NORTH CAROLINA IN 1775
Fayetteville Observer (Fayetteville, North Carolina), Monday, July 30, 1860
Contact: Myrtle Bridges

	Bancroft's 8th volume, just published, is a history of events in 1775, and in 1776 to the Declaration of Independence 
on July 4 of that year. There are several notices of the progress of events in North Carolina, which we shall transfet to the Observer, 
beginning with the first-a statement of the position of the colony in the Spring and Summer of 1775.
"North Carolina, fourth among the thirteen colonies in importance, ranking next to Pennsylvania, was happy in the natural security of its 
position, and its comparative unanimity. In the low country, for the distance of a hundred miles from the sea, all classes were penetrated 
with the enthusiasm for liberty. Men whom the royalists revered as of "the first order of people in the country," of unblemished integrity 
and earnest character, loyal by nature, gave thoughtful consideration to the political questions in issue, and decided irrevocably against 
the right of the British parliament to tax the colonies. In Brunswick county, Robert Howe, formerly captain of Fort Johnston, employed him-
self in training the people to arms; though Martin, the royal governor, held his military talents in light esteem. At Newbern, the capital, 
whose name kept in memory that its founders were emigrants from the highlands of Switzerland, volunteers openly formed themselves into 
independent companies. Afraid of being seized, Martin, suddenly shipping his family to New York, retreated to Fort Johnston on Cape Fear 
river. He had repeatedly offered to raise a battalion from the Scottish Highlanders in Carolina, and declared himself sure of the allegiance 
of the Regulators, who were weary of insurrection and scrupulous about their oaths. Again and again he importuned to be restored to his old 
rank in the army as lieutenant colonel, promising the greatest consequences from such an appointment. He could not conceal that "the frenzy"
had taken possession of all classes of men around him, and that the news of the affair at Lexington had universally wrought a great change, 
confirming the seditious, and bringing over to them vast numbers of the fickle, wavering, and unsteady multitude. Being absolutely alone, 
at the mercy of any handful of insurgents who should take the trouble to come after him, his braggart garrulity increased with his importence; 
and having formerly called for three thousand stand of arms, he now wrote for fourfold that number, ten thousand at least, to be sent 
immediately from England, with artillery, ammunition, money, some pairs of colors, and a military commission for himself; promising, with 
the aid of two regiments, to force a connection with the interior, and raise not the Highlanders alone, but the peopleof the upper country 
in such overwhelming numbers, as to restore order in the two Carolinas, "hold Virginia in awe," and recover every colony south of Pennsylvania.
	After the termination of the seven years' war, very few of the Highland regiment returned home; soldiers and officers choosing rather to 
accept grants of land in America for settlement. Many also of the inhabitants of North Western Scotland, especially of the clans of Macdonald 
and Macleod, listened to overtures from those who had obtained concessions of vast domains, and migrated to Middle Carolina; tearing themselves, 
with bitterest grief, from kindred whose sorrow at parting admitted no consolation. Those who went first, reported favorably of the clear, 
sunny clime, where every man might have land of his own; the distance and the voyage lost their terrors; and from the isles of Rasay and Skye 
whole neighborhoods formed parties for removal, sweetening their exile by carrying with them their costume and opinions, their old Celtic 
language and songs.
	Distinguished above them all was Allan Macdonald of Kingsborough, and his wife Flora Macdonald, the same who in the midsummer of 1746, 
yielding to a womanly sympathy for distress, had rescued Prince Charles Edward from his pursuers, with a self-possession, fertility of 
resources, courage, and fidelity, that are never mentioned but to her honor. Compelled by poverty, they had removed to North Carolina in 
1774, and made their new home in the west of Cumberland county. She was now fifty-five, mother of many children, of middle stature, soft 
features, "uncommonly mild and gentle manners, and elegant presence." Her husband had the graceful mien and manly looks of a gallant 
Highlander, aged, but still with hair jet black, a stately figure, and a countenance that expressed intelligence and steadfastness. On 
the third of July he came down to Fort Johnston, and concerted with Martin the raising a battalion of the "good and faithful Highlanders," 
in which he was himself to be major, and Alexander MacLeod, an officer of marines on half-pay, was to be the first captain. They were to 
wait the proper moment to take the field; but the design, though secretly devised, did not remain concealed; and rumor added a purpose of 
inviting the negroes to rise.
	The spirit of resistance, quickened by the tidings which came in from Bunker Hill, extended itself more and more widely and deeply. On 
the waters of Albemarle Sound, over which the adventurous skiffs of the first settlers of Carolina had glided before the waters of the 
Chesapeake were know to Englishmen, the movement was assisted by the writings of young James Iredell, from England; by the letters and 
counsels of Joseph Hewes; and by the calm wisdom of Samuel Johnston, of Edenton, a native of Dundee in Scotland, a man revered for his 
integrity, thoroughly opposed to disorder and to revolution, if revolution could be avoided without yielding to oppression. The last 
provinvial congress had invested him contingently with power to call a new one; on the tenth of July he issued his summons to the people 
of North Carolina to elect their delegates. But two days later, Dartmouth wrote from the king: "I hope that in North Carolina the governor 
may not be reduced to the disgraceful necessity of seeking protection on board the king's ships;" and just then Martin slunk away from land, 
and took refuge on board the Cruiser. On the eighteenth a party came down, and, encouraged by the presence of John Ashe and Cornelius Harnett, 
set the fort on fire before his face, and within reach of the guns of the man-of-war.
	As soon as the deliberations at Philadelphia would permit, Richard Caswell, a delegate to the general congress, hastened home to recommend 
and promote a convention, and to quicken the daring spirit of his constituents. He had with reluctance admitted the necessity of American 
resistance; but having once chosen his part, he advocated the most resolute conduct, and even censured the Newbern committee for allowing 
the governor to escape.
	On Monday, the 21st of August, the people of North Carolina assembled at Hillsborough in a congress, composed of more than one hundred 
and eighty members. A spirit of moderation controlled and guided their zeal; Caswell proposed Samuel Johnston as president, and he was 
unanimously elected. In a vituperative, incoherent, interminable proclamation, Martin had warned the people against the convention, as tending 
to unnatural rebellion; that body, in reply, voted his proclamation "a false and seditious libel," and ordered it to be burnt by the common 
hangman. They professed allegiance to the king, but in the plainest words avowed the purpose to resist parliamentary taxation "to the utmost." 
They resolver, that the people of the province, singly and collectively, were bound by the acts of the continental and provincial congresses, 
because in both they were represented by persons chosen by themselves. A conference was had with the Regulators, whose religious and political 
scruples were thus removed. The intrigue of Martin with the Highlanders was divulged by Farquhard Campbell, and a committee, on which were 
many Scots, urged them, not wholly without success, to unite with the other inhabitants of America in defence of rights derived from God and 
the constitution. The meditated resistance involved the institution of government; a treasury, which for the time was supplied by an emission 
of paper money; the purchase of ammunition and arms; an embodying of a regular force of one thousand men; an organization of the militia of 
the colony; an annual provinvial congress to be elected by all freeholders; a committee of safety for each of the six districts into which the 
province was divided; a provincial council, consisting of the president of the convention and two members from each of the six divisions, as 
the great executive power. Richard Caswell, who, for the combined powers of wisdom and action, stands out as the foremost patriot of North 
Carolina, efficient in building up society on its new foundation, a financier of skill and integrity, a courageous statesman and a man 
of capacity for war, was detained by the people in their immediate service; and John Penn, a Virginian by birth, became his successor 
in the general congress.
	The most remarkable subject brought before the convention was Franklin's plan of a confederacy, which, on the twenty-fourth of August, 
was introduced by William Hooper; like Franklin, a native of Boston; trained under James Otis to the profession of the law; now a resident 
in Wilmington, "the region of politeness and hospitality," of commerce, wealth, and culture. North Carolina was always prompt to respond 
to the call of her sister colonies; her convention listened with ready sympathy to the proposition, though it included a system of 
independence and government, and it was about to be adopted. But in the committee of the whole house, the moderating prudence of Johnston 
interposed; and, by his persuasion, North Carolina consented to forego the honor of being the first to declare for a permanent federal union. 
On Monday, the fourth of September, it was voted, but not unanimously, that a general confederation was not at present eligible; that a 
futher confederacy ought only to be adopted in case of the last necessity, and then only after consultation with the provincial congress.
 	Hooper acquiesced, and the house adopted unanimously his draft of an address to the inhabitants of the British empire, most solemnly 
disavowing the desire of independence, concenting to the continuance of the old injurious and oppressive regulation of trade, and asking 
only to be restored to the state existing before 1763.
	On the eighteenth of October the provincial council held its first meeting. Among its members were Samuel Johnston, Samuel Ashe, a man 
whose integrity even his enemies never questioned, whose name a mountain county and the fairest town in the western part of the commonwealth 
keep in memory; Abner Nash, an eminent lawyer, described by Martin as "the oracle of the committee of Newbern, and a principal promoter of 
sedition;" but on neither of these three did the choice of persident fall; that office of peril and power was bestowed unanimously on 
Cornelius Harnett, of New Hanover, whose earnestness of purpose and disinterested, unquenchable zeal had made him honored as the Samuel 
Adams of North Carolina. Thus prepared, the people of that colony looked towards the future with dignity and fearlessness. The continent, 
still refusing to perceive the impending necessity of independence, awaited the answer to its last petition to the king.

©Copyright May 9, 2016
Last up-dated September 4, 2022