On 22 April 1776, the Continental Congress was informed that Farquhard was a "delegate in the Provincial Congress, Spy and confidential emissary to Governor Martin." During the fall of 1776, he was seized at his home, while entertaining a party of Loyalists, tried and banished to Philadelphia and his property was confiscated. He broke his parole and returned to his home area. Several years after the Revolution, he served as a member of the senate of North Carolina. Myrtle Bridges.
FARQUHARD CAMPBELL WRITES TO HIS EXCELLENCY RICHARD CASWELL
His Excellency, Richard Caswell, Esq.,
Baltimore Maryland March 8, 1777
Sir,
Considering the many obligations you laid upon me while under your immediate authority I acknowledge that I ought to have long ago transmitted to you an account of my unhappy circumstances, but two motives suggested to me the propriety of deferring it till now. Notwithstanding the intimacy that subsisted between you & me and the place I held in the management of public affairs, so unmercifully has my character been handled of late & so industrious were the efforts of some men to blacken it, that I sometimes concluded a letter from me in banishment and captivity and branded with all the infamous epithets that … could invent would have been no compliment upon you. It is an old saying that men's dispositions frequently change with the times. Indeed it is more than I can say by experience with regard to yours, for had others treated me with equal civility, my situation as prisoner should have been extremely comfortable. Still it is very difficult for a man under the frowns of fortune to rid himself of dire apprehensions which confirm the truth of the above observation, and I for one have found it notoriously unified in several of my acquaintances. Besides I have been living since in expectation of having the pleasure of giving you the history of my captivity in person, but these hopes are now quite wasted by consent of the Continental Congress. We petition the Convention of North Carolina for permission to return home, promising to live inoffensively with our families without prejudices, to the interest of the state offering them all the obligations that our honor and interests as security for the performance of that promise. But Mr. Hooker plainly told us that they never took our affair under consideration. For my own part I offered both Mr. Hooper and Mr. Burk to mortgage my estate as security for my peaceful behavior, provided they would permit me …sy the conference of my friend [illegible] which one [illegible] to extend our parole to North Carolina … may some of that state who assigned the instructions of their contents as is sufficient reason for so doing. Now I can not conceive what danger there can be in granting me, and indeed all of us, the indulgence by the above mentioned terms. My personal property in their power if I transgress; it is the easiest thing imaginable for them to … both. Is it to be supposed that any man in his senses would pledge all that is near and dear unto him for the performance of a promise he intended to violate when there is not the slenderest probability that he can have it to his power to extricate himself from the mischief to which such a breach of faith would inevitably render him obnoxious? I appeal to every man of sense whether such supposition can reasonably be admitted. I hope you have known me long enough to be satisfied that I will not or cannot entertain a scheme so disgraceful to my reputation, and so prejudicial to my interest. And so for such of my fellow sufferers as you are a stranger to, you may use … that difference in political principle has not rendered them wholly blind to their own interest. To you, therefore as the most conspicuous man in the state, and as a man whose candor and integrity I have already experienced, I apply for relief in this matter. Far be it from me to beg any …sorry to claim your friendship in any other terms than such as are sensible to you, as well as to myself. Conscious therefore of the honesty for my intentions and flattering myself, that you are sensible of this likewise, I hope your interest will not be …to render my application respectful of any of the gentlemen in power look upon me as peticularly dangerous, I will cheerfully mortgage all my property to satisfy them with respect to the sincerity of my promises; & more reasonable terms it is impossible for me to propose consistently with my principles & conscience. I have, jointly with the other prisoners in this department subscribed the enclosed memorial, which by my advice, they have committed to your protection. Be pleased to write me concerning the result of the application directing to me at Fredrick town in Maryland which, whether the memorial have the desired effect or not, will greatly oblige.
Your most humble serv't
Ferq'd Campbell
His Excellency Richard Caswell
Gov. of the State of North Carolina
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