Excessive Taxation. ture in America. Tryon's Proclamation against the Regulators. His bad Faith. Extortions of Officers. The pride of the governor and his family was gratified; the people, upon whom the expense was laid, were highly indignant. The inhabitants of North Carolina were now thoroughly awakened to the conviction that both the local and the imperial government, were practically hostile to the best interests of the colonists. The taxes hitherto were very burdensome; now the cost of the palace, and an appropriation to defray the expenses of running the dividing line between their province and the hunting-grounds of the Cherokees, made them insupportable.' The rapacity of public officers appeared to increase, and the people saw no prospect of relief. Current history reports that, among the most obnoxious men, who, it was alleged, had grown rich by extortionate fees,' was Edmund Fanning, a lawyer of ability. He was regarded as a coworker with the government; haughty in demeanor, and if common report spoke truth, was immoral. The people, excited by their leaders, detested him, and avoided no occasion to express their displeasure. His first open rupture with the Regulators was in the spring of 1768.a Tryon issued a proclamnation, half menacing and half persuasive, evidently intended to awe the REGULATION and persuade the other inhabitants to avoid that a April 27. association. He sent his secretary, David Edwards, to co-operate with Fanning in giving force to the proclamation among the people. They directed the sheriff to appoint a meeting of the vestry-men of the parishes and the leading Regulators, to consult upon the public good and settle all differences. Fair promises dispelled the suspicions of the Regulators, and their vigilance slumbered while awaiting the day of meeting.b They were b May 20, not yet fully acquainted with the falsity of their governor, or they would never have heeded the fair words of his proclamation. They were soon assured of the hollowness of his professions; for, while they were preparing, in good faith, to meet government officers in friendly convention, the sheriff, at the instigation of Fanning, proceeded, with thirty horselet, with a Latin inscription, showing that the palace was dedicated to Sir William Draper,* "the Conqueror of Manilla;" and also the following lines, in Latin, which were written by Draper, who was then on a visit to Governor Tryon : "In the reign of a monarch, who goodness disclos'd, A free, happy people, to dread tyrants oppos'd, Have to virtue and merit erected this dome; May the owner and household make this their loved home- Future ages to live in sweet peace and delight." .1768. The above translation was made by Judge Martin, the historian of North Carolina, who visited the edifice in 1783, in company with the unfortunate Don Francisco de Miranda. That gentleman assured Martin that the structure had no equal in South America.† The palace was destroyed by fire about fifty years ago, and the two smaller buildings, only, remain. The appropriations made by the province on account of the French and Indian war had founded a heavy public debt. These, with the palace debt and the appropriation for the boundary commission, together with the unredeemed bills and treasury-notes, amounted to almost half a million of dollars. This burden upon the common industry became greater in consequence of the depreciation of the paper money of the colony in the hands of the people, at least fifty per cent. at the period in question. To sink this public debt, a poll tax of about a dollar and a half was levied upon every male, white and black, between the ages of sixteen and sixty years. This bore heavily upon the poor, and awakened universal discontent. The running of the western boundary line was an unnecessary measure, and the people were convinced that Tryon projected it for the purpose of gratifying his love of personal display. Commissioners were appointed, and at a time of profound peace with the Indians on the frontier, Tryon marched at the head of a military force, "ostensibly to protect the surveyors." He made such a display of himself before the grave sachems and warriors of the Cherokees, that they gave him the just, though unenviable title of "The great wolf of North Carolina!" 2 The legal fee for drawing a deed was one dollar. Many lawyers charged five dollars. This is a single example of their extortion. Thomas Frohock, who held the office of clerk of the Superior Court in Salisbury, was another extortioner, who was detested by the people. He frequently charged fifteen dollars for a marriage license. When we consider the relative value of money at that time, it was equal to forty or fifty dollars at the present day. Many inhabitants along the Yadkin dispensed with the license, took each other "for better, or for worse," unofficially, and considered themselves as married, without further ceremony. * Sir William was an excessively vain man. Upon a cenotaph, at his seat at Clifton Down, near Bristol, England, he had this inscription placed: "Here lies the mother of Sir William Draper." History of North Carolina, ii., 226. Arrest of Regulators. Hillsborough menaced. Forbearance of the People. Legal Trials. men, to arrest Herman Husband and William Hunter, on a charge of riotous conduct. These, the most prominent men among the Regulators, were seized and cast into Hillsborough jail.a The whole country was aroused by this treachery, and a large body 1768. of the people, led by Ninian Bell Hamilton, a brave old Scotchman of three-scoreand-ten years, marched toward Hillsborough to rescue the prisoners. a May 1, Fanning and Edwards, apprised of the approach of Hamilton, were alarmed, and released the prisoners just as the people reached the banks of the Eno, opposite Hillsborough. Fanning, with a bottle of rum in one hand, and a bottle of wine in the other, went down to the brink of the stream, urged Hamilton not to march into the town, and asked him to send a horse over that he might cross, give the people refreshments, and have a friendly talk. Hamilton was not to be cajoled by the wolf in sheep's clothing. Ye're nane too gude to wade, and wade ye shall, if ye come over!" shouted Hamilton. Fanning did wade the stream, but his words and his liquor were alike rejected.1 Edwards then rode over, and solemnly assured the people that if they would quietly disperse, all their grievances should be redressed. The confiding people cried out, "Agreed! agreed!" and, marching back to ward Maddock's Mills, they held a meeting at George Sally's the next day,b to consult upon the public good. They drew up a petition, and sent Rednap Howell and James Hunter to lay it before the governor, at Brunswick. It was most respectful, yet Tryon, in imitation of his royal master, haughtily spurned it. He commanded the deputies. to return to their houses, warn their associates to desist from holding meetings, disband the association, and be content to pay the taxes! He then graciously promised them to visit Hillsborough within a month, and listen to the complaints of the people. b May 21, 1768. Tryon and some of his council met at Hillsborough early in July. He issued a proclamation, which, for a moment, deceived the people into a belief that justice was about to bear rule, and that the infamous system of extortion was to be repressed. They were again deceived. Instead of mediator, the governor appeared as a judge; instead of defending the oppressed, he encouraged the oppressors. He went into Mecklenburg, raised a large body of troops, and marched from Salisbury to Hillsborough with the parade of a conqueror. But this display did not frighten the people. He sent the sheriff to collect the taxes; that officer was driven back to Hillsborough by the excited populace. The governor was execrated for his false and temporizing conduct, and a general rising of the Regulators was ap prehended. From the eleventh of August until the twenty-second of September, when Husband and others would be tried before the Superior Court, the militia were held in readiness to oppose any insurgents, and Tryon remained until the trials were over. On the opening of the court, three thousand people from the surrounding country encamped within half a mile of the town, but, true to a promise they had made2 not to obstruct the course of justice, they were quiet. Husband was acquitted; Hunter and two others were heavily fined and imprisoned; while Fanning, who was tried under seven indictments for extortion, and was found guilty, was fined one penny on each !3 The judges upon the bench, on this occasion, were Martin Howard, chief justice, and Maurice Moore and Richard Henderson, Maurice Moore associates. The governor, perceiving the indignation of the populace at this mockGery of justice, speedily issued a proclamation of a general pardon to all the Regulators except thirteen whom he consid 1 Dr. Caruthers, in his Life of Caldwell, has preserved the two following verses of a doggerel poem of eight stanzas, composed on the occasion: "At length their head man they sent out To save their town from fire: To see Ned Fanning wade Eno, Brave boys, you'd all admire. With hat in hand, at our command, And after that, kept off his hat, 2 The governor had demanded that twelve wealthy men should meet him at Salisbury, on the twentyfifth of August, and execute a bond, in the penalty of $5000, as security that the Regulators should keep the peace during the trials. This request was refused, but a promise to abstain from violence was made and faithfully kept. 3 Statement of Herman Husband. Record of the Superior Court at Hillsborough. Tryon's Return to Newbern. Prevalence of Quiet. New Outbreaks. Riots at Hillsborough. ered as the principal leaders. By this act of apparent clemency he hoped to pacify the disturbed public mind. Satisfying himself that quiet would now prevail, he returned to his palace at Newbern, neither a wiser nor a better man. For almost two years comparative quiet prevailed; not the quiet of abject submission on the part of the people, but the quiet of inactive anarchy. The sheriffs dared not enforce their claims, and the evident impuissance of government made the Regulators bold. Finally, many unprincipled men, who espoused their cause in order to benefit by change, committed acts of violence which all good patriots deplored. The records of the Superior Court at Hillsborough show evidence of a lawlessness, in 1770, quite incompatible with order and justice; and yet, from the character of some of the men engaged in breaking up the court at the September term of that year, it must be inferred that sufficient cause existed to warrant, in a great degree, their rebellious proceedings. An excited populace gathered there at the opening of the court, and committed acts which Husband and Howell, and their compatriots, would doubtless have prevented, if in their power. But reason and prudence are alike strangers to a mob. Not content with impeding the course of justice by driving the judge from the bench and the advocates from the forum, the Regulators severely beat a lawyer in the street, named John Williams, and dragged Fanning out. of the court-house by his heels, beat him with rods, and kept him in confinement dur Bemund Fern ет Abraham Smith FANNING'S AUTOGRAPH. 1 The names of these "outlaws" were James Hunter, Ninian Bell Hamilton, Peter Craven, Isaack Jackson, Herman Husband, Matthew Hamilton, William Payne, Malichi Tyke, William Moffat, Christopher Nation, Solomon Goff, and John O'Neil. These were some of the "Sons of Liberty" of western North Carolina. 2 While in Hillsborough, in January, 1849, I was permitted by the Clerk of the Superior Court, to make the following extracts from the old records: "Monday, September 24th, 1770. Several persons styling themselves Regulators, assembled together in the court-yard, under the conduct of Herman Husband, James Hunter, Rednap Howell, William Butler, Samuel Divinny, and many others, insulted some of the gentlemen of the bar, and in a riotous manner went into the court-house and forcibly carried out some of the attorneys, and in a cruel manner beat them. They then insisted that the judge (Richard Henderson being the only one on the bench) should proceed to the trial of their leaders, who had been indicted at a former court, and that the jury should be taken out of their party. Therefore, the judge finding it impossible to proceed with honor to himself, and justice to his country, adjourned the court till to-morrow at ten o'clock, and took advantage of the night, and made his escape." The court, of course, did not convene on the next day, and instead of a record of judicial proceedings, I found the following entry: March term, 1771. The persons styling themselves Regulators, under the conduct of Herman Husband, James Hunter, Rednap Howell, William Butler, and Samuel Divinny, still continuing their riotous meetings, and severely threatening the judges, lawyers, and other officers of the court, prevented any of the judges or lawyers attending. Therefore, the court continues adjourned until the next September term. These entries are in the handwriting of Fanning. * Rednap Howell was from New Jersey, and was a brother of Richard Howell a patriot of the Revolution, and governor of that state. Like his brother (who wrote the ode of welcome to Washington printed on page 245), he was endowed with poetic genius, and composed about forty songs during the Regulator movements. He taught school somewhere on the Deep River, and was a man of quite extensive influence. Like Freneau, at a later day, he gave obnoxious officials many severe thrusts. He thus hits Frohock and Fanning: In 1771, a pamphlet was published in Boston, entitled "A Fan for Fanning, and a Touch for Tryon; containing an Impartial Account of the Rise and Progress of the so-much-talked-of Regulators in North Carolina. By Regulus." In this pamphlet, Tryon and Fanning were sufficiently scorched to need a "fan." Outrages upon Fanning. Sketch of his Public Life. Mock Court and Trials. Yorke ing the night. On the following morning, when they discovered that the judge had escaped, they beat Fanning again, demolished his costly furniture, and pulled down his house. They intended to burn it, but the wind was high, and they apprehended the destruction of other property. These proceedings were highly disgraceful, and the harsh treatment of Fanning was condemned by all right-minded men. 1 When this violence was completed, they repaired to the court-house, and appointed a schoolmaster of Randolph county, named Yorke, clerk; chose one of their number for Stanning pay, Cost but loses Nothing YORKE'S AUTOGRAPH. judge; took up the sev eral cases as they appeared upon the docket, and adjudicated them, making Fanning plead law; and then decided several suits. As the whole proceedings were intended as a farce, their decisions were perfectly ridiculous, while some of the "remarks" by Yorke were vulgar and profane." He was 1 Fanning's house was upon the site of the present Masonic Hall, a handsome brick building within a grove on King Street. On the opposite side of the street is his office, too much modernized for a drawing of it to possess any interest. EDMUND FANNING was a native of Long Island, New York, son of Colonel Phineas Fanning. educated at Yale College, and graduated with honor in 1757. He soon afterward went to North Carolina. and began the profession of a lawyer at Hillsborough, then called Childsborough. In 1760, the degree of L.L.D. was conferred upon him by his alma mater. In 1763, he was appointed colonel of Orange county, and in 1765 was made clerk of the Superior Court at Hillsborough. He also represented Orange county in the Colonial Legislature. In common with other lawyers, he appears to have exacted exorbitant fees for legal services, and consequently incurred the dislike of the people, which was finally manifested by acts of violence. He accompanied Governor Tryon to New York, in 1771, as his secretary. Governor Martin asked the Legislature to indemnify Colonel Fanning for his losses; the representatives of the people rebuked the governor for presenting such a petition. In 1776, General Howe gave Fanning the commission of colonel, and he raised and commanded a corps called the King's American Regiment of Foot. He was afterward appointed to the lucrative office of surveyor general, which he retained until his flight, with other Loyalists, to Nova Scotia, in 1783. In 1786 he was made lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia, and in 1794 he was appointed governor of Prince Edward's Island. He held the latter office about nineteen years, a part of which time he was also a brigadier in the British army, having received his commission in 1808. He married in Nova Scotia, where some of his family yet reside. General Fanning died in London, in 1818, at the age of about eighty-one years. His widow and two daughters yet (1852) survive. One daughter, Lady Wood, a widow, resides near London with her mother; the other, wife of Captain Bentwick Cumberland, a nephew of Lord Bentwick, resides at Charlotte's Town, New Brunswick. I am indebted to John Fanning Watson, Esq., the Annalist of Philadelphia and New York, for the portrait here given. EDMUND FANNING. General Fanning's early career, while in North Carolina, seems not to have given promise of that life of usefulness which he exhibited after leaving Republican America. It has been recorded, it is true, by partisan pens, yet it is said that he often expressed regrets for his indiscreet course at Hillsborough. His after life bore no reproaches, and the Gentlemen's Magazine (1818), when noting his death, remarked, "The world contained no better man in all the relations of life." 2 The fac similes here given of the writing of Fanning and Yorke are copies which I made from the original in the old record book. The first shows the names of parties to the suit entered by Fanning on the record. The mock court, of course, decided in favor of the defendant, Smith, and opposite these names and the record of the verdict, Yorke wrote, with a wretched pen, the sentence here engraved: "Fanning pays cost, but loses nothing." He being clerk of the court, and the lawyer, the costs were payable to himself, and so he lost nothing. Yorke was a man of great personal courage, and when, a few years later, the war of the Revolution was progressing, he became the terror of the Loyalists in that region. An old man on the banks of the Allamance, who knew him well, related to me an instance of his daring. On one occasion, while Cornwallis was marching victoriously through that section, Yorke, while riding on horseback in the neighborhood of the Deep River, was nearly surrounded by a band of Tories. He spurred his horse toward 1 Military Expedition against the Regulators. Bad Treatment of Husband. Tryon's March to Hillsborough. His Officers. Judge Henderson, who was driven from the bench, called upon Tryon to restore order in his district. The governor perceived that a temporizing policy would no longer be expedient, and resolved to employ the military force to subdue the rebellious spirit of the Regulators. He deferred operations, however, until the meeting of the Legislature, in December. Herman Husband was a member of the Lower House, from Orange, and there were others in that body who sympathized with the oppressed people. Various measures were proposed to weaken the strength of the Regulators; and among others, four new counties were formed of portions of Orange, Cumberland, and Johnson. Finally, when the Legislature was about to adjourn without authorizing a military expedition, information came that the Regulators had assembled in great numbers at Cross Creek (Fayetteville), with the intention of marching upon Newbern, having heard that their representative (Husband) had been imprisoned.2 The Assembly immediately voted two thousand dollars for the use of the governor. alarmed chief magistrate fortified his palace, and placed the town in a state of defense. also issued a proclamation,a and orders to the colonels of the counties in the vicinity, to have the militia in readiness. These precautions were unnecessary, for the Regulators, after crossing the Haw, a few miles above Pittsborough, to the number of more than one thousand, met Husband on his way home, and retraced their steps. The He a Feb. 7, 1771. b March 19, 1771. The governor soon issued another proclamation, prohibiting the sale of powder, shot, or lead, until further notice. This was to prevent the Regulators supplying themselves with munitions of war. This measure added fuel to the flame of excitement, and finally, the governor becoming again alarmed, he made a virtual declaration of war, through his council. That body authorized him to raise a sufficient force to march into the rebellious districts and establish law and order. The governor issued a circularb to the colonels, ordering them to select fifty volunteers from their respective regiments and send them to Newbern. With about three hundred militia-men, a small train of artillery, some baggage wagons, and several personal friends, Tryon left Newbern on the twenty-fourth of April. On the fourth of May he encamped on the Eno, having been re-enforced by detachments on the way. General Hugh Waddel was directed to collect the forces from the western counties, rendezvous at Salisbury, and join the governor in Orange (now Guilford) county. While he was waiting at Salisbury for the arrival of powder from Charleston, a company of men assembled in Cabarras county, blackened their faces, intercepted the convoy with the ammunition, between Charlotte and Salisbury, routed the guard, and destroyed the powder. 3 the river, his enemies in hot pursuit. Reaching the bank, he discovered he was upon a cliff almost fifty feet above the stream, and sloping from the top. The Tories were too close to allow him to escape along the margin of the river. Gathering the reins tightly in his hands, he spurred his strong horse over the precipice. The force of the descent was partially broken by the horse striking the smooth sloping surface of the rock, when half way down. Fortunately the water was deep below, and horse and rider, rising to the surface, escaped unhurt. It was a much greater feat than Putnam's at Horse Neck. These were Guilford, Chatham, Wake, and Surrey. 2 Tryon, who feared and hated Husband, procured the preferment of several charges against him, and he was finally arrested, by order of the council, and imprisoned for several days. The charges, on investigation, were not sustained, and he was released. 3 Colonel Joseph Leech commanded the infantry, Captain Moore the artillery, and Captain Neale a company of rangers. rangers. On his way to the Eno, he was joined by a detachment from Hanover, under Colonel John Ashe; another from Carteret, under Colonel Craig; another from Johnston, under Colonel William Thompson; another from Beaufort, under Colonel Needham Bryan; another from Wake, under Colonel Johnson Hinton; and at his camp on the Eno, he was joined by Fanning, with a corps of clerks, constables, sheriffs, and other materials of a similar kind. The signatures here given, of two of Tryon's officers on this occasion, I copied from original committee reports to the Colonial Legislature, now in possession of the Reverend Dr. Hawks. Some of these officers were afterward active patriots. Several other signatures of North Carolina men given in this work, I copied from the same documents. |