92 Chronicles of the Cape Fear River

once proceedings were taken to nullify the appointment. At

that time Wilmington had less than 500 white inhabitants, but
her citizens were very patriotic and very resolute.

Rocky Point, fifteen miles to the northward, had been the
residence of Maurice Moore, Speaker Moseley, Speaker Swann,
Speaker Ashe, Alexander Lillington, John Swann, George
Moore, John Porter, Colonel Jones, Colonel Merrick, and other
gentlemen of influence. It was the center from which had
radiated the influences that directed popular movements.
Nearer to Onslow, Duplin, and Bladen than Wilmington was,
and the residence of the speaker and other active leaders, it was
doubtless there that plans were considered, and proceedings
agreed upon that involved the united action of all the neighbor-
ing counties. At Wilmington and in its vicinity were Harnett,
DeRosset, Toomer, Walker, Clayton, Gregg, Purviance, Eus-
tace, Maclaine, and DuBois, while near by were Howe, Smith,
Davis, Grange, Ancrum, and a score of others of the loftiest
patriotism. All were in full accord with the speaker of the
Assembly; all were nerved by the same spirit; all resolved to
carry resistance, if need be, to the point of blood and death.

We fortunately have a contemporaneous record of some of

their proceedings. The North Carolina Gazette, published at
Wilmington, in its issue of November 20, 1765, says:

On Saturday, the 19th of last month, about 7 o’clock in the evening,
near five hundred people assembled together in this town and exhibited

the effigy of a certain honorable gentleman; and after letting it hang by
the neck for some time, near the courthouse they made a large bonfire
with a number of tar barrels, etc., and committed it to the flames. The
reason assigned for the people’s dislike to that gentleman was from
being informed of his having several times expressed himself much in
favor of the stamp duty. After the effigy was consumed, they went to
every house in town and brought all the gentlemen to the bonfire, and

insisted on their drinking “Liberty, Property, and No Stamp Duty,” and
Confusion to Lord Bute and All His Adherents,” giving three huzzahs

at the conclusion of each toast. They continued together until 12 of
the clock, and then dispersed without doing any mischief.

Doubtless it was a very orderly crowd, since the editor says
so. A very orderly, harmless, inoffensive gathering ; patriotic,

and given to hurrahing; but we are assured that they dispersed
without any mischief.

And continues the same paper:

On Thursday, the 31st of the same month, in the evening, a great
number of people assembled again, and produced an effigy of Liberty,

:

 

Resistance Before the Revolution 93

which they put in a coffin and marched in solemn procession with it to
the churchyard, a drum in mourning beating before them, and the town
bell, muffled, ringing a doleful knell at the same time; but before they
committed the body to the ground, they thought it advisable to feel its
pulse, and, finding some remains of life, they returned back to a bon-
fire ready prepared, placed the effigy before it in a large two-armed
chair, and concluded the evening with great rejoicings on finding that
Liberty had still an existence in the colonies.
Not the least injury was offered to any person.

The editor of that paper, Mr. Stewart, was apparently anx-
ious to let his readers know that the people engaged in these pro-
ceedings were the very soul of order and the essence of modera-
tion. So far they had done no mischief and offered no injury
to any one. But still they had teeth, and they could show them.
The next item reads:

Saturday, the 16th of this instant, that is November: William Hous-
ton, Esq., distributor of stamps for this province, came to this town;
upon which three or four hundred people immediately gathered to-

gether, with drums beating and colors flying, and repaired to the house
the said stamp master put up at. and insisted upon knowing “Whether

he intended to execute his said office or not.” He told them, “He should
be very sorry to execute any office disagreeable to the people of this
province.” ‘*But they, not content with such declaration, carried him
into the courthouse, where he signed a resignation satisfactory to the
whole. They then placed the stamp master in an armchair, carried him
around the courthouse, giving at every corner three loud huzzahs, and
finally set him down at the door of his lodging, formed a circle around
him, and gave three cheers. They then escorted him into the house,

where were prepared the best liquors, and treated him very genteelly.

In the evening a large bonfire was made and no person appeared on the
streets without having “Liberty” in large letters on his hat. They had
a, table near the bonfire well furnished with several sorts of liquors,
where they drank, in great form, all the favorite American toasts, giv-
ing three cheers at the conclusion of each.

“The whole was conducted,” says the editor, “with great
decorum, and not the least insult offered to any person.”
This enforced resignation of the stamp master was done under

It is not to be inferred from Dr. Houston’s action in this matter, in
1765, that he was in favor of taxation of the colonies by Great Britain.
Benjamin Franklin, then the agent of several of the colonies in Lon-
don, assumed, as a matter of course, that the Stamp Act would be oper-
ative, and he recommended some of his friends to accept the office of
stamp master. Dr. Houston did not apply for the appointment, and
when the people arrayed themselves against it, he did not oppose them.
Also, when, ten years later, the Revolution began, he was in full sym-
pathy with other patriots in North Carolina and was a friend of inde-
pendence and separation.