoLoNIAL OFFICER comparison between him and Washington may now appear, the situation then did not justify Mr. Sparks’ criticism, which is thus com- mented upon because it was the basis upon which many, if not all, subsequent writers have rested their discussion of the campaigns of 1754—55. Mr. Sparks was entirely justified, however, in characterizin gas natural* the asser- tion of their “ rights” in the affair by the Virginians, for three years afterwards the Virginia Assembly, being dissatisfied with the manner in which Forbes’ expedition was man- “and with the partiality which they ned was shown to Pennsylvania,” passed an act on the 14th of September, 1758, to with- draw the first regiment (Washington’s) from the Regulars on the rst December and station it on the frontiers of their own Colony—which would have amounted to a withdrawal of all the Virginia troops, as the time of enlistment of the second regiment expired on the ist of December, while the first regiment was enlisted for the war. imagi The foregoing narrative of facts, which is now for the first time compiled, is given in justice to the memory of a good and true man, *Sparks, Vol. II, page 308, note. Anp His TIMEs. 53 who died a childless benefactor of the roars of his poorer fellow-citizens. And as a cle conclusion to it, the following biograp d: aes aa was born, as is inferred cite . clause in his will, at Cannisbay, 10 cine cen which is in the extreme Northern en rob- land, near “John O’Groat’s house. h faite ably came to the Province of Nort he was with Governor Gabriel Johnston, as Council recommended for appointment id Sak in 1734, and was living in the shitty m J ree He was a member of sag asain ths served 1750, to May, 1759, heving ge ag AH as Captain in the expedition to ‘le ’s agents, and having been one of Lord Granv1 oy eh and Colonel of the New Hanover se ye Wil- died on the 5th of September, 1759) de July mington. By his will, which a om nate 5th, 1754, at Winchester, Va., whic W ‘iron before Governor Dobbs at eb gah "Hanover 9th, 1759, and is registered ve inte that a County, Colonel Innes, after ae Sieaheile remittance may be made “‘to as ATE aN to pay for a church bell for the oe ther remit- Cannisbay, in Caithness,” and a fur to be tance of one hundred pounds r a ave put at interest for the poor of said Parish, g 54 A COLONIAL OFFICER his plantation, “ Point Pleasant,” near Wil- mington, a considerable personal estate, his library and one hundred pounds sterling “ for the use of a free school for the benefit of the youth of North Carolina,” and appointed as trustees of the fund “the Coll: (Colonel) of New Hanover regiment, the Parson of Wil- mington Church, and the Vestry for the time being, or the majority of them.” Zhzs was the jirst Private bequest for educational purposes wn the history of North Carolina, and in the year (1754) the first appropriation by the gislature for a public seminary was made. si ee) under his will, recovered very b i “4 his property, the houses having been urned, but the “Innes Academy” was started under an act of the Legislature of 1783, and wa ; F kept up for some time by private sub- scription. en Innes’ widow Jean, in 1761, married neis Corbin, Lord Granville’s agent, a = ; ember of the Council, who was removed therefrom in 1760, Anp His TIMES. 55 CHAPTER II. 1758-1764. Forbes’ Expedition to Fort Du Quesne—Major Waddell Com- mands the North Carolina Troops—Sergeant John Rogers— Return of the North Carolina Troops and Expedition Against the Cherokees—Waddell promoted to Colo- neley—Peace Declared—End of Dobbs’ Administration— Notice of Dobbs’ Family. . i Die forces on Braddock’s expedition in 1755, numbered about two thousand, one- half of whom were Provincial troops, and of these North Carolina furnished less than one hundred, under Dobbs’ son, Edward Brice Dobbs, as Major. These North Carolinians were not engaged in Braddock’s fight, but were with the reserve corps under Dunbar. The other half of Braddock’s army was composed of two regiments of British Regulars from Ire- land, the 44th and 48th, numbering five hun- dred men each, and commanded respectively by Sir Peter Halket and Colonel Dunbar. These regiments, which were said to be equal to any in the British army, were accompanied by an artillery train and military supplies. The terrible disaster which befell the expe- 58 A CoLoNIAL OFFICER nies authorized to be recruited by the act of Assembly granting aid to the expedition, in answer to Mr. Pitt’s appeal to the Colonies. He at once proceeded to organize, equip and prepare the troops for their long march, and as soon as they were ready he set out with them for Virginia. There was no complaint of delay in his getting to the front, as there had been fre- quently by Governor Dinwiddie in regard to the North Carolina forces in the two previous expeditions of 1754 and 1755. He marched promptly to Virginia and went thence to the front immediately. The writer of these pages now has a field return made by Major Wad- dell on that expedition. It is written on a sheet about eight inches in length by five inches in breadth, in a very clear, legible hand, and although the paper is somewhat worn and discolored, the ink is comparatively fresh- looking. It is headed: “A Field Return of the North Carolina Detachment under the com- mand of Major Waddell, Loyal Hannon,* 25th October 1758." Besides the officers, there are but twenty-six men on the return, but imme- *Governor Dinwiddie spelled this name ‘Loyal henning.”’ It is Loyal Hanna. Anp His. TIMES. 59 diately under it, and before his signature, “Hu Waddell Maj: N. C. Troops,” there 1s an addition of the figures 26 and 96, and a footing of:122, which was, doubtless, his effect- ive force. The date and place of this field return fully corroborate the statement after- wards made by Governor Dobbs, that Major Waddell “had great honor done him, being employed on all reconnoitering parties’? on this expedition. One of those minor events which so often shape history, but are lost sight of in general results, occurred to Major Waddell’s command on this expedition; but, although—as has been the case with so many more important facts in the history of North Carolina—no credit has ever been given for it, it is nevertheless true that the North Carolina companies were 1 the advance corps of Forbes’s army, scouting, reconnoitering, clearing roads, building bridges and boats, and rendering the most valuable service; and that to a Sergeant of Major Wad- dell’s command, named John Rogers,” General Forbes was indebted for the information which caused the immediate advance and occupation *At August Term, 1765, the Inferior Court of New Hanover County, of which General Waddell was a Magistrate, appointed John Rogers a Constable. 56 A COLONIAL OFFICER dition is familiar to every reader of American history, and a touching account of the discovery of the remains of Sir Peter Halket and his young son who fought by his side, when Forbes’ expedition reached the battlefield three years afterwards, is given by Bancroft. The expedition of 1758, under General Forbes, was more than three times as large as Braddock’s, and consisted of 1,200 Highlanders, 350 Royal Americans—a specially organized corps—about 2,700 Pennsylvanians, 1,600 Vir- ginians, 250 Marylanders, and three companies of North Carolinians, with whom were some Indians. Braddock’s expedition ended in an awful butchery and a disgraceful panic and flight of the British Regulars, which the heroic conduct of Washington and his Provincials could not avail to arrest. Forbes’ expedition terminated, after six months of terrible hardships, in the occupation of the smoking ruins of a fort from which the enemy had fled. There is, to the reader of the present day, a profound pathos in the letters of Washington, written during the period covered by these two expeditions. The constant and numerous difficulties and Anp His TIMEs. 57 annoyances to which he was subjected on the last one, and which ranged from building camp chimneys for the General, or regulating the steelyards of a contractor, all the way through the category of defending himself from slander, resisting impudent attempts to degrade him in rank, or passing sleepless nights of anxiety over the condition of his troops and the fate of the expedition, up to the time when, writing from Loyal Hanna to Governor Fauquier, he says: “The General and great part of his troops being yet behind, and the weather grow- Ing very inclement, I apprehend our expedition must terminate for this year at this place.” These trials and the emotions they excited in him are all faithfully reflected in his corre- Spondence during that period, which was care- fully preserved and published, with his other Writings, nearly a half century after his death. These letters discover the same calm and lofty Spirit, the same sturdy sense of duty, the same self-poise, the same courage and sagacity, and the same inflexible integrity which marked his whole career and made his name immortal. In the spring of 1758, when the preliminary atrangements for Forbes’ expedition were in Progress, Major Waddell was assigned to the command of the three North Carolina compa- 5 60 A CoLonIAL OFFICER of the fort. They had been in the advance corps from the beginning, and before Wash- ington had, upon his own earnest application,* been assigned tothatcommand. This isevident, from the fact that Major Waddell’s field return, already mentioned, is dated at Loyal Hanna on the 25th October, while Colonel Washing- ton did not reach that point in the advance until the 30th. Washington, who had saved the remnant of Braddock’s expedition three years before, although treated with great consideration and freely consulted by General Forbes, was greatly apprehensive that the persistent refusal to act upon his advice would defeat the purpose of the expedition, as appears by his letter of Sep- temper 1st to Speaker Robinson, in which he said: “Nothing now but a miracle can bring this campaign to a happy issue.” When, finally, the accumulating obstacles, delays and * Colonel Stephen gives me some room to apprehend that a body of light troops may soon move on. I pray your interest most sincerely with the General to get my regiment and myself included in the number. If any argument is needed to obtain this favor, I hope, without vanity, I may be allowed to say, that from long intimacy with these woods, and frequent scout- ing in them, my men are at least as well acquainted with all the passes and difficulties as any troops that will be employed.” Washington to Colonel Bouquet, 21 July. SEW EtE ner aeee ware sy Anp His TIMES. Oe embarrassments culminated in a council of War, at which the alternative was presented of going into winter quarters or abandoning the expedition, ‘a mere accident,” as Sparks says, occurred, which “brought hope out of despair.” ‘This mere accident, which all the historians mention, and to which Washington himself alludes as a Providential occurrence, but without mentioning any names, was the cap- ture of an Indian from whom the true situation of affairs at Fort Du Quesne was learned. But although this mere accident, or, in other words, this event of absolutely vital importance to the success of this formidable expedition, which established English supremacy in the South, is carefully recorded, the person who was so fortunate as to accomplish this mere accident is as carefully ignored, to-wit, Sergeant John Rogers of the North Carolina forces. It was a little thing to do, perhaps, but Forbes con- sidered the importance of doing it so great that he offered a reward of fifty guineas, and another officer offered a reward of four hun- dred guineas* to any one who would take an Indian prisoner, so that they might get infor- *Petition of John Rogers to the Assembly. Colonial Records of N. C., Vol. VI, 384. 62 A COLONIAL OFFICER mation of the enemy’s movements. Rogers accomplished it at the hazard of his life, and from the prisoner captured by him it was ascertained that the garrison at Fort Du Quesne were only waiting the appearance of the British when they would withdraw, and thereupon the light troops made a forced march and the enemy burned and abandoned the fort. General Forbes died without paying or pro- viding for the payment of the reward to Rogers, but the Assembly of North Carolina allowed him twenty pounds for his gallantry. Major Waddell himself “dressed and acted as an Indian” on this expedition, according to Governor Dobbs’s statement, and a tradition in his family says that a large dog belonging to him was the first living creature that entered Fort Du Quesne after the French evacuated it. After the fall of the fort all the troops, except enough to garrison it, returned to their homes, including the North Carolinians. But the French, who retired from Fort Du Quesne and moved farther southward, very soon had an opportunity to retaliate, and form an alliance with the very same Cherokees who had been co-operating with the English. This was the result. of an unfortunate, and, as it Anp His TIMES. 63 turned out, a cruel act on the part of some Virginians. i The Cherokees had aided the British on every expedition against Fort Du Digest strictly adhering in this respect to their treaty obligations; and it was on the return of the warriors from this final expedition that the unfortunate occurrence referred to took place. They were passing through the extreme fron- tier settlements of Virginia, and finding some horses running wild in the woods—as was e case everywhere on the frontiers—they too some of them to supply the places of those they had lost on the expedition, “ never me agining,” as is said by Hewat, “that t gs belonged to any individual in the Province. Thereupon some Virginians, without attempt- ing any other process of redress, attacked Soe with arms and killed twelve or fourteen 0 the unsuspecting warriors and took cea prisoners. The Cherokees were naturally incensed at such an ungrateful and ,cruel return from the people whose soil they had marched several hundred miles to defend, ro when they reached their homes at once what had happened. ‘The result was an out- 64 A CoLonraL OFFICER burst of fury, especially among the young warriors who were kinsmen of the victims ; and the emissaries of the French, who were among them, added fuel to the fame of their resentment by telling them that the British intended to kill all their warriors and to reduce all their women and children to slavery. These emissaries roused their vengeance in every way and supplied them with arms and ammu- nition. Fort Loudon, on the Tennessee, where there was a garrison of 200 men under Cap- tains Demere and Stuart, was one of the first objects of their vengeance, and hunting parties and stragglers from that post were attacked and killed. Descents were made upon the settlements and the inhabitants were murdered and scalped. Fort Loudon was cut off from supplies and the garrison was in danger of starvation.* The news of the Cherokee outbreak soon spread and reached Fort Prince George, near the upper Savannah river, whose commanding officer notified the Governor of South Carolina. Governor Dobbs was also notified, and at once ordered Waddell, who had been promoted to the rank of Colonel, to take all the Provincial *Carr, Coll. I, 444. Anp His TIMES. 65 troops, and all the militia of Orange, 2 and Rowan Counties, who could be proper'y armed, and rendezvous at Fort a in conjunction with an expedition fittec out by numbering about 1,400 men. The — refused to march against the Cherokees, mila the ground that they were not bound to ‘4 out of the limits of the Province. Co ra Waddell notified Governor Dobbs of oo Gad sent him, by the same express, 4 letter ane received from Governor Lyttleton. sai appealed to the Assembly, carats “nass a (Nov. 26th, 1759), and asked them to " Pé ilitia short bill to explain and enforce tie m1 iliti 7 dered law, and oblige the militia to act w here or for the public good and the defence oo Posy Province.” On the 29th November the As : bly ordered about a thousand pounds a piven to Colonel Waddell to buy ee a and a resolution was passed “that ea slitia now in the pay of this Province, and sees Mee thereof, not to exceed 500 men, wei : and pay until the roth February, + quench appropriated five thousand pounds a this dis- The Cherokees were overaw ed by Another 66 A CoLonraL OFFICER visions of w hich required them to leave twenty- four hostag: €s, to secure the delivery of twen- ty-four Indians who had murdered the same number of whites since the former treaty. Governor Lyttleton very unwisely withdrew his forces, leaving only a small guard over the hostages, and the result was an attempt by the Indians to surprise the garrison and rescue n the 27th January, 1760.* They €y murdered some traders and under a close blockade for some Protect the frontiers. He was he Indians at Fort Dobbs on the he 27th February, the assault by two parties, but he repulsed ten or twelve, and lost only one two men wounded, one of whom He expected an attack the next Carr, Col. I,. 451. pbell, and he was allowed by the Assembly twenty pounds for “ present subsistence.’’ Col. Rec., Vol, VI, 422. N43 6 Anp His TIMES. 7 it and night, but the Indians had enough of ita did not make another attempt. vith the Whether Colonel Waddell was es Major expedition of Colonel apices Ait A , country Grant which invaded the Chero vie Etchoe and fought an indecisive battle 1n gee ati settlement, near the present bi sc alge retreat on the 27th June, is uncertain. Siguesanr of Montgomery to Fort Prince ~ . was fol- the surrender of Fort Loudon, Neen Indians. lowed by treachery and murder by erie ign In the fall, however, a garg Oe in ordered to join Colonel Byrd, Z t the latter striking the upper reaemaeke tele made peace and he discharged 6 arrival in Phus the first five years after 105 A dell the Province were passed by Solnhe ainst the chiefly in the field in active service agé French and Indians. : vice There is no record of any nsdn ee tendered by him between wi cs during "765, except that which he pet ps hich body the sessions of the Assembly, © corte As he was a prominent and useful pe seanily the population of the ere ans portion, increasing, especially in the Ba radually and the Indian depredations gine Britain ceasing, until the peace between is most active duty, and began to utilize the advan- tages, which his experience and knowledge of am “ountry gave him, by judicious investments “S, and the establishment of “stores ”’ "S places in the back country, where the certainty of large profits awaited such Ventures, That he did this about that time, Anp His TIMES. 69 ; ; ~ died, in his 82d year, and was eae e plantation on Town Creek, below Wilming si He had obtained a leave of ~~ intended going to England when deat took him. In a letter to the Earl of Halifax, cco April 2d, 1765, at Wilmington, Tryon w as follows: “Tast Thursday Governor even ber from the strife and cares of this Mts m loyed days before his death he was busily baad to in packing up his books for his be ps cst England. His physician had no o by telling to prevent his fatiguing himself than by i I him he had better prepare himself for a much longer voyage.” The poor old man departed at a eal for himself, and, doubtless, at a con soir season for his lively and handsome ee Widow, who, not long afterwards, Br who herself with a new and younger ciatig® rent was also destined, but under a4 Cada auspices, to be Governor of Nort . nat ner Nash. a ee Dobbs was a widower ag came to North Carolina, and he ae for the purpose of Sere a = i in the Providing for his near relatives—obJe A CoLonraL OFFICER Want of diligence, By his first matriage he had two sons and two daughters i is descendants, * His second son, was appointed Captain Carolina company sent on Brad- tion ; was afterwards, in the New z Anp His TIMES. 7 i When the trouble arose phot age ment law of the Province, pong’ tk attachment laws of several other eau all gave a resident creditor advantage -resi- others by subjecting the property sien of dent debtors to seizure for the oS the lead- Such resident creditor’s claim, one - s that of ing cases arising under the act . aa Abner Nash against the Dobbs esta : se in which an attachment had pane : in Ire- the interest of Dobbs’s son, who pst left by land, to satisfy a legacy of £2,00 se went Dobbs’s will to his widow. The ca laintiff before the Privy Council and the p ained it. ith him ™ GovererDes als bong ovr wth is his nephew, Richard Spaight, hah forces in Paymaster to the North ae ry of the Braddock’s expedition, was Se Se Province in 1756, and a member 0 bs Spaight, He was the father of Richard eH ; 7 1792, who was Governor of North eter Stanly and who was killed in a duel by A she second in 1802, and was the grandfather 0 lso Gov- Richard Dobbs Spaight, who was 4 €rnor in 1834. inis- a the whole of Dobbs’s admit Anp His ‘TIMES. a9 CHAPTER III. 1763. Tryon Becomes Governor—His Character and Conduct—The Stamp Act—Arrival of the Sloop of War Diligence at Brunswick—Colonel Waddell, with Colonel Ashe and others, Resists the Landing of the Stamps. PON the death of Governor Dobbs, Tryon succeeded to the Governorship and quali- fied on the 3d April, 176s. He was an accomplished man of the world and a gallant soldier, but he was also vain and lmperious. He still retained his rank in the British army and his place in the regular line of promotion, and he was ambitious of distinc- Hon in the administration of a Colonial gov- €tnment in which there had been, for many years, continual disagreement between the Assembly and his predecessors, and growing dissatisfaction among the people with their local civil officers. So far as their relations with the Crown were Concerned, the inhabitants of the Province of North Carolina were as loyal as its most loyal Subjects anywhere, but they had, particularly 6 74 A CoLoNIAL OFFICER in the Western part of the Province, been annoyed, irritated and oppressed by the petty frauds and extortions practiced upon them by entry-takers, deputy surveyors, land agents and court officers, and by the failure, in many cases, of their own Assembly to provide ade- quate remedies for these evils. The character of Governor Tryon was totally different from that of Governor Dobbs. He was more adroit and conciliatory, and while cherishing high ideas of prerogative, was free from the little infirmities which age had only emphasized in Dobbs. He was pas- sionate, but his passion was under control; he was young and vigorous, but—beyond a desire to display some “pomp and circumstance.” and to live luxuriously—was not disposed to harry or oppress the people. His appoint- ment to the office of Governor was, however made at an unfortunate time for himself. The Stamp Act, a veritable Pandora’s box, and the most far-reaching legislative blunder in the history of England, was passed by Parliament and received the Royal sanction about a fort- night before he qualified as Dobbs’s successor.® *The Stamp Act was approved March 22d, and he qualified April 3d. ANpD His ‘TIMEs. 75 and the news of its passage, which had been anticipated, was not long in getting to America. Before the passage of the Stamp Act, the Parliament of Great Britain had, in 1764, for the first time,* undertaken to appropriate the property of American subjects to the purpose of increasing the revenues of the Crown by imposing a duty on sugar, coffee, wine and other articles of foreign growth imported into the Colonies. Finding that there was still a deficit in the revenues, after the imposition of these duties on foreign imports, and in pur- suance of a previously declared purpose, they passed the Stamp Act in 1765. This act, which has already been character- ized as the most far-reaching legislative blun- der in the history of England, was the pet project of George Grenville, Chancellor of the Exchequer, who had adopted the plan of taxa- tion from Lord Bute, to whom it had been sug- gested by Jenkinson. The act, which contained fifty-five sections, provided an elaborate system of stamp duties for the Colonies, and all offences against its provisions were made cognizable in the Courts of Admiralty, in which there were no juries, ‘“‘so that the Americans were not only to be *Bancroft, Vol. V, 188. 76 A COLONIAL OFFICER taxed by the British Parliament, but to have the taxes collected arbitrarily, under the decree of British Judges, without any trial by jury.’* In introducing the measure, Grenville teas an adroit and plausible speech, as he had done animation, and, on its final passage, forty-two votes were recorded against it, to is hundred and ninety-four in its favor. The opponents of the bill, however, almost without exception, admitted the er of Par- lament to pass the measure, although its con- stitutionality was as bitterly denied in the Colonies as the injust; Vv Injustice of j isi J of its pro isions, and was not only a new one, bu to the Colonies, bil, exclusively which were witho t threatened ruin It was an internal revenue applicable to the Colonies, ut representation in the body *Bancroft (quoting Walpole), Vol. Vv 156. Anp His TIMEs. 77 that enacted it, and it clogged every trans- action of a business nature requiring the use of paper, and taxed the privilege of publishing, advertising in, or reading newspapers, pam- phlets and other publications. The tax, too, was not only imposed upon a multiplicity of objects, but was very heavy on each. The cheapest stamp was one shilling. It taxed knowledge as well as business. The tax on a college diploma was ten dollars, and on an advertisement in a newspaper fifty cents. In the same proportion every written contract for the sale of property, every deed, every bill of sale, bond, note, bill of exchange, or other instrument used in business transactions, and each separate paper used in legal proceedings from the beginning of a suit to the end, had to pay astamp tax. An amusing but fair illus- tration of the effect of it was afforded when Governor Tryon, on the 21st December, 1765, submitted to the Council the question whether he could issue writs of election for the new Assembly on unstamped paper. There was already the impost duty on all the luxuries (including under this head such articles as coffee and sugar); there was the tax involved in the enforcement of the Navigation Act, which, Bancroft says, ““was the head- 78 A COLONIAL OFFICER spring that colored all the stream of American Independence,” and these taxes were outside of the taxes imposed by the Colonial Legisla- tures for the purposes of local government. So that, in the impoverished condition of the people, and amidst the trials and dangers that surrounded them, it looked like th wantonness of tyranny their burdens, e very to add a stamp tax to It was, besides, as the Colo- nists and some of the wiser English statesmen insisted, an unconstitutional measure. Daniel Dulaney, of Maryland, a lawyer whose ability in discussing the question pro- foundly impressed the public mind, both in England and America, and whose opinions were thought to have moulded those of Mr. Pitt, by whom they were publicly noticed with great honor, argued the rights of both parties with minute and elaborate learning, and his powerful reasoning strengthened the convic- tion of his countrymen that in opposing the act they were but vindicating their rights and defending their liberties. George Washin gton, ndridge, in London Ty Anp His TIMEs. 79 part of the Colonists, who look upon this un- constitutional method of taxation as a direful attack upon their liberties, and loudly Dee against the violation;” and he Asai : show that, merely as a revenue scheme, the ac and other ill-judged measures must prove dis- astrous to Great Britain, inasmuch as ned would necessarily lessen importations into the Colonies, and thereby hurt her Pe yA declaring at the same time that the sae : would dispense with all pacers and a : the necessaries which, he said, “are mostly : be had within ourselves.’ He also i that the passage of the act would sa é close the Courts, as the Colonists a ne possibly comply with its provisions, and t _ if such a result followed, the enisaanstind a Great Britain, trading to the Colonies, ice ! not be among the last to wish for a repea a the act.”* How much these merchants ) Great Britain were interested in the aoa will appear from the following inne a William Cullen Bryant’s recently publishe Popular History of the United States :+ “Tt is said that between 1765 and 1775, two- *Washington’s Letters, Vol. II, 343. TVol. III, 331. 80 A COoLoNnIAL OFFICER thirds of the foreign commerce of itai was that which she conducted oy lacey Between 1700 and 1760, the value of propert in England increased fifty per cent., and Pitt declared this was wholly due to the ‘Athetican Colonies. Speaking in 1766, he said, ‘The profit to Great Britain from the Colonies is two millions a year. This is the fund that carried you triumphantly through the last war You owe this to America.’ Let it be remem- bered that Great Britain supplied three millions of people in America with al factured article which they received from her Colonies much of the fish, indigo, rice. n other productions which she pine hat with her growing strength in the West Indies she used her Colonies on the main-land to feed her islands, and it will be understood that English merchants, and those who had to deal with them in England, conceived hich the wealth to be derived from oe ws most every manu- needed; that she the tobacco, and It will, therefore, at once be seen from this statement, which is amply verified by all the authorities, that the Stamp Act was stupid and suicidal legislation, which provoked resistance as well for commercial as for political reasons, both in Great Britain and in the Colonies: But the commercial reasons were the least aie: erful in the Colonies. It was the attempt to Anp His TIMEs. 81 subvert their liberties which, if submitted to, would only lead to further aggressions, that roused the Americans to fury and united them in a determination to resist the enforcement of the act with all their power and at every hazard; and, therefore, when certain intelligence of the final passage of it came, it produced a storm of angry opposition, and nowhere more than in North Carolina. Tryon, in a letter to Conway, hereinafter given in full, says: “Tn obedience to his Majesty’s commands, communicated to me by the honor of your letter of the 12th of July last, it is with con- cern I acquaint you that the obstruction to the Stamp Act passed last session of Parliament, has been as general in this Province as in any Colony on the continent.” And in all his letters to the home govern- ment he reiterates the statement in the strong- est language. The first Assembly after Tryon’s accession had met on the 3d of May at Wilmington, and it was immediately after their meeting, and before they had passed more than one or two acts, that intelligence of the passage of the Stamp Act by Parliament reached them. Tryon 82 A COLONIAL OFFICER knew what the popular sentiment was, and in order to ascertain what would be the probable action of the Assembly, he had an interview with the Speaker, John Ashe, and asked him the question. Ashe’s reply was, that the act “would be resisted to blood and death,” Thereupon Tryon immediately issued a proclamation* proroguing the Assembly to meet at Newbern November 30th. He did not really intend however, that it should re-assemble at that time unless the storm blew over; and after- wards, finding matters growing worse, he issued another proclamation,+ again probagein g the Assembly until March 12th, assigning as a reason that there appeared to be no imme- diate necessity for their meeting in November. This proroguing of the Assembly on the 18th May, and again October 2 5th, prevented the election of delegates from North Carolina to what is known in history as the Stamp Act Congress—an explanation of the absence of such delegates which does not seem to have been known to the writers who have igno- rantly criticised the State for a want of spirit *May 18th, 1765. tOctober 25th. Anp His TIMEs. 83 at that time. But, although the Assembly was thus prevented from meeting and giving expression to the public feeling, the people were not, and Colonel Hugh Waddell, though carrying the King’s commission in his pocket, was one of the first to take the lead at Wil- mington in denouncing the Act, and express- ing a determination to resist it, in resolutions passed at public meetings held under the very nose of the Governor. ‘These meetings were held in the summer of 1765, and were a part of the proceedings then going on in all the Colonies looking to the same end. But an event was soon to occur which—unknown to or ignored by some historians, and fixed at a wrong date by others—placed North Carolina at the head of the Colonies as offering the first armed resistance to the operation of the Stamp Act in America. In the other Colonies the feeling of resistance was as strong, and the demonstrations by the people were as earnest ; but although flags were half-masted, effigies burned, processions formed, and stamp-masters forced to resign, zo open, armed resistance to an armed force occurred, except on the Cape Fear River. This occurrence took place when the sloop 84 A COLONIAL OFFICER of war Deligence arrived at Fort Johnston (now Southport) at the mouth of the river with the stamps. The arrival of the Dihigence is, in all the histories except Moore’s, stated to have occurred “in the first of the year,” or “ early in the year” 1766—an error arising from the fact that Tryon’s proclamation announcing her arrival was dated January 6th of that year. Moore’s history places her arrival on the 28th September, 1765. The true date was Novem- ber 28th, 1765. On the 16th day of November, the people under the lead of Colonel John Ashe and others, went to T'ryon’s house and demanded William Houston (not James Houston, as invariably stated in every published geoouutit of the affair), who had been appointed stamp- master, and upon T'ryon’s refusal to surrender him they made preparations to burn the house. Tryon then requested Colonel Ashe to step in and talk with the stamp-master, which he did and Houston, realizing his danger if he refused the demand made upon him to resign his office agreed to accompany Colonel Ashe to he street, and, escorted thence by a large crowd they went to the Court:House and there, i *Tryon’s letter to Hon. Seymour Conway, Feb. 29, 1766 Anp His TIMES. 85 the presence of the Mayor and public officers, Houston took and subscribed the following oath: “T do hereby promise that I never will receive any stamp-paper which may arrive from Europe, in consequence of any act lately passed in the Parliament of Great Britain, nor officiate in any manner as stamp-master in the distribution of stamps within the Province of North Carolina, either directly or indirectly. I do hereby notify all the inhabitants of His Majesty’s Province of North Carolina, that notwithstanding my having received informa- tion of my being appointed to said office of stamp-master, I will not apply hereafter for any stamp-paper, or to distribute the same until such time as it shall be agreeable to the inhabi- tants of this Province. . “Hereby declaring that I do execute these presents of my own free will and accord, with- out any equivocation or mental reservation whatever. “In witness hereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 16th November, 1765. “WitLIAM HousTon.’”* Upon the taking and signing the oath by Houston, the crowd gave three cheers and then dispersed. *Tryon’s dispatch, Dec. 26th. 86 A COLONIAL OFFICER . Twelve days afterward the Diligence arrived in the Cape Fear river with the stamps, and the welcome which awaited her captain sean have astonished him. His name was Phipps and his vessel was a twenty-gun sloop of oar: which was cruising off the coast of Mitctaie and the Carolinas. He brought the stamps from Virginia, whither they had been sent from England, and, doubtless, anticipated no trouble whatever in delivering them to the Collector of the port of Brunswick. ‘The idea of resistance of any kind probably never occurred to him, and a suggestion of armed defiance on the part of the people on shore would have seemed the wildest absurdity to a commander of one of His Majesty’s war-ships Comfortably pacing his deck as the gallant sloop, with colors flying and all her canvass set, glided curtseying across the bar like a fine lady entering a drawing-room, the Captain was doubtless already enjoying in anticipation the sideboard and table refreshments that awaited him in the hospitable mansions of the Cape Fear planters, and eager to stand gun in hand, by one of the tall pines of Benuisteiék and watch the coming of the antlered monarch of the forest before the inspiring music of the hounds. Anp His TIMEs. 87 As the Diligence bowls along “with a bone in her mouth” across the ruffled bosom of the beautiful bay into which the river expands opposite Fort Johnston, a puff of white smoke leaps from her port quarter followed by. a roar of salutation from one of her guns; an answer- ing thunder of welcome comes from the fort, and the proud ship walks the waters towards the town of Brunswick, eight miles farther up the river towards Wilmington. An hour later she sights the town, and a little while after- wards, with a graceful sweep and a rushing keel, she gradually puts her nose in the wind as if scenting trouble; and then, at the shrill sound of the boatswain’s whistle, the growling chains release the anchor from its long sus- pense, and the Delzgence rests opposite to the Custom House of Brunswick, with her grin- ning port-holes open and all her guns exposed. Then her rigging blocks chuckle asshe lowers and clews her sails, and she rides at her moor- ings beneath the flag of the Mistress of the Seas. The Captain at once observes that the little town seems to be unusually lively and expect- ant. He soon discovers the cause. A con- siderable body of armed men occupy the streets and line the shore. Presently he is informed 88 A COLONIAL OFFICER that Colonel Hugh Waddell, an experienced soldier, who had been on the lookout for the Diligence with the militia of Brunswick County, had notified Colonel Ashe of New Hanover of his moyements, and these two gentlemen, with the armed militia of both counties, confronted him and informed him that they would resist the landing of the stamps and would fire on any one attempting it. Here was one of His Majesty’s twenty-gun sloops of war openly defied and threatened by British subjects armed and drawn up in battle array! Here was treason, open, flagrant and in the broad light of day—treason, armed and led by the most distinguished soldier of the Province and the Speaker of the Assembly! The Captain of the Diligence prudently con- cluded that it would be folly to attempt to land the stamps in the face of such a threat, backed by such force, and promised a compliance with the demands sof the people. The “Sons of Liberty,” as they were afterwards called, then seized one of the boats of the Diligence, and leaving a guard at Brunswick marched with it mounted on a cart to Wilmington, where there was a triumphal procession through the streets, and at night a general illumination of the town. | | oH Anp His TIMEs. 89 “And this,” said an eloquent North Caro- linian, ‘‘was more than ten years before the Declaration of Independence, and more than nine before the battle of Lexington, and San eight years before the Boston ‘Tea Party. The destruction of the tea was done in the night by men in disguise. And history blazons it, and New England boasts of it, and the fame of it is world-wide. But this other act, more gallant and daring, done in open day by well- known men, with arms in their hands, and under the King’s flag—who remembers, or who tells of it.’”* Contemplating this act, and many other kindred ones done by her sons, well did the orator ask, ‘‘ When will history do justice to North Carolina?” It being the duty of Governor Tryon, as a matter of course, to report all this business to the home government, he determined to say nothing about the armed resistance to Ni Diligence, but to report only the facts in regar to the compulsion of the Stamp-Master to resign, and to explain the failure to land the stamps by the assertion that, as there was no *Hon. George Davis, Address at the University of N.C, June, 1855. 7 go A COLONIAL OFFICER one to distribute them, fe directed them to be kept on board that vessel. The humiliation to which he had been subjected in his own house in which Houston had taken refuge (of which fact he likewise avoided all mention), was sufficiently galling, without adding an account of it, or of the armed defiance of one of His Majesty’s men-of-war by the same peo- ple. Besides, as appears from his conduct and his dispatch to Conway, he was anxious to smooth over the trouble and conciliate the people, whose good will he desired to cultivate, whose condition he knew to be depressed, and whose spirit he was obliged to respect. Indeed, the whole tone of the dispatch was deprecatory and regretful, and justifies the suspicion that Tryon sympathized with those who regarded the Stamp Act as most unwise and oppressive legislation, although his position was such as to prevent him from openly saying so. ‘This dispatch which, like the others in his letter- book, has never been published up to the time when these pages are written, is here given in full, so far as it relates to the event above described. ANpD His TIMES. BRUNSWICK 26 Decr 1765. “ The Right Hon'ble FP y Seymour Conway In obedience to His Majesty’s commands communicated to me by the honor of your letter of the 12th of July last, it is with con- cern I acquaint you that the obstruction to the Stamp Act passed last session of Parliament has been as general in this province as in any Colony on the continent, tho’ their irregular proceedings have been attended with no mis- chief, or are by any means formidable. I am much of the opinion that whatever measures are prescribed and enforced by his Majesty’s authority to the more formidable Colonies to the Northward will meet with a ready acqui- esence in the Southern provinces, without the necessity of any military force. _ The first intelligence of the general alarm which was spread against the Stamp Act in this Colony was in October last, at a time I lay extremely ill of the fevers of this country, which with repeated relapses I have experienced these five months past. I was very impatient to seize the first opportunity to communicate my sentiments to the merchants of New Hanover and Brunswick Counties, who are the persons that carry on the commerce of Cape Fear River (and where I imagined the stamps would arrive) on the then situation of public affairs. On the 18th November near fifty of the above gentle- men waited on me to dinner when I urged to them the expediency of permitting the circu- lation of the stamps, but as my health at that 92 A COLONIAL OFFICER time would not allow me to write down 7 speech I must beg leave to refer you, Si es the enclosed Carolina Gazette of the 2 th N i in which you will find nearly the si Ahi of what I declared and proposed to the ab : gentlemen. Their answer and my 1 oe inclosed. CON aor Two days before the aboy i Houston the Distributor 7 AN eae na compelled in the Court House in Wilmin iE an in the presence of the Mayor and tas eran as a “e isch The stamps ri ovem i i Majesty’s Sloop, the Dion: Gast Phi A commander, but - there was no Dintigbutoe r of the stamps j 1 after Mr. Houston’s eraser guons still remain on board the said ship. No ves- sels have been cleared out Since the first of this river or f; ) é rom any other in this province that I have received intelligence of. Some merchants f, ilmi rom Wilmington applied Bei for certificates for their avon getting sie a soe were to be had, which I declined » referring them to the off Majesty’s Custon si na est} 1s. They have be i ous in obstructing the recepti heal ; eceptio as any of the inhabitants. to ota oug ss nike mage transacted in the Courts of J ea ure, tho the Courts have been regularly ai mee all civil government is now at a Ange 1s stagnation of all public business mmerce under the low circumstances of Anp His TIMEs. 93 the inhabitants must be attended with fatal consequences to this colony, if it subsists but for a few months longer. There is little or no specie circulating in the maritime Counties of this province, and what is in circulation in the back Counties is so very inconsiderable that the Attorney General assures me that the stamp duties on the instruments used in the five Superior Courts of this province would in one year require all the specie in the country; the business which is likewise transacted in the twenty nine inferior, or County Courts, the many instruments which pass through the Sheriffs’ hands and other civil officers; those in the Land Office, and many other instruments used in transactions of public business were the reasons which induced me to believe the operation in all its parts impracticable, and which likewise prompted me to make my pro- posals for the ease and convenience of the People, and to endeavor to reconcile them to this Act of Parliament. On the 20th.of last month I opened and pro- claimed my commission at Wilmington, when I consulted his Majesty’s Council if any measures could be. proposed to induce the people to receive the stamps. They were unanimously of opinion that nothing further could be done than what I have already offered. I have his Majesty’s writs for a new election of Assembly, but shall not meet them till next April at Newbern— * * * * I am, Sir &c Wm Tryon” 94 A COLONIAL OFFICER Not long after this event, and in pursuance of the same purpose of resisting the Stamp Act in every way—even to the point of arrest- ing and punishing the Captain of a war-vessel himself, if necessary—another very lively inci- dent occurred on the Cape Fear which aston- ished and infuriated Tryon and his friends, and added greatly to his already sore humilia- tion; but it was no more than might have been expected, after the resistance to the landing of the stamps and the previous exaction of the oath from Houston on the 16th November. Early in February, and while the men-of- war Viper and Diligence were stil] lying in the river off Brunswick, two merchant vessels, the Dobdss and the Patience, the one from St. Christophers and the other from Philadelphia, arrived. The Collector of the port, Colonel Wm. Dry, upon examining their clearance papers, ascertained that there were no stamps attached to them, as required by the provisions of the Stamp Act, and,.as was doubtless his duty, he took the papers and reported the facts to the Captain of the J ‘per, Captain Jacob Lobb. Captain Lobb immediately seized the vessels, regardless of the assurances of their Captains that it was impossible for them to comply with the law, for the reason that when NE wae igged” Temre & t i ' Anp His TIMEs. 95 they left Philadelphia and St. Christophers 7" stamps could be obtained. As wien . : became known that these vessels ha ‘s seized under such circumstances ee ¥ 2 great excitement, and the news ha Agen such rapidity that pha noes eat se) i med men, besides 0 oe were assembled and sane Hugh Waddell was chosen as their comman ig What followed is told in detail by Gov wore Tryon in his dispatches to the home beet ment, and, as this narrative has ti) ra published, it is here given, as taken rom letter-book now in the Executive oH cain at Raleigh. There are some facts whicl aie suppressed by Tryon in this rnp th i he suppressed all mention of the age cbt the landing of the stamps on the 2 : ie ber, supplying. the omission with t e a nae statement that as eee? ang mc nas ie ill remain on boar . or ri omissions in his account of AE affair are not important, the narrative 1s given as he wrote it, as follows: 96 A CoLontaL OFFICER The Right Honorable Henry Esq., esty’: Seymour Conwa V; one oO 5 ty’s Princt ; of his Majesty's P; encipal Secreta- | give you as particular a relation for his Majesty’s Ddiinatinn as I possibly can of an illegal assembly of men i arms, assembled at Brunswick on the 1 th inst. I have collected all the letter corres Aan ence that has come to my knowledge pathic to the roth inst. during the time the men remained in arms, as well as after they dis- Biase 4 the actions and conduct of y assembled, desiring leave to r efer you to the letters as they occur in point of ot The Seizures Ca pt. Lobb made of the Dob and Patience sloops, (as by his Lette a i agit for taking the papers and the Attor- ey General’s opinion taken thereon) the evening Mr. Dry, the €d on me with a letter he received dated from Wilmington the 1 5th of February wi a at the same time informed me he had Be subscribers word he should wait on m the next day. [ strongly recommended him to put the papers belonging to the Patience Sloop on board the V iper (those of the Dobbs Collector, waited on bi LALIT LG BT NS MO TT \ i Anp His TIMEs. 97 had some time before been given up to the owner on his delivering security for them) as I apprehended, I said, those very subscribers would compel him to give them up; His answer was “They might take them from him but he would never give them up without Capt. Lobb’s order.” ‘The weather on the 17th prevented Mr. Dry from going to Wilmington till the next day. The next intelligence I received was in the dusk of the evening of the 19th soon after 6 o'clock by letter delivered me by Mr. George Moore and Mr. Cornelius Harnett bearing date the 19th and signed “John Ashe, Thomas Lloyd, Alexander Lillington.” My letter of the same night directed “to the Commanding Officer either of the Viper or Diligence Sloops of War” will explain the opinion I entertained of the offer made of a guard of gentlemen, and my declaration to the detachment I found sur- rounding my house. ‘This letter my servant about three in the morning put on board the Diligence who lay moored opposite to my house at the distance of four or five hundred yards, and returned to me again in a short space of time with Capt. Phipps letter in answer. Soon after I had put up the lights required Capt. Phipps came himself on shore to me, the guards having quitted the posts they had taken round the house, and on the beach: With a most generous warmth and zeal Capt. Phipps offered me every service his ship or himself could afford. I assured him the services I wished to > 98 A CoLoNIAL OFFICER receive from his Majesty’s i wholly in the BECTON ty at che Ree seins Capt. Dalrymple had but five men in agerakes to defend eight eighteen pounders eight nin pounders, and twenty three swivel uns i mounted and fit for service a a considerable quantity of amunition, I wrote is order to Capt. Dalrymple “to obey all ord ‘ he might receive from the Commandin Ofiice: either of the Viper or Diligence sloo : 1,” Wi desired Capt. Phipps would send it to the iss I made it So general because Capt. aes told _ oe of the Sloops tind ot then on board, and that it was u i which ship could first et down he Pact distant four leagues pat where chai é